# Horseback Riding and Losing Weight



## FreedomCalls

I'm currently a 260 pound 16 year old teenage girl with a underwhelmingly short height of 5'1. I haven't sat in the saddle for years out of fear of being too heavy to ride a horse without the horse being miserable. I'm hoping to start a job at a stable soon that will keep me busy doing barn chores, which will hopefully help me lose a bit of this fat. I'm eating healthier (I'm beginning to consider just refusing to eat anytime my parents buy pizza instead of just going to the store to grab some vegetables. Soon I will have my own license to borrow the car and head to the store myself) and trying to do some at home exercises. However, would it be a good idea for me to start riding on a more regular basis? Would riding a few times a week help at all in my weight loss?


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## mmshiro

I tend to think of it this way: Absent special circumstances, calorie intake controls your weight, exercise controls your fitness, and the two are only moderately correlated. Just look at the calories per serving of food on the one hand, and the time it takes to burn those calories doing various forms of exercise. That shows you that exercise will make you healthier overall, and an easier burden for the horse, but if you count on it for weight loss, you'll be disappointed.

Also, careful with the number on the scale: As you do exercise, you'll build muscle and burn fat. Muscle is denser than fat, so keep an eye on your inches in addition to the pounds. You will probably trim up without losing as much weight as you had thought, but don't let that discourage you.

Good luck!!!


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## Golden Horse

This is a complicated one, and so much depends on the sort of barns that you are applying for.

In the English world sadly many barns will see you as both heavy and the wrong shape, they are less forgiving than the Western World.

Western barns, more forgiving, and you may find somewhere that will-let you work and ride.

Doing barn chores is great exercise, the more active you can be the more calories you will burn, more importantly the better toned you will become. I am a bigger girl than you, taller and heavier, I constantly battle to try and reduce my weight, with limited success, but I work hard to try and have my body as fit as it can be..


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## Hidalgo13

Riding is not the best exercise form to loose weight, but lot's of walking and some strength training (squats, etc) will do the trick, and so doing barn chores are great because they incorporate a bit of those 2 automatically! 

On a day to day basis though, try increasing your physical activity levels. If you can walk to your destination, do so (skip the car). You have the choice of an elevator or stairs (yup, stairs it is, even if you need to take a few breaks along the way, that's ok). Didn't have much opportunity to walk during the day, go for a walk if you can (weather permitting). 

At home exercises are great too! It's amazing what resources you can find on Youtube. 
As for the diet component, apart from eating healthier (more veggies/fruits/proteins, no sugar/processed foods), make sure you drink enough water. When we are thirsty we sometimes crave food more, and if you drink a glass or two before a meal, you will feel fuller after. 

A bit of lemon juice in water first thing in the morning is another thing I found helpful. It has a great cleansing effect on your body, and also helps to curb hunger. 
Good luck! And keep us posted, or reach out if you are in need of anything!


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## PoptartShop

I think if you continue to make healthy eating choices and ride, they will both help you lose weight.
At least, for me it has worked. Also working at the barn will help you too. Mucking stalls and carrying water buckets is exercise!

Try to cut back on bread. I went on a breadless diet for awhile (which I need to start up again) & I lost a lot of weight easily. 
I wasn't even exercising that much, but eating better helped. Also, drink LOTS of water, stay away from juice/soda.


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## Avna

I will proffer my weight loss tips that worked for me, I am 5'2" and went from 145 to 118 using these techniques (I am back up to 124 though, wah). 

1. ONLY whole grains. 
2. No pre-packaged food, period. It is always full of sugar and white flour and fat. If I stick to the only whole grains rule that eliminates all of them anyway.
3. Main meal in the middle of the day, at night eat something light like soup or a salad.
4. Don't snack unless I feel faint from lack of calories (which I do sometimes -- for that I carry protein bars in my saddle bags). 
5. Eat out of a small bowl. You can get seconds but firsts are always in that little bowl.
6. Raw fruit if I want something sweet.

that's it! 

I don't count calories or write down what I ate, since that never worked for me. I also take long walks with my dogs every day, and do all the horse chores, that is my exercise. That, and right now, shoveling snow ...

The most important thing is not to diet, but to embed good, permanent habits. If you manage to do that, you will get a lot farther than depriving yourself. That always backfired on me.


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## Woodhaven

Good for you for doing this. 
Riding may not do as much as the barn chores to help loose weight but just the walking out to get the horse, grooming, cleaning feet and tacking up burns a lot of calories and also cleaning stalls, hauling hay and straw does too. Perhaps you could get the instructor's horse ready for them and that gives you some horse experience as well then gradually progress to actually riding yourself.

I find if I ride 3 times a week I can eat anything I want and not gain any weight but I also do the barn work as well. I find that with training and schooling the weight just drops off me because that is harder work.


The others have good suggestions and if you find a stable to work at that will be great for you. You go girl!!


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## AtokaGhosthorse

I disagree with anyone saying riding alone does not encourage weight loss. It's estimated that you burn 200 calories an hour riding. You also work your core and the same muscles you work while walking for health.


That is for riding alone, going through all gaits at intervals, for an hour, presumably in a level arena environment.


I am not certain if it's for English or Western or both.


However, there is a reason your legs feel like noodles after a ride, and the more you ride, the longer the ride must be to get noodle knees when you dismount - you are building muscle with each ride.


If you are doing barn chores, you darn right it'll help you out. Feed comes in 50lb sacks. Poop isn't light and you'll be shoveling and raking it out of stalls.


IF you are tacking your own horse and it's a western saddle, a western saddle can weight as much as 43lbs. I have one that is just shy of 46lbs fully rigged. I also hate that saddle because its a massive pain to sling it up on a tall horse and land it in the sweet spot.


And once you're done, you still have to look to your horse first before your own needs - untacking, brushing out the horse, making sure they have water, cleaning your tack, putting it up. All of that takes a LOT of energy and burns a LOT of calories.



Also: Salt blocks weigh 50lbs. Bagged mineral is dense too.


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## karens1039

Riding will help. I have lost 40 lbs since I started riding, and I am working on loosing more.


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## AtokaGhosthorse

I ran out of time before lunch to add this. I apologize in advance for the length:

Our family doctor, at a routine yearly check up a year ago, told me I need to lose weight. I'm 46 (now), change of life, so lower metabolism, at risk for diabetes (Maternal line has never dodged it, in four generations), and at the time I weighed 225. THAT WAS DOWN 30lbs from the year before when I did NOT have a check up.

It was February, I was packing around my 'hibernating in winter weight'. Doc says: You need to get out and walk, lose weight knock off the full leaded sodas, etc etc. I want you down another 50lbs.

Cool.

So I said to him: I get it. I WANT to pull off another 50lbs. I'm not going to start walking for health and here's why: In a few weeks, it'll be time to start working on the yard. I do landscaping, yardwork, weed eating, gardening from March to November, every year, all season long, every day. (NOTHING GETS RID OF BACK FLABS and armpit flabs and gets your arms in shape like excessive string trimmer and leaf blower use btw)

I went on to say: It's time to start really doing a lot of riding. I'll be riding a horse two or three evenings a week after work (Waiting on the precious time change!) and for several hours on the weekends...

Doc says: Whoa whoa whoa. Let me stop you there... sitting on a horse won't do you any good. The horse does all the work. What you need to be doing is WALKING your horse up and down the road, leading the horse, to get any benefit health wise.

Me: Clearly you have no idea how much effort it takes for me to stay on a horse.

He stops mid sentence says: You know. You're right. I don't. I just assumed...

That's when I explained about the 50lb feed bags, the weight of the saddle to tack up, the flexibility that comes with cleaning hooves, the elevated heart rate (Yep. My horses def elevate my heart rate). AND THAT WAS BEFORE I started hauling my own horses.

But we did have a good laugh, the doc and I. But he also recommended I drink diet sodas and IMO, the contents of those are suspect to say the least. So I took his advice for what it was worth on the horses - not much.

GETTING BACK TO HOW IT CAN HELP:

The FIRST SUMMER I spent outside, cleaning saddles and sweeping my tack room out, even through the heat of the day, and riding in the evenings for just an hour or so, after work, and on weekends, on top of my usual outdoor activities - I lost 30lbs. This was going into the second summer when the doc told me that. I had gained some of it back, but lost it off and kept it off. I was not confident enough to trot or lope, or ride a horse down creek banks and back up again. Steady eddy, level ground. Plodding along walking was all I was capable of handling and not get tense.

Riding horses NOW we go through all the gaits. I remember when going a single mile in one ride left me sore and tired and cranky. Now it takes a four hour ride to tire me out and even then I'm still good to go on untacking, cleaning up, making sure Trigger has hay and water. Our camping trips, we do a 2 hour in the morning and a near 4 hour in the evening/afternoon... three days in a row... before breaking camp. 

I have my own horse trailer now, a gooseneck... and if you want your cardio workout, just crank on a manual jack on an 11,500 lb steel gooseneck trailer. Even more workout: Have to get your hub's hay buggy off the flatbed (Also a gooseneck), chock it up so it doesn't roll off the hill, then hook on to your horse trailer. I take bermuda square bales - they can weigh between 50 and 70 lbs. Most of the ones I buy are closer to 70, so I have to throw a couple on the bed of the truck or in the front horse box on my trailer with the feed, charcoal grill and other comforts I take camping.

I know you're not of the age where you can do all this yet, you're limited in how much you're able to do with a horse, but it's really not JUST THE RIDING to keep in mind. It's the entire experience of ownership that can help get you fit at any age. I didn't mention these things: But mending fences, moving horse troughs, even changing shape of the pen (We fart around with the panels all the time) uses energy and helps with fitness. Cleaning the tack room, cleaning the feed bin area, walking the pasture WITH my horses trailing along like a pack of dogs, playing pasture tag with them, lugging 5 gallon buckets of feed to the trough in the winter... all that adds up. It's the whole thing that comes along with the care of a horse, or several horses, not just the riding.

PS: Same doc told my husband in the autumn he wants him getting in more cardio exercise. 

I said: Ride with us more, gooberhead. 

Hubs said: He meant I need to get my heart rate up. I don't think riding does that.

Me: Clearly we're putting you on the wrong horse. Trigger and I can hook you up. 

ONE LAST THING and I'm so sorry it's so long, but this is a topic near and dear to me.

When I first starting riding, my kids had had their horses for several months and I'd only ridden a few times. I had NEVER bought feed. 

The first time I picked up a bag of feed for them at Tractor Supply - I was embarrassed to pieces when I couldn't get the 50lb bag from the stack onto the cart at the store. I almost had to ask for help, but refused. It wasn't pretty but I got it on the cart. I won't go into detail how ugly it was to get from the cart into the trunk of my car.

Last weekend I walked out of TSC with one on my shoulder, with one arm around it, without panting for breath. I used to have to use a scoop to fill a feed bucket because I couldn't pick up a newly opened feed bag.

Now I pick it up, pour it into the bucket right out of the bag, right after opening one and the only time I get an overflow is if there's a big lump of the feed stuck together in the bag that I didn't know about and it causes a bottleneck, then an avalanche. MAN I hate that.


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## Woodhaven

I read somewhere that swimming and horseback riding uses every muscle in your body.
I kind of believe this after a difficult schooling session with a resistant horse. If you ask that 1000 lb to do something and it says NO believe me you put out a lot of energy before you both get back to thinking on the same page.

I have often lost 5 to 10 lbs at a horse show. I know a lot of that can be fluid but not all. If I ride in 9 classes I have worked hard and burned a lot of calories.

Riding does keep you in shape.


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## jaydee

The riding and the barn work will help but you're going to struggle with both, especially the barn work, until you drop a lot of that weight your body is having to carry around.
I'd strongly suggest you start now and do some walking every day - keep it small to start with and increase slowly to avoid causing damage to joints and putting too much strain on your heart and lungs
Get your blood pressure checked and a blood test done for cholesterol and blood sugar


Stay away from 'junk food' and sweetened drinks. 
Someone mentioned giving up bread - it isn't the bread alone that increases your weight as a slice of whole wheat bread only has around 70 calories - its the stuff you put on the bread that breaks the scales!


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## Golden Horse

jaydee said:


> Someone mentioned giving up bread - it isn't the bread alone that increases your weight as a slice of whole wheat bread only has around 70 calories - its the stuff you put on the bread that breaks the scales!


For some of us it’s more complicated than that...wheat appears to be a gateway drug for me, and it does make me bloat. 

The more we understand about this, the less we understand it seems! Every person needs to find out what their ‘triggers’ are, and I really believe that is both physical and psychological.


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## Avna

There's riding and there's riding. Moseying around an arena is one thing, putting conditioning miles on a horse at a stiff trot up and down hills for a few hours a day is quite another. 

Another point is that when you get up in the morning, muck, water and feed, come back in eat breakfast go back out groom and saddle up do some warm up in the arena and then head out for a good long hard trail ride of four or five hours, come home, unsaddle groom turn out, muck, water and feed again you will be starving hungry. You'll come in dirty and happy and fall asleep in the bathtub holding a peanut butter sandwich. You'll lose weight no matter what you eat.


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## pasomountain

I never used to gain weight til I got into my late forties--then I went from 118 to 180 even with riding, doing barn chores and physical stuff at work! The exercise doesn't help much for weight loss unless you are doing lots of it every day. So the only way for me to lose was to change my eating habits. I also stopped the high carb refined flour/sugar foods and found that to help the most. No more bread, cookies, cake, donuts, crackers, pizza, etc. Lots of veggies, some fruit, lean meat, quinoa. Sometimes I eat pasta, brown rice, oatmeal. Like corn chips or almonds for a quick snack. I am now down to 135 pounds and counting. More to go but it is a good feeling--can wear my old clothes again and have more energy and flexibility than when I was heavier. You don't have to diet or starve to lose either. If you really want a piece of pizza once in awhile it's ok--just one slice instead of half the pizza like I did! LOL I had to learn to cut way back on my portions if eating "bad" foods. That way you don't feel deprived but still get the benefit of eating healthier.


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## tinyliny

Golden Horse said:


> For some of us it’s more complicated than that...wheat appears to be a gateway drug for me, and it does make me bloat.
> 
> The more we understand about this, the less we understand it seems! Every person needs to find out what their ‘triggers’ are, and I really believe that is both physical and psychological.





I agree with this wholeheartedly. For some people, who relate to food in an addictive manner, doing the 'just eat in moderation, a little bit of everything' approach is akin to telling an alcoholic, "just drink half a beer, now and then."




That said, at some point a person has to put down their 'drug'. There is no other way. It can be much easier to totally abstain from, say, soda pop, than screw around with this or that sugar free, or cutting it with water, or other machinations.


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## SilverMaple

I'm very active and try to eat well, and I can't get more than a few pounds to shift. I'm seriously considering gastric sleeve surgery, as at my current weight, 240 at 5'7", I feel I'm bordering on too heavy to ride my horses... so far they carry me just fine, but I'm not happy with myself at this weight. Sadly, I've been the same weight for the last 20 years no matter what I try, how active I am, or what I eat. I'll be 40 next month... it will only get worse. 



The best I can tell you:
- lift weights. Muscle weighs more than fat. Cardio is great for your heart and lungs, but really doesn't do much for weight loss. By all means, stay active, walk, do barnwork, etc. but weights will help more than anything. Visit a gym and get some instruction on weightlifting safely to get you started. I have a set of kettlebells at home and try to do a workout 2-3x per week. 

- avoid processed foods. If it's white, don't eat it. I never had luck with keto, low-carb, paleo, etc. No matter what I do, the weight won't budge. BUT, I can keep from putting more on by avoiding processed foods (or keeping them to a minumum). This means not much eating out, too, as most fast food and restaurant meals are loaded with crap. In our small town, there are no healthy options-- only 2 bars (fried food) and pizza. So we don't eat out much. Sometimes we'll order from the bar and I'll get the grilled chicken sandwich and make a salad to have with it, and have one or two of DH's fries. Once a month or so I'll indulge in a small cheeseburger and we'll split a side of onion rings. But that's once a month or so. Not twice a week. Don't deny yourself foods you love, but eat them rarely or eat a small portion. I'm one who isn't full on one piece of pizza. If we get pizza, I'll eat four slices. So we don't get pizza much. 

- Fill half of your plate at each meal with vegetables. Olive oil or butter, while high in calories and fat, will help keep you full. So a little olive oil and balsamic on veggies is not the end of the world. Just don't use a TB to fry an egg for breakfast, a TB on toast, 2 TB on veggies, etc. 1 tablespoon of oil or butter is about 100 calories. Use it sparingly.


- Use a phone app like Fitbit or MyFitnessPal and record your meals. Weigh and measure everything, so you learn to see proper portion and serving sizes. It does no good to input 3 oz. of meat if you ate 14 oz. It's amazing how little food one actually gets at a 1200-1500 calorie/day diet. A small scale is cheap and well worth purchasing. It can be very eye-opening to see what and how much you are actually eating.

- don't drink your calories. Drink water. I allow myself a soda or glass of wine only if we dine out, and sometimes not even then. My indulgence daily is a tablespoon of flavored creamer in 1 cup of my morning coffee. Other than that, water or herbal tea are all I drink. 

- visit your doctor and get a physical exam. Find out if you are pre-diabetic, have high cholesterol or blood pressure, etc. Ask them to test you for nutritional imbalances and test your thyroid function. I KNOW part of my problem is thyroid, but it's not low enough for anyone to bother treating, so here I sit at 240 pounds... 

- when I worked on a ranch and rode 12 hours a day, I didn't lose much weight, but I lost inches. I looked better and felt great. If I had time to ride that much again, I would love it, but I don't. 

- what you eat is far more important to weight loss than exercise. You can't out-run a bad diet. Sad, but true. Yeah, it sucks when others can eat burgers and fries, tacos, cake, and frozen latte's and those of us with genes that survived 'Black 47' in Ireland and can subsist on next to nothing are doomed to veggies and chicken breast, but that's the way life goes. Learning to cook a variety of healthy foods that have flavor is important. You don't have to subsist on steamed broccoli and baked chicken. There are lots of options out there.


- What works best for me: I'm rarely hungry in the morning. I was that kid that was fine skipping breakfast, much to my mother's chagrin. So, I don't eat breakfast most days. I'll have a cup of coffee and that's it. I'll have a meal-replacement shake or a lunch with around 300 calories. An afternoon snack of an ounce or two of nuts and a piece of cheese, or a yogurt and fruit. I try to keep supper about 700 calories-- enough so that I don't feel deprived and can cook something my husband will still eat, but not so much I blow my work during the day. Some days I go a little over. Some days under. It's a lot of work. You're right to get on this while you're young when weight is likely to shift more easily, and before life's aches and pains make moving around painful! I've also learned not to panic if you have a rough day with your bathroom scale--- I can lose or gain 8-10 pounds within the course of a day, and it's all water. Look for general trends overall. Most women will be at their lightest the week after their cycle, then gradually gain over the following weeks as your body holds onto water. So if you have one bad day, get on the scale the next morning and you're 8 pounds heavier, don't panic. You cannot gain 8 pounds from one meal. It's likely mostly water weight due to hormones and/or your sodium intake. If you weigh daily, look for overall downward trends as the months pass. Don't place too much weight on each day. If you weight weekly or monthly, don't let a bad reading throw off your entire week. Keep at it. Learn what works for your body-- for some, several small meals is easier. For myself, actually having one meal where I feel satisfied is important. Some women do better with one higher-calorie day each week; if that's you, go for it! Don't eat 5,000 calories, but perhaps 1800 rather than 1200. Most women, no matter their weight, shouldn't go below about 1200 calories/day-- drop too low for too long, and your body will flat out refuse to release fat. Eating a little more may work better for now. 


I wish you all the luck in the world. I hope you get the job and really enjoy it. Remember that weight is just a number-- it has no bearing on you as a person, your self-worth, or your value. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Some barns are very weight-conscious--- English barns, in particular. Western barns tend to be less-so, especially those who have a lot of male riders. Nobody thinks twice about a 200-lb man riding, but a 200-lb woman is the end of the world.


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## jrc111

My experience is that if you want to lose weight, buck hay. I typically lose 10 lbs per 300 bales! Folks are typically getting a buck a day to get it off the ground and into the barn (alot better than a nickel a bale in the ‘60s), so you can make good money and be too tired to spend it.


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## tinyliny

@SilverMaple
you sound to me as if you are not consuming ENOUGH calories. You may be setting your metabolism too low by such a consistently low calorie diet.


Foods like cheese and nuts are very calorie dense, for the actual space they consume in your stomach. Don't offer necessarily as sense of satiation.


But, really, if you are consistently eating only what you describe, you may have set your metabolism low. I would suggest actually eating MORE. But, like more veggetables, more complex carbs like sweet potatoes, or oats, or brown rice or pasnips. 



Add some whipping cream to your coffee in the morning to prolong that lack of hunger.


Seriously. sometimes cutting way back does not help, but rather it makes your body a better 'conservator' of energy.


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## SilverMaple

tinyliny said:


> @*SilverMaple*
> you sound to me as if you are not consuming ENOUGH calories. You may be setting your metabolism too low by such a consistently low calorie diet.
> 
> 
> Foods like cheese and nuts are very calorie dense, for the actual space they consume in your stomach. Don't offer necessarily as sense of satiation.
> 
> 
> But, really, if you are consistently eating only what you describe, you may have set your metabolism low. I would suggest actually eating MORE. But, like more veggetables, more complex carbs like sweet potatoes, or oats, or brown rice or pasnips.
> 
> 
> 
> Add some whipping cream to your coffee in the morning to prolong that lack of hunger.
> 
> 
> Seriously. sometimes cutting way back does not help, but rather it makes your body a better 'conservator' of energy.



I've worked with a nutritionist, and tried increased calories, and bang, I put on weight like nobody's business. If I eat what the calorie counters tell me to eat to lose weight, I gain about a pound a week. My metabolism is just 'extremely efficient'.... a look at my family photos will show the same-- generations of stout, strong, overweight farm women who were on their feet from dawn to long after dark and were still chubby in a world of willowy, wiry friends. Hence the reason I'm considering surgery-- it would allow me to eat less without feeling hungry all the time. I do vary my diet-- whole grains, veggies, protein, fruit. I make sure I'm getting adequate nutrients and vitamins over the course of a week. I will sometimes have oatmeal for breakfast or toss a handful of oats into a shake. It sucks. I've tried everything. Workouts. Various diets. Working with a nutritionist, eating more, eating less, etc. We can stop the weight gain, but I really struggle to get any of it OFF no matter what I do. *shakes fist at genetics* A handful of nuts or cheese is calorie-dense, but does help keep me full. Plus it's easy to toss in my bag to take to work for a satisfying snack without resorting to a candy bar from the gas station. I was actually hungry this morning (unusual) so I had a slice of wheat toast, an apple, and a hardboiled egg. Lunch was a meal shake with some yogurt and frozen peaches blended in. Snack was the rest of the yogurt and blueberries with a bit of granola. Supper tonight is homemade chili (made with ground turkey) with avocado on top, and a salad. I figure I'm at about 1650 calories for today-- a little bit more than usual, but not overboard. However, if I ate this every day, I'd gain. It sucks. 

So, yeah.... I'm holding out hope I'm like my mom. Most women gain weight at menopause. She lost 40 pounds in two months. We were all convinced she had something horribly wrong as were her doctors, and nothing turned up. She ended up losing 50 pounds the first six months, has kept it off effortlessly, and is at a healthy weight for the first time since she was 17. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


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## jrc111

According to this horse Calorie calculator, you burn more Calories than might be expected, especially at the cantor or jumping:

https://captaincalculator.com/health/calorie/calories-burned-horseback-riding-calculator/

Nevertheless, we humans are much more capable of consuming more Calories than burning them.


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## Woodhaven

A little tip that might help, a friend of mine lost some weight and I commented on it to her. She is a farmers wife and was making good hearty meals for the men and sitting and eating with them. She knew she needed to loose some weight so she just got herself a smaller plate so she wasn't putting as much food on the plate and it worked for her. Her plate still looked full so that seemed to satisfy her as to the portion.

also a good exercise for a person that isn't as hard on the joints is swimming, if our young lady who started this post has access to a pool that might help as well.


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## pennywise

FreedomCalls said:


> I'm currently a 260 pound 16 year old teenage girl with a underwhelmingly short height of 5'1. I haven't sat in the saddle for years out of fear of being too heavy to ride a horse without the horse being miserable. I'm hoping to start a job at a stable soon that will keep me busy doing barn chores, which will hopefully help me lose a bit of this fat. I'm eating healthier (I'm beginning to consider just refusing to eat anytime my parents buy pizza instead of just going to the store to grab some vegetables. Soon I will have my own license to borrow the car and head to the store myself) and trying to do some at home exercises. However, would it be a good idea for me to start riding on a more regular basis? Would riding a few times a week help at all in my weight loss?


 You're about the same height and weight of a riding instructor I know and she rides EVERY day, lives on a farm. At the end of the day, food makes the difference. But you should still ride because it's fun. Y'know, eat fewer slices. Exercise some restraint when given the option for fast food. Ask mom to make a salad with the pizza or something. Check sugar on juice you drink or stuff like that, because lots of times you don't realize that you could be eating something that's worse than just going for a bowl of ice cream. Best way to lose weight is not to constantly restrict yourself, but become somewhat familiar with calories, portion sizes, appropriate times to eat (like, when you're hungry) and rations of vegetables vs meat and grains. A colorful plate at lunch and dinner, pretty easy to do as it's a visual thing. Go in with the idea of getting seconds instead of setting yourself up with a crap ton on your plate.


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## tinyliny

I did not find menopause to make things any easier. Only harder. as far as losing weight is concerned. Not impossible, just harder.


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## jaydee

Golden Horse said:


> For some of us it’s more complicated than that...wheat appears to be a gateway drug for me, and it does make me bloat.
> 
> The more we understand about this, the less we understand it seems! Every person needs to find out what their ‘triggers’ are, and I really believe that is both physical and psychological.


 Those are different 'problems' to gaining weight by eating bread
If you get bloating after eating wheat based products then chances are you have some degree of gluten allergy so should avoid it
If the 'addiction' type thing is a problem then also avoid it as eating 1 slice of bread won't hurt you in terms of calories but eating 10 slices will, especially if you're putting high calorie spreads or fillings into it
This is an interesting article on why food addiction is a 'real' thing
https://foodaddiction.com/resources/science-of-food-addiction/


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## Whinnie

In August of 2017 I weighed 162. I am 5 foot even and small boned. The culprit was a combination of age slowing my metabolism, menopause and being on an anti-depressant for 4 years. I gained 50 pounds in the space of 15 years. I tried everything I knew, exercising regularly, being careful (I though) of what I ate, following different diets in books and the like and at the most would lose 7 pounds. When I became aware of feeling hungry about 15 minutes after I had eaten something (which meant I was always eating) I decided I needed help to lose weight. I did not want one of the programs where you buy all the meals, although if you can afford it and/or don't like to cook they can help. I knew that if given the meals I eventually would need to know how to prepare meals for myself or buy stuff from these programs forever. The program I went with allowed me to lose 52 pounds in 6 months and I didn't change my physical routine to do anymore than I had been doing, which was mainly walking the (Large) dog 3 times a day and riding about 3 times a week.

In a nutshell, the program called for eating every 2.5 hours with protein included in 4 of the 6 meals. Or actually, 3 meals and 3 snacks. All white bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes and anything with refined (white) flour as off the menu. Also salt. And told to drink between 6 and 8 true cups of water a day. Only water counted, so coffee was an extra. I was given a list of appropriate fruits, vegetables and meats that I could prepare and the amounts that constituted a serving. I could create my own menu. The gist of the diet was that your metabolism needs to be re-set to burn fat, and your carbs are minimized to force your body to burn excess fat. The diet kicked off with what was called a "cleanse" or metabolism setter. It was eat all the meat and green leafy raw vegetables you any anytime you want for 3 days. Your choice red meat or poultry, but you had to pick one or the other to be consistent. Meat had to be lean. After this cleanse, I went to the actual "diet" which was just picking the approved foods and amounts, spacing my eating so I didn't get hungry because of blood sugar plunging and weighing regularly (3X a week). I lost 7 pounds the first week and a total of 15 pounds the first 4 weeks. I went on to average about 7 pounds a month for the rest of the 6 month period.

A digital scale helps because it shows weight loss in tenths of a pound so it can feel encouraging to see a little but at a time. I haven't gained any weight back so far.


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## SueC

tinyliny said:


> @SilverMaple
> you sound to me as if you are not consuming ENOUGH calories. You may be setting your metabolism too low by such a consistently low calorie diet.


This can definitely happen - body in "famine: need to conserve energy" mode. That's a survival mode.

I just heard an interesting programme where they looked at the genetic component of the basal metabolic rate (twin studies, etc). Some people appear to be very genetically set to "conserve energy" mode, others to "burn it" mode. The take-home message directed at the thin people was not to be smug or judgemental around overweight people, because it's not just about willpower or good habits, although good habits clearly help.

Despite this genetic component ("easy keepers" also exist amongst humans!), we can still all tweak our basal metabolic rates (metabolic rates in resting state) upwards to a greater or lesser extent (individual variation, muscle mass gained etc) by putting on more muscle, and obviously increase our metabolic rates over and above the basal rate temporarily with exercise; and the more hours, the better (but not to the point of exhaustion or injury or never, ever wanting to exercise again...).

Teasing out genetic versus environmental is complex, especially when you start looking at epigenetics. What our mothers ate when pregnant with us, and their exercise patterns, and what we ate in childhood and our exercise patterns then, and even trauma, etc, all can have lasting effects on the way our genes are expressed. Again, this doesn't mean nothing can change or people should give up, but it explains that yes, it can be really difficult, for a number of reasons. The food environment of Western countries is also vastly unhelpful, with over-processed foods often both cheaper and more pushed than healthy foods.




> Foods like cheese and nuts are very calorie dense, for the actual space they consume in your stomach. Don't offer necessarily as sense of satiation.


There's probably a lot of individual variation around satiety. Generally, blood levels of various substances required by the body (blood glucose, fatty acids, amino acids etc) have a greater bearing on satiety than how full the stomach is. It takes time for the food you eat to start affecting the blood levels of whatever you were running low on when you got hungry, so eating slowly, and very consciously, and preferably with your undivided attention instead of doing something else at the same time, are all recommended - and obviously, eating something thoroughly nutritious, not just empty calories. Blood glucose is one of the quicker things to bounce back after a meal - proteins take longer to digest than carbohydrates. 

I once ate 13 donuts in one sitting at age 23, before I stopped because I felt sick. Personal record; "highly strung horse" type young person, expensive to feed. ;-) They're an empty calorie food, and won't give you very much except more blood glucose, which then gets stored as glycogen and fat if not used. So the satiety signal doesn't arrive, if your body is after protein etc. There's a difference between feeling properly satisfied and feeling stuffed and too sick to keep eating...

That's where bread comes in too, which many people are talking about on this thread - especially the very refined stuff that's popular mainstream fare. If you're going to eat bread, make it good-quality wholemeal bread, with nutritionally useful seeds (sunflower, pepita, sesame etc) added for extra essential amino and fatty acids, minerals etc. I'm a foodie and bake all our own (breadmaker makes it easy) from scratch using locally grown wholemeal flours - and I vary my grains - ryebread more often than wheat, as we get plenty of that already from our wholemeal pasta, or when I make (generally wholemeal) pizzas. We also eat oats (porridge, muesli) as much as we eat wheat.

I have to tailor my carbohydrate intake to my activity levels. Less oats on rest days and more hay! ;-) If I don't, I end up wearing excess carbohydrate as fat around my umbilicus (a common place for that human "camel hump"!). Always plenty of fresh vegetables, and getting enough protein at every meal, rather than overeating it once a day or several times a week. Stir-fries are great for getting lots of vegies packed with nutrients, and some lean protein too.

Personally, nuts and cheese give me satiety really quickly - unlike donuts, as per above example, and any sort of refined carbohydrate, which we mostly avoid (but not totally).

I've got a theory that the human body keeps saying, "More, more" when it's missing even one factor, and that as long as you keep eating food that doesn't contain whatever is missing, it's going to keep sending signals. You can get something called specific hunger, where you naturally get drawn towards foods that are rich in whatever your body is currently short on - but that system doesn't always work for people (it can get broken or not be developed in childhood), and also, the refined foods are always going to give you more calories than actual nutrients (I think that's the major nutritional problem in modern Western countries), so it really pays to steer clear, become a foodie, and get really interested in healthy, nutritious eating (which is also delicious - tastes will adjust, and you'll wonder what you ever saw in a donut, as I do now - boysenberry flan, carrot walnut spice cake etc are so much yummier!).

Here's some photos of meals we like to eat.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/redmoonsanctuary/albums/72157687753093115

I'm really interested in healthy eating and regularly do healthy recipes for a hippie magazine here in Australia. 


Best wishes to everyone with their food and health. I really enjoyed reading this thread!


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## QtrBel

Another thing to keep in mind is source and whether GMO or not. Organic, heirloom can make a positive difference as well. Many of these complaints and allergies diddn't come up until the vaccine load increased and the food source changed to GMO. It is all a part of a larger picture including individual genetics. What works for me may not work for you but as many have pointed out moving toward a healthier diet and limiting or completely cutting out foods that trigger is often a good first step.


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## Golden Horse

QtrBel said:


> It is all a part of a larger picture including individual genetics. works for me may not work for you but as many have pointed out moving toward a healthier diet and limiting or completely cutting out foods that trigger is often a good first step.


So agree with this, the one thing people need to remember is we are all individuals and you need to work with your body to make it lose weight. 

I believe that clean eating is a good base for us all to start, avoid anything with many many ingredients, move to a more natural diet.

There is ever growing evidence that those of us who really really struggle to reduce aren’t ‘weak willed’ aren’t gluttons, we are survivors, highly efficient converters and storers of food, we are programmed to squeeze every calorie until it screams.

There is also the research looking at gut bacteria and how they work, and how transplanting that bacteria has strange affects, the “naturally skinny” gain weight if given ‘fat persons’ bugs, while the fat start to lose. Lots of interesting research to come. On the same lines they ran a test on pairs of people, having them eat exactly the same things, at the same time, and testing to see how the body reacted. They found that the reactions to different foods was totally different between the pairs, and they could make diet suggestions based on that.

While it IS as simple as take in less fuel than the energy you burn, it is also far more complicated than that.


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## SueC

Highly amusing blog post on the topic here this morning:

https://borninprovidence.com/2019/02/01/betty-crocker-ford/

It'll give you a laugh - and endorphins are good for you!


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