Those who wonder if they can lose weight without exercise have
one of two reasons for asking the question. Either they have a medical
condition which stops them exercising or they just dislike exercise.
Those with a medical condition are sadly stuck with the problem and have
little choice.
Disliking exercise is another matter, because not exercising makes losing weight more difficult.
There are good reasons for this. To lose a pound a week you will need to consume 500 calories a day less than you are eating to maintain your present weight. That is about the calories in a croissant and medium latte at Starbuck's. Give up your croissant and take a 20 minute brisk walk in the morning and another in the evening and you can still have your cup of coffee while losing 1 pound a week. Do not take the walks and you will have to give up your visit to Starbucks. So you must decide if you like your morning coffee more than you dislike walking. Of course if you decide losing just 1 pound a week is not enough you will have to eat less food and do more walking or eat a lot less food if you really do not want the bother of exercise. The time may arrive when giving up food becomes just too much effort and then overweight can become obese with all the health problems which result. So losing weight without exercise can be a struggle, but it is not impossible.
You will need to change your lifestyle. Clear the fridge of sugary food, snacks, fatty meat and pies, white bread, white rice and fizzy drinks. Replace them with fresh fruit and vegetables, granary bread, brown rice, free range chicken, lean beef from grass fed animals and oily fish such as mackerel and salmon. Drink skimmed or soy milk in your coffee and eat low fat cheese in preference to cheese with higher fat content such as cheddar. There are plenty of recipes available for you to make tasty meals from these ingredients. Those suggested for the Mediterranean diet are some of the best and worth looking into.
There are a few more things you can do to lose weight without exercise. Never skip breakfast, you will only get hungry later and want a snack or a visit to the coffee shop mid morning. Drink a glass of water before meals, this fills you up and makes you eat less. Use smaller plates and, if you are able, consider eating five small meals a day rather than three bigger ones. Do not eat in front of the TV or snack in a cinema - you will eat a lot more than you expect without noticing.
A good way of finding out how well you are doing is calorie counting. This can be boring and some think it not worth the bother, but you need not keep it up for very long. Start with a little online research. Find out the number of calories someone of your age and gender needs to eat each day. It will be something like 2500 calories for a man and 2000 calories for a woman. Then, before you start your new healthy diet, find out the number of calories in everything you are eating and write it down. Do this for a few days, totalling up the calories each day. You can easily find your present average calorie intake. Then change to your new diet and record calories for the same number of days and work out the average as before. Compare your new calorie intake with your old. If it is 500 calories less you will be losing weight. If it is about the same you need to eat less. Of course you can just change your diet, check your weight each week and see what happens. But knowing how much you have been eating will be good for motivation when you find you can live happily on less.
As I said at the beginning losing weight without exercise is possible - it is just harder. If you can exercise do so, you might find you enjoy it, if not these simple suggestions will work. The secret is to take it slowly and never, ever, give up.
Disliking exercise is another matter, because not exercising makes losing weight more difficult.
There are good reasons for this. To lose a pound a week you will need to consume 500 calories a day less than you are eating to maintain your present weight. That is about the calories in a croissant and medium latte at Starbuck's. Give up your croissant and take a 20 minute brisk walk in the morning and another in the evening and you can still have your cup of coffee while losing 1 pound a week. Do not take the walks and you will have to give up your visit to Starbucks. So you must decide if you like your morning coffee more than you dislike walking. Of course if you decide losing just 1 pound a week is not enough you will have to eat less food and do more walking or eat a lot less food if you really do not want the bother of exercise. The time may arrive when giving up food becomes just too much effort and then overweight can become obese with all the health problems which result. So losing weight without exercise can be a struggle, but it is not impossible.
You will need to change your lifestyle. Clear the fridge of sugary food, snacks, fatty meat and pies, white bread, white rice and fizzy drinks. Replace them with fresh fruit and vegetables, granary bread, brown rice, free range chicken, lean beef from grass fed animals and oily fish such as mackerel and salmon. Drink skimmed or soy milk in your coffee and eat low fat cheese in preference to cheese with higher fat content such as cheddar. There are plenty of recipes available for you to make tasty meals from these ingredients. Those suggested for the Mediterranean diet are some of the best and worth looking into.
There are a few more things you can do to lose weight without exercise. Never skip breakfast, you will only get hungry later and want a snack or a visit to the coffee shop mid morning. Drink a glass of water before meals, this fills you up and makes you eat less. Use smaller plates and, if you are able, consider eating five small meals a day rather than three bigger ones. Do not eat in front of the TV or snack in a cinema - you will eat a lot more than you expect without noticing.
A good way of finding out how well you are doing is calorie counting. This can be boring and some think it not worth the bother, but you need not keep it up for very long. Start with a little online research. Find out the number of calories someone of your age and gender needs to eat each day. It will be something like 2500 calories for a man and 2000 calories for a woman. Then, before you start your new healthy diet, find out the number of calories in everything you are eating and write it down. Do this for a few days, totalling up the calories each day. You can easily find your present average calorie intake. Then change to your new diet and record calories for the same number of days and work out the average as before. Compare your new calorie intake with your old. If it is 500 calories less you will be losing weight. If it is about the same you need to eat less. Of course you can just change your diet, check your weight each week and see what happens. But knowing how much you have been eating will be good for motivation when you find you can live happily on less.
As I said at the beginning losing weight without exercise is possible - it is just harder. If you can exercise do so, you might find you enjoy it, if not these simple suggestions will work. The secret is to take it slowly and never, ever, give up.
Peter Stockwell is a writer, walker and author of the Senior
Walking Fitness Blog. For more tips on weight loss, fitness, the
Mediterranean diet and healthy living just visit http://www.seniorwalkingfitnessblog.com
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