Diet Matters More than Exercise?

SCoil123

I personally have to work out. For me it is about a healthier lifestyle and getting fit. When I work out I am naturally drawn to better choices with my diet too. Plus working out also raises my TDEE so I can enjoy eating more without triggering past ED issues feeling overly restricted. Also, I'm not interested in getting "skinny fat" so I know that I wouldn't be happy at my goal weight if I got there and had no muscle definition. These are just the reasons why I need to work out.

At the end of the day all you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit but the details on how we get there and what motivates each of us will be individual.

moesis

zyxst wrote: »

My main exercise is walking. For me, it's easier to not eat 500 calories than it is to exercise off 500 calories.

Burning 500 calories is no joke!

lemurcat12

janejellyroll wrote: »

Weight loss comes from a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit can be made larger or even created just through activity, but you can also lose weight without doing any exercise.

I always focused on my total calories in versus calories out while losing weight. Exercise was a portion of that, but the important part was just having that balance.

Exactly this.

Most people, especially just starting out, aren't going to burn that much, so adding, say, 250 calories of exercise isn't going to necessarily make a huge difference, especially if you are overeating already (and gaining weight) or not monitoring and prone to eat more when you exercise (I deserve it!). Cutting food intake therefore may seem easier or more efficient. For me, though, both exercise and cutting calories have been important. (And that's because it's the calorie deficit that matters.)

CSARdiver

There is more potential to error on the caloric intake than it is on the output, which is why many state this. This is also why the medical community does not generally recommend exercise and will focus on diet. The reasoning is that people (Americans in particular) will go too hard at the gym initially and then stop, or will have an increase in appetite stimulation from the increased activity and eat over their allotted calories.

The majority experiencing long term success will incorporate both - monitoring of diet and routine exercise.

spambutz

Lost 70 lbs due to biking, but generally the diet way is considered easier, mostly because exercising takes up a lot of time, time that not everybody has to spare

colors_fade

As a general statement of fact, sure, diet matters more than exercise for the purposes of losing weight.

But that's really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to weight loss.

"have you had success with low intensity training?"

Walking, yes.

"Always looking for a balance right?"

I think it's more about finding out what works for you, and finding something you can sustain long-term, so you can reach your goals.

If "weight loss" is all you care about, then a calorie deficit is all you need, and low-intensity exercise may help you maintain that calorie deficit over time.

If "fat loss" and having a "toned body" are additional desires, then we're talking about a different set of goals that require a different strategy to attain. At that point, low-intensity exercise and a calorie-deficit are going to need some help.

red99ryder

rosebarnalice wrote: »

For me, exercise is an absolutely essential part of my healthy lifestyle--not just for the calorie burn but for the overall "fitness mindset."

When I am swimming regularly, I just FEEL more like an athlete rather than a schlub. . . and that makes me WANT to choose wholesome and nutritious foods. I actually eat LESS when I'm swimming regularly because there's a part of me that looks at a donut and says, "ooh, not while I'm 'in training.'" In training for what? Life, I guess!

You had to bring up donuts lol


Good luck OP

colors_fade

PerfectFit30 wrote: »

In the past I exercised way too hard, and I ate ... too much because I felt hungry.

I've been in exactly that situation: lifting hard with high intensity and being very hungry on a deficit. It's a difficult thing to exercise with high intensity several days per week and maintain a calorie deficit.

I've made changes in the past three months that have really helped with this, and have allowed me to not only continue with my high-intensity lifting, but increase the number of workouts I do each week. I've upped my workouts from 3-days per week to 5-days per week, and at the same time I've also become less hungry, due to shifting my diet to a different set of foods to help with satiety. I still maintain a calorie deficit.

The *kind* of food you eat can help maintain satiety and stave off hunger. This is why you'll hear people talk about more than calorie deficit. Everyone will yell that you only need a calorie deficit, and while this is technically true, it doesn't paint the whole picture. What they don't tell you is that some foods are more filling than others, than some foods will fuel your workouts better than others, and that some foods will limit insulin spikes better than others. All of these facts about various food types actually can make a difference in how you feel and how well fueled you are for working out.

So, sure, calorie deficit is all that's necessary to lose weight. But - and this is a big but - eating foods that spike insulin levels, or foods that do not satisfy your appetite for long periods of time, can make it difficult to maintain that deficit. This can lead to binge eating and overeating, from hunger, as you have found out. And at that point you're no longer in a deficit and all your hard work eating limited calories is now wasted.

Fibers and fats can slow digestion and increase satiety. Low glycemic carbs digest slower and still give you the energy you need for high intensity workouts. They also lower your blood sugar, limiting spikes and keeping your insulin levels low, so you stay in "fat burning" mode longer (fat burning shuts off when insulin levels are high).

Now, this is all stuff that we know intuitively. We know eating a "balanced diet" is better for us that eating Twinkies all day. But there's actual science behind this intuition. I mean, think about it: eat 2,000 calories of Twinkies today, or eat 2,000 calories of chicken, broccoli and brown rice. You tell me, after a few days, which diet is going to satisfy you and fuel your workouts better? I have good money that you'll be starving on the Twinkie diet. Same calories, but same results? I think not.

Francl27

I lost the best with just walking and a bit of lifting as exercise. I just put 'being active' in the same category as exercise. A lot of people don't purposely exercise, but they have active lives, and it's just fine. But I need the extra calories that I get for being active.

But yeah, too much exercise and I'm hungrier and it's way too easy to eat more than what it burns.

CharlesScott78

Lot of good posts above. What I have always found to be true is that your diet (meaning what you eat - not some diet program) is 90% of controlling your weight. Exercise is a nice complement to creating a calorie deficit - but the heavy lifting comes from how many calories you consume. Exercise is 100% if your FITNESS. Balance, strength endurance. In my personal experience, focus on diet for weight management and exercise for physical fitness.

You can eat in 5 minutes what will take an hour of hard work to exercise off. That is a losing equation if you ask me. If you depend on burning 800 calories a day via exercise so you can eat more - that probably works for some people, but it always seemed risky to me. What if I was injured, what if I got sick or just missed some days for whatever reason. Now I am accustom to eating many more calories than I need in the absence of working out.

I am not anti-exercise - I just think the focus of exercise is mainly fitness and just complementary to weight loss. There are a million great reasons to exercise.

Charles

sy_19440

For me, getting the nutrition down was the priority first and then the exercise. I exercise because I feel better afterwards than more of a way to lose weight or to create a higher calorie deficit.

genpopadopolous

In the beginning, I worried about diet almost exclusively and just tried to up my steps every week a little.

Now, 2.5 years in- I find my fitness to be the driving force. Eating better means my workouts are hit harder. Losing weight helps drop my mile time. Losing fat allows my muscles to be seen.

It's been a very strange shift for me. I used to say I wouldn't even run while being chased, I would just let them kill me. Now I'm training with a half marathon in mind.

colors_fade

genpopadopolous wrote: »

Now, 2.5 years in- I find my fitness to be the driving force. Eating better means my workouts are hit harder. Losing weight helps drop my mile time. Losing fat allows my muscles to be seen.

There is a synergy at work here, and this is what I've found too. I'm more mindful of my diet on the days I workout. This is a big reason why I think it's so important to exercise while losing weight (and also so you'll lose more fat and less lean tissue). It's not just the fitness benefit of working out that is important: it's the relationship between working out and food. If you are the type of person who becomes more mindful of your food because you're working out, then that's just another great reason to exercise.

AliceDark

zyxst wrote: »

My main exercise is walking. For me, it's easier to not eat 500 calories than it is to exercise off 500 calories.

Exactly this. I'm already relatively lean, so in order to burn 500 extra calories, I have to run 5 miles. Doing that every day would be a terribly unhealthy plan, and I'd guarantee that I'd get injured eventually. Creating that deficit primarily via food intake (with a little additional exercise thrown in throughout the week) is a much healthier, more sustainable plan for me.

Janneson27

PerfectFit30 wrote: »

Exercise IS important, but I've heard I've heard it time and time again that weight doesn't come from exercise AS MUCH as it comes from the depletion of calories that you just never ingest in the first place.
Do any of you subscribe to this and and have you had success with low intensity training? In the past I exercised way too hard, and I ate ... too much because I felt hungry.

Always looking for a balance right?

Different things work for different people. I tried biking, running and jogging but what ultimately worked for me was when my car broke down and I started walking to work (It's just down the street). It's roughly 15 to 20 minutes one way. I log it as 40 minutes a day. That really helped me. My car is working again but I just choose to continue walking because it made me feel great.

bwogilvie

I'm living proof that you can exercise a lot and not lose weight, or even gain it. Between 2008 and 2012 I did a lot of bicycling, around 50-60 miles a week on average, and did a fair amount of walking and hiking too. My weight was fairly stable and I gained a bit toward the end. In 2013 and 2014 I kept exercising but used MFP to track calories eaten and expended, and lost 65 lb.

What matters is the deficit. For about six months, I ran a calorie deficit of about 600 cal/day. After six months, I cut back to around 450 cal/day; in the second year, I cut back farther but maintained a deficit of around 250-300 cal/day until I hit my goal.

Exercise kept me feeling good and helped me avoid losing too much muscle. It also helped me hit my deficits: I "ate back" exercise calories because I needed the energy and protein, but it was more satisfying for me to eat 2000 calories, with 500 exercise calories, than to eat only 1500 calories.

NancyYale

I lost the weight with minimal exercise. What exercise I added toward the end was for health and stamina, not weight loss.

trigden1991

Exercise is for body composition and fitness.
Diet is for weight loss/gain.