Have you actually lost weight like that? I think exercise is a huge trap for weight loss. Cardio exercise makes you healthy, but it will also make you hungry. Especially if you are not used to it. Overweight people are usually already overeating. They can't deal with hunger and cravings well. If you make them do cardio, they will likely eat back whatever they burned and most likely much more. And even if they don't, they were already overeating, so chances are high you are not in a caloric deficit still. I have lost a lot of weight (30kg) three times now (gained some of it back every time unfortunately) and I think there is much truth to "You don’t lose weight at the gym, you lose weight in the kitchen.".
This is a great comment, and I agree with it. Everything that I hear from experts on weight loss: Cardio exercise is not a major component. Most people are clueless about how few calories that cardio exercise burns. A 5km run burns about 300 calories. People would be shocked to see how little food is it, compared to the amount of effort to run 5km!
Since you said you went through three weight loss cycles (bravo, it is hard to do!), is exercise an important part of the effort? Example: Did you ever try cardio vs weight training? It seems like weight training is the more likely of the two to change body composition (more muscle, same or less fat). And higher muscle weight almost always leads to higher resting calorie burn rate.
Last thing that almost no one is talking about in this discussion: Once you start doing exercise, something changes in your brain. I cannot precisely explain it, but a huge number of men experience a drop is depressing thoughts after starting regular exercise. My guess: Exercise helps to de-stress which has all kinds of other positive impacts in your life.
Funnily enough, once you get decent enough I have a hard time eating after doing cardio. I need to force myself to eat something that isn't just a gatorade because my body is too busy recovering to spare any blood for my gut.
> Cardio exercise makes you healthy, but it will also make you hungry.
That's what I've noticed, too.
But I've also noticed that it makes me crave different foods than when I sit on my ass all day. So, on average, I tend to actually eat less, because I don't have random cravings in between meals.
I doubt that people who are overweight and sedentary only eat "healthy" meals, only too much.
I mean, the ranges of a European mentioning that they are overweight compared to the US are of course very different. What is overweight here counts as normal over there.
I am currently at around ~120kg and my "goal weight" was around that area. I still have a tummy that I am not satisfied with, but my legs are mostly muscles due to me cycling a lot. I sold my car on purpose to force me to cycle in bad weather.
Currently I am also trying out a more hardcore exercise program because I never gained a lot of muscles in the past, even when I was doing MMA training 6 times a week.
I'm probably stating the obvious here: muscles weigh more than fat, meaning you'll always gain weight before you can lose weight. I mentioned the 2-3 months time span because that's (for me) when it switched, and my body suddenly had it easier to get into calories burning mode.
Suffice it to say: I don't eat nor drink any sweets, not even in my muesli. No artificial sweeteners either. I replaced sweets with fruits in my muesli, for example. And I just drink water, because soft drinks are the human brain's enemy.
The decision to not eat nor drink anything sweet is important, I think, because it helps me go into calories burning mode much faster with much less calories.
> Currently I am also trying out a more hardcore exercise program because I never gained a lot of muscles in the past, even when I was doing MMA training 6 times a week.
To me, exercise is roughly divided between cardio and weight training. Cardio hardly builds any serious muscle mass (except probably your heart), but obviously weight training will. Can you tell us more about your new/current "more hardcore exercise program"? What is the mix of cardio vs weight training?
