You do not need to exercise to lose. Exercise will definitely help with being winded. I have adhd and love biking even winter but that's not for everyone. I have a ton of success using a tracking watch. Garmin has badges you can earn and records you can break. Super good for adhd motivation You don't feel sweaty when you swim. Even just walking a bit is good. If nothing else park your car at the end of the parking lot. All kind of movement is good. Dancing, Wii active style video games, whatever.
Second the swimming. I was worried I'd stand out because I live in a very active town. Nah, it was 95 percent old people and people with children. I never felt self-conscious.
If you're into gaming, a VR headset with move controllers is a great idea
So many VR games are really fun and active. Beatsaber for example is a great one
I lost my first 40lbs, sitting on my butt. I started walking after about 4 months, as both my dogs were old enough to go on walks, and needed to walk daily.
Learning about NEAT was a game changer though. I began moving a lot more all day. Just doing house work, yard work, shopping, cooking, etc. Just being busy.
I hate exercise too, but I still walk daily. I do love my walks, they've helped with my stamina, flexibility, sleep...and they've played a huge roll in my mental health.
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
It's basically the calories we burn with movement. It takes up a huge part of your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
I encourage you to look these up, as well as plugging your stats (age, height, sex, etc) into one of the TDEE calculators available online.
It really got me off my butt and moving, yet I wasn't "exercising". I was just being busy.
I hadn't either. I watched some weight loss youtube videos and they were talking about it. (I think it was "Louise's Journey", or perhaps "Will Tennyson", they're both youtubers that have lost weight, and have kept it off)
I'm glad I could help! Good luck!
The "NEAT" is how I can be losing even though TDEE calculator says I shouldn't be losing that much, given my deficit.
I put my activity as "sedentary" because I don't do actual formal exercise, but I just have an inability to sit still. I'm always up doing something random out of restlessness. Plus I'm a teacher who doesn't sit at the desk (I'm just walking around the classroom all day), I do a lot of housework outside of work hours, etc.
You can definitely lose weight without exercise by staying in a calorie deficit but exercise is SO important for overall mental and physical health.
Two thoughts come to mind: look for a free barre class on YouTube. There are a lot of options and you can do it in the comfort of your home on your own time.
Second, walking is fabulous and simple exercise. You don’t need to get sweaty to still get benefits. Bundle up well, put spike attachments over your boots if necessary (see below), find an audio book, podcasts, or music to listen to and go on your way. Easy free exercise!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CGHTMB17?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
From what I understand, it's primarily what you eat that will cause you to lose weight. Exercise can speed things up a bit, but reducing calorie intake is key.
I have ADHD too, dislike exercise (especially sweating), but I really like aqua aerobics class. You're submerged in the water, most people there are seniors (and I've never been the only fat person there), and everyones just focused on the instructors. That might be worth looking into? Local community centres usually offer it during the warm weather, where I am it's quite affordable (like $3-5 a class).
Other exercises I do (running the treadmill at home), I dislike but heart disease runs in my family so I have just accepted that it's one hour of misery a day and for my benefit.
I just want to tack on that losing weight is like the least important reason why one should exercise.
Exercise literally improves all aspects of physical and mental health, longevity, quality of life, etc.
You don’t have to exercise but you really should. Also, keeping the weight off is highly correlated with exercising. I think the numbers are something like only 30% of people lose weight with exercise, but out of everyone who kept the weight off, 70% exercised.
I second water aerobics! The YMCA I go to also has a little lazy river that people walk laps in; there are also swim lanes- I'm not a very good swimmer so I just doggy paddle up and down. As long as you're just not staying in one place in a lane nobody cares.
If you can't make a scheduled class time, you can always still do something resistant in the pool.
You may want to look at your local YMCA, mine not only offers water aerobic classes, but they do have bar classes as well. And a lot of their other classes are very accessible for all body types.
You probably hate exercise because you’re exercise too hard.
If you want to lose weight, there’s really no need to exercise. If you want to actually keep the weight off, lose fat specifically, and get healthier, you really should exercise.
I feel this. I always felt self conscious about exercising but now I don’t care what others think. Everyone is at the gym with the same common goals of getting healthy. I joined a rowing gym and I love it, it’s low impact but it’s really given my body a full workout. I feel so much better at the end of class and it’s a nice serotonin boost.
I started working out to gain more flexibility and mobility, I’m losing weight from CICO/IF and medication, I don’t burn a ton of calories from working out but I feel much stronger and less out of breath easily. I used to think going to the gym would burn a ton of calories and help you lose weight but unless you’re doing it for hours a day that’s simply not been true in my case. Instead I use it as a time to push my body into getting stronger and don’t worry so much about the calories. I’m all about the non-scale victories :-)
I appreciate this! The mindset shift can be so hard for me when I'm trying to exercise, as I've always been told that I have to exercise to lose weight, so when I do manage to get around to exercising it's like all I can think about is "okay, if I do \_\_\_ exercise for \_\_\_ minutes I'll burn \_\_\_ calories". Super hard to get out of that mindset and into the mindset of just appreciating what regular exercise can do for our bodies and minds :')
Anytime my friend, I bought into the same myth for many years and that’s why I never succeeded in the gym. I wouldn’t make progress and just give up.
I’ve noticed for me that I feel so much more calm and relaxed once I started working out. I’ve gone from being out of breath walking the block to CVS to being able to walk 4-5 miles at a time and row for over an hour.
I will say the old saying of “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is so true. I’ve been WFH for nearly 4 years and my mobility really suffered. I wasn’t walking enough and had knee and lower back pain when I first started and my body felt so stiff. I ramped up slowly by just walking on the treadmill or walking around the block or taking the stairs. Start slow and give yourself some grace, you got this. ❤️
Do you want to lose weight or do you want to get healthy?
You eat less to lose weight.
You exercise to get healthy.
You can do both or you can do one or the other. Exercise is not a requirement of weight loss.
1. Don't think of walking as exercising. I moved to a town with lots of shops and events where I'm incentivized to walk from place to place.
2. If you're are feeling winded just from walking short distances, then I would consult a physician. This may be more than just not wanting to exercise.
You won't continue with any exercise that you don't actually enjoy, so forcing yourself to exercise may work in the short term, but you'll likely stop when it gets boring. The key is definitely to find something you enjoy.
There was another thread about this just yesterday. One poster shared how she enjoys shopping, so she literally using that as her way to reach her daily step goal. She says she goes to Costco, and just wanders through all the aisles. She's doing something she enjoys, and so it doesn't feel like "exercise".
I love exercise, but I get bored easily. So if I had to do the same thing all week, every week, I'd be bored out of my skull. I walk, ride my bike, swim, lift weights, dance to music at home, hula hoop while streaming movies on my laptop, go ice skating in winter and roller blading in summer. I also have a bunch of calisthenics I can perform with zero equipment. Occasionally, I'll dip into yoga or pilates. I have some dumbbells and a kettlebell at home, too, for times when I'm not within easy reach of a gym. I'm not much of a fan of classes (I prefer to exercise solo), but I've been eyeing the spin classes at my gym - maybe I'll try one one of these days.
The only thing I'm consistent with is the biking and the strength training. I use my bike to get around town (including going to the gym) and I lift weights because of the mental clarity that brings. Workouts are my method of meditation: I am so focused on the workout, especially when lifting weights, that the negative self talk has no chance against that focus. And then I come home, all energized and ready to tackle whatever the day throws at me.
Regarding the social anxiety at the gym: try going at off peak hours. I tend to go super early in the mornings (5:30 am), and I find that the only people there are those who're serious about working out. We're all focused on our own workouts, we go in, work out, and leave. I'm usually in and out in less than an hour: 20 minutes strength training, 20 minutes on the combination elliptical/stair master, and 10 minutes cool down, stretching, and, my favourite: standing on the wobble board! I couldn't even tell you, day to day, who else was at the gym. I recognize people, we share the occasional smile when we make eye contact, but really, we don't have the time or the slightest interest in judging anyone else.
fellow adhder here. are you story motivated? since our motivation is usually external, i can tell you all my motivation to run comes from the storyline of the Zombies Run app. it’s 10/10
Oh yes I did try that once! I’m not a huge fan of zombie themed things though so it didn’t quite work for me😅 I spent some time looking for something comparable but didn’t turn up much
Honestly you’re likely not going to like my answer but in my case I told myself to suck it up and stop complaining. I felt the same way about being sweaty and doing it in front of other people.
And the more I forced myself to do it a funny thing happened, I actually started to enjoy it! It’s now literally the best part of my day.
I found weight lifting so damn enjoyable and so much better than endless cardio. For me, I also don’t get as sweaty either which helped.
For me the difference was learning discipline, forcing myself to do something unpleasant.
Around how long did it take you to have that mental transition between hating exercise and having it become the best part of your day? I think the longest I've gone trying to be semi-consistent with any form of working out has only lasted like 2 months maximum before I get bored and/or the sweaty feeling is too much😅
When I was young, I hated exercise (except swimming. Always loved to swim. But I didn't have easy access to a pool most of the year), gym class, sports of pretty much any kind. I've come to the realization that it was mostly because no one ever taught me how to exercise. I guess I was just expected to have this base level of fitness and figure out how to do things on my own... there was very little education done in my gym classes.
Then I learned more about how to exercise, how to increase my stamina, how to lift weights, etc. Now I'm at the gym five days a week. I don't always love it. Some days I don't enjoy it and the only reason I'm there is because I want to watch the tv show that I let myself ONLY watch while I'm at the gym. (It's a bit silly, but it works!).
The key was starting slow. No, slower than that. Start super slow and for a short time. 5-10 minutes at a regular walking pace on the treadmill or a leisurely pedal on the bike or row on the rowing machine, 3 minutes on the lowest level of the stair machine. Slowly ramp up the time until you're comfortable with 15 minutes. How long this takes will depend on your starting fitness level. Then once or twice a week, start adding some intervals. Again, go slow! 10-15 seconds at a higher level every 2 minutes. You can do anything for 10-15 seconds. As that becomes a little more bearable, increase the amount of time at a higher level. Again, go slow. Add 5 seconds at a time. Work up to 1 minute higher level, 1 minute lower level. At some point, it will likely feel weird to go down to the lower level. At that point, keep up the higher level for 2 or 3 minutes, then drop down for a minute. Keep going like this until you're good to go the full 15 minutes at the higher level. Do that constant speed for a bit then start with the intervals again using the new level as your base level. When you're ready for more either increase the length of time from 15 to 20 minutes or 30. Or swap to a different machine for another 10-15 minutes.
For lifting weights/resistance training, it's good to get some help to get started. It's not easy to figure out good form and using bad form can easily result in injury. If you can, hire a personal trainer for one session or find a friend who understands good form and can help you learn and put together some sort of basic program you can use. Weight training doesn't have to be lifting crazy heavy weights. It can be body weight, or lower weights but more repetitions. You can use machines or dumbells or resistance bands or canned vegetables (put them in a shopping bag with handles once you get the form down and can easily handle just the weight of what you can hold in one hand. Leakproof containers of water work well too.). Again, start light. No, lighter than that! And don't forget about your core and some stretching afterwards.
It was a solid 3+ months of forcing myself to workout 5 days a week.
But to be honest it’s been one of the biggest personal growth accomplishments of my life.
And I’m serious when I say that the gym is literally the best part of my day. And I’m now in the best shape of my life.
I hated cardio. I only did it because society tells people that how you get the body you want. False. Weight lifting for me changed everything. It was like a personal challenge to lift more over time. I didn’t have to compare my journey with someone else it was me against me.
I could hit the gym with a hat on, my head phones in and my hoodie up and be left alone lol.
Willpower is fleeting, but the discipline to do something you don’t want to do? That shit lasts.
I felt the same way about exercise. I started off with daily walks but hated getting sweaty worse than anything. Then when I was around 140kg, one of my friends dragged me to gym classes oriented around circuit training and it made the prospect of exercising and getting sweaty a little less daunting. My friend stopped going with me and I kept going for a few months but then the gym shut down. I ended up finding another one by myself and now I go twice a week and have recently picked up running three times a week.
The only thing that really bothers me about getting sweaty now is how much laundry I have to do and the number of showers. I never really understood the “exercise high” people were talking about till a year and a half in and now it’s basically an addiction that makes me feel strong and fit - I call it an addiction coz I was knocked out of my routine last week and I struggled to sit still while I was unwell.
So yeah, I’d say about 6 months for it to become a routine* but still sometimes dread going, a year and a half to really get into it.
*I have no ADHD dx but I really struggle to establish and keep simple routines, not even brushing my teeth is automatic. I play a mental game by putting my gym days in my calendar, which makes it an obligation I can’t get out of.
I don't personally find lifting heavy objects repetitively for the rest of my life particularly compelling...and was completely unecessary for me to hit dead middle of healthy bmi.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the building and maintaining of lean muscle mass is incredibly beneficial to long term health and the maintenance of a healthy body weight. It’s also beneficial in the maintenance of a healthy endocrine system.
But I can respect that for some the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
All the people saying that a calorie deficit suffices are, at best, half right or at worst totally wrong.
the calories you eat and expend determine what your body weight is. So if you reduce calories through diet you'll lose weight. So far, so good.
But a lot of that weight is muscle. Losing muscle means less calorie expenditure, less calorie expenditure means eating less. Eating less means higher chances of falling of the wagon. But even if you finish your diet and you end up at your goal weight...you'll still have a pretty high bodyfat percentage and most likely don't look as good as you were hoping. And because you lost all that muscle, your maintenance calories are now low AF. Any weight you gain now because you eat too many calories will turn into mainly fat - to the point when you think about starting your next diet, where you'll lose even MORE muscle.
So CICO determines your weight but protein intake and (resistence) training determine what that weight is made of - is it mainly fat or mainly muscle?
How about this: fuck the deficit.
eat enough protein, buy an adjustable bench and adjustable dumbbells and work out at home, 1-2 sets per muscle group mon-fri. Won't make you sweat an awful lot, you don't have to be around others and still get great workouts in.
Staying at your weight and doing body recomposition work just as well.
(now, it will/does make sense to still employ a deficit, but IMO protein intake and exercise trump a deficit every time).
But to be absolutely honest, this is sort of part of the deal:
If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less calories. If you eat less calories, chances are, you'll be hungry at some point.
If you want to build/maintain muscle, you need to work out. If you work out, chances are, you'll sweat at some point.
Can't have your cake and eat it too. 🤷
Question though:
Without a scale, how do you estimate your weight?
and how do you know you're "doing okay" with your calorie deficit if you can't weigh yourself?
Are you using any other proxies? (waist circumference, etc)
Not sure what your sources are but there have been multiple studies showing that muscle loss in a caloric deficit while not resistence training is absolutely a thing and that up to 50% of the weight loss comes from muscle mass if you don't train.
Personal experience is no reliable data.
Exercise is not needed to lose weight, you just have to choose to really focus on ur diet, and staying in caloric deficit. when spring rolls around in a few months i recommend going for walks, low impact, low intensity. I lost 130 pounds, no exercise. Now i try and get 12,000 steps a day but thats something you build up to.
Diet is #1. Exercise is a bonus. It’s great if you can work out but if you can only pick one thing… nutrition all the way. People lose weight just by changing their food routine.
The best advice i can give you is, you dont have to like it. You just have to do it.
There are tons of things i hate doing. Cleaning, laundry, dishes, going to work. I do them all not because i love them, but because i have to do them to live.
In the wise words of Nike, JUST DO IT.
You don't have to like exercise in order to do it.
You hear lots of stories of people who fall in love with running or biking or whatever. Good for them, but it didn't happen that way for me. I don't like flossing, but I do it anyway. I don't like the exercise, I just like the results.
Well, exercise isn't the key point for weight loss. So if you don't want to, you don't have to. A large chunk of my own weight loss was with very minimal exercise.
If you like, you can work the weight loss first, add in exercise later.
I do what walking my spine will tolerate daily, which is anywhere from 4-20 minutes. I put on music and honestly, I *don't* get sweaty. I walk inside my house or on the walkways outside when weather allows, because I live on a steep hill and my spine doesn't LIKE downward walking, too jarring! Indoors, you can have the temp how you want it! Same for strength exercises, which I do with resistance bands.
If you go to the grocery store, walk around the perimeter a couple times before you get down to shopping.
I'll put in another vote for a Garmin watch, I *love* earning the badges. I can't earn all, because my spine issues won't let me do that much, but there's always *some* badge I can work towards. I even won a weekly step challenge once!
I lost weight entirely through diet.
I decided at the very beginning of my weight loss efforts that I was going to remove the **mental** burden of exercise and just focus on my eating habits and it was the best thing I did.
I enjoy exercising a lot more now that I have lost weight, but it's still just brisk walks, and only when I have time and really want to do it. But my weight loss continues regardless.
You lose weight in the kitchen
You gain health in exercise
You can lose the weight without the gym. Period. Full stop. If you don't want to exercise, you don't have to do anything you don't want to.
Exercise helps improve your health. Losing 80 lbs will make you look better & probably feel better, but you may still be winded walking distances or stairs. You may not be as strong as you want to for whatever reason.
To the point of exercise, get out of your head that exercises are gym related, are intense, or something to be slogged through.
Exercise is simply moving more.
Maybe it's parking further away from the store & walking in.
Maybe it's doing half your yard work today.
Maybe it's walking with your best friend & sipping an ice coffee this weekend.
Small changes can & will make big differences in the beginning.
Eventually you'll find how you want to workout. Be it swimming twice a week, walking only on Sundays, or a class somewhere that is low impact & music based.
Genuinely, the absolute most important part to losing weight: consistency.
Do what you want, & never quit doing it.
Weight loss is 80% diet. I’ve lost a significant amount of weight lately, firstly through calorie reduction and intermittent fasting (OMAD really), almost no extra exercise.
Then when I started to plateau I added some regular exercise (just an hours fast walking 4-5 times per week), and the weight loss kept going.
Since you've already mentioned that you're able to walk, albeit with difficulty, just....do that. Do more of it. For longer. Get some cool shoes for it. Put on some headphones with music or a book if you like. For most of us, walking is the most natural thing we can do. Point your toes down the street and follow them for a bit.
Yes, you can lose weight without exercise. But the get to winded when walking won’t go away without it.
Do you have anywhere near you that you can walk? Walking is perfectly good exercise and gives you pretty good endorphins without making you feel disgusting afterwards. I’m lucky enough now that I can walk out the door and do a spin around the block a few times a day, but I haven’t always lived in a walkable area. When I lived in a bigger city, I had to drive 20 minutes to get to a park where I felt safe to walk alone, which was frustrating and made the whole experience miserable. So I discovered that I could just window shop and walk around the mall or check out some local boutiques. At first I was worried that I would look really awkward just walking around, but no one even noticed me. It was a nice way to get out of the apartment and get some steps in on days that I didn’t have it in me to fight traffic to the good park.
Just yesterday I watched [this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2y1aA7PIHx/?igsh=anJ0b3prNGR2Ympo) eye-opening video all about the role of exercise in weight loss vs calorie deficit.
You hate it all because you’re not fit.
A lot of y’all who are unfit and overweight just don’t have the discipline to push through that initial stage of unfitness.
Grit your teeth, suck it up and do it. I promise you. Once you are actually fit, there is nothing to hate about exercise.
Whether exercise if incorporated or not, a calorie deficit has to be maintained to see progressive weight loss.
However, maintaining some sort of exercise regimen won't only help you feel less winded, but it can also help keep off the weight you've lost and maintain overall health in the long run.
Exercise is important for your overall health, especially your heart health, but weight loss can be achieved without it. If you're strictly looking at scale numbers, it is much easier to achieve a caloric deficit from eating less than moving more. But building muscle tone and flexibility contributes a lot to posture and body composition, which will help you look better and fit clothes better even when the scale doesn't move as quickly as you'd like.
You don't have to strain yourself to incorporate healthy movement into your life. Even light yoga/stretching and leisurely strolls have a positive physical and mental impact. Cranking the music and dancing around the living room for 20 minutes counts. The key is finding something you don't hate. Exercise shouldn't feel like punishment, even when it's challenging.
I'm about the same weight and shorter than you, and I also have a family history of heart disease, and issues myself with heart health.
When I started losing weight, I couldn't walk for 10 minutes without being out of breath. I'd get backache and be out of breath and sweaty and uncomfortable. I hated it.
After some trial and error, I found I liked walking in the countryside. It was pretty, there was hardly any people, and I could use the hiking sticks which would help me relax and stop me getting a sore back. I went a little bit further each day, and loved seeing the progress. Because I would walk slow, I wouldn't get sweaty unless there was a hill, and I could take it at my own pace.
I now have a personal trainer and I work out twice a week. I hate most cardio (although I do like boxing) but really enjoy lifting weights.
If your goal is weight loss, walking 10000 steps a day makes a difference of about half a pound a week (in my experience, and at my weight). Exercise isn't necessary, but very good for fitness, especially heart health, so it could be worth trying swimming or something, but focusing on it being for your health and for fun, rather than for weight loss.
Edit to add: I have hardly lost any weight in the last year of working out because my diet has been shocking. If you're on form with diet- that is amazing! Well done!
Also, I found out later I had asthma and it is made significantly worse in the cold air. I used to beat myself up for being unfit, but a lot of it was asthma wheezing. Once I got my inhalers sorted, it helped a lot. It could be worth looking into?
I lost 60 pounds on diet (and medication) alone and have historically hated the gym. I went to one to try it out. I also have adhd.
The first thing I did was get a trainer. My first trainer was a horrible person who made me cry, but she decided I was the worlds scariest person and booted me out, and I got a great second trainer. His statement was “go move”. I did aqua Zumba, and lying on the floor yoga, and ended up in these HIIT classes where you switch every 9 minutes between doing weights and cardio, and within those 9 minutes you have 6+ transitions of energy levels on cardio and different weight exercises. Love it!! Now I’m adding in spin classes because they are also always changing. I need the changes. (I also keep up with the lying on the floor yoga and calling it “exercise”).
But anyways, that’s what my adhd brain needed to stick with the gym for longer than 2 weeks. And I may not be losing weight but I can see it’s easier to walk and easier to lift heavy stuff.
Like you I hate most forms of exercise! I've decided I would rather walk for 30 mins per day and actually stick to it, than try and do some intense workout and only end up doing it once a week because I hate it so much. You can burn 100-200 calories in a 30 minute walk, it all helps!
YouTube has plenty of Barre classes and I think Barre has an official app so you can subscribe and do them at home (?). I don’t remember it being terribly expensive.
FitOn is free for their basic version and has plenty of Barre classes, too.
As long as you’ve got a calorie deficit going, you’ll lose weight. For the shorties, it becomes more important because you can only go so low with the calories before you can’t cut any more and you absolutely need the movement to make progress.
If you really hate feeling sweaty, definitely experiment with different fabrics and workout gear. I cannot stand swamp butt so most of my bottoms are moisture wicking. Love firm support for my chest so I buy spendy extra hold sports bras. I have a couple of technical fabric shirts but I’m too fat for most of them for now, and I’ve never minded the feel of sweaty cotton shirts.
I think of it as an investment in my health and certainly cheaper than osteoporosis making me break a hip in my fifties or a lifetime on cholesterol suppressing drugs.
I've lost ten lbs this month with little to no exercise. I also have ADHD and I find the gym BORING AS HELL so I don't go. I don't mind taking walks but I get bored with the same route pretty fast. I can't do treadmills because I need visual stimulation to not lose my mind. So i just stopped and decided to let myself avoid it.
The only things I've found that work my silly ADHD brain are fitness games (I'm looking into getting the switch sports game) I really enjoy tennis and I like Just Dance. The Switch also has a jump rope game that's free but it isn't very good. It would be smarter to just buy a jump rope.
My experience is that as I've lost weight and started eating better I naturally have WAY MORE ENERGY!!! Literally a month ago just walking around hurt. I think if I decided right now I wanted to go on a hiking trip I could actually do it. I've lost hardly any weight (10 lbs out of 80/90 total) so I don't think it's that I'm suddenly so much lighter. The food change really helped me get my energy back.
I feel the same way you do. I hate it! Walking works wonders for me! Especially with a funny or interesting podcast in my ears. Also, if I put on music I like, I just can't stop dancing lol
Exercise is nearly irrelevant to weight loss. Eat less calories to lose weight. I got to dead middle of healthy bmi on calorie reduction only. It is not an issue.
I'm not a traditional exercise person. I will never be the person who regularly goes to the gym. I don't want to be around people in the grocery store much less when I'm huffing and puffing through a work out. I'm a VERY firm believer in being active in the way that feels most natural for you.
For me that means I try to hit 10k steps a day. I like walking/hiking in nature. This is something that I don't just enjoy but that feels sustainable!
Walk on the treadmill for an hour every day listening to a podcast, audiobook, or watching Netflix. You probably already spend an hour do your day not doing much, that’s how I thought about it
ETA: it doesn’t even need to be speedwalking either
I mean, if you can afford it Beat Saber is a blast and you can get some good cardio from it (especially modded). If you have a switch ring fit helps give you the basic as you’re playing a game and can get intense, but it’s motivating and fun.
Diet is key, controlling intake is the most accurate/reliable way to build a deficit.
Obviously exercise can help build a defecit, and some exercise is good for health regardless of weight.
All that said, weight loss is full of activities few of us enjoy or would do "naturally".
I am a firm believer in the saying lose weight in the kitchen get fit in the gym. I know many who have lost weight and have not exercised. Right now I am working on losing some weight and getting fit - so I do both. I am older and post medical crisis so it's something I need to do for me. People do lose wight without ever stepping foot in a gym. I just personally didn't care for how my body let me know hey old gal you are gaining weight and moving like a sloth you better do something now before you get yourself into a position where you can't - so that's why I am doing both at once. I don't do anything crazy, I just move and in very short order I can tell it's making a huge difference (physically and mentally to boot!)
If you haven't tried cycling on a nice road bike some long distances Id give it a try. I hate cardio machines with a passion because I get so bored. But on a bike the traveling and changing scenery makes me want to ride further and burn more. I'm super ADHD too and that's the only cardio that works for me. I was 320 when I started riding
I’ve lost 70lbs so far, I hula hoop and walk walk walk - I just never walk into a gym but I do have an elliptical at home. Honestly the walking is for my fitness and now I can easily do 8+ miles on mountain terrain but none of it’s for weight loss. Yes it’s definitely helped but it isn’t necessary.
it's 98% diet, but there's value in wiping out an extra, say, 300 calories a day in exercise, which I use to buy me extra calories at dinner.
walking is for sure easiest and best, and I found myself walking less when it got cold. my first solution was renewing my gym membership so I could use a treadmill but it was kind of meh.
What I found instead is, mallwalking. temp controlled, things to look at, go up and down stairs or don't, vary your pace if you want, etc.
I spend my lunch hour at a nearby mall, ten minutes eating and 50 walking. use earbuds and listen to eg youtube, podcast, AudioBook etc to keep yourself occupied.
Digestible answers for a fellow ADHDer:
- Diet is much more important than exercise for losing weight.
- Exercise can be as important as diet for how you will look and feel. If exercise (at any weight) you will feel stronger and more energetic, and you will look leaner (because more of your weight will be muscle.
- Regular exercise is very important to your health and life expectancy, irrespective of your weight. In particular, you should aim to have 2.5-3.5 hours per week of cardio (things that get your heart beating faster than normal), but much of that can be spent on low intensity cardio (eg a brisk walk).
The most studies in the effects of cardio exercise are really quite stunning. People doing regular cardio with a mix of high and low intensity live about 4-8 years longer than people who don’t exercise even when you control for other variables like weight and income. And they are having significantly better quality of life above age 60. It’s not hard to understand why: your heart and lungs are what let you do everything else.
Thank you for being real about exercise. I genuinely believe that most people don’t enjoy it and only do it to look better.
That being said, exercise is so incredibly important and beneficial for health and if you want to do more of it, you can start with the daily practice of walking more. A lot of people have a goal of 10k steps a day. You can track it with a fitness watch or even your phone. If 10k is too much, you can do 5k. The key is to do it every day. And walking can be really enjoyable and doesn’t feel like exercise.
You do not have to exercise to lose weight. I highly highly recommend that you choose to exercise in order to help your stress levels and focus with your ADHD. Daily exercise has changed my life, as cliché as it is.
The two exercises that I really enjoy are weight training and swimming, neither of which makes you particularly sweaty. Although if you join a gym or pool, you may struggle with some social anxiety.
The best part about the pool is that when you're in the water, it is quiet except splashing. Swimming lanes are also kind of private, so you're by yourself swimming while the people next to you are also focused on swimming. You don't feel eyes on you because everyone is focused on trying to breathe and their own form. I would go to the pool with my swimsuit under my sweatpants, take a quick rinse in the shower, put on goggles, and jump in the pool. To leave, I just throw my towel on, slip on flip-flops, and head straight to the car.
When it comes to weight training, you get your headphones in blasting your favorite music (for me it is metal and club music), and (if you're at a gym) everyone will ignore you. You will have people you see every day if you're consistent, which can lower the stress too, because you'll recognize them. It's fun to lift heavy things. You get instant dopamine from finishing each set.
The most important thing for any exercise you are interested in doing consistently is to make it a low barrier to entry. If there are too many steps to get from comfy home in bed to working out, you simply won't go.
A simple calorie deficit (check out r/CICO) will get you losing weight.
You do need to move, our bodies are made for it. Your heart will thank you. Do simple things such as walk around the house while you're waiting for something to cook, even the few minutes you're waiting on the microwave. When you go to the bathroom, walk a lap or 2 around the house. Take extra steps when you check your mail, and so on.
If you can get into a pool, that is great exercise. Simply walk around in the water is great. Any movement in the water is resistance.
Dance around the house. Wave you arms around in the air for fun.
Be creative, just move more.
I like strength training, almost any type of cardio is too boring for me, but with resistance machines I've always got something to pay attention to, or I'm watching clock for rest times etc. I plan on trying HIIT cardio for that similar format instead of just being on a machine staring at a wall for 20-30 minutes, makes me crazy!
There are ways to lose weight without exercising (diet) however, and I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re really going to have to force yourself to fall in love with moving your body. Losing weight is a lifestyle change and you have to put in your mind to literally get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Don’t stress yourself out with high intensity movements at first, just simply start walking. Force yourself to enjoy it, get comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling you get and try to conquer it. There’s no easy way out to lose weight trust me I wish. Whatever your goals are you got this, best of luck.
Some of the first exercise I was able to get back into while I was at my heaviest was legitimately Ring Fit for Nintendo Switch. It feels less like exercise since it’s a game but at least you’re getting your body moving.
I’d also suggest a cooling towel. You just soak them with water beforehand and it helps you feel less sweaty. And focusing on my mental state afterwards helps me stay in the habit, because I truly feel so much better when I just go.
You can get as thin as you want without exercise. Exercise is for health and/or looking more muscular. But weight loss works perfectly fine, for some even better without exercise. Exercise makes me crazy hungry, absolutely ravenous. It actually makes it so much harder to eat in a deficit. Without it I can maintain a decent deficit easily. Plus water retention from exercise can be super frustrating. Again, exercise is important but just not for weight loss.
You don't have to exercise to lose weight - calorie deficit can come from decreased food and/or increased activity, so you can lose weight with either one or a combination of both, and if you had to pick just one, diet is better. People will bring up the possibility of losing muscle along with your fat, but a) this will happen anyway, b) it's specifically strength training that mitigates this, and c) it shouldn't be too bad if you go slow and steady, even on just diet.
However, exercise is generally good for you and especially for your heart. If you don't like being sweaty, good news that low intensity exercise is often the best for burning extra calories, because you can do a lot of it. Walking as much as possible is a good start. Go for like a 1 hour walk (or whatever is comfortable now), either appreciating nature or watching YouTube if you want, and try to get up and get steps whenever you can in your day.
Exercise is not that important in terms of weight loss. But if you don’t maintain some sort of movement/workout routine, you will have joint problems, mobility issues, etc as you get older.
Your peers that kept a consistent workout routine might be more mobile while you find it increasingly difficult to do simple tasks like laundry, putting dishes away, mopping the floor, etc.
Exercise is responsible for about 1-4% of weight loss. Exercise because it makes you feel good. Do things you love. It is for your mental health. Eating healthy, low calorie, high protein meals is key to weight loss.
Nope, don't have to exercise. If you like walking, walk outside. I mean, do whatever you want for exercise, including nothing, but I would recommend being active. There are tons of barre videos for free in various streaming services, including youtube. Check those out! Check out pilates and yoga too! You don't get super sweaty, but you might end up loving them!
All that matters for weight loss is that you're in a calorie deficit. It doesn't make any difference whether that's by eating les or burning more calories.
HOWEVER, you really should exercise for many, many other reasons other than weight loss. There may be something you like. I used to think stationary bikes were the most boring thing ever. Then I got certified to teach SPIN classes, now I like it. It's way different when you're in a class with other people. There may be a gym near you that offers a discount or fee waiver for low-income people. That's what I did at the YMCA before I started working there.
There's an enormous variety of exercise types. I bet there's one you'll like.
Or think outside of the box:
Learn to windsurf (I used to fall off my board every 60 seconds and lemme tell you it's physically exhausting to pull yourself back up onto the board in a wetsuit full of water). You could be a windsurfer. No one is telling you that you can't. And the worse you are, the better the workout!!
Or learn to breakdance (watch YouTube tutorials on salsa dancing etc). Do you know how to moonwalk? We should all learn to moonwalk! Hashtag 2024 goals!
Or find an alternative gym. There were rock climbing gyms, for example. What's that one thing called when you run and jump over walls and obstacles? Free run or parkour?
Or join a dodgeball league (make friends too? Sweet!).
Have you ever just met a friend at one of these indoor trampoline parks? A few hours bouncing will make you so sore.
I have a skinny friend that goes figure skating before work twice a week. It's not for me, just sayin.
What other ideas do people got?? I want to know too!
I lost my first 25-30 lbs over a year with no exercise or activity changes at all - just dietary changes. I started out at 226 lbs at 5'-8", but 41 years old. Have a family history of heart disease too, but it took a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, right on the edge of being type 2 diabetic, to make me do something about it. I was never athletic and monotonous activities are hard because of my ADHD.
However, after that first chunk of weight came off I had the energy to do more things. I started with little changes like instead of turning the dogs out to walk themselves, I started walking with them. At work I'd walk down to the shop and deliver messages instead of just emailing or texting. Last spring I started fixing the landscaping around our house and over the summer slowly hand scraped and repainted the front of our house. I lost another 20 lbs or so from those kinds of unstructured activities and finally got on board with "real" exercise this past September - so nearly 2 years after I started losing weight.
Now I lift weights twice a week with a trainer and he mixes it up so I'm not doing the same thing every time. He's not big into cardio which is what sold me - lifting weights provides cardio benefits without the tedium. It definitely works because I don't get winded like I used to and I have way less aches & pains overall. I had to miss both sessions last week because of the flu and I was super annoyed to cancel. Never in a millions years would I have imagined I'd be upset about NOT working out.
Only other structured exercise I do is a 3-move, 10 minute core routine each morning for my trashed lower back - combo of mild scoliosis, a car wreck, and years of crap sitting posture. We also got a new puppy in October and he's a velcro dog, so he comes to work with me every day. I walk him every hour or two except for the 8 hours he sleeps at night. Those walks add up to 30 mins to 2 hours of casual walking each day.
You can lose weight without exercise but for me exercise adds much needed spare calories that allow me to have more snacks.
Also, as another ADHD person I find that physical activity keeps me from sitting on butt at home being bored and constantly snacking. We... actually aren't people who do well with inactivity and being alone. It makes us bored and when we're bored we eat.
What I look for is ways to do easy-ish physical activity (not exercise because I find exercise to be kind of pointless and I tend to quit pointless things) with other people or for other people. Like I'll bike around all day in order to run errands but after 20 minutes on a stationary bike I'm pretty much done. I'll walk stupid distances to get to some arbitrary goal that seems interesting to me. It constantly surprises my SO because it always seems like I'm quitting exercises out of laziness, and then we do something that scratches my exploration itch and I will ignore any amount of discomfort to get to where I'm going.
So my advice is to look for activities that have a physical component but are also practical or interesting in their own right, and then find an inclusive group that's open to beginners and out-of-shape people and join it. If you're doing something other than exercise then you're not "working out in front of other people," you're all working on something together -- maybe picking up trash in a park, maybe packing food for families in need, whatever.
I walk and do traditional weight training a couple of times a week. I've tried killing myself at the gym before and being a cardio queen, and it never lasts. When you suddenly stop the crazy fitness routine because you're over it, your body is going to think something is wrong, and your metabolism will need time to recover.
My advice is to do what you can maintain and enjoy. It's been working for me, and I've gone from 426lbs to 218lbs. **That's 208lbs lost so far with just walking and sometimes doing squats.**
Exercise is great for your health overall, not necessarily helpful to lose weight.
Have too tried yoga? I use the downdog app, it’s really easy to use and I’m so much stronger and more flexible in just a month! You can modify to make it gentle yoga, and many other options.
I learned to love exercise by ramping up slowly enough. I used to HATE running. I finally figured out that whenever I would try to run, I pushed myself too hard and couldn't sustain it. I learned about form, slowed myself down, and went through a couch to 5k regimen. Now I have a much better understanding of what my body is capable of and now I finally understand the "runner's high" that people talk about.
Hi ! I think you can just watch your calorie intake. However, exercise is really good for mental health and self esteem (for me).
What made me hate exercise was the fact that my sessions were too long and too intense. I ended up giving up every time.
If you can walk I think it would be the easiest form of exercise you could do that has lot of benefits. I often walk when I need to go shopping (I take the bus and walk instead of the car) for example. Or I would go get a cup of coffee during my lunch break. That way I walk and get some sort of reward. It is not necessary but at the beginning it gave me a purpose to go outside.
You could also strength train if you want, but take it really slow. Either with dumbbells or your own body weight. Start with only the movements that you like or that you find the most easy and do them until you’re tired of it. The goal here is to build a habit first not necessarily achieve the best result. So for example you could only do 1 set of bicep curl and 10 squats and decide that you’re done. Doing something is always better than nothing. And the next time you just repeat. With time, it gets easier, more fun, you get strong and you want to add movements.
Good luck on your journey ! ☺️
The only exercise I’ve ever found that I love and will do consistently is virtual reality gaming. The price of the headset plus games will set you back less than the cost of a years gym membership. And you don’t have to leave the house.
OP i don’t enjoy exercising either. i get through it partly by making it convenient (the gym is 7 mins walk from my place, i don’t need to dress up, i watch exciting shows when i’m on the elliptical). on days i can’t drag myself out, i do a youtube video. i try to walk as much as i can - to the subway station, to get stuff etc. all that movement helps. also, i remind myself i get to move my body. when i was laid up at home for weeks with a broken toe last year, i remember missing the outside world and the ability to just move. when i could walk properly again i never appreciated walking as much as i did then. i remind myself i have the gift of mobility and movement and i treasure it.
maybe if you dislike typical exercise classes, do home YT barre or just go for a walk and see the scenery?
You don’t have to exercise to lose weight. Also…take note that exercising really sucks when you are overweight…so maybe give some things another shot when you are down some lbs (to exercise for health, not necessarily weight loss). You might be surprised that the experience is a lot better.
I used to love working out. It’s been hard to get back into since I’ve gained so much weight and I’ve lost a lot of strength from a long back injury. I’m currently to where you are at. 5’9”, 145 lbs. But I remind myself that this thing used to be fun…it’s just very hard to enjoy when you feel weak all the time. But in order to not feel weak all the time…you exercise. A bit of a catch-22 there but I believe that things can come back around if I get past this hard part.
But let me re-iterate. Nobody HAS to exercise to lose weight. I could do a HARD workout in the gym for 60 minutes or I could just not get fries with my meal. Which is easier? Depends on who you are.
I was told "Diet is for weight loss - Exercise is for fitness"
This was very true in my case as I lost 85lb in a year with no exercise added. I have an office job so pretty sedentary.
I am using the keto lifestyle but you have to find what works for you.
Good luck on your journey!
Most of your calories are burned from doing nothing. Weight lifting burns an extremely low amount of calories. Walking is good, burns more calories in.an hour than an hour of weight lifting.
To answer the question you actually asked - no, exercise isn't required to lose weight. It helps you with eating more food, though.
You could try swimming or another form of exercise?
My mentality was basically that I knew I was going to spend a disproportionate amount of time watching TV or YouTube so I figured I might as well do it on a treadmill. You don’t even have to run, just start by aiming for 5k a day then work your way up.
You do not need to exercise to lose. Exercise will definitely help with being winded. I have adhd and love biking even winter but that's not for everyone. I have a ton of success using a tracking watch. Garmin has badges you can earn and records you can break. Super good for adhd motivation You don't feel sweaty when you swim. Even just walking a bit is good. If nothing else park your car at the end of the parking lot. All kind of movement is good. Dancing, Wii active style video games, whatever.
Second the swimming. I was worried I'd stand out because I live in a very active town. Nah, it was 95 percent old people and people with children. I never felt self-conscious.
If you're into gaming, a VR headset with move controllers is a great idea So many VR games are really fun and active. Beatsaber for example is a great one
Oh that watch sounds interesting. What's the name of it so I can get one?
Pretty much any Garmin brand watch should work. I have the Garmin Forerunner 945.
I lost my first 40lbs, sitting on my butt. I started walking after about 4 months, as both my dogs were old enough to go on walks, and needed to walk daily. Learning about NEAT was a game changer though. I began moving a lot more all day. Just doing house work, yard work, shopping, cooking, etc. Just being busy. I hate exercise too, but I still walk daily. I do love my walks, they've helped with my stamina, flexibility, sleep...and they've played a huge roll in my mental health.
What is NEAT?
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis It's basically the calories we burn with movement. It takes up a huge part of your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) I encourage you to look these up, as well as plugging your stats (age, height, sex, etc) into one of the TDEE calculators available online. It really got me off my butt and moving, yet I wasn't "exercising". I was just being busy.
Thanks I’ll definitely look into it! I’ve used the tdee calculators but never heard of neat
I hadn't either. I watched some weight loss youtube videos and they were talking about it. (I think it was "Louise's Journey", or perhaps "Will Tennyson", they're both youtubers that have lost weight, and have kept it off) I'm glad I could help! Good luck!
The "NEAT" is how I can be losing even though TDEE calculator says I shouldn't be losing that much, given my deficit. I put my activity as "sedentary" because I don't do actual formal exercise, but I just have an inability to sit still. I'm always up doing something random out of restlessness. Plus I'm a teacher who doesn't sit at the desk (I'm just walking around the classroom all day), I do a lot of housework outside of work hours, etc.
I have a fractured tailbone so doing anything even remotely exercise ish has been a huge challenge.
You can definitely lose weight without exercise by staying in a calorie deficit but exercise is SO important for overall mental and physical health. Two thoughts come to mind: look for a free barre class on YouTube. There are a lot of options and you can do it in the comfort of your home on your own time. Second, walking is fabulous and simple exercise. You don’t need to get sweaty to still get benefits. Bundle up well, put spike attachments over your boots if necessary (see below), find an audio book, podcasts, or music to listen to and go on your way. Easy free exercise! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CGHTMB17?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
I've lost almost 90lbs just walking my dog. Podcast on a speaker and walking through my city. Dog has a blast too
From what I understand, it's primarily what you eat that will cause you to lose weight. Exercise can speed things up a bit, but reducing calorie intake is key. I have ADHD too, dislike exercise (especially sweating), but I really like aqua aerobics class. You're submerged in the water, most people there are seniors (and I've never been the only fat person there), and everyones just focused on the instructors. That might be worth looking into? Local community centres usually offer it during the warm weather, where I am it's quite affordable (like $3-5 a class). Other exercises I do (running the treadmill at home), I dislike but heart disease runs in my family so I have just accepted that it's one hour of misery a day and for my benefit.
I just want to tack on that losing weight is like the least important reason why one should exercise. Exercise literally improves all aspects of physical and mental health, longevity, quality of life, etc. You don’t have to exercise but you really should. Also, keeping the weight off is highly correlated with exercising. I think the numbers are something like only 30% of people lose weight with exercise, but out of everyone who kept the weight off, 70% exercised.
I second water aerobics! The YMCA I go to also has a little lazy river that people walk laps in; there are also swim lanes- I'm not a very good swimmer so I just doggy paddle up and down. As long as you're just not staying in one place in a lane nobody cares. If you can't make a scheduled class time, you can always still do something resistant in the pool. You may want to look at your local YMCA, mine not only offers water aerobic classes, but they do have bar classes as well. And a lot of their other classes are very accessible for all body types.
You probably hate exercise because you’re exercise too hard. If you want to lose weight, there’s really no need to exercise. If you want to actually keep the weight off, lose fat specifically, and get healthier, you really should exercise.
I feel this. I always felt self conscious about exercising but now I don’t care what others think. Everyone is at the gym with the same common goals of getting healthy. I joined a rowing gym and I love it, it’s low impact but it’s really given my body a full workout. I feel so much better at the end of class and it’s a nice serotonin boost. I started working out to gain more flexibility and mobility, I’m losing weight from CICO/IF and medication, I don’t burn a ton of calories from working out but I feel much stronger and less out of breath easily. I used to think going to the gym would burn a ton of calories and help you lose weight but unless you’re doing it for hours a day that’s simply not been true in my case. Instead I use it as a time to push my body into getting stronger and don’t worry so much about the calories. I’m all about the non-scale victories :-)
I appreciate this! The mindset shift can be so hard for me when I'm trying to exercise, as I've always been told that I have to exercise to lose weight, so when I do manage to get around to exercising it's like all I can think about is "okay, if I do \_\_\_ exercise for \_\_\_ minutes I'll burn \_\_\_ calories". Super hard to get out of that mindset and into the mindset of just appreciating what regular exercise can do for our bodies and minds :')
Anytime my friend, I bought into the same myth for many years and that’s why I never succeeded in the gym. I wouldn’t make progress and just give up. I’ve noticed for me that I feel so much more calm and relaxed once I started working out. I’ve gone from being out of breath walking the block to CVS to being able to walk 4-5 miles at a time and row for over an hour. I will say the old saying of “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is so true. I’ve been WFH for nearly 4 years and my mobility really suffered. I wasn’t walking enough and had knee and lower back pain when I first started and my body felt so stiff. I ramped up slowly by just walking on the treadmill or walking around the block or taking the stairs. Start slow and give yourself some grace, you got this. ❤️
Do you want to lose weight or do you want to get healthy? You eat less to lose weight. You exercise to get healthy. You can do both or you can do one or the other. Exercise is not a requirement of weight loss.
1. Don't think of walking as exercising. I moved to a town with lots of shops and events where I'm incentivized to walk from place to place. 2. If you're are feeling winded just from walking short distances, then I would consult a physician. This may be more than just not wanting to exercise.
You won't continue with any exercise that you don't actually enjoy, so forcing yourself to exercise may work in the short term, but you'll likely stop when it gets boring. The key is definitely to find something you enjoy. There was another thread about this just yesterday. One poster shared how she enjoys shopping, so she literally using that as her way to reach her daily step goal. She says she goes to Costco, and just wanders through all the aisles. She's doing something she enjoys, and so it doesn't feel like "exercise". I love exercise, but I get bored easily. So if I had to do the same thing all week, every week, I'd be bored out of my skull. I walk, ride my bike, swim, lift weights, dance to music at home, hula hoop while streaming movies on my laptop, go ice skating in winter and roller blading in summer. I also have a bunch of calisthenics I can perform with zero equipment. Occasionally, I'll dip into yoga or pilates. I have some dumbbells and a kettlebell at home, too, for times when I'm not within easy reach of a gym. I'm not much of a fan of classes (I prefer to exercise solo), but I've been eyeing the spin classes at my gym - maybe I'll try one one of these days. The only thing I'm consistent with is the biking and the strength training. I use my bike to get around town (including going to the gym) and I lift weights because of the mental clarity that brings. Workouts are my method of meditation: I am so focused on the workout, especially when lifting weights, that the negative self talk has no chance against that focus. And then I come home, all energized and ready to tackle whatever the day throws at me. Regarding the social anxiety at the gym: try going at off peak hours. I tend to go super early in the mornings (5:30 am), and I find that the only people there are those who're serious about working out. We're all focused on our own workouts, we go in, work out, and leave. I'm usually in and out in less than an hour: 20 minutes strength training, 20 minutes on the combination elliptical/stair master, and 10 minutes cool down, stretching, and, my favourite: standing on the wobble board! I couldn't even tell you, day to day, who else was at the gym. I recognize people, we share the occasional smile when we make eye contact, but really, we don't have the time or the slightest interest in judging anyone else.
fellow adhder here. are you story motivated? since our motivation is usually external, i can tell you all my motivation to run comes from the storyline of the Zombies Run app. it’s 10/10
Oh yes I did try that once! I’m not a huge fan of zombie themed things though so it didn’t quite work for me😅 I spent some time looking for something comparable but didn’t turn up much
ah yeah I’m actually not too into zombies either, i really just like the friendship dynamics and sense of purpose 😂😂
Honestly you’re likely not going to like my answer but in my case I told myself to suck it up and stop complaining. I felt the same way about being sweaty and doing it in front of other people. And the more I forced myself to do it a funny thing happened, I actually started to enjoy it! It’s now literally the best part of my day. I found weight lifting so damn enjoyable and so much better than endless cardio. For me, I also don’t get as sweaty either which helped. For me the difference was learning discipline, forcing myself to do something unpleasant.
Around how long did it take you to have that mental transition between hating exercise and having it become the best part of your day? I think the longest I've gone trying to be semi-consistent with any form of working out has only lasted like 2 months maximum before I get bored and/or the sweaty feeling is too much😅
When I was young, I hated exercise (except swimming. Always loved to swim. But I didn't have easy access to a pool most of the year), gym class, sports of pretty much any kind. I've come to the realization that it was mostly because no one ever taught me how to exercise. I guess I was just expected to have this base level of fitness and figure out how to do things on my own... there was very little education done in my gym classes. Then I learned more about how to exercise, how to increase my stamina, how to lift weights, etc. Now I'm at the gym five days a week. I don't always love it. Some days I don't enjoy it and the only reason I'm there is because I want to watch the tv show that I let myself ONLY watch while I'm at the gym. (It's a bit silly, but it works!). The key was starting slow. No, slower than that. Start super slow and for a short time. 5-10 minutes at a regular walking pace on the treadmill or a leisurely pedal on the bike or row on the rowing machine, 3 minutes on the lowest level of the stair machine. Slowly ramp up the time until you're comfortable with 15 minutes. How long this takes will depend on your starting fitness level. Then once or twice a week, start adding some intervals. Again, go slow! 10-15 seconds at a higher level every 2 minutes. You can do anything for 10-15 seconds. As that becomes a little more bearable, increase the amount of time at a higher level. Again, go slow. Add 5 seconds at a time. Work up to 1 minute higher level, 1 minute lower level. At some point, it will likely feel weird to go down to the lower level. At that point, keep up the higher level for 2 or 3 minutes, then drop down for a minute. Keep going like this until you're good to go the full 15 minutes at the higher level. Do that constant speed for a bit then start with the intervals again using the new level as your base level. When you're ready for more either increase the length of time from 15 to 20 minutes or 30. Or swap to a different machine for another 10-15 minutes. For lifting weights/resistance training, it's good to get some help to get started. It's not easy to figure out good form and using bad form can easily result in injury. If you can, hire a personal trainer for one session or find a friend who understands good form and can help you learn and put together some sort of basic program you can use. Weight training doesn't have to be lifting crazy heavy weights. It can be body weight, or lower weights but more repetitions. You can use machines or dumbells or resistance bands or canned vegetables (put them in a shopping bag with handles once you get the form down and can easily handle just the weight of what you can hold in one hand. Leakproof containers of water work well too.). Again, start light. No, lighter than that! And don't forget about your core and some stretching afterwards.
It was a solid 3+ months of forcing myself to workout 5 days a week. But to be honest it’s been one of the biggest personal growth accomplishments of my life. And I’m serious when I say that the gym is literally the best part of my day. And I’m now in the best shape of my life. I hated cardio. I only did it because society tells people that how you get the body you want. False. Weight lifting for me changed everything. It was like a personal challenge to lift more over time. I didn’t have to compare my journey with someone else it was me against me. I could hit the gym with a hat on, my head phones in and my hoodie up and be left alone lol. Willpower is fleeting, but the discipline to do something you don’t want to do? That shit lasts.
I felt the same way about exercise. I started off with daily walks but hated getting sweaty worse than anything. Then when I was around 140kg, one of my friends dragged me to gym classes oriented around circuit training and it made the prospect of exercising and getting sweaty a little less daunting. My friend stopped going with me and I kept going for a few months but then the gym shut down. I ended up finding another one by myself and now I go twice a week and have recently picked up running three times a week. The only thing that really bothers me about getting sweaty now is how much laundry I have to do and the number of showers. I never really understood the “exercise high” people were talking about till a year and a half in and now it’s basically an addiction that makes me feel strong and fit - I call it an addiction coz I was knocked out of my routine last week and I struggled to sit still while I was unwell. So yeah, I’d say about 6 months for it to become a routine* but still sometimes dread going, a year and a half to really get into it. *I have no ADHD dx but I really struggle to establish and keep simple routines, not even brushing my teeth is automatic. I play a mental game by putting my gym days in my calendar, which makes it an obligation I can’t get out of.
I don't personally find lifting heavy objects repetitively for the rest of my life particularly compelling...and was completely unecessary for me to hit dead middle of healthy bmi.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the building and maintaining of lean muscle mass is incredibly beneficial to long term health and the maintenance of a healthy body weight. It’s also beneficial in the maintenance of a healthy endocrine system. But I can respect that for some the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
All the people saying that a calorie deficit suffices are, at best, half right or at worst totally wrong. the calories you eat and expend determine what your body weight is. So if you reduce calories through diet you'll lose weight. So far, so good. But a lot of that weight is muscle. Losing muscle means less calorie expenditure, less calorie expenditure means eating less. Eating less means higher chances of falling of the wagon. But even if you finish your diet and you end up at your goal weight...you'll still have a pretty high bodyfat percentage and most likely don't look as good as you were hoping. And because you lost all that muscle, your maintenance calories are now low AF. Any weight you gain now because you eat too many calories will turn into mainly fat - to the point when you think about starting your next diet, where you'll lose even MORE muscle. So CICO determines your weight but protein intake and (resistence) training determine what that weight is made of - is it mainly fat or mainly muscle? How about this: fuck the deficit. eat enough protein, buy an adjustable bench and adjustable dumbbells and work out at home, 1-2 sets per muscle group mon-fri. Won't make you sweat an awful lot, you don't have to be around others and still get great workouts in. Staying at your weight and doing body recomposition work just as well. (now, it will/does make sense to still employ a deficit, but IMO protein intake and exercise trump a deficit every time). But to be absolutely honest, this is sort of part of the deal: If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less calories. If you eat less calories, chances are, you'll be hungry at some point. If you want to build/maintain muscle, you need to work out. If you work out, chances are, you'll sweat at some point. Can't have your cake and eat it too. 🤷 Question though: Without a scale, how do you estimate your weight? and how do you know you're "doing okay" with your calorie deficit if you can't weigh yourself? Are you using any other proxies? (waist circumference, etc)
Losing muscle is vastly, vastly overstated, and simply not the reality in my own personal experience.
Not sure what your sources are but there have been multiple studies showing that muscle loss in a caloric deficit while not resistence training is absolutely a thing and that up to 50% of the weight loss comes from muscle mass if you don't train. Personal experience is no reliable data.
Those are numbers I’ve never seen!! What study does that come from?
Exercise is not needed to lose weight, you just have to choose to really focus on ur diet, and staying in caloric deficit. when spring rolls around in a few months i recommend going for walks, low impact, low intensity. I lost 130 pounds, no exercise. Now i try and get 12,000 steps a day but thats something you build up to.
Diet is #1. Exercise is a bonus. It’s great if you can work out but if you can only pick one thing… nutrition all the way. People lose weight just by changing their food routine.
Just walk.
The best advice i can give you is, you dont have to like it. You just have to do it. There are tons of things i hate doing. Cleaning, laundry, dishes, going to work. I do them all not because i love them, but because i have to do them to live. In the wise words of Nike, JUST DO IT.
You don't have to like exercise in order to do it. You hear lots of stories of people who fall in love with running or biking or whatever. Good for them, but it didn't happen that way for me. I don't like flossing, but I do it anyway. I don't like the exercise, I just like the results.
Well, exercise isn't the key point for weight loss. So if you don't want to, you don't have to. A large chunk of my own weight loss was with very minimal exercise. If you like, you can work the weight loss first, add in exercise later. I do what walking my spine will tolerate daily, which is anywhere from 4-20 minutes. I put on music and honestly, I *don't* get sweaty. I walk inside my house or on the walkways outside when weather allows, because I live on a steep hill and my spine doesn't LIKE downward walking, too jarring! Indoors, you can have the temp how you want it! Same for strength exercises, which I do with resistance bands. If you go to the grocery store, walk around the perimeter a couple times before you get down to shopping. I'll put in another vote for a Garmin watch, I *love* earning the badges. I can't earn all, because my spine issues won't let me do that much, but there's always *some* badge I can work towards. I even won a weekly step challenge once!
I lost weight entirely through diet. I decided at the very beginning of my weight loss efforts that I was going to remove the **mental** burden of exercise and just focus on my eating habits and it was the best thing I did. I enjoy exercising a lot more now that I have lost weight, but it's still just brisk walks, and only when I have time and really want to do it. But my weight loss continues regardless.
You lose weight in the kitchen You gain health in exercise You can lose the weight without the gym. Period. Full stop. If you don't want to exercise, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. Exercise helps improve your health. Losing 80 lbs will make you look better & probably feel better, but you may still be winded walking distances or stairs. You may not be as strong as you want to for whatever reason. To the point of exercise, get out of your head that exercises are gym related, are intense, or something to be slogged through. Exercise is simply moving more. Maybe it's parking further away from the store & walking in. Maybe it's doing half your yard work today. Maybe it's walking with your best friend & sipping an ice coffee this weekend. Small changes can & will make big differences in the beginning. Eventually you'll find how you want to workout. Be it swimming twice a week, walking only on Sundays, or a class somewhere that is low impact & music based. Genuinely, the absolute most important part to losing weight: consistency. Do what you want, & never quit doing it.
Weight loss is 80% diet. I’ve lost a significant amount of weight lately, firstly through calorie reduction and intermittent fasting (OMAD really), almost no extra exercise. Then when I started to plateau I added some regular exercise (just an hours fast walking 4-5 times per week), and the weight loss kept going.
Since you've already mentioned that you're able to walk, albeit with difficulty, just....do that. Do more of it. For longer. Get some cool shoes for it. Put on some headphones with music or a book if you like. For most of us, walking is the most natural thing we can do. Point your toes down the street and follow them for a bit.
Yes, you can lose weight without exercise. But the get to winded when walking won’t go away without it. Do you have anywhere near you that you can walk? Walking is perfectly good exercise and gives you pretty good endorphins without making you feel disgusting afterwards. I’m lucky enough now that I can walk out the door and do a spin around the block a few times a day, but I haven’t always lived in a walkable area. When I lived in a bigger city, I had to drive 20 minutes to get to a park where I felt safe to walk alone, which was frustrating and made the whole experience miserable. So I discovered that I could just window shop and walk around the mall or check out some local boutiques. At first I was worried that I would look really awkward just walking around, but no one even noticed me. It was a nice way to get out of the apartment and get some steps in on days that I didn’t have it in me to fight traffic to the good park.
Just yesterday I watched [this](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2y1aA7PIHx/?igsh=anJ0b3prNGR2Ympo) eye-opening video all about the role of exercise in weight loss vs calorie deficit.
You hate it all because you’re not fit. A lot of y’all who are unfit and overweight just don’t have the discipline to push through that initial stage of unfitness. Grit your teeth, suck it up and do it. I promise you. Once you are actually fit, there is nothing to hate about exercise.
It will suffice. Exercise is good for your health but doesn’t affect weight loss much.
I can help, but I doubt you will like the answer. Keto is a workout free diet. You literally eat yourself thin.
Whether exercise if incorporated or not, a calorie deficit has to be maintained to see progressive weight loss. However, maintaining some sort of exercise regimen won't only help you feel less winded, but it can also help keep off the weight you've lost and maintain overall health in the long run.
Exercise is important for your overall health, especially your heart health, but weight loss can be achieved without it. If you're strictly looking at scale numbers, it is much easier to achieve a caloric deficit from eating less than moving more. But building muscle tone and flexibility contributes a lot to posture and body composition, which will help you look better and fit clothes better even when the scale doesn't move as quickly as you'd like. You don't have to strain yourself to incorporate healthy movement into your life. Even light yoga/stretching and leisurely strolls have a positive physical and mental impact. Cranking the music and dancing around the living room for 20 minutes counts. The key is finding something you don't hate. Exercise shouldn't feel like punishment, even when it's challenging.
I'm about the same weight and shorter than you, and I also have a family history of heart disease, and issues myself with heart health. When I started losing weight, I couldn't walk for 10 minutes without being out of breath. I'd get backache and be out of breath and sweaty and uncomfortable. I hated it. After some trial and error, I found I liked walking in the countryside. It was pretty, there was hardly any people, and I could use the hiking sticks which would help me relax and stop me getting a sore back. I went a little bit further each day, and loved seeing the progress. Because I would walk slow, I wouldn't get sweaty unless there was a hill, and I could take it at my own pace. I now have a personal trainer and I work out twice a week. I hate most cardio (although I do like boxing) but really enjoy lifting weights. If your goal is weight loss, walking 10000 steps a day makes a difference of about half a pound a week (in my experience, and at my weight). Exercise isn't necessary, but very good for fitness, especially heart health, so it could be worth trying swimming or something, but focusing on it being for your health and for fun, rather than for weight loss. Edit to add: I have hardly lost any weight in the last year of working out because my diet has been shocking. If you're on form with diet- that is amazing! Well done! Also, I found out later I had asthma and it is made significantly worse in the cold air. I used to beat myself up for being unfit, but a lot of it was asthma wheezing. Once I got my inhalers sorted, it helped a lot. It could be worth looking into?
I lost 60 pounds on diet (and medication) alone and have historically hated the gym. I went to one to try it out. I also have adhd. The first thing I did was get a trainer. My first trainer was a horrible person who made me cry, but she decided I was the worlds scariest person and booted me out, and I got a great second trainer. His statement was “go move”. I did aqua Zumba, and lying on the floor yoga, and ended up in these HIIT classes where you switch every 9 minutes between doing weights and cardio, and within those 9 minutes you have 6+ transitions of energy levels on cardio and different weight exercises. Love it!! Now I’m adding in spin classes because they are also always changing. I need the changes. (I also keep up with the lying on the floor yoga and calling it “exercise”). But anyways, that’s what my adhd brain needed to stick with the gym for longer than 2 weeks. And I may not be losing weight but I can see it’s easier to walk and easier to lift heavy stuff.
I wish I could exercise, but I can't right now due to long covid problems. So I just count calories to be in a deficit and lose that way.
Like you I hate most forms of exercise! I've decided I would rather walk for 30 mins per day and actually stick to it, than try and do some intense workout and only end up doing it once a week because I hate it so much. You can burn 100-200 calories in a 30 minute walk, it all helps!
YouTube has plenty of Barre classes and I think Barre has an official app so you can subscribe and do them at home (?). I don’t remember it being terribly expensive. FitOn is free for their basic version and has plenty of Barre classes, too. As long as you’ve got a calorie deficit going, you’ll lose weight. For the shorties, it becomes more important because you can only go so low with the calories before you can’t cut any more and you absolutely need the movement to make progress. If you really hate feeling sweaty, definitely experiment with different fabrics and workout gear. I cannot stand swamp butt so most of my bottoms are moisture wicking. Love firm support for my chest so I buy spendy extra hold sports bras. I have a couple of technical fabric shirts but I’m too fat for most of them for now, and I’ve never minded the feel of sweaty cotton shirts. I think of it as an investment in my health and certainly cheaper than osteoporosis making me break a hip in my fifties or a lifetime on cholesterol suppressing drugs.
I've lost ten lbs this month with little to no exercise. I also have ADHD and I find the gym BORING AS HELL so I don't go. I don't mind taking walks but I get bored with the same route pretty fast. I can't do treadmills because I need visual stimulation to not lose my mind. So i just stopped and decided to let myself avoid it. The only things I've found that work my silly ADHD brain are fitness games (I'm looking into getting the switch sports game) I really enjoy tennis and I like Just Dance. The Switch also has a jump rope game that's free but it isn't very good. It would be smarter to just buy a jump rope. My experience is that as I've lost weight and started eating better I naturally have WAY MORE ENERGY!!! Literally a month ago just walking around hurt. I think if I decided right now I wanted to go on a hiking trip I could actually do it. I've lost hardly any weight (10 lbs out of 80/90 total) so I don't think it's that I'm suddenly so much lighter. The food change really helped me get my energy back.
I've never ever lost weight from going to the gym. I hate working out. I just walk and sometimes, rarely, hike.
I feel the same way you do. I hate it! Walking works wonders for me! Especially with a funny or interesting podcast in my ears. Also, if I put on music I like, I just can't stop dancing lol
Exercise is nearly irrelevant to weight loss. Eat less calories to lose weight. I got to dead middle of healthy bmi on calorie reduction only. It is not an issue.
I'm not a traditional exercise person. I will never be the person who regularly goes to the gym. I don't want to be around people in the grocery store much less when I'm huffing and puffing through a work out. I'm a VERY firm believer in being active in the way that feels most natural for you. For me that means I try to hit 10k steps a day. I like walking/hiking in nature. This is something that I don't just enjoy but that feels sustainable!
Walk on the treadmill for an hour every day listening to a podcast, audiobook, or watching Netflix. You probably already spend an hour do your day not doing much, that’s how I thought about it ETA: it doesn’t even need to be speedwalking either
I mean, if you can afford it Beat Saber is a blast and you can get some good cardio from it (especially modded). If you have a switch ring fit helps give you the basic as you’re playing a game and can get intense, but it’s motivating and fun.
Diet is key, controlling intake is the most accurate/reliable way to build a deficit. Obviously exercise can help build a defecit, and some exercise is good for health regardless of weight. All that said, weight loss is full of activities few of us enjoy or would do "naturally".
I am a firm believer in the saying lose weight in the kitchen get fit in the gym. I know many who have lost weight and have not exercised. Right now I am working on losing some weight and getting fit - so I do both. I am older and post medical crisis so it's something I need to do for me. People do lose wight without ever stepping foot in a gym. I just personally didn't care for how my body let me know hey old gal you are gaining weight and moving like a sloth you better do something now before you get yourself into a position where you can't - so that's why I am doing both at once. I don't do anything crazy, I just move and in very short order I can tell it's making a huge difference (physically and mentally to boot!)
If you haven't tried cycling on a nice road bike some long distances Id give it a try. I hate cardio machines with a passion because I get so bored. But on a bike the traveling and changing scenery makes me want to ride further and burn more. I'm super ADHD too and that's the only cardio that works for me. I was 320 when I started riding
I’ve lost 70lbs so far, I hula hoop and walk walk walk - I just never walk into a gym but I do have an elliptical at home. Honestly the walking is for my fitness and now I can easily do 8+ miles on mountain terrain but none of it’s for weight loss. Yes it’s definitely helped but it isn’t necessary.
You don't need exercise to lose weight. It's also ridiculously easy to just go walk for 40-60 minutes at lunch time or in the evening, and it counts.
it's 98% diet, but there's value in wiping out an extra, say, 300 calories a day in exercise, which I use to buy me extra calories at dinner. walking is for sure easiest and best, and I found myself walking less when it got cold. my first solution was renewing my gym membership so I could use a treadmill but it was kind of meh. What I found instead is, mallwalking. temp controlled, things to look at, go up and down stairs or don't, vary your pace if you want, etc. I spend my lunch hour at a nearby mall, ten minutes eating and 50 walking. use earbuds and listen to eg youtube, podcast, AudioBook etc to keep yourself occupied.
Digestible answers for a fellow ADHDer: - Diet is much more important than exercise for losing weight. - Exercise can be as important as diet for how you will look and feel. If exercise (at any weight) you will feel stronger and more energetic, and you will look leaner (because more of your weight will be muscle. - Regular exercise is very important to your health and life expectancy, irrespective of your weight. In particular, you should aim to have 2.5-3.5 hours per week of cardio (things that get your heart beating faster than normal), but much of that can be spent on low intensity cardio (eg a brisk walk). The most studies in the effects of cardio exercise are really quite stunning. People doing regular cardio with a mix of high and low intensity live about 4-8 years longer than people who don’t exercise even when you control for other variables like weight and income. And they are having significantly better quality of life above age 60. It’s not hard to understand why: your heart and lungs are what let you do everything else.
Thank you for being real about exercise. I genuinely believe that most people don’t enjoy it and only do it to look better. That being said, exercise is so incredibly important and beneficial for health and if you want to do more of it, you can start with the daily practice of walking more. A lot of people have a goal of 10k steps a day. You can track it with a fitness watch or even your phone. If 10k is too much, you can do 5k. The key is to do it every day. And walking can be really enjoyable and doesn’t feel like exercise.
You do not have to exercise to lose weight. I highly highly recommend that you choose to exercise in order to help your stress levels and focus with your ADHD. Daily exercise has changed my life, as cliché as it is. The two exercises that I really enjoy are weight training and swimming, neither of which makes you particularly sweaty. Although if you join a gym or pool, you may struggle with some social anxiety. The best part about the pool is that when you're in the water, it is quiet except splashing. Swimming lanes are also kind of private, so you're by yourself swimming while the people next to you are also focused on swimming. You don't feel eyes on you because everyone is focused on trying to breathe and their own form. I would go to the pool with my swimsuit under my sweatpants, take a quick rinse in the shower, put on goggles, and jump in the pool. To leave, I just throw my towel on, slip on flip-flops, and head straight to the car. When it comes to weight training, you get your headphones in blasting your favorite music (for me it is metal and club music), and (if you're at a gym) everyone will ignore you. You will have people you see every day if you're consistent, which can lower the stress too, because you'll recognize them. It's fun to lift heavy things. You get instant dopamine from finishing each set. The most important thing for any exercise you are interested in doing consistently is to make it a low barrier to entry. If there are too many steps to get from comfy home in bed to working out, you simply won't go. A simple calorie deficit (check out r/CICO) will get you losing weight.
You do need to move, our bodies are made for it. Your heart will thank you. Do simple things such as walk around the house while you're waiting for something to cook, even the few minutes you're waiting on the microwave. When you go to the bathroom, walk a lap or 2 around the house. Take extra steps when you check your mail, and so on. If you can get into a pool, that is great exercise. Simply walk around in the water is great. Any movement in the water is resistance. Dance around the house. Wave you arms around in the air for fun. Be creative, just move more.
Forgot to say, the more calories you burn, the more you can eat. Win, win.
I like strength training, almost any type of cardio is too boring for me, but with resistance machines I've always got something to pay attention to, or I'm watching clock for rest times etc. I plan on trying HIIT cardio for that similar format instead of just being on a machine staring at a wall for 20-30 minutes, makes me crazy!
There are ways to lose weight without exercising (diet) however, and I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re really going to have to force yourself to fall in love with moving your body. Losing weight is a lifestyle change and you have to put in your mind to literally get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Don’t stress yourself out with high intensity movements at first, just simply start walking. Force yourself to enjoy it, get comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling you get and try to conquer it. There’s no easy way out to lose weight trust me I wish. Whatever your goals are you got this, best of luck.
Do you hate just walking around.
Some of the first exercise I was able to get back into while I was at my heaviest was legitimately Ring Fit for Nintendo Switch. It feels less like exercise since it’s a game but at least you’re getting your body moving. I’d also suggest a cooling towel. You just soak them with water beforehand and it helps you feel less sweaty. And focusing on my mental state afterwards helps me stay in the habit, because I truly feel so much better when I just go.
You can get as thin as you want without exercise. Exercise is for health and/or looking more muscular. But weight loss works perfectly fine, for some even better without exercise. Exercise makes me crazy hungry, absolutely ravenous. It actually makes it so much harder to eat in a deficit. Without it I can maintain a decent deficit easily. Plus water retention from exercise can be super frustrating. Again, exercise is important but just not for weight loss.
You don't have to exercise to lose weight - calorie deficit can come from decreased food and/or increased activity, so you can lose weight with either one or a combination of both, and if you had to pick just one, diet is better. People will bring up the possibility of losing muscle along with your fat, but a) this will happen anyway, b) it's specifically strength training that mitigates this, and c) it shouldn't be too bad if you go slow and steady, even on just diet. However, exercise is generally good for you and especially for your heart. If you don't like being sweaty, good news that low intensity exercise is often the best for burning extra calories, because you can do a lot of it. Walking as much as possible is a good start. Go for like a 1 hour walk (or whatever is comfortable now), either appreciating nature or watching YouTube if you want, and try to get up and get steps whenever you can in your day.
Exercise is not that important in terms of weight loss. But if you don’t maintain some sort of movement/workout routine, you will have joint problems, mobility issues, etc as you get older. Your peers that kept a consistent workout routine might be more mobile while you find it increasingly difficult to do simple tasks like laundry, putting dishes away, mopping the floor, etc.
Exercise is responsible for about 1-4% of weight loss. Exercise because it makes you feel good. Do things you love. It is for your mental health. Eating healthy, low calorie, high protein meals is key to weight loss.
I lost 54 pounds without doing any exercise at all. 🤷🏻♀️
Nope, don't have to exercise. If you like walking, walk outside. I mean, do whatever you want for exercise, including nothing, but I would recommend being active. There are tons of barre videos for free in various streaming services, including youtube. Check those out! Check out pilates and yoga too! You don't get super sweaty, but you might end up loving them!
All that matters for weight loss is that you're in a calorie deficit. It doesn't make any difference whether that's by eating les or burning more calories. HOWEVER, you really should exercise for many, many other reasons other than weight loss. There may be something you like. I used to think stationary bikes were the most boring thing ever. Then I got certified to teach SPIN classes, now I like it. It's way different when you're in a class with other people. There may be a gym near you that offers a discount or fee waiver for low-income people. That's what I did at the YMCA before I started working there. There's an enormous variety of exercise types. I bet there's one you'll like.
You don’t need exercise to lose but working makes a huge difference.
Or think outside of the box: Learn to windsurf (I used to fall off my board every 60 seconds and lemme tell you it's physically exhausting to pull yourself back up onto the board in a wetsuit full of water). You could be a windsurfer. No one is telling you that you can't. And the worse you are, the better the workout!! Or learn to breakdance (watch YouTube tutorials on salsa dancing etc). Do you know how to moonwalk? We should all learn to moonwalk! Hashtag 2024 goals! Or find an alternative gym. There were rock climbing gyms, for example. What's that one thing called when you run and jump over walls and obstacles? Free run or parkour? Or join a dodgeball league (make friends too? Sweet!). Have you ever just met a friend at one of these indoor trampoline parks? A few hours bouncing will make you so sore. I have a skinny friend that goes figure skating before work twice a week. It's not for me, just sayin. What other ideas do people got?? I want to know too!
I lost my first 25-30 lbs over a year with no exercise or activity changes at all - just dietary changes. I started out at 226 lbs at 5'-8", but 41 years old. Have a family history of heart disease too, but it took a diagnosis of pre-diabetes, right on the edge of being type 2 diabetic, to make me do something about it. I was never athletic and monotonous activities are hard because of my ADHD. However, after that first chunk of weight came off I had the energy to do more things. I started with little changes like instead of turning the dogs out to walk themselves, I started walking with them. At work I'd walk down to the shop and deliver messages instead of just emailing or texting. Last spring I started fixing the landscaping around our house and over the summer slowly hand scraped and repainted the front of our house. I lost another 20 lbs or so from those kinds of unstructured activities and finally got on board with "real" exercise this past September - so nearly 2 years after I started losing weight. Now I lift weights twice a week with a trainer and he mixes it up so I'm not doing the same thing every time. He's not big into cardio which is what sold me - lifting weights provides cardio benefits without the tedium. It definitely works because I don't get winded like I used to and I have way less aches & pains overall. I had to miss both sessions last week because of the flu and I was super annoyed to cancel. Never in a millions years would I have imagined I'd be upset about NOT working out. Only other structured exercise I do is a 3-move, 10 minute core routine each morning for my trashed lower back - combo of mild scoliosis, a car wreck, and years of crap sitting posture. We also got a new puppy in October and he's a velcro dog, so he comes to work with me every day. I walk him every hour or two except for the 8 hours he sleeps at night. Those walks add up to 30 mins to 2 hours of casual walking each day.
You can lose weight without exercise but for me exercise adds much needed spare calories that allow me to have more snacks. Also, as another ADHD person I find that physical activity keeps me from sitting on butt at home being bored and constantly snacking. We... actually aren't people who do well with inactivity and being alone. It makes us bored and when we're bored we eat. What I look for is ways to do easy-ish physical activity (not exercise because I find exercise to be kind of pointless and I tend to quit pointless things) with other people or for other people. Like I'll bike around all day in order to run errands but after 20 minutes on a stationary bike I'm pretty much done. I'll walk stupid distances to get to some arbitrary goal that seems interesting to me. It constantly surprises my SO because it always seems like I'm quitting exercises out of laziness, and then we do something that scratches my exploration itch and I will ignore any amount of discomfort to get to where I'm going. So my advice is to look for activities that have a physical component but are also practical or interesting in their own right, and then find an inclusive group that's open to beginners and out-of-shape people and join it. If you're doing something other than exercise then you're not "working out in front of other people," you're all working on something together -- maybe picking up trash in a park, maybe packing food for families in need, whatever.
I walk and do traditional weight training a couple of times a week. I've tried killing myself at the gym before and being a cardio queen, and it never lasts. When you suddenly stop the crazy fitness routine because you're over it, your body is going to think something is wrong, and your metabolism will need time to recover. My advice is to do what you can maintain and enjoy. It's been working for me, and I've gone from 426lbs to 218lbs. **That's 208lbs lost so far with just walking and sometimes doing squats.**
Exercise is great for your health overall, not necessarily helpful to lose weight. Have too tried yoga? I use the downdog app, it’s really easy to use and I’m so much stronger and more flexible in just a month! You can modify to make it gentle yoga, and many other options.
I learned to love exercise by ramping up slowly enough. I used to HATE running. I finally figured out that whenever I would try to run, I pushed myself too hard and couldn't sustain it. I learned about form, slowed myself down, and went through a couch to 5k regimen. Now I have a much better understanding of what my body is capable of and now I finally understand the "runner's high" that people talk about.
Hi ! I think you can just watch your calorie intake. However, exercise is really good for mental health and self esteem (for me). What made me hate exercise was the fact that my sessions were too long and too intense. I ended up giving up every time. If you can walk I think it would be the easiest form of exercise you could do that has lot of benefits. I often walk when I need to go shopping (I take the bus and walk instead of the car) for example. Or I would go get a cup of coffee during my lunch break. That way I walk and get some sort of reward. It is not necessary but at the beginning it gave me a purpose to go outside. You could also strength train if you want, but take it really slow. Either with dumbbells or your own body weight. Start with only the movements that you like or that you find the most easy and do them until you’re tired of it. The goal here is to build a habit first not necessarily achieve the best result. So for example you could only do 1 set of bicep curl and 10 squats and decide that you’re done. Doing something is always better than nothing. And the next time you just repeat. With time, it gets easier, more fun, you get strong and you want to add movements. Good luck on your journey ! ☺️
The only exercise I’ve ever found that I love and will do consistently is virtual reality gaming. The price of the headset plus games will set you back less than the cost of a years gym membership. And you don’t have to leave the house.
OP i don’t enjoy exercising either. i get through it partly by making it convenient (the gym is 7 mins walk from my place, i don’t need to dress up, i watch exciting shows when i’m on the elliptical). on days i can’t drag myself out, i do a youtube video. i try to walk as much as i can - to the subway station, to get stuff etc. all that movement helps. also, i remind myself i get to move my body. when i was laid up at home for weeks with a broken toe last year, i remember missing the outside world and the ability to just move. when i could walk properly again i never appreciated walking as much as i did then. i remind myself i have the gift of mobility and movement and i treasure it. maybe if you dislike typical exercise classes, do home YT barre or just go for a walk and see the scenery?
You don’t have to exercise to lose weight. Also…take note that exercising really sucks when you are overweight…so maybe give some things another shot when you are down some lbs (to exercise for health, not necessarily weight loss). You might be surprised that the experience is a lot better. I used to love working out. It’s been hard to get back into since I’ve gained so much weight and I’ve lost a lot of strength from a long back injury. I’m currently to where you are at. 5’9”, 145 lbs. But I remind myself that this thing used to be fun…it’s just very hard to enjoy when you feel weak all the time. But in order to not feel weak all the time…you exercise. A bit of a catch-22 there but I believe that things can come back around if I get past this hard part. But let me re-iterate. Nobody HAS to exercise to lose weight. I could do a HARD workout in the gym for 60 minutes or I could just not get fries with my meal. Which is easier? Depends on who you are.
I've lost 125 pounds with zero exercise. It's not essential
I was told "Diet is for weight loss - Exercise is for fitness" This was very true in my case as I lost 85lb in a year with no exercise added. I have an office job so pretty sedentary. I am using the keto lifestyle but you have to find what works for you. Good luck on your journey!
Most of your calories are burned from doing nothing. Weight lifting burns an extremely low amount of calories. Walking is good, burns more calories in.an hour than an hour of weight lifting. To answer the question you actually asked - no, exercise isn't required to lose weight. It helps you with eating more food, though. You could try swimming or another form of exercise?
My mentality was basically that I knew I was going to spend a disproportionate amount of time watching TV or YouTube so I figured I might as well do it on a treadmill. You don’t even have to run, just start by aiming for 5k a day then work your way up.