Any way to lose weight w/o exercise?

I cannot stand to exercise for one more minute. I am always sleepy and lethargic, so its pretty hard for me to get my butt off the couch. I have Hashimoto's and i recently had some bloodwork done, but we are waiting to see if I have to up my synthroid dose or not.

Until then, can I continue to lose weight without exercise?

If you just eat less energy than you use (You can calculate how many cals you need a day) you will naturally lose weight.

Be diligent in counting calories - ensure you run a deficit every day and you will lose weight! If you wish to lose the weight faster rather than slower, then run a high deficit (but not higher than 1000/day)

Good luck!

I used to be pretty lethargic myself, but once i started exercising it increased my energy and put me in a great mood - try to ease into it, it might help you feel better.

When you get your test results, I would talk to you doctor to see if there is any reason that this condition would make exercise difficult. 

Is it that you physically can't exercise or is it more of a motivational issue?

Exercise is 66% of weight loss from my experience.

After reading up a little on your medical condition, I can see how that would drastically lower your energy for exercising. When you go to the doctor, why don't you take some sample food logs? Ask the doc if your diet is appropriate for your medical condition. Maybe you need more protein or some vitamin supplements to help.

Even if you can't do full-blown exercise, what about some light stuff simply to keep your body toned, metabolism working, and ensure ongoing weigh loss. A 10 minute walk around the block 3 or 4 nights a week would be a good start and what about 5-10 minutes a day with some light hand weights to keep your arms toned?

Good luck! My mom has thyroid issues and I know it wreaks total havoc on your body. Keep up the good work!! I'm sure your doctor would be pleased that this is important to you.

Original Post by kthompson92:

 

Even if you can't do full-blown exercise, what about some light stuff simply to keep your body toned, metabolism working, and ensure ongoing weigh loss. A 10 minute walk around the block 3 or 4 nights a week would be a good start and what about 5-10 minutes a day with some light hand weights to keep your arms toned?

I strongly second this. You may need to learn to live with this disease, and you are too young to give up on exercise. It will only get harder to go back when you are older. But walking is all you need to do. It's really about flexibility, maintaining muscles and joints, at least right now. Maybe biking for pleasure, too. But weight bearing exercise (like walking) is important for young women. Don't think about it in relation to weight loss (it takes about 50 minutes of walking, 5 or more times a week, at a brisk pace) to really make a difference with weight loss. You have other concerns--so don't worry about exercising to lose weight; you can do that through diet alone. A 500 cal deficit will keep you losing 1 lb a week and that's not too difficult to do with diet. The walking will just give you a "margin of error," so to speak, maybe only a few cals, but a bit of cushioning for all the estimating we have to do.

Later, you might want to add other goals. You can really improve cardio-vascular fitness (blood pressure, etc.) with very moderate exercise, getting your heart rate up for 20-30 minutes 3x a week, and often brisk walking is enough for that.

Hang in there. You'll be ok but keep moving, even if it's not much. Best of luck.

I work with a girl who has lost weight without exercise by doing Weight Watchers religiously. I used to do it and her points target is only 19 a day. That means she freaking starves herself in my opinion. She has lost about 15 lbs. but it has taken her FOREVER. She hates exercising and whines about the way she looks all the time. She doesn't realize how much more weight she would lose if she would just work out.

As far as I'm concerned, I do think it is possible to lose weight without exercising, but I don't think people who don't exercise have as much right to complain about not losing as much weight when working out is the simple solution to losing more. Even walking will burn calories... just do whatever you can.

Wow!  I just discovered there's an expert on our site who has your same condition: http://caloriecount.about.com/profile/thyroid _guide

Here are her articles: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/article/thyr oid_guide.html

I didn't read any of it but when I saw it, I realized you needed to see this.  I'm sure she can give better help and advice than any of us!  Good luck!!