An exercise-free lifestyle (?)

[Illuminance]

Hey all,

I've been mulling this over for awhile, and wanted to get your input on what role (if any) exercise should play in your life.

For a bit of background, I was overweight for most of my life. Two years ago, I finally snapped out of it and decided for health and vanity purposes, I needed to drop the weight. I now weigh 70 lbs lighter and have a resting heart rate of a little less than 40 bpm (I've been cycling for about 2 hours a day and trying to push myself).

But after all of this, I have realized that exercise itself is incredibly boring, and I feel like a more boring person as a result. The time I invest in biking could be put towards social activities or hobbies or my career, and when I look back at the time I spend in the gym or running myself into the ground outside, I can't help but think there is a better way.

There are plenty of people who maintain a low weight/low body fat% by diet alone, and I'm beginning to believe this is an all-around better solution. Not only does it save time, but it saves money that would go towards extra food to keep my weight stable. I feel like there is a large portion of the population (those who aren't overweight, at least) who maintain their weight by either dropping it when they gain, or being conscious of what they eat in the first place; since I have no discipline problems with dieting anymore, I think this would be straight-forward.

So, drop exercise, do less, or keep pushing myself? What's your perspective?

[Deleted]

i do enough to keep inshape, my life doesnt revolve around exercise, i dont go to the gym or anything, i dont even do much exercise. i go swimming occasionally or cycling and walk most places instead of drive / bus. i have managed to keep in shape so far i also dont diet, i eat what i want, when i want really. i really hate it when im out for a meal with people or just out and they dont have food or have a salad because something is fattening really annoys me.

[RolleMcKnolle]

I'm playing beacvolleyball/volleyball about 1-3 hours a day. I am fit, meeting people, playing with hot girls and have a good tan. So what more does one want?
I hate ppl who talk like that ^
But that is the easy solution. Just get a team sport and you will have lots of fun hanging around with those guys
And by the way I eat whatever I want and don't mind the amount at all^

[dense]

you don't have to exercise that much to stay in shape.

Getting in shape is the big problem. Once you are where you wanna be, you can keep your shape by not eating too much (and too many sweets) and exercising maybe once a week.

[Tic Tacs]

Well benefits of normal weight is you feel better. I remember when I was overweight every morning was hell. On top of that I couldn't walk a mile without burning my legs or sweating like a pig.

If you want to lose weight - run / jog and eat less than usual. I'm pretty sure 45 minutes of running / jogging is more than enough to stay fit for a day assuming that you don't overeat.

Also, if you are able to gain weight that means you can build sexy muscles. If you are interested in bodybuilding as a hobby go to your gym. Hobby going to take more than 1+ hour a day just to let you know.

P.S. btw get a dog, extra reason to go outside

[noteworthynerd]

I don't think it is as easy as you think it is, especially for someone who has been over-weight in the past... Those people who stay think regardless of exercise have likely always been thin, their body chemistry works differently.

That being said, I doubt very much that you need to bike 2 hours a day to maintain your current level of fitness, unless you are eating unhealthily... Most experts agree that you can maintain a healthy body weight by exercising much less (as long as you maintain a well balanced diet), here's an excerpt from this article on Livestrong:

Moderately active adults are on the go and expend energy throughout the day, engaging different movement-oriented activities at work or home. Although you are active, a dedicated program of exercise is important for maintaining heart and muscular health. According to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the average healthy person should include two 20-minute muscular strength training workouts per week, three 30-minute muscular endurance sessions a week and three 20-minute aerobic activities per week. Flexibility and stretching are also advised daily before or after your main workout. You can combine stretching, 20 minutes of aerobic activity and 20 minutes of weightlifting or vary your exercise combination to suit your schedule.

[Pakkpekatt]

I'm no expert, but I feel the same way about exercising, and I can tell you how I deal with it. Try to find a way to exercise that you do enjoy. If you enjoy group sports, try joining a county league of some kind. If you hate running, find a friend or someone nearby to run with. A few hours each day is a lot of exercise! I can't stand working out, I love the feeling of it after it's over, but it is just so boring to me. So I try to do 30 min every other day, change up the workout, and I try to take a rough calorie count of what I eat in a day. If I feel like working out on a day I hadn't planned to, I do. If I really don't want to on a day that I had planned it, I think about the last time I've worked out, what I ate that day, etc, and decide whether I really should. I always feel like the key is to not beat yourself up over it. That's a great way to make it miserable

You also need to decide what kind of "in shape" you want. Yes, you can maintain a low body weight with diet only, but you won't be lean. So do you want to just have a low weight number, be muscular, be slim but defined? It's up to you, and you can cater any workout/diet plan to your goal. Also consider your natural body type... if you've been overweight for most of your life is it because you've had poor eating habits and not much exercise, or are you also more genetically predisposed to be like this? My husband gets so irritated because I'm lucky enough to not need to workout to stay relatively slender. BUT I choose to because I'd much rather be muscular and lean than just a skinny girl :P. He, on the other hand, works out at least 5 days a week to keep himself in good shape, which in his mind, is bulkier/muscular. I admire his determination, but he does have to work really hard at it.

It sounds like you have a great start, and you certainly have the discipline to do whatever you aim for, it really just depends on the result you want. Congrats on your weight loss so far, and remember to strike a balance!

[Tic Tacs]

Yeah, no pain no gain. Guess what you have to do now after so many years of slacking off playing games? Excerfkingsise. There is no magic pill that going to make you healthy.

[Badir]

I dunno I'm skinny as hell but most of the time I'm too lazy to get food, somtimes I'm hungry. All I do is ride my bicycle to the trainstation for 1 hour a day.

[Illuminance]

Thank you all for the replies so far, they have been really helpful in trying to figure out what route I want to take.

Just for clarification, I am definitely not looking to lose any more weight (5'11'' 135 lbs., which is fairly good for competitive cycling), and exercise is only making me consciously eat more food so that I don't drop any more. I am also very meticulous about my diet, so I am not concerned about gaining weight back, even if I were to cut back or stop exercising. The ideas that are appealing to me the most are moderation or switching activities to something legitimately fun. I've found that an exercise buddy makes the whole process a lot less painful XD

[Mikzor]

Used to skateboard, stopped because knee's couldnt handle it anymore.
Haven't done any sports or exercise at all in past 5 years.
Never had any problems with my weight or anything.
Just eat naturally, not like "hmm i'm abit hungry think ill order 3 pizzas"

Its not rocket science, just need need to think DO YOU REALLY need to eat like a hippo or are you happy with "lesser" meals

[Deleted]

There are plenty of people who maintain a low weight/low body fat% by diet alone, and I'm beginning to believe this is an all-around better solution. Not only does it save time, but it saves money that would go towards extra food to keep my weight stable. I feel like there is a large portion of the population (those who aren't overweight, at least) who maintain their weight by either dropping it when they gain, or being conscious of what they eat in the first place; since I have no discipline problems with dieting anymore, I think this would be straight-forward.

So, drop exercise, do less, or keep pushing myself? What's your perspective?

You don't exercise to fit into your jeans, you exercise to keep your body working in the conditions it's supposed to.
An exercise free lifestyle is going to be an unhealthy one, despite how you look in the mirror.
The body is not and will never be normal in the absence of physical exercise.

However it's your life and completely up to you what you do with and how you treat your body, which is great.

[Illuminance]

You don't exercise to fit into your jeans, you exercise to keep your body working in the conditions it's supposed to.
An exercise free lifestyle is going to be an unhealthy one, despite how you look in the mirror.
The body is not and will never be normal in the absence of physical exercise.

However it's your life and completely up to you what you do with and how you treat your body, which is great.

I agree that our bodies evolved to rely on feast and famine conditions and plenty of exercise, so your point makes intuitive sense; however, I think that clinical studies have only shown correlations primarily between weight (and a few other markers) and health, due to the difficulty in setting up controlled, life-long studies of exercise practices and diet.

[Tristan Khan]

But after all of this, I have realized that exercise itself is incredibly boring, and I feel like a more boring person as a result. The time I invest in biking could be put towards social activities or hobbies or my career, and when I look back at the time I spend in the gym or running myself into the ground outside, I can't help but think there is a better way.

This could be the mentality that got you overweight in the first place. You have to ask yourself if you really wanna go back to that. That being said, you might have overdone it a little bit. A good workout on monday, and a nice bikeride on thursday could be all you need to stay in the shape you want. Maybe throw in half an hour of swimming once in a while.

You body is build for this kind of thing, it's just your mind that's having a hard time keeping up sometimes. Given your history of being overweight, you will probably need some muschles to keep burning fat on a diet, so don't fall into the trap of doing nothing all week.

[Callypso]

If I understand the OP correctly, he's asking how to find a balance between keeping in shape/fit/good weight and the other aspects of his like like a social life.


In my experience the best way to avoid feeling like you're 'wasting' time is combining your excercise with as many other things as you can. For example, I tend to watch some of my favourite tv shows when i'm on a tred mill (I heavily prefer this to outside running because I can combine this with other things.. and considering I live in Holland, it helps since it seems to rain 90% of the time when I consider going outside anyway).

In case of social things it's even more easy. Try taking your partner for dance lessons for example, or play some basketball with your friends, go running/biking with a buddy.... etc.

[Pakkpekatt]

I agree that our bodies evolved to rely on feast and famine conditions and plenty of exercise, so your point makes intuitive sense; however, I think that clinical studies have only shown correlations primarily between weight (and a few other markers) and health, due to the difficulty in setting up controlled, life-long studies of exercise practices and diet.

True, but many if not most of the things that result in an individual being considered "healthy" can be sought through exercise. The problem with exercise studies, really just in humans, is that there are too many variables. It's pretty unanimous that exercise has a direct positive impact on your physical health (not to mention mental health). If you want to get technical, most physiologists would agree that the act of exercising itself is actually pretty bad for your body. But the end benefits/results are undeniably positive. An ideal-weight person who does light to moderate exercise will be in better health than an ideal-weight person who does no exercise.

[JustintimeSS]

Personally I think you should keep fitness in your lifestyle.

When exercising becomes a drag and is boring you lose the motivation to do it. There are ways around this though. You have to keep exercise and fitness enticing to keep yourself wanting to do it, then the thought of not doing it anymore will go away.

Some of the things you can try vary in price and time. Here is a list of things off the top of my head:

Spin classes, yoga, outdoor biking, trail biking, trail running, enter a 5K, play sports that are easy to jump in a pick up game (basketball/racquetball), mix up your workouts, do High Interval Training, play fruit ninja on kinect (lol srs), or even get involved in a community online who works out.

Also, there is one website that keeps me straight motivated. www.Bodyrock.tv is hands down amazing. Zuzana is just a super hero when it comes to pushing your to you limit. And the site is updated constantly with new workouts to keep things fresh (not to mention she's pretty easy on the eyes). Any day I don't feel like working out or want to mix up weight training and cardio I immediately go to her site and just absorb a few of her workouts. Trust me, if you push yourself and do them right, it'll put a fire back into your ass (and your abs) and you'll be finding yourself enjoying fitness all over again.

[Deleted]

Get half an hour a day worth of moving by going to work by foot/bicycle and your already there for the most part if you don't overkill on unhealthy food. I managed just fine for most years by doing just that, didn't start gaining weight untill I started lunching daily (I used to just skip lunch) on the job. Ever since I just fitness 2/3 times a week, which can be social enough if you do it at a gym.

[Deleted]

Zuzana is just a super hero when it comes to pushing your to you limit. And the site is updated constantly with new workouts to keep things fresh (not to mention she's pretty easy on the eyes).

She used to do porn so I'd imagine that pushing people to their limit and looking good would have pretty important.
She looks better with a bit of muscle (In my humble opinion).

[JustaBigBird]

My hobby keeps me in shape so it's all good