[Fricken]

I had read somewhere that after about 45 minutes of cardio your body will start using it's fat stores, and continue burning fat for 6 to 8 hours afterwards. So when I found myself overweight I started doing long trail runs or bike rides, about 2 hours long, 3 times a week. Insomuch as I looked forward to doing the exercise, losing 3-5 pounds a week was nearly effortless. My appetite actually goes down during these periods because I'm burning my fat stores and my body isn't demanding that I replace those calories, and it's doing it for hours after I've stopped.

I've had people tell me that getting exercise is not a good way to lose weight, but my experience tells me that if you're doing the right kind of exercise, then, yes it a good way. Maybe there's just no reasonable expectation that most people will do enough cardio at a high enough level to activate fat burning.

[thesnowdog]

I've always been told the same thing but my experience pretty much matches yours.

I can eat what I want as long as I keep up my daily 7km walk which takes me about an hour or so. I've always found walking easy but I've never been able to run more than 500m probably due to being a somewhat sickly kid with annual bronchitis and a limited lung capacity.

The handful of times I've stopped walking for various reasons over the last twenty years I've quickly got up to about 120kg (I'm 6'7") but as soon as I start walking again the excess 20kg falls off pretty quickly in a month or two and maintaining 100kg is simple.

I've never had any luck modifying my diet.

[skocznymroczny]

What was your starting weight? Losing 3-5 pounds a week sounds like a lot, unless you were starting from a high weight to begin with. Also, most people trying to lose weight aren't fit enough to run/ride for 10 minutes long, let alone 2 hours.

[Fricken]

The first time I had 20 pounds to lose, from 195 down to 175. Last fall I lost 15 pounds using the same method. I've been active enough through most of my adult life that I can snap myself back into good fitness pretty fast presuming I haven't been on my ass for more than a few months, and it wasn't until my mid-30s or so that I would start to gain weight during sedentary phases if I wasn't being careful. Throughout my 20s my weight didn't change much at all. So my weight issues have been minor, and I dealt with them handily before they had a chance to become not-minor.

[krzat]

Exercise is good, but you need to have your diet it check first. Otherwise you will explode as soon as something prevents you from training. It's also easier to not eat 1000 kcal that to burn 1000 kcal.