I always appreciate honesty. There was a time when I too spent a lot of time on the couch hating exercise. I think we all have. ;)

I get a kick out of my husband. He will ride round and round the mall parking lot waiting for a "close" parking space to open up. Then he gets into the mall and he "walks" the mall while I shop. LOL He says it's because then you don't have to carry the packages too far. I don't buy THAT MUCH!!

Whether you do formal exercise or just stay active throughout the day doesn't really matter. As long as you're a body in motion is what counts. Being sedentary is a death sentence in the long run. My grandparents never did formal exercise like go to the gym or go for a run. But they swam in the sea to cool down after a long day of tending their farmland, they walked 4km to the city to buy bread and tended to their farm animals daily. They were very active lol.

Banananutmuffin


It will only stall weightloss if you haven't got the balance right between food in and energy out. Sounds like that's what's going on with you. If you just restricted your diet a little more and continued exercising, if its not already really low, then you'd probably lose weight. this applies if you are on a balanced diet. I don't know what goes on re paleo since i read that exercise with low carb is a problem.

Yes, they are fun! But look at this, this is often the scene in a few public areas in nyc, waiting in line for the escalator to avoid walking up ONE FLIGHT OF STEPS! http://www.mnn.com/sites/default/fil...-escalator.jpg

I understand, some people are tired, some people have injuries, some people are carrying a lot of stuff, some people are elderly/pregnant, etc. What about everyone else?

I'm like your husband, and I'm not sure why. I always drive around looking for a close spot. It drives my husband nuts. I suppose I don't enjoy walking in parking lots, while I do enjoy walking in malls!

F.

I do not eat low carb, but I do eat mostly paleo.

Yes, but my point is simply that exercise increases my appetite to the point that I (apparently) eat enough to make up for any "deficit" the exercise gave me. (Because, let's face it, most exercise burns maybe 100-200 calories. Maybe. I am small framed. I burn 178 calories in a 45 minute walk. But my hunger level significantly increases.) And I'm not gonna walk around feeling starved all the time. That would drive me crazy.

So I have 2 choices: don't exercise + cut calories and actually lose weight, or exercise for health but accept that the scale won't budge.

I won't say it doesn't help, but for me personally it doesn't help very much.

I've seen people talk about burning a lot of calories through their exercise...something in the region of 600 a day. I can only do that if I hike several miles in the mountains with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. My normal exercise, according to most exercise calculators, is something in the region of 200 calories a session, or less. That isn't because I'm not doing anything difficult, I just don't have very far to go in the weight loss department.

So, for me, exercise isn't very helpful in terms of weight loss. I need to keep a good deficit and watch my food intake to do that.

My exercise is enjoyable though and has so many other benefits for me.

I've also read that it's most helpful for maintaining weight loss, but I can't remember where so can't provide anything to back it up.

I saw this a lot taking the MRT in Taipei. It always made me giggle. I did appreciate how quickly I could get up the stairs since no one was on them, though!

I walk past them, it seems silly to wait in line to take an escalator up one flight of stairs if you're not physically impaired. But people like the easy way out, how many people choose not to take the stairs even when they can? How many people choose to drive from one store to the other even though it's only a 5 minute walk away?

I don't hate exercise and I do think it is very important for good health. It has also helped my weight loss. I live a sedentary life in terms of lifestyle (always worked at a desk for example) but as I get older my BMR has gone done. So on days that I don't exercise my Fitbit says I burn about 1500 calories. Exercise gets that up to 1700 to 1900 depending on what I do. So, yes, exercise is important to my weight loss.

BUt, remember some people have limitations you may be unaware of and they may not even want to talk about them. Just yesterday I got MRI results and I've been told I can't even do fitness walking any more (bone on bone knee). That was really upsetting to me, but it does limit what I can do. (Elliptical here I come).

Another point is that for some people exercise doesn't help them at all with weight loss because exercise makes them hungry and they then eat as many calories as they burned. I'm careful not to do that because I track all my food but not everyone is that careful or even realizes that it is real easy to eat up your exercise calories.

I love your signature!

A lot of people overestimate. I feel this is why some give up on it. They become frustrated when they don't get the results they expect but they're possibly eating back more than they've burned. It's definitely easy to do.

I think people depend on machines to calculate numbers that are difficult to calculate. Just because the treadmill told you that you burned 295cal doesn't mean it's actually so. Just because my fitbit tells me that I burned 2300 cal yesterday doesn't mean I rely on that number to compute my weight loss. It's so much more complicated than that, I don't know how but I just know it is.

When I leave to go on a walk or to exercise I know that if I think about it like "off I go to burn 300cal" I'm neither doing it for the right reasons nor is that number accurate.

I try to remember that if I don't use it I will lose it. A body in motion will stay in motion. Look around at older people. It's obvious who has led a fit and active lifestyle and who has been a couch potato all their lives. Regardless of their weight. I think about my old age a lot. I want to stand straight, I want to move freely, I want to be flexible, I want to be able to open a jar with my own hands, I want to stand on a chair without being scared of breaking a hip, I want to play with my grandchildren and swim and be active in my old age.

Completely agree with this. I disregard any "calories burned" numbers that machines give me. In my opinion, eating back exercise calories can be a bit tricky when relying on those numbers.