Which is MOST important in weight loss: diet or exercise?

Rockstar_JILL

Diet 80%....exercise 20%....

kelleybean1

Diet for weight loss, but who wants to be skinny-fat? Exercise is important too.

susanrechter

diet=weight loss.
exercise=strength

drkdani

Weight loss happens in the Kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.

Not true. Nutrition happens in the kitchen--fitness can happen in the gym or home-- I do at home programs aswell as the nutrtion guides a combo of both is the key. I am a fitness coach

moeisreal

Excersise, Diet plays a role but if you workout HARD and diet with okay effort you will see much better results then if you Diet HARD, and workout with okay effort. When you do both HARD, that is when you reach god mode my friend.

Wildcatbadge1

mostly diet, no matter what your age. the older you get, the more diet counts.
If you're serious, it's important to measure (everything). Regular blood work,
weight, BMI, etc. The most important exercise for weight loss is aerobic,
at least 30 minutes 3x per week.

Huffdogg

In some ways, it's both. While diet plays a greater role in creating and maintaining the calorie deficit, in real-life terms, those who lose weight via diet alone have a 90%+ long-term failure rate. And 90% of those who lose substantial weight and keep it off longer than two years average 50-60 min of exercise, 5-6 days per week.

Whoa where does THAT statistic come from? An hour a day 5-6 days a week? I'd like to see that one backed up. Most people I know who have lost substantial weight and kept it off are on 3 day/week programs. It's hard to believe that the prevailing mass is Double that.

BeachIron

In some ways, it's both. While diet plays a greater role in creating and maintaining the calorie deficit, in real-life terms, those who lose weight via diet alone have a 90%+ long-term failure rate. And 90% of those who lose substantial weight and keep it off longer than two years average 50-60 min of exercise, 5-6 days per week.

Whoa where does THAT statistic come from? An hour a day 5-6 days a week? I'd like to see that one backed up. Most people I know who have lost substantial weight and kept it off are on 3 day/week programs. It's hard to believe that the prevailing mass is Double that.

There's a 89.6% chance that those stats are wrong

Vex3521

for strictly weight loss: Diet. You can diet away weight without exercise at all. You can't out-exercise a bad diet.

for FAT loss: it's a little more complicated.

This exactly.

GadgetGuy2

If you only focused on exercise, and your calorie intake increases to cover the calorie loss from exercise (or exceeds it), then you will not loose weight, and you might even gain weight (muscle denser than fat).

Since the OP''s question is "MOST important in weight loss", then you have to eat (diet) fewer calories than you burn (exertion/exercise).

The question is not about fitness or health.

Thus, diet is the correct answer.

ingraha

Why would you choose only one? Life is a holistic venture. All things are affected by factors surrounding them. If there is no exercise, the muscles waste away. If there is no food, the muscles waste away.
Food builds muscle and excercise builds muscle. Both are necessary for healthy life and the trick is to burn more than you eat. Kind of like a bank account only you want to lose the calories not save them.

wildcatnyc

Diet

JustYandy

80% of weight loss is diet

ILoveGingerNut

Diet. It's mathematic. To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you introduce. The amount you burn through exercise is not that much. It's the diet that makes a difference. Just do the maths to find out. Exercise is good for you for a million of other reasons, so try to both if you can (eating less doesn't take any time )

Transformer711

I'd say diet, hands down. It's possible to lose weight without much exercise, but even if you went to the gym 8 times a week, if you still eat like crap the scales won't budge. I think pen-ultimately you can lose weight through exercise alone, but it will be a TINY amount over a very long period of time. You'll get results much faster if you dieted alone than if you exercise alone.

However, like some people have said, exercise is good for overall health. There's a danger too that little exercise could result in the 'skinny fat' appearance.

mrsgrimsdale

I'm going to say exercise, because active and overweight is healthier than lean and sedentary. I like to be different, but really it's true lean and sedentary has higher risk of heart disease than overweight and active.

Exercise, I was averaging 1000 cals daily and not losing in fact every time I ate over 1200 I started slowly to creep up. I have found since logging on MFP that the only time weight starts to come off me is when I exercise, even when my calorie intake rises to take the exercise into account.

MaryMBacon

I'm going to say exercise, because active and overweight is healthier than lean and sedentary. I like to be different, but really it's true lean and sedentary has higher risk of heart disease than overweight and active.

Exercise, I was averaging 1000 cals daily and not losing in fact every time I ate over 1200 I started slowly to creep up. I have found since logging on MFP that the only time weight starts to come off me is when I exercise, even when my calorie intake rises to take the exercise into account.

If you don't do both you don't lose weight, but dieting and not losing weight sucks, exercising and not losing weight, I still feel pretty good because exercise is so good for you. Even when not tracking and not dieting, I eat healthy foods I just eat too much and too much in addition to the healthy stuff. When not exercising I get depressed and my joints and muscles feel stiff. I can't imagine eating less and not exercising.

mrsgrimsdale

Technically - probably diet, if you're primarily looking to lose weight. BUT...

I started, this time, with exercise and I feel like people who told me all those years that I could lose weight with diet alone, or who said to start with diet and add exercise later, were doing me a huge disservice.

--Exercising allows me to eat enough to not be desperately hungry and still lose weight.
--Exercising increases my store of will power, making it easier to watch what I eat.
--Exercising makes me healthier, even if I don't lose weight.
--Exercising will increase your muscle mass, so that even if you don't lose weight, you'll lose fat.

Fab post!

bobbijodmb

Diet helps you lose the weight, exercise helps you keep it off

krokador

Some people will say 70% diet, 30% exercises.

But I believe it's 100% DEDICATION to BOTH your diet and exercise. What you put in is what you get out of it

(I kinda stole that off of a facebook motivation meme, but shh)