Whats more important diet or exercise?

CorvusCorax77

i'm certain it depends on what you're doing wrong to start with.

I have always exercised, so for me, obviously it was diet.

But I am sure there are people out there who eat healthy and are thin, but can't bench an empty oly bar. For them, it is exercise.

kingtermite

I'm not reading through all the posts to know how well this has been answered already, but I'll chime in with my own personal experience.

I used to always think exercise was king. I realize now that I thought that because it was the easier thing for me. I got a FitBit last year to help me track calories out. Logging here helped me track calories in.

One thing I learned is that Calories out was never the problem (for me). It was, by far, my diet that was the problem.


Everybody is different, but generally speaking I think most people will find that the diet is the biggest issue they deal with. Exercise is important, but diet is what's really killing most people. Every time I've ever worked hard to lose weight in the past, I concentrated on exercise, and I always hit a wall (fairly quickly). This time, I've worked hard at both, but really, REALLY paid attention to my eating habits. This time, for the first time IN MY LIFE, it's working. Currently down 112 pounds in just less than a year. Only have about 30-40 lbs still to go.

Based on my own personal experience, I'd agree with previous poster, 2013sk, that diet is 80%, exercise is 20%.

jonnythan

Diet.

Body mass is the most significant predictor of health problems. Body mass is controlled through diet.

Exercise is great. Really really great. But all the exercise in the world won't make up for a terrible diet.

misssiri

You guys are forgetting that diets are unsustainable long-term no matter how "reasonable" they may seem. People eventually fall to temptation no matter what - I mean honestly, how many people do you guys know who lost a lot of weight actually kept it off for years? Even if they kept the bulk of it off i can guarantee that they did eventually regain some of their weight and if they didn't, they are adhering to a regular exercise regimen.

I think you mean "calorie deficit", not "diet". Diet just means you choose your food for a purpose rather than having no control.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my diet, why would this be unsustainable.

If you aren't enjoying your diet, I think you are doing it wrong.

I think it's bigger than diet or calorie deficit, it's way of eating. Also, as go kaleo said, you can't out-diet inactivity. And for metabolic health, exercise is where it's at, even if it's just doing some walking. If I had to choose between "diet" or being active, I would pick being active.

bio01979

Diet for short-term weight loss, exercise for long-term - every single time I've stopped exercising or attempted to lose weight through diet alone, I regain whatever weight loss within a month or so. In contrast, if I run, I can keep the weight off for up to a year.

this

when I can be even a little bit active the weight just falls off, but when I can't I balloon

I was getting very minimal exercise in (light walking around at work) and eating a little worse than after the injury (I was eating a lot of candy because that is all we were allowed on the floor at work) and I was losing weight. When I got injured and ended up being basically sedentary, my diet didn't change (other than I wasn't eating candy all day at work lol) eating the same but no activity and I ballooned - put on like 10lbs a month

I know for me and my messed up metabolism exercise seems to be the key for me

AnvilHead

Funny I see this today. While I was at work today the doc kept saying that "diet is more important. You can work out all you want, but until you eat less food you will not really loose the weight."

It's worth mentioning that you can create the deficit through exercise - but, just like eating, it requires dedication, consistency and focus. For it to work, it's going to require a couple things:

1) Your calorie burn calculations are accurate.
2) You burn that amount of calories every day.

If either of the above aren't in place, neither is your deficit. Have a few days where you skip your workouts for whatever reason and you've created a situation in which you could be eating at maintenance - or even a surplus. If you're counting on the exercise for your deficit and you're not consistent with your workouts, don't wonder why the weight isn't coming off. Also, in regards to 1) above, keep in mind that even a heart rate monitor is only giving you an estimate of how many calories you burn, based upon an algorithm which may or may not be close to the actual figure - so your deficit may not even be what you think it is.

It also requires that your exercise routine is pretty intense to create an appreciable deficit. A short run, a half-hour on the treadmill, a 45-minute weight routine or doing an exercise video doesn't burn a whole lot of calories (despite some people thinking that they burned 1200 calories in a 45-minute Zumba class or whatever). It's much easier to create a deficit through lower calorie intake than via expenditure.

Bottom line - exercise is a good thing for a lot of reasons...but it requires a lot of hard work, a lot of time and steely, unwavering discipline if you're going to count on it as your sole source of creating a caloric deficit to lose weight.

lavaughan69

I found it somewhat overwhelming to focus on both diet and exercise all at once so I concentrated on reducing my calorie intake first and kept exercise to walking. I added three days a week of walking on my lunch hour. It's not much, but it's more than I was doing before. I then added a couple days of 30 day shred to the routine, but when life became jammed packed this month with activities I dropped Jillian from my routine. I find that I put too much pressure on myself to lose weight when I exercise too much...it's like I'm looking for weight loss miracles like a 4 lbs drop in a week or something...silly I know, but still, I find the weight loss process less stressful when I'm not trying to change everything at once. :-)

JeffseekingV

Put it this way. Running 3 miles in 30 min is approx. 380 calories. For me that's a good effort. A krispy kreme jelly donut is around 290 calories. Can be eaten in 5 seconds flat.

In this perspective, it's easier to see how changes in diet has the potential to have greater effect on weight loss than trying to exercise your way to weight loss.

highervibes

diet, hands down. Exercise is a good way to be able to eat more and keep your lbm though. If I had to pick one it would definitely be diet.

Vailara

I think it really depends, but as a general rule I'd guess that exercise is most important for health, and diet is most important for weight loss.

El_Cunado

I think it really depends, but as a general rule I'd guess that exercise is most important for health, and diet is most important for weight loss.

I agree with this^

lauraleighsm

Diet. I have exercised consistently for over a year and haven't lost more then a pound or two. I know why. I like to eat. I have yet to pair diet and exercise well together.

starvinkevin

In conclusion, you need diet to lose weight, exercise to maintain it for any decent time.

AnvilHead

In conclusion, IN MY OPINION you need diet to lose weight, exercise to maintain it for any decent time.

Fixed it for you.

missADS1981

both at the same time.

if you work out it doesnt give you a "get out of eating good" card. so many people work out to eat poorly, why?!

your workouts will never show true results if you dont fuel your body with the clean, good foods it needs to rebuild and repair.

so my answer - both and even more focus in the kitchen.

CorvusCorax77

I see people in here yapping about gaining weight back.... I just want to say:

I lost 50 lbs
I gained 15 back.

But in that time I also gained 8 lbs of lean body mass. My measurements at my weight now are smaller than they were when I was at this weight on my way down.... so there's more to this than just the number on the scale. I don't consider myself any sort of failure because the scale headed back up. Sure I put on some more body fat when I gained, but nothing that makes me feel like anything I did was a waste of time.