How does exercise affect you?
 

Loads of people at my SW group always complain about how they gain whenever they exercise but I've found the opposite I lose so much more when I exercise, noticed this by skipping running for two weeks and not losing a single pound. So how does exercise affect you and why do you think some people gain rather than lose? I know muscle weighs more than fat but one or two sessions does not put on muscle that quickly and lean muscle doesn't really weigh enough to counteract the fat if you are overweight.

Exercise just makes me feel better. It doesn't make me gain weight, that's for sure. If I exercise regularly, as I lose weight, I look even thinner.

Hi Roobear...I'm just a few miles away from you and grew up in Coventry :)

I wouldn't say I gain if I do exercise, but I do know that for me, it's what I eat that affects my weight and exercise just supplements that, whereas my husband has said it's mainly exercise for him with diet being the supporting act.

Exercise can make you feel hungrier...is that actual hunger or psychological hunger I wonder...so is there then the temptation to allow yourself to eat more because you've exercised?

At this point in my journey, most of my weight loss is achieved through exercise - it's where I create most of my caloric deficit.

This is for two reasons. One, I'm less hungry if I exercise (exercise is an appetite suppressant for me) and two, it burns calories, of course, and I never eat them back because of the first point.

i kind of gave up on excersizing .... idk why evrey time i hit it hard at the gym ill wake up the next day and see a 2-4 lb spike on the scale thats discouraging for me....

i loose nicely on diet alone ,

im starting to believe diet will make my numbers go down

excersize is just a healthy thing to do but i feel like it has nothing to do with the number on my scale ....

berryblondeboys - I'm quite the opposite. Exercise makes me hungry. Wonder why that is? Do we have different metabolisms? Interesting.

As for weight loss, I agree with the general thread where I lose better on calorie counting alone. However, for long term maintenance, I know that muscle building is crucial. Actually, I've challenged myself to exercise (lift weights) 2 days a week. Tonight was my first night, and I'm...pretty weak!

Well, that's my two cents :) Good luck to you ladies on your weight loss endeavors.

Exercise keeps me motivated to continue dieting. At least half of my loss in inches is due to exercise and seeing that my body starts to look toned without sagging skin is extremely satisfying. I just feel better overall and am doing it 2x daily now (cardio and strength). It also gives me some wiggle room as I can continue drinking my glass of wine and put half & half in my coffee. Two things that make dieting work for the long run and prevent frustration.

Exercise gives me energy and I believe has greatly decreased my weight. When I add a new exercise routine I sometimes see a gain the next couple of days but have learned from here that my muscles are just retaining water, when it passes I see a big loss. Also like I wrote on another post my pores have cleared and I wear myself out enough to sleep through the night, therefore not being tired the next day and making poor food choices.

I've found that when I exercise I maintain my weight but I'm still very overweight!!! I've noticed that I need to reduce calories AND go to the gym to achieve weight loss. Obvious I know but it works. I do find however that I tend to allow myself a treat after gym as I've worked off some cals.

I lost the weight without exercising, but have been left with loose skin. I now exercise hard, and am beginning to see the fruits of my labours. I had no motivation to exercise when I was heavier. It makes me feel good now. I get a physical and emotional buzz out of pushing myself across boundaries.

To those saying exercising makes you hungry, what time of the day do you exercise? I think it helps if you don't eat before hand but plan it so a meal time falls directly after, so you don't find yourself snacking. My bf used to go to the gym every morning and then have his breakfast at work right after. We do race-fit on Monday nights and have dinner after when we get home usually prepared during the day so we can just heat it up and we do the parkrun on Saturday mornings so we have breakfast after.

Also do you know how much you burn? I was so disheartened when I felt like I was dying after a 5k and my bf said I'd probably only done enough to burn of a slice of bread.

Some exercise causes my weight to increase. I gained weight doing Bikram yoga on a daily basis. I gained weight at the start of my latest fitness efforts. BUT people swore I was losing (I wasn't!). However, unlike most women I do tend to put on muscle mass quite easily.

I am now watching my food (I AM NOT DIETING) and following an intuitive eating approach and I am training hard and I am losing weight and I'm quite sure I'm putting on muscle as well (it's visible on my shoulders and I can feel it in my abs).

But I am not training to lose weight. I am training to play rugby and to get fit. For me, I do tend to lose fat once I've put on a fair bit of muscle as I have now and am exercising regularly.

I'm like berryblondeboys, hard exercise is an appetizer suppressant for me. I workout for an hour at about 6:30 or 7 at night and am generally hungry enough for a reasonable or even light dinner when I'm done, but not for snacking afterwards. This is big for me, since I used to snake after dinner a lot. Also, exercise helps me sleep, so I tend to fall asleep before I really have a chance to get hungry again.

I do think exercise also helps by burning excess calories, but I mainly depend on it to help take care of any extra calories that I might end up having rather than depend on it completely for weight-loss.

I find it a bit scary when people refuse to exercise because they gain weight. Exercise will never ever be bad for you, unless you're doing it wrong - in which case, it won't be weight gain which will effect you!

Exercise will aid you in FAT loss which is most important. Sure, you may gain weight (in muscle) but that in turn will help you lose fat more effectively.

Plus regular exercise will help mood in the long run, and depression for a lot of people is a big part of their inability to lose weight, and probably why they gained weight too.

I'm not saying that anyone should invest hours in a gym, but a 20 minute work out or a few miles walking every few days isn't going to make things worse.

I keep trying to find the right balance between my diet and my exercise.

I have found the harder I work and the more time I invest in exercising, the less I lose per week.

I am on a medically supervised low calorie diet (was averaging 800-1000 calories before exercise) and not sure if my body was panicking if I burned 400-450 calories a day. The weeks I burn 300 +/- a day showed better losses than the higher weeks. So that means less exercise for me!