Calorie deficit - with excercise or diet?

thugnificence

New Member
I can average about 1500 calories a day quite easily:

coffee + biscuit in the morning.
sandwiches for lunch 2x 450cal + coke.
and 1 in the evening.

Possibly bits of fruits spread during the day and nuts (cashews, peanuts, walnuts).

However with exercise of 300/400 calories this could potentially lead me to the less than 1200 rule! Now my question is would it be possible to loose weight with no exercise, as I still have a calorie deficit?

Obviously exercise would be better but I'm at work during the day till 6ish and can't go 5 days a week. So even the days that I don't go I'd like to have a calorie deficit.
 
what are you basing 1500 calories on?


let me get this right, you eat 2 sandwiches and a biscuit, with some nuts.. and coke?!

Definitely not nutritionally sound there... you need a whole lot more protein if yer going to the gym on a regular basis... your body NEEDS protein to heal and repair... without it you are prone to some bad injuries.

because this diet is quite low cal you might want to lay off so many carbs (4 pieces of bread in a day is lot of carbs, for the very few calories you are taking)

If you are eating good food (lots of fruit, vegs proper meals etc), and not TOO far away from your BMR, 1100-1200 will probably not do you serious harm, as long as you don't intend to do it long term.

I'm on weightwatchers and the quota i'm given is pretty much equatable to my BMR (which is about 2k) and I have to eat it ALL to lose reasonable amounts of weight (thats with a lot of exercising, I exercise, but I don't include it in my allowance). If your bmr is near enough 1500 then fair enough, if not you need to up it
 
Right... you do need to think about food as nourishment more, your body needs nutrients and I can only hope that those sandwiches are piled up with salad, healthy fillings and other goodies... at least try to have a proper meal in the evening or a decent breakfast.

But in answer to your question- yes you can lose weight by eating less calories without exercise, but it is easier and healthier to do both because exercise benefits you in other ways and a varied diet is better than one with as few calories as humanly possible. If you aim to create a calorie deficit of 3500 per week (enough to lose one pound approx) you would need to eat 500 calories less than your body requires each day, but if you also exercise then you can put a really good dent in it- for example an hour-long hike is about 400 calories, normal walking is 250 cals per hour, dancing is again about 400-450 calories an hour... so you could for example knock out half your deficit with exercise and free up enough calories for a bowl of breakfast cereal or light sandwich- or 4-5 pieces of fruit every day. When you think of it that way it could be the difference between succeeding or failing, and don't forget that your metabolism benefits from exercise as well.
 
You can lose by sticking to 1400 but I'd say get some exercise in there! There's loads you can do without the gym! I had to lose a lot before I even considered the gym lol DVDS, wii fit, get a second hand cross trainer, cycle to work, long walks at the weekends, your local pool is probably open till 9, there's plenty of choices but you will find the benefits outweigh the hassle of starting! Loads more energy, you'll lose more weight and the wobbly bits will start tightening up!
 
my athletic body fitness diet expert friends tell me that only cutting calories is a bad thing to do for weight loss, as after a couple of weeks your body feels like theres no food available and it slows everything down to save energy.

not my words, but sounds reasonable i guess.
 
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