Whats more important: Diet or Exercise?

2

Replies

  • raeleek
    raeleek Posts: 414 Member
    For me personally it has to be both. Just watching diet is eh, just exercising is eh, put together and that's when all the happy happens!
  • MessyLittlePanda
    MessyLittlePanda Posts: 213 Member
    Diet, probably. Certainly if you have a lot of weight to lose.

    BUT I think the importance of exercise increases as you lose more weight, because diet alone won't shift the last stone or so, at least that's what I've found anyway. I had 2 stone (28lb) to lose, the first 11lb came off when I changed my diet without doing much else, but I found I needed to increase my exercise and do the right exercise to start losing the second stone.

    Exercise has also changed the look of my body, increased my self esteem and improved my health (cardiovascular fitness, endurance etc). So, I think exercise is particuarly important for keeping the weight off. Improved fitness means you want to do more, to challenge yourself, maybe try new types of sport or activity, because you are physically more able to. Increased self esteem from improving at your fitness goals, or the social aspects and accountability of being part of a team/fitness group or club means that you are less likely to comfort eat and fall back into bad habits. Improved body composition has health benefits such as being at less risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and even certain cancers, because you reduce the visceral fat around the organs. Exercise combined with healthy diet is more successful at reducing this kind of fat than diet alone.

    I also tend to think, not from a particularly scientific point of view but more from my own experiences, that when you take a holistic, long term view to losing weight, and you do it to improve your whole body and life not just a scale number, it tends to be more successful for longer than people who just "go on a diet". And this is just what I've observed really from the type of work I used to be involved in (health promotion campaigns) and from observing friends and family try and lose weight.
  • hiker359
    hiker359 Posts: 577 Member
    Yes.
  • moonlightturk
    moonlightturk Posts: 398
    Both go hand in hand. One helps with maintaing a healthy life, one builds strength and endurance. Diet is #1 though.
  • momofJandA
    momofJandA Posts: 1,035 Member
    Both . . .
    I once heard (or read) it explained this way:
    diet to look good in your clothes- exercise to look good naked!
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
    You can't out exercise a bad diet....

    not to say one can't have indulgences, but it needs to be balanced-not ruled by indulgences with occasionally eating healthy. ;)
  • etajr
    etajr Posts: 49
    From everything I have researched. It is 60% to 70% diet and 30 to 40% exercise, but you have to do both...
  • rachelbethany
    rachelbethany Posts: 211 Member
    As far as dropping pounds, every little thing I eat makes a big difference. So I'd say diet. Exercise is definitely necessary, but if I am eating unhealthy foods or simply too much food, the cellulite and fat rolls and pounds aren't gonna budge. I exercise to burn calories so I can eat a little more (and of course to gain muscle and strength, etc.), but I do a lot of yoga simply for my MENTAL health. And when I'm healthier mentally, I can make better eating choices. So they go hand in hand, but diet is probably a little more important if you want to see pounds drop fast.
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
    What's more important: arms or legs?


    Yes, some people get by with only 1 or the other, or even neither, but that's not optimal.
  • shesquats
    shesquats Posts: 91 Member
    Diet and exercise go hand in hand for total health. Someone said 'you can't out train a bad diet'; this is true! :) Good luck!
  • megleo818
    megleo818 Posts: 595 Member
    a typical snack for me is 250 calories or so. Those calories go IN a lot easier & faster than they go OUT.

    I'm not knocking exercise, but if you eat more calories than you burn, you have to do a lot more exercise to burn it off than if you just didn't eat it.

    Yup. Nothing will make you feel as good as exercise does, but if you don't control what goes into your mouth, you can't control what comes off of your hips (or thighs or belly or whatever).
  • ThaRealNicki
    ThaRealNicki Posts: 322 Member
    im a firm believer that your diet is what helps you drop the pounds and clean your insides and exercise is great for your cardio vascular and respirtory health as well making you strong!! Ive exercised without any real nurtition at all (i was eating normally for who I was then) and I was seeing no results and barely any changes from working out.

    without exercising and just nutrition, I saw a drop but for me it wasnt quick enough and i like i was going to end up flabby with looose skin.

    coupled together, exercise and nutrition is a force to be reckoned with and it works for me
  • Adsnwfld
    Adsnwfld Posts: 262 Member
    While both are important Diet by far will determine your weight
  • Heyyleigh
    Heyyleigh Posts: 268 Member
    Diet or exercise - that's a loaded question! Agreed diet first 80% and exercise 20%, but equally impt.

    Check out : http://www.livestrong.com/article/407857-what-is-more-important-diet-or-exercise/

    You can get alot info from them.
  • emmaonamission
    emmaonamission Posts: 117
    In my experience, diet. If I eat crap, I don't lose, but if I eat well and don't exercise I still lose weight. Having said that, exercise makes me feel good and makes me look better too. Feeling good & looking better makes me want to eat better to keep that up, so it's all connected for me :)
  • Heyyleigh
    Heyyleigh Posts: 268 Member
    I love that quote: coupled together, exercise and nutrition is a force to be reckoned with and it works for me
  • EDesq
    EDesq Posts: 1,527 Member
    What you eat and drink is ABSOLUTELY the Most Important thing for weight loss, maintenance, and HEALTH. FOOD is your FIRST line of Defense against disease: Prevention and Healing, and it is the Key to Emotional and Mental Wellbeing. Activity is at most 10-15% in importance.
  • brlandr1
    brlandr1 Posts: 9 Member
    just read the article and it helped alot!!! Thankyou
  • Inebriated
    Inebriated Posts: 271
    Diet.
  • CalJur
    CalJur Posts: 627 Member
    Healthy lifestyle is the key not a "diet." Diets produce short term losses always followed by long term gains. Lead a healthy lifestyle and exercise.
  • Skeebee
    Skeebee Posts: 740 Member
    Both.

    Ditto
  • Skeebee
    Skeebee Posts: 740 Member
    Healthy lifestyle is the key not a "diet." Diets produce short term losses always followed by long term gains. Lead a healthy lifestyle and exercise.

    EXACTLY! :drinker:
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,333 Member
    mmm diet is what makes you lose weight more than exercise. However, exercise makes you look like you've lost weight.

    so..really? ya know?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    mmm diet is what makes you lose weight more than exercise. However, exercise makes you look like you've lost weight.
    Or as I've seen it said: "Diet makes you look good in clothes; exercise makes you look good naked."
  • Vyshness8699
    Vyshness8699 Posts: 390 Member
    "You LOSE weight in the kitchen, you get FIT at the gym". I love this.
    TRUE!!!
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    For me personally it has to be both. Just watching diet is eh, just exercising is eh, put together and that's when all the happy happens!

    This ^^^^^^

    is what I call S-Y-N-E-R-G-Y !!! :heart: :happy:
  • CRody44
    CRody44 Posts: 750 Member
    I have posted this on other threads, but it helped me understand weight loss.

    Cardio is to help your heart and lungs, Weight/resistance training is for your muscles, bones and metabolism.

    Eating less calories than what you have been eating is for losing weight.

    A pound of fat is 3500 calories. If you burn 10 calories a minute/600 calories an hour, it will take 5.83 hours to lose one pound, IF you do not increase calories. That’s 1.17 hours of exercise a day, five days a week, maintaining 10 calories burned a minute, no slowing down. The average person burns between 5 and 7 calories a minute.

    If you have been eating 3000 calories a day and reduce it to 1800 (I’m a guy), you are eating at a 1200 calorie a day deficit or 8400 calories a week for, potentially, 2.4 pounds of fat removed from your body, all other things being equal.
  • Cdpemberton
    Cdpemberton Posts: 28 Member
    Only speaking from my experience, but I would say both are key depending on what your trying to achieve. Your body type and what foods you include in your diet can make a difference in your results. I started out with excercise first and only noticed a physical change once I changed my diet and calorie intake. I feel if I had changed my diet earlier, I would be a tad bit leaner (but I will never know).
  • brenda4life
    brenda4life Posts: 65 Member
    Definitely diet. I had a personal trainer that told me that he could only help with about 10% of my problem, the other 90% I would have to face myself, in the kitchen. I believe it.
  • Fit_Vixen
    Fit_Vixen Posts: 201
    I would say both. Simply for this reason, if you just diet, you'll tend to have more jiggle/loose skin (the more weight you lose, the more this will happen) Where as if you diet & work out, you're tightening & toning everything up

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