I have an aversion to dieting - can I still lose weight?
 

Anyone here lose weight just by exercising? I have an aversion to dieting. Can't stand veggies, love bread and I don't drink. Is it impossible to lose weight this way? I'll give up sweets, well except on weekends.

If you simply incorporate a regular exercise routine into your life without adding any extra caloric intake, you will lose weight. Good luck doing that though. See, exercise makes you hungry. But it also has a way of inspiring some people to change or improve their diet. Maybe you'll be one of them.

55/Rad

Ride a lot and ride fast. This summer when I was consistently getting in 130+ miles a week I was eating a ton of food. And I still was gradually losing weight.:)

If you increase your mileage without increasing your eating, then you will lose weight.

I gained 12 lb on my honeymoon and then lost 15 just by cycling when I got back home. I eat somewhere around 3000 calories per day. Seriously, I cook from a recipe for 4, my wife eats one serving, I eat the rest. Her Italian mother accuses her of not feeding me because I'm so thin. I think it depends on the person, though. My metabolism is triggered very easily. 4-6 hours of exercise per week and a healthy appetite.

Hmmm. I wonder if my recent switch to mostly organic produce had any effect on this. My stomach doesn't like it yet. Not sure why.

Just be careful. I did that when I was 14 and competing nationally. My trainer was worried because I grew 3 inches in a year and stayed the same weight. Unhealthy. Probably not as big a concern for ages 25 and up, but still.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I ride my bike 150 miles per week and can't lose 1 pound!".

It just goes to show that a good exercise program can easily be subverted by a few poor food choices.

Most people who are successful at weight loss use exercise to help burn off calories, and the bike is a very efficient way to do that. But, if you want to be successful, you'll also have to take charge of what you put into your body, and how much you put into your body. Not eating veggies, and eating high-calorie foods like bread, are good ways to fail.

Bottom line - you're probably going to have to grow up, and learn how to eat right.

how long was your honeymoon? 2 months?

exactly.

I lost 15-20 pds just by giving up soda completely & dropping breakfast cereal in the a.m. in favor of a smoothie.

You definitely need to eat some veggies & assemble some kind of balanced diet. I don't avoid carbs, but I try to avoid stuffing myself with empty calories whenever possible... Good luck!

The answer is 'YES'

I have never been on a diet, but gained and lost 35 lbs solely do to stopping cycling, then restarting cycling. Every year I gain 8-10 lbs in the winter and loose it in the spring/summer.

'dieting' is a myth. There is a difference between 'dieting' (i.e., counting calories) and eating healthily. What constitutes 'eating healthily' has been skewed all over the place by quack 'doctors' and the like (anyone remember the low-carb diet????).

If you follows normal nutritional protocols - consume mostly plant matter with raw plant matter being preferred over cooked, and eat meat and dairy sparingly - you will get the proper nutrition you need.

If your calories burned exceed calories consumed, you will loose weight.

I lost 50 lbs this summer by bicycling 100 miles per week.

All of the above posts have good advice. Here's the top 5 things that I think helped me lose my weight.

1. Bicycling 100 miles per week. I tried to do as many miles in each individual ride as possible, which is optimal for weight loss. At first I could only do 20 miles in a single ride, but I worked my way up, gradually, until I could do 50 miles in one ride. I even did one 78 mile ride. I also did some walking as a cooldown after some rides, as well as some walking on off days.

2. Calorie counting. I know it sucks, but it really is necessary. You may not know how many calories you are actually consuming. Knowlege is power. I only tracked everything I ate for one week, but that helped me understand which foods completely destroyed my daily totals. Basically anything prepackaged or with lots of sugar are the worst. Cutting out soft drinks or severely limiting them helped my totals a lot. Easing up on the carbs helped too. You gotta eat the veggies, because they pack so much power for very little calories. I ate a HUGE salad after every ride with lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, etc, & topped with a whole grilled chicken breast. I was able to change it up enough to not make it too sickening. But, it filled me up and left me satisfied, and only cost me 500-800 calories for a very filling and healthy meal.

3. Don't eat for 2-3 hours before going to bed. This was the hardest thing for me. Even now that I'm officially off my diet, I find myself slipping back into this habit. It's so hard not to grab a snack at night, but you can't eat before going to bed. I don't remember the explanation about why it's the right idea, but I think it's a major reason why I lost the weight.

4. Do your workout in the morning before you eat anything. I didn't do this until the very end, but I think it's terrific advice. You'll be burning body fat. Because you haven't eaten in maybe 10-12 hours, there's no food in your system to burn, there's nothing to burn but body fat.

5. Drink lots of water. Lots of it. I drank at least a half gallon per day. If you don't drink enough water, you'll be reaching for the soft drinks, or something else. Don't drink your calories. Drink water. Plus water will often make you feel more "full". Drink water with meals, drink water during excercise, drink water as a snack because sometimes you'll feel hungry, but you're actually thirsty and water will fill that void.

In conclusion, it takes dedication. My approach was 24-7. I didn't really take a "day off". I did have my backslides just like any other flesh & blood human being, but even then I tried to do damage control. During one point in my diet, I just got burned out on bicycling & kinda depressed in general and didn't do anything at all for maybe 6-8 days. No, I didn't make my 100 miles that week. But, I just got back on my horse and kept going. Same thing with my calorie consumption. I had a few "bad days", but I just turned the page and kept going when the new day began. You'll have setbacks, but just roll with the punches. Never lose sight of the big picture.

I disagree with a couple of small points, but a big +1 overall. Congrats on the weight lost!

The most important thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is while you should without a doubt eat sensibly (and this includes veggies), completely denying yourself of all foods you like/crave that may not be the best for you as it can end up biting you in the ass. I'm not saying that this gives you permission to "cheat" on a regular basis, but once in awhile, it's not going to kill you. The trick is to not gorge yourself with it on a "cheat" day....moderation is key. The people this would most heavily impact are those who "diet", but do not exercise. Unless it's your job to be down to 7% bodyfat, it's not an easy road to go down if you're using to eating crap all the time and not watching caloric intake. But....it's not impossible to overcome.

Where'd you honeymoon, at sizzler?

I gained 3 on mine, and I thought that was a lot.

Bread is a high-calorie food???? think again. Compare a one-pound loaf of bread and a one-pound (4 sticks) of butter. Volume of the loaf of bread is about ten times the volume of the stick of butter (so it will fill your stomach up much faster). Both have the same mass, yet the butter has over twice as many calories as the loaf of bread.

Bread, especially whole-grain bread is a wonderful source of low-fat food energy and a great after-ride glycogen replacement food. Try a fresh loaf of whole-wheat Italian bread dipped in a high-quality olive oil with a little Italian spices... mmmMMMMmmmm good!

actually if you ride enough and dont even pay attention to whats going in, you will lose weight anyway, you wont see any fat people doing 300 miles a week, it just doesnt happen, you cant keep the weight on, I know I tried, I lost 38lbs anyway despite serious efforts not to lose any

most people's appetites are all screwed up from lack of exercise, lots of exercise will fix that, just takes a few months of regular riding and lots of it

Both above are erroneous

Does not matter when you eat your meal. If you have a negative caloric intake for the day, you will lose weight that day.

Working out before eating does not promote utilizing fat. All food sources are reduced to the same compound to be used by the body as fuel. This compound is stored in the muscles. Once it is depleted by work, the body digests food or stored fat to replace it. You breakfast has not even been digested so it is not going to fuel anything for several hours.

Cut back on red meat and avoid fast food joints.

Also, try to avoid eating within one hour of finishing your workout. While working out, your metablism is much higher, and it'll remain high for about an hour after your workout, so by not eating, you're forcing your body to metabolize fat for fuel, rather than food.

Calories_In = Food
Calories_Out = Exercise

Calories_In / Calories_Out > 0 = Gain_Weight
Calories_In / Calories_Out < 0 = Loose_Weight

There are other things you can do to affect the formula, but they don't affect it nearly as much as the people selling diet pills and zany exercise equipment would like you to believe.

Bottom line...you gotta burn off more than you take in. All the exercise in the world won't loose you a pound if you pig out more than you're burning off.

Great post.

Let me contribute some stuff because this is something I'm really into....

I believe a couple of things related to this:

1. It HAS to be a combination of what goes in and what is burned off. You can't just eat what you want and expect it to melt away because you ride. Eat a little smarter and ride as much as you can and you'll drop a few pounds.

2. I believe that the body gravitates to a natural weight....a place it settles into on your scale that is comfortable, and without doing something drastic (Which I do not recommend) it will gravitate to that weight.
For example....eating somewhat smart and balanced and a regular amount, while riding say 150 miles a week in season, my weight settles at about 188 at 6'-1". If I'm going to get below that it is going to take some sort of dieting effort.

Then in the off-season, my weight will jump to about 195 due to the lack of outdoor riding. But even with eating a little more over the holidays too. And for six years now I have seen the pattern....once spring rolls around and the riding picks up, the weight goes right back down.

Combination--smarter eating (not less really if you like to eat like me:) ) and more riding.

Oh...and in the off-season when I am eating more and riding less, I find it helps to start to keep track of what I eat so it doesn't get out of control. Maybe you could use a site like 'fitday', which I use in the winter. Sometimes it helps to write it all down.

Don't bother dieting unless you call eating less and cutting crap (sugary soda, excessive juice, etc) dieting. My problem? Despite thousands of miles of riding this year, I still I love food. :D

It amazes me the cluelessness of people with regard to proper eating and nutrition.

To answer the OP's question. Yes.

If you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight.

This is true if you eat nothing but lard all day. You didn't ask how your heart would do, you asked about losing weight. Why can't people understand this concept??? Proper nutrition and dieting are unrelated.

There is some other good advice in this thread as well.

Perhaps you shouldn't diet, but you might want to take a hard look at what you eat. Just as there is an equation that says you have to burn more calories than you consume, I promise you if you never eat anything but junk, you will have health issues.

For example, without vitamin C, you will almost certainly develop rickets. Learn to eat the kind of stuff your body really needs and you probably won't be heavy very long.

Also, for many people, they don't know what hunger is. I personally like to start a diet by not eating ANYTHING for two days (water and coffee only) - not because I particularly like fasting, but just so that I can tell when I actually am hungry, not just have a little extra space in my stomache. If you are always keeping yourself full - you probably are going to find it hard to lose weight.

None of this is dieting - just understanding how to eat for optimal health.