Saturday, June 13, 2009

why diet and not just working out

I am assuming that most of you have someone in your life that says 
"I don't diet I would rather just work out".
We have all encountered these people especially when we talk about diet.   
Hopefully most of you have realized how easy following Weight Watchers is compared to all the other crazy diets there are out there.
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I just wanted to give you this perspective of working out vs dieting.
To loose one pound you need to burn or cut out 3,500 calories.
I was shocked the first time I heard that fact.  That would mean to loose a pound a week I would have to work out 7 days a week and burn a minimum of 500 calories every time. Having a heart rate monitor and accurately seeing how many calories I burn in a workout I know that the average person isn't getting in a 500 calorie workout every single day.  I would guess the average would only be around 200 calories.  I went three miles today on the treadmill (almost an hour) and only burned 424 calories.  Who has almost 90 minutes everyday to put towards working out?
Remember that you have to burn 3,500 calories if you have only eaten EXACTLY what your body burns a day.  Remember life before ww and realizing wow I ate two or three times what my body needed a day? Adding on all of those extra calories will only add to weight gain unless you are burning them off or not eating them to begin with. 
If you have been following weight watchers long enough you know that it really isn't that hard to loose a pound a week! Now knowing all of this would you rather be mindful of what you eat or only work out to loose weight?

6 comments:

  1. I have thought about joining Weight Watchers and from reading your blog I have made up my mind to do it! I need to change my lifestyle of eating and lose weight and quit making excuses why I can't! Thanks for the encouragement! Even if I don't always comment, I read your blog posts all the time and they are so helpful! THANK YOU!! :D

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  2. I am in my 13th week of Weight Watchers and I have lost over 20lbs so far. And yes any day of the week, I would rather watch what I eat then have to go to the gym for a couple hours EVERY DAY! It was amazing to realize how much I was really overeating, it was actually GROSS when I think about it.

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  3. It drives me crazy when people say that. Or think that because they worked out they can eat whatever they want. My husband does that a little bit and my body just does not work that way.

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  4. I think working out is great to reshape the body and help tone areas that get a little ... um ... flabby with the weight loss. It also helps push the body harder to drop the weight and convert the fat to muscle. I agree though that diet plays a bit part in this. I have a friend that's just "working out" (i.e. walking at lunch) to lose weight and it's not working for her. She's frusterated but not ready to make the diet change yet. I'm sure she will at some point ... she'll have to if she wants to be successful. Anyway, thanks for posting this. I think it's important to remember!

    ~Wendy

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  5. I used to only workout and not diet too strict! But I realized that wasn't working and actually was gaining. You should diet first then add workouts in!! Dieting is what gets you where you want to be!

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  6. Agreed!! It's all about what you put in your body--not just how hard you work out!

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