losing more not working out

Ok its been about a month since i've done any form of exercise and since it seems like i've been losing more without exercising. Could it be that maybe i wasn't eating enough when working out? I did mostly cardio.. fast walking/jogging everyday 5x's aweek, and some strength training. I wasn't counting calories but i did watch my portions and I still am.

Losing weight is awesome! So congrats! However, exercise is good for your heart so you should try to incorporate that into your regimin.  When you do, I would strongly suggest you count the cals...at least on the days you work out.  It doesn't hurt to double check, right?

Good luck and keep up the good work!

The same thing happened to me.  I was stuck at 170 for a MONTH exercising, got frustrated and stopped...and started losing. 

I was counting calories, doing cardio 5x a week and weights 3x a week.  I decided that with 48 pounds to lose to get to my goal, I was going to wait until I was around 10 pounds from my goal and go back to the gym to tone up.  Don't get me wrong, now that the weather is nicer, I'm going to start hiking on the weekends and getting up and moving but formal kick-my-**** gym time isn't going  to happen again until I'm closer.  Right now, the pounds matter more to me.

It could be that you are losing faster without exercise, but I'm not sure it's the kind of weight loss you want. 

Exercising (especially the strength training) while dieting is meant to help you maintain you muscle while losing fat.  If you are losing more, it could because you are now also losing muscle. 

Also, when I exercise, it can make me very hungry, so even if you are "watching portions" you may have been eating more than you needed. 

Before I started counting calories it was soooooo easy to justify eating a little more because of my hard workouts.  Once I started counting I realized how quickly those little extras added up. 

Original Post by karozel:

Before I started counting calories it was soooooo easy to justify eating a little more because of my hard workouts.  Once I started counting I realized how quickly those little extras added up. 

If by "eating a little more" you mean stopping at the CVS on the way home after the gym to pick up a box of cheeze-its or a snickers bar... yep - me too.

Counting helped me so much - knowing what was a reasonable amount to eat after working out and what wasn't, but also making me accountable for how much I ended up eating.

its not that i just wanted to stop exercising, I for a income tax place and i was working tons of hours and when home i didnt want to think of getting to the track at 6:30am. Now that its over i hope to get back into the swing of things.  What Karozel said about the muscle loss could be true and does make alot of sense as to why im losing even though i stopped working out for a month..good thing is that im almost to my goal weight.  I started off at 209 and I'm currently 175 my goal weight is about 160 so i have lost a total of 34lbs so far, I have 15 more lbs to reach my goal..!

I can't say if I would have lost weight faster or not by working out, but I lost 50 lbs over 6 months simply by changing my diet.  Once I hit my goal weight I started hitting the gym to work on my fitness.  I'm currently in excellent shape and now working on lowering my body fat further to get that ripped look.  I probably lost muscle mass over the 6 months while I lost weight (how much is anyone's guess), but it worked for me.

I realize men and women loose weight differently (metabolism, muscle mass, etc) and muscle burns fat.  If you don't have much muscle to start with, it may be hard to loose weight by diet alone.  On the other hand, if you have been working out for a while and you believe you have a good amount of muscle mass underneath everything, perhaps cutting back on exercise and focusing on a calorie restricted diet is all that is needed to start dropping some pounds.