I just had an interesting conversation with a nutritionist in the Bariatric department where I'm getting my lap-band. She told me that exercising doesn't make you lose weight.....It only tones the body and helps with health issues. Has anyone else heard of this? I still think that can't be right!

You lose weight by burning more calories that you take in. If you are exercising then you are burning more calories than you would normally in day to day activities. You can lose weight without exercising, but you do it quicker and end up more toned if you do exercise.

Well, if you look at a chart on how many calories you burn doing a particular exercise, you can see that isn't such an unbelievable thing. I am sure you will probably hear from the exercise gurus to the contrary, but I happen to think your nutritionist is right. You will hear a lot about metabolism rates, but I'm not sure about the scientific accuracy of those claims.

I do exercise by riding my bike, but it is less than an hour a day. It makes me feel better, but I question whether it is what has aided my weight loss. I know it is not directly related to times when I lose or periods when I don't lose.

Weight loss is dependent upon burning more calories than you take in. If you are a four hour a day fitness fanatic, then yes, that is going to help you lose weight, because it will increase the amount you burn. Plus, that's four hours you probably aren't eating! However, if you exercise and then go eat high calorie foods, chances are the exercise benefit will be cancelled out by the food intake.

Exercise makes you feel better and look better. It tones the body and can give you an incredible feeling of well-being. Those are my reasons for doing it.

Thanks guys. I guess I was looking for a reason NOT to exercise- but I know better. Snow, I really wish I could get to a point where I feel like it makes me feel and look better. Right now, it just tires me out....

Start out slow, and don't push yourself too hard at first, but just increase very gradually. If you do it so much right off you will hate it and not want to continue. I started riding my bike last summer, just a mile at a time, and I'm up to 10 miles a day now. I have bad knees so I stop when my knees start aching, but I'm not tired at all now, unlike when I started a few months ago.

WOW, I can't believe a nutritionist said that!! The more you move your body the more you burn calories. The more muscle you build the more calories your body burns at rest. I know its hard to get into an exercise routine, I still have days where I don't want to but you feel so much better after you do it. I probably would only lose 1/2 -1 lbs a week if I wasn't working out which is totally unexceptable to me, I had this surgery cause I'm hellbent on lossing the weight. Working out I lose 3 lbs most weeks. And the BodyBugg helps a ton. Good luck

so, i can personally dispute that nutritionist's claims with several personal stories. their were 3 times in my life which i lost a significant amount of weight, and not one of them included me changing my eating habits. 1) summer of 2001 i worked as a camp counselor at a girl scout camp. i walked alot taking the girls to and from activities, and i swam at the lake or pool everyday, but i didn't do anything strenuous. i didn't change my eating habits. i lost 50 lbs in 6 weeks. of course, once camp was over, i gained it right back because my exercise level went back down. 2) the next summer, i was back at camp. lost 30 lbs in 6 weeks. same scenario. 3) the next summer, i went on a 18 day kayaking trip in alaska. now, my eating changed on this trip, but calories probably increased (high cal food for energy). i lost 30 lbs in 18 days.

so, anyone who says that exercise won't make you lose weight is nuts. obviously, if your exercise level isn't way up like mine was these summers, then you might need to decrease your calories too if you want to lose alot. but exercising alone will do it.

Last night Wed on PBS they had a program on average sedentary people who trained for the Boston marathon. The nutririonist on the show said the exact same thing. That diet is what causes weight loss. So...the diet causes the weight loss, but the exercise keeps it off so that you have a net loss at the end of a week. They did body scans of the thin people who still had an excessive fat to muscle ratio. Since they were training for a marathon the focus of the show was running and exercise but the diet issue did come up. Go to PBS website and search for the program you can watch it online. I am not stating an opinion just relaying what I saw on PBS.

My BodyBugg Coach and My Dr. said the same thing for me NOT to "work out" such as strength training - that it builds muscle and people who are overweight have an abundance of muscle. HOWEVER, they both said that I need to get my heart rate up 20 minutes a day. Treadmill, bicycling, mowing the lawn, that kind of stuff. But not to focus on "muscles" until I get close to goal.

When my BB Coach said it, I thought she was smokin' crack - then my Dr. said it almost word for word.

I have to admit - to me "working out" is walking for 15 minutes - I guess I am an underachiever!

I disagree...I think it is a combination of both. If I only diet..I don't see results. If I exercise with my heart in a fat-burning rate of about 150bpm, then I start to lose weight. I don't know if its beacuse my metabolism is slower or what...all I can say is from my experience, I lose weight by a combination of diet and exercise.

I disagree...I think it is a combination of both. If I only diet..I don't see results. If I exercise with my heart in a fat-burning rate of about 150bpm, then I start to lose weight. I don't know if its beacuse my metabolism is slower or what...all I can say is from my experience, I lose weight by a combination of diet and exercise.

I'm going to agree w/TulipStar. I had a very difficult time in getting restriction, and I wholeheartedly believe exercise kept me "busy/active" to take my mind off of food while changing the way my body looks. When the scale wasn't moving - inches were falling off / clothing sizes dropped.

I didn't start serious weight training till about 3 months ago, and to be honest that's when I started to drop the most weight & inches.

I never had Nut appt during my process but my Dr told me to get active as soon as possible (walking immediately) & get a fitness program including weights after 10wks.

As of today, I'm probably eating more than I have since getting the Lap Band, because I need the calories to handle the workouts my trainer puts me through - it scared me at first to start adding carbs back into my diet; however the good ones are what I need at the moment.

I personally see great benefits to exercise. It definitely can't hurt!!

I've gone from a 16 to an 8 in 6 months, and thankfully no plastic surgery is going to be needed...well maybe the eyes when I hit the 4-0:smile:

Maybe I wrote my response wrong - they both say I HAVE to have 20-30 minutes of exercise a day - to get my heart rate up and burn calories, but that they don't want that exercise to be geared towards BUILDING muscle. So I am supposed to choose walking, jogging, bicycling, eleptical, etc. rather than weights or strength training. Does that make sense?

Maybe I wrote my response wrong - they both say I HAVE to have 20-30 minutes of exercise a day - to get my heart rate up and burn calories, but that they don't want that exercise to be geared towards BUILDING muscle. So I am supposed to choose walking, jogging, bicycling, eleptical, etc. rather than weights or strength training. Does that make sense?

Does to me. Just different opinions on what to do; sorta like the pre/post op diet - everyones Dr is not the same, again I also did not have a Nut consultation. My personal experience is that in adding weight training; did enhance my weight loss & appearance.

there are 2 ways to lift weights. you can lift a lot of weight on each rep, and do less reps, or you can lift less weight and do a lot of reps. if you lift a lot of weight, you are going to bulk up, like a weight lifter. if you are overweight, you probably don't want to do this, unless you like that look. however, if you lift less weight, but do a lot of reps (say 3 sets of 20), you won't bulk up, you will tone. lifting weights this way will give you long, lean muscles, not big ones. this is the type of weight lifting that we should probably be doing. but whichever you choose, lifting weights is important. you will tone your muscles that you have, and build up weak ones (like your core muscles). and the more/stronger muscles that you have, the higher your metabolism will be (muscles burn calories even when they are at rest). can you lose weight without exercising or lifting weights? sure. will you have the hot bod that you envision without them? nope. even skinny people can be flabby.

If your body needs 2000 calories for daily activities, and you're eating 3000, and exercising off 200, you're not going to lose weight.

If your body needs 2000, and you're eating 2000, and exercising off 1000, you're much more likely to see pounds coming off.

It's all about manipulating your metabolism to burn more calories than you're consuming.

Everyone I know who runs tells me, "I run because I can eat whatever I want." Exact same principle.

I wasn't exercising or walking like I should in the past but in the last three weeks I've started walking, lifting weights and doing a little Tae Bo. I was at a stand still with my weight loss nothing for months and now in the last 3 weeks I have dropped 7 pounds. I have to admit that I feel better, I eat less and I have more energy. I have made a decision to commit to walking at least a mile 5 days a week but I've been doing it 6 days because it makes me feel so good and I've actually been walking more than a mile.

I find that walking around subdivisions verses a regular track helps me to walk longer and actually enjoy it because of the scenary. I find the school and hospital tracks to be a little boring and they have a tendency to make me lose interest. I find myself doing a short jog from time to time while walking.