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!

the only problem I see with using too much exercise to lose weight and so you can eat more, is if for some reason you stop the exercising, like an injury or because you were only exercising until you reach goal, is then you will be used to eating those extra calories and it can be hard to stop doing that.

If you know you are the type to always exercise then you'll probably be fine, but for me, not relying on excessive exercise is best.

A three mile walk 3 to 4 times a week is all I can manage on an irrregular basis. I know it's good for me, but doesn't always get fitted in, so I prefer to concentrate on the calories and food and let exercise when I do it, be a bonus.

Wow,

Who knew there were such varied opinions on exercise and eating. But in some way, I think most people are saying the same thing. Eat X-amount, exercise X+Y amount = weight loss. As long as you are not trying to build muscle. So the key is to move, move, move and watch what you eat. Thanks everyone for your opinion. Somehow what my nut says doesn't seem so ridiculous anymore.

A three mile walk 3 to 4 times a week is all I can manage on an irrregular basis.

It seems like you are saying that 3 miles 3-4 times a week is somehow insignificant. It's not. 3 miles probably takes you most of an hour, and your doing it 3 times a week, so this is good exercise. it's a lot more than many people do!

hey shortgal - i agree with your statement; after some reflection we (DH & myself) had to admit that exercise is something that HAS to be part of our life. while we were dating we were so active: hiking/skiing/mountain bike/or the gym.... because we LOVE food so much. the minute that stopped - we got fluffy.

when we got banded we made a "pact" to be active as much as possible & since i have a form of RA, i tend to be in pain when not moving.

I have the bulging muscles that we girls don't want. My mother walked past me as I was blow-drying my hair (getting ready for a date as a teen), and told me that I had bigger shoulders than my linebacker boyfriend. Hurtful.

I exercise to maintain the extra muscle mass that I developed to carry around my excess weight. Without exercise, some of my weight loss would also be muscle loss, and since muscle burns calories I want that to be the last thing to go.

I do lots of cardio vs. traditional strength-building. When I was younger, muscle fatigue was the limiting factor for exercise. Now that I'm older, it's my cardiac endurance that's lacking. I just can't run long enough/fast enough to make my muscles sore--at least not without passing out from lack of oxygen.

Exercise not only helps me, but boosts up my morale. I circuit train at curves. The cool thing is while I'm building lean muscle I'm burning off more fat and tightening up. Sure the scale isn't always kind, but the inches!!! OMG! I've gone from a size 26 to a 14 in the last year. I would say those are fantastic results :biggrin:

It seems like you are saying that 3 miles 3-4 times a week is somehow insignificant. It's not. 3 miles probably takes you most of an hour, and your doing it 3 times a week, so this is good exercise. it's a lot more than many people do!

thanks!

It does take me just under an hour to walk the three miles and it feels good, but winter time gets hard to fit it in consistently, that's why i don;t like to count on exercise for weight control, I'd rather do that by food intake, but when I do exercise I feel good and it's bonus calories burned!

Just moving in general is good for us, gardening, house cleaning, grocery shopping it's all some activity.