How fast can I lose weight by drastically cutting my calories with no exercise?
I’m not terribly active but I am in college full-time and work 3 jobs (gone from 6am-11pm), so I’m not kidding when I say I have zero time to work out. But I have begun to eat healthier, resulting in a drastic calorie decrease. Can I still lose weight with just calorie cutting?
November 12th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
You can still lose weight by cutting down on your calorie intake, but you won’t lose as much than if you were exercising as well.
November 12th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Yes, technically the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day. Exercise is just a calorie-burning booster. With all of that activity that you’re doing, however, I would recommend not dieting at all. Your brain doesn’t function very well with such calorie deprivation. Perhaps you should wait until you aren’t so busy. But, I’m sure you’ve considered that, so I won’t say anymore about it. I cut my caloric intake drastically and didn’t exercise much during the course of a year and lost around 80 lbs.
November 12th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Yes you can, as long as you don’t go below 900 calories. The ideal calorie consumption while on a diet is 1200 calories. Going below this allows short-term weight loss, but in the long-run, you’ll gain the weight back, if not gain more. Of course, since you aren’t exercising, it will take longer to lose weight than if you did exercise. However, I think that since you work full-time, your body burns calories for energy to function for so many hours in a day, so the weight-loss won’t be too terribly slow.
November 12th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Hi! Yes it is possible. However, don’t drastically cut your calories. Make sure you’re getting 1200 a day! I just recently lost 14 pounds by changing my diet. I don’t exercise because I’m lazy hahah. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every night , with snacks in between each meal consisting of either a piece of fruit, or some chopped veggies. Eat oatmeal or HEALTHY cereal with skim milk for breakfast, either salads, sanwiches made on whole grain bread, or whole wheat pitas loaded with veggies and deli turkey meat for lunch, and leannprotein (chicken breast, fish, ground or whole turkey breast) with lots of veggies for supper. Drink 2 liters of water a day, and don’t eat after supper!
It worked for me, and I’m a busy university student too! Good luck 🙂
November 12th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
It’s all about Body fat percentage and types of foods that get rid of fat. In order to cut fat by diet ONLY, you need to incorporate an EATING plan into your lifestyle. Eat low glycemic foods you make or buy yourself, you won’t believe the money you save. I used the type of eating plans from “lean for Life” by Clarence Bass Jr. , an attorney and body builder of note. He is ripped into his late 60s. You will be surprised how much weight can be lost by eating the types of foods in his book and the book “Glucose Revolution.” An example of a meal I used to lose 67lbs in a fairly quick time line. – 1 1/2 cups of whole grain Oatmeal, *not instant!, microwaved with any berries or jam. 2 slices of Toast *non gluten bread..with Cinnamon no butter, Orange juice. 3 hours later, protein drink or power bar. 3 hours later.. Small can of Tuna, veggies and microwaved YAM or sweet potato, 3 hours later – protein drink or power bar. 3 hours later…dinner Lean meat like fish, tuna or turkey with any whole grain rice or grains and veggies. Late night snack – Protein drink or microwaved egg beaters, YUM! The types of foods should always be whole grain, low fat, lean proteins and fruits. You could do body weight exercises in front of the TV for an hour or only half hour every other night and make progress. Doing anything is always better than doing nothing. Good luck and have fun.
November 12th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Cutting calories too drastically is actually very detrimental to your health. If you cut out food, you can feel dizzy, tired, have trouble concentrating, experience stomach pains, and when you do finally eat, you’ll be tempted to eat a large quantity because you’ve been skimping on eating all day. Not eating or eating very little all day actually reduces your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode where your brain tells you to eat a lot because it doesn’t know when you’ll get your next meal. Think of wild animals and how they eat. The best thing you can do is have about 5 small meals a day. I personally eat about 25 red raw cherries every morning for breakfast, about 10 almonds for a snack, lunch, another fruit, and dinner (obviously switching it up a lot). Eating these small, healthy snacks throughout the day keeps your metabolism at a good level. Never eat less than 1200 calories per day.
You really should try to exercise a little. Even walking for just 30 minutes burns about 100 calories. Good luck and remember to be healthy!! 🙂
November 12th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Keep a running inventory of healthy staples. Always store them in the same area so you will know what to replenish on your next trip to the grocery store.