Diet vs exercise
ashleyminc
Posts: 8 Member
The age old question, diet or exercise for best results. I know either or can provide success and both combined provide even better results. I want to know what your experience has been based on the above. What has worked best for you?
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definitely eating at a caloric deficit. Exercise helps me maintain that deficit and stay moving and healthy and allow me to eat a bit more than if I didn't but absolutely 100% diet is key.0
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I like to combine the two so that I can eat a bit more, also I think that some form of resistance training is good, not necessarily for losing the pounds but to retain lean muscle and look better once the flab is gone! I am preaching to my own choir right now, I have been more focused on the diet aspect (even then not as well as I need to).0
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Diet.0
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For me, doing both is by far the easiest and most enjoyable way, but you can lose just by controlling your diet, and you can similarly lose by being careful not to increase calories but increasing exercise (although the latter is usually more challenging and slower).0
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Diet. I lost more weight through diet than exercise. That being said, I like exercise and when I do it I get to eat more since I've burned more calories. If you are just starting out I suggest getting a handle on diet first. Once you get a couple of weeks of logging and eating at reduced calories I would then add exercise if you are so inclined.0
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I did both, but it was far easier for me to eat 1000 calories less per day than to burn a legit 1000 a day.0
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I do both.. mostly diet, I workout for 1/2 an hour everyday. I am a busy mom of 2, I try to get more exercise in when i can.0
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Weight loss requires that you eat less than you burn. I am a big believer in the saying, "You can't out exercise a bad diet." That said, walking five miles a day helps me by enhancing my mood, suppressing my appetite and giving me a little wiggle room for an occasional treat. Strength training, while increasing my appetite, helps me to retain muscle mass and remain strong and healthy. Since I am motivated to lose weight by my health, fitness is a necessary component for my journey. But for just seeing the number go down on the scale, you can do it much faster by decreasing your calorie intake than by increasing your calories burned with exercise.0
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You can't out exercise a bad diet
In fact in general if you exercise you need to eat more, and feel more hungry so do...even if you're eating "healthy"
So really it's 90% diet0 -
Diet for weight loss; exercise for fitness. I eat all my calories burned by exercise.0
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Diet will always trump anything you can do in the gym for fat loss.0
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If you mean fitness, then both are important. If you mean simply fat loss, then it could be either or both. Whatever method keeps you in a calorie deficit.
Personally, I would never stick to as few calories as I'd need to eat without exercise, which makes exercise very important for my weight loss.0 -
Diet to loose weight... Fitness is for life...0
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Diet for weight loss, exercise for the win. This is not an either-or proposition. I can tighten up on my calories best I can but it can take a month or more for the results to show. When I increase my exercise, I see results in days. I am stronger, more flexible, with greater endurance and a skip in my step.
I do temporarily increase water weight from exercise. But exercise feels better than restricting calories.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »If you mean fitness, then both are important. If you mean simply fat loss, then it could be either or both. Whatever method keeps you in a calorie deficit.
Personally, I would never stick to as few calories as I'd need to eat without exercise, which makes exercise very important for my weight loss.
Exactly this.
For me, exercise is very important. LISS cardio gives me extra calories and suppresses my appetite. I could lose weight without exercise but nobody would want to be around me because I'd be a terribly unhappy person.0 -
diet/nutrition so i can stay healthy and lose weight, but exercise so i can eat more food and be happy not hangry0
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Both, of course!
You don't have to do both, but it's helpful and healthier to do both.
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calorie deficit for weight loss, resistance training for strength, and cardio for endurance.
While strength training and cardio contribute to the deficit they aren't required and for me make up ~20% of my total deficit so in the grand scheme of things they only play a minor role in weight loss for me.0 -
Diet to lose weight. Exercise is not necessary for weight loss. All of mine was done without exercise! I am, by nature, lazy, and with heavy asthma, exercise was hard because my lungs would give out long before the rest of my body. So I focused on adjusting my calories in first. In January, i took a walking class for my phys ed credit, and that helped me at least get into walking. I will probably never be a marathon runner, but at least I can walk the same speed and distance my husband does when he goes for a walk, and that's what counted for me! But my weight loss was done entirely by watching my calories in, so any calories earned from exercise are bonus. And normally used for Pocky and can of soda. XD
Losing weight is all about burning more calories than you consume. You can do that by adjusting your calories you consume with your diet, by adding exercise and burning more, or a combination of the two. Most people go for option three, but all three options are perfectly valid. Granted, exercise is good for other reasons, like keeping your heart and lungs in shape so you'll be healthy for longer, but if you don't want to or can't exercise, you can still lose weight.0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »
Well, if you walked 30 miles everyday I suppose you could eat whatever you wanted. There is an exception to every rule. I just don't know of too many people that have time to run over a marathon everyday. At my 3 mph pace that would only take me 10 hours everyday. But hey, I could be eating pizza as I'm walking. 0 -
Both. I do exercise because it's good for my heart/overall health. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I also exercise so I can eat that mini-Snickers bar in the evening, or the pizza on the weekend. No, I don't get all the pizza calories back in exercise, but even adding in 200 gives me some wiggle room.0
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I put calorie counting at the center & just use exercise activity or macronutrient ratios to 'boost' things more in my favor. The exercise calories give me better deficits & the protein grams I eat help me feel satiated longer and preserve my lean muscle mass as much as possible. But with out a solid working game plan on the calories my weight would maintain or gradually increase, it's that simple.0
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Exercise helps health but the ONLY way I drop pounds is with reduced eating plan. I had gastric bypass 13 yrs. ago and lost from 252 to 152 in 6 months. After first year you must exercise to maintain and eat 5-6 small meals with really balanced nutrients to keep from gaining again. So many people think this surgery is a free pass but I must keep a mindful eating plan all the time to keep from going up again. MyFitnessPal helps me SO much because it is too easy for me to eat mindlessly. I am 73, diabetic since 1992, and my husband and I try to walk at least 30 min a day, and often walk for an hour or more 4 times a week. Th effort never ends.0
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Exercise is important for the body, very important, but it's not all that important for weight loss. being very active in the gym or whereever you do your exercise will most certainly speed up your way to a healthy body but eating right and eating under but near your daily calorie requirements will make you lose pounds.
I think diet is absolutely 100% required, and exercise is preferred but not a requirement to lose weight.
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I put calorie counting at the center & just use exercise activity or macronutrient ratios to 'boost' things more in my favor. The exercise calories give me better deficits & the protein grams I eat help me feel satiated longer and preserve my lean muscle mass as much as possible. But with out a solid working game plan on the calories my weight would maintain or gradually increase, it's that simple.
This is what I do as well! I realized after a lot of trial and error, that my workouts really only burned MAYBE 175-200 calories....(and i didn't even enjoy it). I was eating well over that. Once i adjusted how many calories I consumed and didn't really worry that much about exercise, weight came off. Now, my exercise is walking when I feel like it and I enjoy it!0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »
Well, if you walked 30 miles everyday I suppose you could eat whatever you wanted. There is an exception to every rule. I just don't know of too many people that have time to run over a marathon everyday. DeguelloTex wrote: »
Well, if you walked 30 miles everyday I suppose you could eat whatever you wanted. There is an exception to every rule. I just don't know of too many people that have time to run over a marathon everyday.
My husband walks 25-30 miles every day with work and still can't eat what ever he wants!
For me, both diet and exercise are of equal importance. It's about being a bit more active day to day and eating a bit less every day.0 -
For me the key was exercise. I went from maintaining 152 lbs at 1500 cals while sedentary, to eating 1700, being very active and now down to 125. So I got here by eating slightly more but moving much much more.0
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Diet mostly, I think....but exercise certainly helps. Besides, it makes everything work better.0
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