I hate Exercise !

I mean it.  I really hate it.  I have had few times in my life where I did it for a while but it never lasted.   Is exercise essential?  I'm watching my calories, logging my food, eating heathier and I am loosing weight.  Slowly.  

I understand that it would happen faster if I exercised but will I still loose the weight by doing everything EXCEPT get on that human habit trail they call a treadmill?  I dont like the gym and its winter.. its cold. .. I work long hours .. etc etc... every excuse in the book !! The bottom line is, I dont want to do it.

Has anyone had success here without exercise?

I had success for a year without exercising. But i needed to lose 80 pounds when I began. I just eat less but within the 1200 calories range and I lost 50 pounds. But I stopped losing and now I need to increase my intake a bit and exercise to shake my metabolism.

I think it all depend on how many pounds you need to lose.

I haven't tried losing without adding exercise - sorry!  I used to sit around and never did any form of exercise.  When I started to eat right and lose weight I also just started out walking 15 minutes a day.  Before long I was doing 30 - 45 minutes 2 times a day.  I think the reason I became addicted to the exercise is because it helped me with losing inches. 

In the last year my weight has stayed between 160 and 170 but I have lost 2 pant sizes because I do exercise.  Just this week someone commented that they can't believe I weigh 170 they said 145 max is what they thought I weighed.  I contribute the "look thinner than your weight" all to my working out.

I don't care for the treadmill either.  I say just go outside and walk around the block - park in the last row at the mall/ grocery store etc and walk.  Use the restroom in your home furthest from the room you are in.  Take the stairs instead of elevators.  Just little things like this can help in your weight loss journey.

I know how you feel.  I'm the same way.  It's been a struggle.

I think if you've got A LOT of weight to lose and will be losing for 1-3 years you will probably need exercise simply to get out of the plateaus.

So far I've lost almost 30 pounds without doing much extra exercise, but I am sure I will need to in the near future to keep it going.

I'm at a pretty heavy weight, so walking briskly is pretty much all I can manage.  I try to move around a little more.

I suggest finding something you can live with and sticking with it.  Weight loss without exercise can happen for awhile but for improved health and longevity you need to be in good physical condition which means exercise or being active.

Exercise doesn't have to be a treadmill, garden in the spring, take dance classes, do something that you would find fun.  Go hiking, ride a bike, swim... Don't make excuses or you'll regret it later on.  I used to hate exercise too until I made myself get into it.  I realized that when I was 31 and was winded climbing stairs and couldn't keep up with my son that I needed to change my life. 

Another benefit to exercise is that it firms you up as you lose.  Less loose skin and flabbiness.  You'll both look and feel better and also live a healthier longer life with some form of exercise. 

Want to have a little fun?
Go and buy a small trampoline.  You can bounce and watch TV or crank up the radio and bounce.  I bought one three weeks ago and love it!  Everyone that comes to the house loves to bounce as well!  Before you know it you have been bouncing for an hour and it puts a bounce in your step for the rest of the day.

I once asked my trainer which was more important, diet or exercise. He responded by asking me which was more important - my left leg or my right.

Exercise is important not just for weightloss but for your overall cardiovascular health. I agree with everyone esle - try to find something you like and it will make working out more pleasant. Good luck!

I really hate exercise too!!  I hate the getting there to do it and while I am doing it, sweating all that stuff...with that said though I feel great after or near the end knowing that I have just burned a bunch of calories, workout my heart and have boosted my weightloss goals.  I also think that diet and exercise work hand in hand...Maybe that is why I do my workouts first thing in the morning before I have a chance to convince myself I am too busy and it keeps me on the right track with eating right.  You are not alone  but it has to be done....you want to be healthy than move it!!!  =)

i agree completely that they go hand-in-hand. you CAN lose weight just by dieting--it is an essential part. but if you want to have a toned and strong body underneath the fat, you need to exercise. to tighten up skin--you need to exercise.  your metabolism will adjust to the lowered cal intake and it'll get harder to lose weight--you need exercise to keep it up. plus a lot of people find that if they exercise--they lose extra inches in addition to lbs (like dbackerfan mentioned)

I TOTALLY know how you feel.  I despise exercise.  I hate how I feel when I'm done.  However, after I dropped my first 20 pounds, I knew I had to start.  The only reason I'm getting it done is because my husand talks me through it.  He "bullies" me into getting on my stationary bike, he tells me how long I need to be on it and he keeps me company & encourages me through the grind.  I know it's paying off because after I shoveled snow for 20-30 minutes yesterday I wasn't even winded.

But, I still hate to exercise.

I used to run and lift weights.  (years ago when we were tripping over dinosaur poop)  I was dedicated - running 4 1/2 miles 4 mornings a week and hitting the gym the other days for serious weight work.  One day, working on the rowing machine, I looked around me at the faces...  NO ONE was smiling !  Everyone was grim and determined...  I went into the weight room -  all that weight - tons and tons of it that I had moved - and It was still there - it hadnt gone anywhere...  

I quit that nonsense that day.  I swore that I would only exercise as a byproduct.  I would do the physical things I loved and the exercise would come.  Since then I have landscaped, gardened, rode horses, dug up rocks, and finally Taekwando.  I love taekwando!!   I grin like a fool as I smash my way thru heavybags, chest heaving and sweat flying...    Moral of the story -  find something you LOVE to do...  try all sorts of things...  when you find it - exercise will not be a problem.   All the best .

I totally empathise, the eating is OK fo rme, but the exercise is really tough. I just plain hate it.

i think that honestly, most people can lose weight, slowly, without exercise. To a degree. But after a point, the difference between the amount of calories you can safely eat to your BMR is going to get closer and closer together, until there's not much margin left...so it's gonna be pretty tough to make any headway. And even once you've achieved that, the amount of calories you can eat each day to maintain is going to be low if you don't get any exercise.

If you want to make a change, find an exercise you enjoy, and take baby-steps. If you set a goal to spend an hour on a spinning bike, you might talk yourself into doing it once or twice, but chances are you won't make a habit of it. So spend, say, 5 mins on the spinning bike, once a day. After a week, spend 10. Lless if you have to, or at intervals instead of daily, it's still better than nothing.

But yeah, if you really don't want to do it, you won't do it.

I hate to excercise too, but... I love helping people. My friend and I have signed up for a charity 5k walk. It is not for a few months, so we have set a schedule to "train" for the actual 5k. It is not the excersise that is keeping us motivated, it is the fact that we are doing it for a good cause, and I'm PUMPED! I suggest everyone who hates to excersice, but has a good heart keep motivated this way!

i wait tables so i walk for about 5 hours straight every night. the way that i rationalize not exercising is that my job is exercise. is this o.k? anyone? i also carry some pretty heavy trays and plates and i consider this weight training.

Sounds ok for the exercise.  How do you log it?

there's a work log carrying up to 25lbs. it says i burn a lot of calories. (most of the time i think i carry more than 25lbs though)

I can't speak for losing without exercise, but I can say that there is no reason for you to always hate exercise.  It is possible to learn to love it!  I say this because I disliked it myself for years, and now I'm a personal trainer.  :)

sgrrmagg - while what you do for a living is truly beneficial for you, and better than sitting at a desk, it really isn't ideal for exercise.  You need to raise your heart rate substantially and sustain it to have any real improvements in your cardiovascular health.  I know when I waited tables I was quite busy, and it helped me maintain my weight, but it did not do anything for my cardiovascular health, as evidenced any time I tried to go for a run or do a serious aerobics dvd.

It's funny to hear you refer to the treadmill as the human habitrail, because that's exactly what my opinion used to be!  I avoided the treadmill at all costs, even when I was hitting the weights hard.  The thought of being on that endless wheel just did me in. However, last September, I made the decision to just get on there for ten minutes.  Figured I could do any exercise for just ten minutes-just had to suck up and do it.  Ten led to fifteen led to 30...now I am running 30 minutes three days a week and hiking 30 minutes two days a week on the treadmill!  Getting ready to run a 5K no less!  Sometimes we just have to develop new habits, and that takes time.  Give exercise a try-just ten minutes a day three days a week to start.  Never know, it just might grow on you!

I havent excersized and I lost 17lbs, but now I know if I want to tone up and look fit I should excersize. I'm way too shy and I just have NO motivation at all. Well, we do have an excersize room at work, but I really dont want people to be walking into the excersize room when Im in there... I work at a company of 35 people so I could time it so no one would be down there...
But still I have no work out clohtes, and, again, Im super shy....

Raz - just go walk around the block.  Here in AZ in the summer everyone goes to malls and walks the malls because its too hot to walk outstide - you will know who these people are by the way they are walking not shopping.  So if you live in a place where its too cold to walk outside go to your local mall and walk.  Its perfectly normal activity just remember you are there to walk not "shop" so pick up the pace.

I used to not excercise because I actually felt worse (tired, drained, cranky) after excercising. I always heard people say that excercise made you feel so good and energetic and relieved stress well it never did for me UNTIL I started eating better! It's amazing how my better eating habits have changed me. Now I feel lousy if I DON'T excercise. I look at it as food being my fuel. I need good fuel to run my body properly and when I was excercising on lousy fuel, the excercise had no chance of making me feel better (or lose weight for that matter!) It's like putting bad gas in my car, yes, it may run, but it won't run well.

So I think you'll lose weight by cutting calories and if it's enough to make you happy, then great! You'll figure out soon enough what will work for you, good luck!