Exercise Without Changing Your Diet

Exercise Without Changing Your Diet

So maybe you or somebody you know is wanting to make some changes in their life, they might be starting to feel the impact of aging, where they just don’t have the energy they once had. Or they are watching their midsection slowly grow larger and would just like to look a little bit better.

But they lament, “I know should workout more, but I just can’t get my diet on track.” Because diet and exercise work so well together is there any real advantage to starting an exercise program without improving our eating?

When we decide to start living the fitness lifestyle all the changes that we might feel need to be done, can be overwhelming. This is one of the places exercise can help.

Not only is it a first step and fitness is about taking a lot of little steps toward our goals. But exercise is also a mood enhancer. Relieving feeling of anxiety, by in part releasing feel good hormones and endorphins. I will leave a link at the end of the description to an article talking about all the ways exercise helps to relieve anxiety. One of the things mentioned in this article and I have often said about my self is that when I exercise I forget about all of the troubles in the world and just focus on the task at hand. It is my happy place. This article from frontiers in psychiatry states this response to exercise is similar to meditation.

Now exercise alone can do a lot more than just improve our mood. It helps us to sleep better. By helping us to feel better rested along with enhancing our mood, it becomes much easier to make the other lifestyle adjustments that we may need.

Our fitness age is often connected to our VO2 max. The better our VO2 max is the younger we are biologically and the better our odds for a longer more active life. Now I read a study and what I liked about this study is it is based on how much the participants walked in a week. Typically when you think of VO2 max you think of intense exercise, but that was not the case in this study. They broke the study into 3 groups those who didn’t walk for exercise, those who who walked under 200 minutes a week and those who walked over 200 minutes which is a little less than 30 minutes a day. The average age of the participants was just over 40.
Those who walked over 200 minutes a week had a substantially better VO2 max that the other 2 groups indicating that less intense more moderate exercise will still bring about positive results.

One of the ways regular exercise helps us live longer is by reducing our risk of developing a chronic illness. Lowering our risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancers like colon cancer.

Exercise even without any change in diet can improve our insulin sensitivity. Even one exercise session will improve insulin sensitivity although only temporarily. A consistent exercise program is needed in order to provide permanent results.

It is well know that we can improve our insulin sensitivity by improving our diet eating more whole foods and reducing our carb intake especially simple carbs and sugars. In combination with regular exercise gives a double whammy effect.

When it comes to weight loss in general the way exercise benefits us is not only in the calories burned while doing exercise, but it also increases our resting metabolic rate or calorie burn at rest. Where if your doing any sort of diet with calorie restriction it does just the opposite slowing down our metabolism. You can lose weight through exercise alone. But For most people it is hard to find enough time to do the amount of exercise required to achieve the desired rate of weight loss. Once again illustrating how well diet and exercise work together.

If you find exercising regularly is easier than making changes in your eating habits never feel like you are wasting your time. Just keep working out while having fun.

[Jigglejagglewagglegigglewiggle]

I'm not changing my diet. But excercise almost everyday sometimes with 1 day rest. I do see results. I am more toned anyway and it's not hard to achieve. But I am also not really wanting to lose some weight. I just want to be sure to move everyday because I feel good about it. I don't push myself or set any goals. Because goals are making me more demotivated

[danishawn]

Thanks for not bashing my dreams. I'm not ready to eat as well as I know I can but I do enjoy exercise. I need to lose weight but I'm doing it at my pace this time.

[zacharikurbah]

When I started workout, I keep doing it everyday, I never go on diets, I just eat whatever I eat, my body started becoming slim and slowly I can see the results after working out everyday without changing my diet

[kingkaf]

Agreed! Exercise is definitely a good first step and will always have it's benefits even if diet didn't change. But of course best results will come from also tuning into a proper diet.

[melissamarie]

Thanks for the video! I’ve been lifting weights 2-3x a week for about 6 weeks now and was disappointed when I stepped on the scale and my weight was the same. I haven’t been dieting, so I’m sure that’s the reason why. But i already feel myself getting stronger and my mental health is improving as well. I’ll get there eventually with the diet but I’m just having fun exercising for now 😊

[zerotwosixty]

I have no healthy diet but I don’t eat bad either. I skip breakfast I eat what my mom cooked for lunch which is usually carbs or starchy carbs for lunch then I go to the gym and run 4 miles then start training (boxing) and during workout after 2 hours probably I start feeling hungry again. Then I go home and eat what my mom cooked.

[GreyWolfFitness]

I always so to people that want to get fitter is to start working out first and then diet will be a slow progression into a healthier way of eating MINT

[chessdude]

Excellent video/advice my friend. My cardiologist says he does this with all his patients. He tries to get them to move for 30 minutes a day. Trying to get them to change their diet is pretty much impossible with a lot of them. He does talk to them on their first visit about their diet, but on follow up visits he only tries to keep them moving for 30 minutes a day. 👍👍

[petertremblay]

Since i hate doing inside cardio on a bike or any other stationary device i just finish my workout with 15 min of it and replace the remaining cardio training by a 45 min walk and it is working perfectly for me. Just by walking 30 min 5 days a week you lose 1.2 pound monthly.

[ikramlalune]

i just couldnt stop thinking abt the picture

[MetalHeadPyro]

I started out last Aug. Going to the gym and only notice shoulders arms and chest growing. I haven't changed my diet yet. I'm just waiting to reach my goal. Once my arms and chest reach desired size I will get back to cardio while dieting. 8 months will show results and you will feel a size difference in your shirts. Your shirts will start to feel a little shrunk. It's happening so slow but that's the way it goes. I started out doing cardio with weight lifting and I think that killed a lot of my gains. So I stopped cardio and feel like I'm gaining faster plus I take creatine everyday before workout and rest days. I used to go the gym 5 to 6 days a week. I only go twice a week now and feel like the extra healing time is giving me better results plus I have a lot more energy. Before, I was too tired. I eat what ever I want as many times a day I want. I stay up late and wake up late and work for myself.

[unclerawn]

Please straighten the flash picture behind you. i have mild ocd and it's driving me to distraction, (sorry)

[andres-rodriguez]

It is so strange that when I continually exercise, I don't crave sugar

[Agent]

I wouldn’t say that I changed my diet, but I definitely eliminated lots snacks that I used to eat all the time, helps a lot

[DYMY]

I started these past few day and lowered my carbs. I also eat nuts and beans. Good thing I've been trained by eating simple foods since i was a kid :)

[jesuspg]

I dropped sodas and shit, eat only from 11 AM to 3 pm, never eat at night and i have Lost 32 kilograms Since november last year.

Just follow your circadian rythm, fast for 16 to 20 hours everyday and don't abuse carbs and you will improve your life.

[gracelikerain]

Umm this is true cuz I have bad anxiety and depression but when I started going to the gym I stopped getting as depressed as I did before I still feel it obviously but not everyday like before

[OBnice]

i walk most days without dieting im happy this way

[ScottLally-vi]

you don't need to stop eating the things you like. You just need better food habits

[kellyk.]

Nice, I've put on quite a bit of weight after having children. But i always fail diets due to the restrictions. I was wondering if there was any point of exercising whilst still enjoying food. I went on the treadmill today first time in forever and i did a little over 2 mile. Just power walking. But afterwards i was so hungry so i made a chicken burito and ate that with a cup of coffee. I think when i know im going to keep continuing exercise is when i will try to diet again. Im just a sucker for carbs.