Losing weight is 80% eating better. Exercise is for cardio health and muscles.

I have to do a combination of Orangetheory and intermittent fasting to keep off those few extra pounds that want to stick around now that I’m getting older. When I was younger I was an athlete and exercised so much that I pretty much could eat whatever I wanted. I think I would have to cut calories even if I still worked out that much, just because I’m older now. I know plenty of people who train for marathons, long cycling rides and Ironmans that are overweight. I hate going to bed hungry (I stay up late) but I tell myself there is no reason to spike my blood sugar at 11 o’clock at night. I try to do it most days of the week as opposed to every single day which helps me stick with it.

OP - you cannot out exercise a bad diet. You may think you are eating clean, but until you track calories and macros for everything that goes into your body, you don't know.

Before changing eating habits, start entering info into myfitnesspal or Carb counter apps (I like the latter).

There should be an indication of whether you are in a calorie deficit.

Let that weight “loose” - just let it go!’

Weight is lost in the kitchen.

No, don’t settle. Op you can do better and reach 125 with a smaller belly (I am like you, almost same stats and doingit now. Just eatless calories...)

OP here. Thanks for the responses. Maybe I should embrace my extra ten pounds, since my clothes still fit (a bit tightly) and I feel good about my body (other than the stomach area). I am 45, 5.3 and used to be 120. I am now 130, but definitely with more muscles (thanks to orange theory). It may also be aging.

One thing I should say about Orangetheory (which I love) I think they grossly overestimate the amount of calories I burn in a given session (I weight 110 and they it says consistently I'm burning 550-600 per session). Once I figured that out, I realized I couldn't go as crazy as I was previously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1

It's tough to stick to a diet, it's tough to feel hungry. But if you do these things and eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. People over complicate weigh loss by making it sound like you need some special diet (low carb, keto, gluten free, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, 6 meals a day, fasting) and while certain diets click for some people and make calorie reduction easier, you don't really need a crazy diet with a special name. At the end of the day losing weight comes down to creating a calorie deficit.

Yeah, and in my experience the people who argue that "it's just not possible to lose weight by cutting calories" are people who have never tried it (or have guestimated food quantities and wildly overestimated calories burned through exercise), and they always end up arguing with people who have successfully lost weight by cutting calories and telling them that something they actually did in their real life (cutting calories and losing weight) is just not possible. It's so weird.

I have also found that the people who argue that they are cutting calories and not losing weight are also not as consistent or as accurate in tracking as they think they are or don't stick to it long enough to get real results. They eat salad/reduce calories for a few days, don't see the scale drop 5 lbs and claim "nothing" works.

Anonymous wrote:
+1

It's tough to stick to a diet, it's tough to feel hungry. But if you do these things and eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. People over complicate weigh loss by making it sound like you need some special diet (low carb, keto, gluten free, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, 6 meals a day, fasting) and while certain diets click for some people and make calorie reduction easier, you don't really need a crazy diet with a special name. At the end of the day losing weight comes down to creating a calorie deficit.

Yeah, and in my experience the people who argue that "it's just not possible to lose weight by cutting calories" are people who have never tried it (or have guestimated food quantities and wildly overestimated calories burned through exercise), and they always end up arguing with people who have successfully lost weight by cutting calories and telling them that something they actually did in their real life (cutting calories and losing weight) is just not possible. It's so weird.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you need to be on a diet. Losing fat really is no rocket science. You just need to eat less than what you burn. The hard part is to accomplish that on a consistent basis as no one likes to be hungry. To make the diet less miserable focus on eating high volumes of low calorie foods (lean meats and fish, high fiber veggies, low sugar watery fruits like melon or strawberries, zero fat Greek yoghurt etc.) and make sure you have plenty of fiber and protein in every meal. That will ensure you are not hungry all the time. And by all means track your calories. Just eating healthy is not enough. I used to CrossFit five times a week and eat super strict paleo with no sugar, bread or dairy and yet I gained about 10 pounds over a course of a year. With calorie tracking and without restricting any foods, I lost those 10 pounds in 10 week.

I don't know why people keep saying this. If losing weight and keeping the weight off was so easy we would be a nation of thin people. Your fighting against your body which wants to keep those ten pounds. We aren't even sure op needs to lose those ten pounds. I read a great article in the Washington post about losing weight. People can look it up but, the title is called "what to know about detoxing from sugar" by Steven Petrow and it was in yesterday's paper ( 8/6/19)

She didn’t say it was easy. It’s NOT easy to pass up yummy treats and limit booze and workout when you don’t want to. That’s why more
People aren’t fit. But it isn’t some magical unknowable formula either. Eat less than you do if you want to lose weight. For 99% of the population that is the deal. Just because it’s hard to not eat everything you want doesn’t mean the solution itself isn’t simple.

+1

It's tough to stick to a diet, it's tough to feel hungry. But if you do these things and eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. People over complicate weigh loss by making it sound like you need some special diet (low carb, keto, gluten free, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, 6 meals a day, fasting) and while certain diets click for some people and make calorie reduction easier, you don't really need a crazy diet with a special name. At the end of the day losing weight comes down to creating a calorie deficit.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, to lose weight you need to change the way you eat. Why does this keep being a question?

+1

It's pretty simple, if you are not losing weight then you are eat too much. If you can't lose weight the first thing you need to look at is how many calories you are consuming.
It's easy to overestimate calories burned through exercise and to underestimate calories consumed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you need to be on a diet. Losing fat really is no rocket science. You just need to eat less than what you burn. The hard part is to accomplish that on a consistent basis as no one likes to be hungry. To make the diet less miserable focus on eating high volumes of low calorie foods (lean meats and fish, high fiber veggies, low sugar watery fruits like melon or strawberries, zero fat Greek yoghurt etc.) and make sure you have plenty of fiber and protein in every meal. That will ensure you are not hungry all the time. And by all means track your calories. Just eating healthy is not enough. I used to CrossFit five times a week and eat super strict paleo with no sugar, bread or dairy and yet I gained about 10 pounds over a course of a year. With calorie tracking and without restricting any foods, I lost those 10 pounds in 10 week.

I don't know why people keep saying this. If losing weight and keeping the weight off was so easy we would be a nation of thin people. Your fighting against your body which wants to keep those ten pounds. We aren't even sure op needs to lose those ten pounds. I read a great article in the Washington post about losing weight. People can look it up but, the title is called "what to know about detoxing from sugar" by Steven Petrow and it was in yesterday's paper ( 8/6/19)

Losing weight is quite simple. Simple is not the same as easy. Overcoming addiction to alcohol or drugs is also simple (stop drinking or using drugs), but it's not easy.

PP's point was that this isn't really an issue of OP not knowing WHAT to do, it's an issue of OP (and everybody) needing to find a way to ADHERE to a plan that will result in weight loss. Adherence is incredibly hard because nobody likes to be hungry. For me, I tend to lose down to a healthy weight, stay there for a couple of years, stop paying attention and then gain back the 10 pounds or so that I lost. Then I lose it again. Most of the time I'm at a healthy weight, but I struggle with adherence when life gets in the way or I have a lot of stress.

PP's suggestion (low calorie/high volume foods) works for me, along with strict calorie counting.

With respect to "sugar detox", here's a good Scientific American article explaining the physiology of how sugar is metabolized, why studies on rats and mice are not applicable to humans specifically in this area (hint - we metabolize sugar completely differently) and what meta analyses of the effects of the average American's sugar consumption are on our bodies. Bottom line -- sugar isn't toxic, but if you eat to much of it, you will get fat. To lose weight, eat fewer calories.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/is-sugar-really-toxic-sifting-through-the-evidence/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you need to be on a diet. Losing fat really is no rocket science. You just need to eat less than what you burn. The hard part is to accomplish that on a consistent basis as no one likes to be hungry. To make the diet less miserable focus on eating high volumes of low calorie foods (lean meats and fish, high fiber veggies, low sugar watery fruits like melon or strawberries, zero fat Greek yoghurt etc.) and make sure you have plenty of fiber and protein in every meal. That will ensure you are not hungry all the time. And by all means track your calories. Just eating healthy is not enough. I used to CrossFit five times a week and eat super strict paleo with no sugar, bread or dairy and yet I gained about 10 pounds over a course of a year. With calorie tracking and without restricting any foods, I lost those 10 pounds in 10 week.

I don't know why people keep saying this. If losing weight and keeping the weight off was so easy we would be a nation of thin people. Your fighting against your body which wants to keep those ten pounds. We aren't even sure op needs to lose those ten pounds. I read a great article in the Washington post about losing weight. People can look it up but, the title is called "what to know about detoxing from sugar" by Steven Petrow and it was in yesterday's paper ( 8/6/19)

She didn’t say it was easy. It’s NOT easy to pass up yummy treats and limit booze and workout when you don’t want to. That’s why more
People aren’t fit. But it isn’t some magical unknowable formula either. Eat less than you do if you want to lose weight. For 99% of the population that is the deal. Just because it’s hard to not eat everything you want doesn’t mean the solution itself isn’t simple.