Throughout the first part of my journey, I've taken a very nonchalant attitude towards my weight loss. I've stayed under my calorie goal and I'm exercising, but I'm pretty much doing just enough for a basic weight loss. I usually stay under 1800 calories and I exercise for 30 minutes at least 5 times a week (Cardio MWF, Strength/Flexibility on Tuesday and Thursday) and so far it seems to have been working, but I feel like eventually it's just going to lead me to a plateau and I'm going to stop losing.

My friend tells me I need to work out to the point that it hurts every day, and if I don't, then I'll never get in shape. I don't feel that this is necessary and I don't feel like I should work out to the point that I feel sick/can't breathe anymore. But is she right? SHOULD I be working out that hard? I really want to get the most out of what I do, but I don't know how to do it without feeling like I'm killing myself. What kind of advice do y'all have?

You are doing just fine! Working that hard would not be a good idea. It might burn you out on exercise altogether, and that's worse than a consistent light workout.

You are doing great! If what you're doing is working, why not continue it? You shouldn't have to suffer to lose weight. Lots of places I've read have stated that weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise. As you lose weight, you'll probably do more and more but for your heart and health, walking briskly is awesome. If your weight loss stalls, you may need to increase how many minutes you workout or cut back on calories. Great job and keep it up!

Hey, nonchalance is the very secret to my success, "this time."

I was taught very early (I was put on my first diet in kindergarten) that weight loss was supposed to be very unpleasant, and if it wasn't, you weren't doing it right.

And did that belief help me lose weight?

Nope, in fact I always ended up gaining more than I lost, because I would make the process so incredibly unpleasant, that giving up was the only logical option (punishment gets very old).

This time (by which I've lost far more weight, and kept it off far longer than any of my old "intense" weight loss effort days) I've made the process of getting healthy an easy, entertaining, gentle, pleasant, and even incredibly fun way to pamper the wonderful person I am, rather than an excrutiating way to punish the bad me.

The weight loss is slower this way, but I hardly feel like I'm "working" at all. I've been able to "play" myself thinner. And a side-benefit is that I never get sick of the process, because what is there to get sick of? "Oh no, I'm so sick of treating myself like a worthy, wonderful human being. Of eating incredibly, tasty healthy food? Of finding fun and interesting ways to move my body?"

Yep, I'll take pampering myself gently forever (for slow, but permanent results) over temporarily torturing myself intensely (for rapid, but temporary results).

Great post, Kaplods. Just as you implied, a carrot always works better than a stick.

F.

I agree with everyone else...keep with what you're doing. You're doing great already! Try to remember that this is a lifestyle change and something you should relatively enjoy so that you will continue. And don't worry about a plateau until you get there (if you're anything like me you'll be so frustrated when you finally reach one so don't waste energy thinking about it now lol). Then you can tweak your exercise and/or calories. For right now stick with what works!

It depends on what you're doing exercise for.

If you're doing it because you want to increase your fitness level you don't need to kill yourself but you need to increase your intensity or time to keep making progress. To state it another way ... what you're doing now will increase your fitness level to a certain point and then adaptations will slow and eventually cease.

If you're doing it for health reasons than what you're doing is plenty.

Regardless of your reasoning, your friend is wrong. Pushing yourself too hard, too fast is a terrible idea. Pushing yourself too hard all the time is also a terrible idea. Both of those things lead to burn out or injury.

You'll keep losing so long as you're at a calorie deficit. "Working out until it hurts" is silly and potentially dangerous advice.

I think your doing great ! and agree make sure you have a calorie deficit at the end of the day

What? Of course you take it seriously! How is tracking your food log and 30 min 5x a week anything but committed to your plan?

I think your friend is on the path to burn out, give up, get hurt, or lead to dangerous ED areas. I'd worry for her.

Your way is better -- you ARE losing, it's sustainable, and you aren't killing yourself. You can also still live the rest of your normal life along with the body project instead of the body project BECOMING your whole life.

We all make little tweaks as goals change along the way. I wouldn't worry about plateau. That's a chance to reassess and look up from where you have been to see where ELSE you may want to go. You'll be in a fitter place and may be ready to consider new things that you wouldn't consider now. Maybe a new sport? Achieving a new skill level? Who knows?

So I'd not worry about it til you get there! What's "pre-worry" do? Nothing!

Carry on. You are doing GREAT!

A.

Consistency is key not injuring yourself in the very beginning.

I was also surprised that this time around I was eating moderately and aiming for 30 minutes of exercise a day. Miraculously, I was losing weight. Not as fast as crash dieters but it maintained and was manageable. It totally debunked my previous ideas of extreme dieting and deprivation.

You are doing great!

OP,

Go to the maintenance section and ask how many got there from pushing insanely hard at first/crash diet.

I don't think you'll get a single yes.

"All or nothing" doesn't win this in the long-term.

Everyone else has been telling me the same thing, so I think I'm pretty solid in my efforts now. What happened to my friend is she went to the doctor and the doctor told her that if she had an hour to spare for exercise, then she needed to work as hard as someone who had an hour and a half. Personally, what I think it sounds like is her doctor is one of those that thinks weight loss is a punishment and that the only way to get her to where she needs to be is if she slaves through it. I don't want to be a slave to my weight loss goals.

I'm doing this to be healthy. I'm not doing this to train to be an athlete. I have no desire to be a marathon runner or to have a six pack or anything like that. I just want my body to be healthier than it is. I want to be able to shop in the regular section of stores, and I don't want to die of a heart attack or get diabetes or be unable to have children should I decide to have children. My friend thinks that apparently all this isn't good enough -- and she actually thinks that the way I'm doing it is setting myself up for failure, when it's the exact opposite.

I might see if she'll join this forum; I think she'll benefit greatly from it. I'm really glad I have all you guys for support, I don't think I'd be able to do it without it!

Hear hear to previous responses. If it's working and you are enjoying life during the process, keep at it.

What is it they always say around here?

Exercise for fitness.
Diet for weight loss.

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