What Matters Most for Weight Loss? Diet or Exercise?

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello everyone! 🤗

I hope you're having a great day! 

At first glance, dieting seems to be the obvious answer if we want to lose weight. 

We gain weight when we take in more calories than we need. Therefore, reducing calorie intake would naturally be the key to weight loss. However, this is usually not sustainable. After some time, people tend to revert to their old habits. Even worse, the sense of deprivation leads them to eat more, causing them to put back all the weight they had initially lost.

In short, the safest and most sustainable way to reduce weight is a combination of caloric restriction and regular exercise in the long term. The total number of calories you burn for energy each day is your total daily energy expenditure. In order to lose weight, the amount of calories you burn should be higher than your calorie intake.

By eating the same amount while exercising more, a sustainable energy deficit (where the calories consumed are less than calories burnt) can be created. Regular exercise can also help increase your metabolic rate so you’ll burn those calories a lot more efficiently.

Make good food choices: 

Your diet is also crucial. Fill a quarter of your plate with wholegrains, a quarter with proteins, and the remaining half with the recommended two servings of fruits and vegetables per day for a well-balanced meal. 

Pick a Suitable Activity: 

Working out can be tough on your body, especially if you are not used to it. The heavier you are, the more pressure you put on your lower limb joints. Ease into a workout program, perhaps in the pool which minimizes the impact on your knees and joints. When you get more comfortable with exercise, try other activities such as jogging, brisk walking or cycling.

Even if weight management is not your goal, there are also many health benefits to a well-balanced diet and regular physical activity. If you are overweight, you are at risk for pre-diabetes. But start on a combination of moderate physical activity and a sensible diet now, and you can lower your risk for diabetes and other diseases. 

 

What do you think? What matters most for weight loss? 

I look forward to reading your comments. 😎

[Heybales]

Matters most for Weight loss, eating less than you burn - so diet.

For adhering to a diet level, burning more may make it much easier to adhere to a certain eating level.

Burning more from increased daily activity, or exercise.

Rather eat 1500 and be sedentary, or eat 2000 and be active in several ways?

Most are trying to lose weight because they enjoy eating more obviously, so there is a way to support that to some extent.

Obviously one can always eat more than they burn and gain fat back, so some changes are required in long term diet.

Some people find it easier to make diet changes if it's for a good short-term goal - supporting exercise in some way, either providing energy for a good hard workout, knowing they are making recovery better, or perhaps allowing body to improve in some desired way.

Difficult connection there too - if the workouts don't happen, the diet is poor.

But perhaps combined with long-term goal it can be kept - supporting a healthy body for longevity. But most people have a problem doing short-term changes to support a long-term goal, but always good to try and have it out there.

Exercise of course could be poorly viewed as a means to an end - losing weight or getting to goal weight, and therefore incentive once reached is lost, and exercise gets pushed aside instead of kept to the forefront as important part of life.

There are some movements that have been around for accepting any body shape as healthy, and usually exercise goes along with that.

So overweight but eating very nutritious foods and exercise - health markers are decent, but not always. Seems genetics is huge factor there.

Same way someone can be healthy weight and good food and exercise - and have high bad markers for LDL, triglycerides, blood sugar, ect.

Not many studies run on otherwise overweight but healthy subjects as to long term morbidity, but plenty of studies showing that losing weight to healthy level is the main factor to improve diseases and problems, even without great diet or exercise. In general, genetics makes a difference of course.

Exercise does seem to help with the whole experience though.

[emili]

I think for weight loss- how and what you eat matters.. but what matters most is commitment.  All the best intentions for diet and exercise are negated if there isn't a long term commitment to change. 

I think exercise gives people a reason to eat well and eating well gives people a reason to exercise- but commitment and grit lead to sustainable, long term wins.   

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello @Heybales, @emili. It's great to see you around! 

Thank you very much for sharing these great inputs! 

I also agree with you @emili, I believe that commitment is what matters most.

[Linrab]

This explanation is exactly what I need.  I tend to do specific diets ie: Keto, low carb, fasting etc., giving up certain foods to loose weight when I gain . However I have learned (the hard way) to be more active  and burn more calories then I take in!  When I do this I can eat all foods in moderation and not deprive myself!

[cathm]

While both diet and exercise are important for weight loss, it's generally easier to manage your calorie intake by modifying your diet than it is to burn significantly more calories through exercise. 

Once I saw the weight on the scale start to drop, it automatically increased my motivation to start exercising.  

[Gershon]

Jack LaLanne used to say "Exercise is king and diet is queen. Together, they make a kingdom."

[cathm]

Great saying @Gershon 

I love Jack LaLanne!

[Linrab]

and he  lived to be 99.

[weighmedown]

Definitely one of my motivations as well. Once you see that scale drop even a pound feels amazing.

[DavideFitbit]

Very well put, thank you for sharing @Heybales! Every person is different and the method can vary as you mentioned, but it's generally more effective to adhere to a food plan than increasing the intensity of the workout. A combination of both would be ideal! 😀

[DavideFitbit]

Definitely, @happymangle!  😁