How much does healthy eating help?

sekaie

So we all know that a healthy diet is crucial to losing weight, but by how much? You hear a lot of terms like 'abs are made in the kitchen' and such, but I had always thought that losing weight was 50/50 diet and exercise, but people have told me that diet is the biggest factor.

Any thoughts?

mockchoc

You don't have to eat healthy at all to lose weight. You just have to burn more than you eat.

dr3w_s

It's easier to avoid that double whopper with cheese than exercising to burn the calories in that double whopper. You could lose weight just by dieting alone, but exercise will help to make greater calories deficit and better looking body

RunMumRun1

I have been told its 75% diet/healthy eating and 25% exercise. Your body can function more efficient with clean eating. I try my best to eat clean but I love my beer or wine every now and then to unwind.

benol1

Hi sekaie

So we all know that a healthy diet is crucial to losing weight, but by how much? You hear a lot of terms like 'abs are made in the kitchen' and such, but I had always thought that losing weight was 50/50 diet and exercise, but people have told me that diet is the biggest factor.

Any thoughts?

I don;t think there;s any real point losing weight but still being unhealthy as a result of a crap diet.
My attitude is to adopt a sustainable lifestyle changes that will improve my health and wellbeing. That includes healthy eating (mainly plant-based diet), meditation, regular exercise, enough sleep, and the maintenance of important relationships. Its a whole of life approach and the benefits are awesome.
kind regards,

Ben

anifani4

No, a healthy diet is not crucial to losing weight. You must decide what your goal is. Do want the number on the scale to go down and that is your only goal? Then eat what you want as long as you maintain your calorie deficiet. Sick people who can't eat much, lose weight, they are not "eating healthy". Anorexia causes people to lose weight and they are not "eating healthy".

If you want to feel well and have energy for your life, then incorporating healthy whole foods into your meal plan is important.

Exercise helps your muscles stay strong and gives shape to your body that will show when excess fat is gone. But some people can not exercise and they still lose weight with the proper calorie deficiet.

celebrity328

I think diet is more important then exercise, only because you cant out run a bad diet. I have lost a majority of my weight w/o exercise because of a knee/shoulder injury. I am now to the point where I can do more

melaniecheeks

Diet is WAY more important than exercise in losing weight, but exercise is good for your shape and health.

mockchoc

I eat very healthy when trying to lose weight because healthier foods like veggies keep you fuller longer which is what I need when I can't eat as many calories as I'd like to be plus healthy eating makes you feel good.

squirrelythegreat

Personally opinion says healthy diet is what makes the difference. Maybe I'm just being anecdotal. I'm with the folks who say "what's the point of losing weight if you don't look good and aren't healthy."

Luthien007

Personally, starting to calorie count and macro tracking were the most effective changes. It takes a lot of organisation and planning in the beginning but it gets much easier. As time goes by you may want to move and exercise more so you add that into your day step it up as you go along. I like to able to burn at least one meal worth of calories each day. Then you start to look at other numbers besides the scale and bmi. Miles walked or ran, new recipes, classes or DVD workouts you do, nutritional information ! research and artices. It's not black and white, but choose your battles and work on them. Find out what works for you.

JesterMFP

In my personal experience, a "healthy" diet (which I take to mean a nutritionally well-balanced diet) has not been important at all in losing weight. However it's very important for your overall health and fitness. I lost quite a lot of weight a few years ago living off cereal and the odd piece of fruit. I probably lost more muscle that I should have, but then I was eating at a very large calorie deficit. When I started on MFP, my diet was a lot better, but still not great, and I lost weigh just fine. I've gradually improved my diet and feel a lot better/healthier now, but it didn't really affect my rate of weight loss. If you're deficient in certain nutrients, that could affect your hormones, for example, which might affect your ability to lose weight, but in general, it's more about having a calorie deficit, and having a deficit that isn't too large for you.

When it comes to "looking good naked" and reducing body fat percentage etc, then quality of diet is important. You do need to get plenty of protein and fat. For some people, eating carbs will make them bloated, which could affect say how flat their belly looks. I'd still say that you don't have to have a "perfect" diet though. I've seen plenty of strong, lean people in peak fitness who eat processed food, sugar, alcohol etc, but practice moderation and focus on hitting their macro goals.

caroleannlight

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight i.e eat less than you burn. I find that the easiest way is to eat more healthy food that is more filling and exercise and become more active.

Using some activity /exercise (mainly cardio type) to create the calorie deficit tends to mean that I can have treats without going over my calorie goal.
(usually).

Also I need to be able to maintain my weight in the (distant) future. It is likely to be easier if my TDEE and BMR have a larger window between them.

Exercise (resistance e.g.heavy weights) can help maintain lean body mass which is more metabolically active than fat so burns more at rest.

pyrowill

It's easier to avoid that double whopper with cheese than exercising to burn the calories in that double whopper.

Total opposite for me lol. I can easier run 5 miles than avoid a whopper. :laugh:

kelly_e_montana

There is a really interesting article from 2009 in Time magazine that argues that exercising has no effect on weight loss and it cites several peer-reviewed studies on obesity. I'm not saying I'm buying into it 100 percent but I do think it makes some valid points, and I think it's interesting: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1914974-2,00.html.

Personally I exercise for health and stress relief and eat for health (most of the time) but try to eat a little less and a little more nutritionally dense. I don't consider exercise part of *MY* weight loss at all, although I do enjoy the benefits of being stronger and more defined while having better endurance. Exercising helps me relieve my stress so that I don't cope with my problems with food.

Sorashi

It really depends on the person. For me it's 70% gym 30% clean eating. You just gotta find what works best for you.

caroleannlight

I have noted that the scale rewards higher exercise weeks with the same calorie deficit better than lower / no exercise. this may be due to calculation error on my part but I suspect some insulin resistance (I am not diabetic). Exercise can increase insulin sensitivity and /or afterburn effect.

89Madeline

In my experience, it helped a ton. When I just started losing weight, I did run 2/3 times a week for about 30 minutes together with healthy eating. After a month or two, I stopped exercising and kept losing weight at almost the same pace. It's mostly about your diet, at least, when your diet wasn't healthy before. I do think right now (17.5 lbs down), it might work better to add strength/abs exercise to make my body tighter and burn more calories. But without exercising I did fine, but if you do add exercise it should go even faster.

Athena53

As others have said, it's mostly the calorie deficit that drives the weight loss, but I moaned about my weight (about 15 excess lbs. for years) without being able to get rid of any of it till I started eating healthier. What it did for me was change my eating habits so that it's much easier for me to pass up junk food that's not worth the calories. For me, that includes packaged cookies and cakes (too sweet, chemical aftertaste), anything fried, anything with high-fructose corn syrup. I know it won't taste that good so I don't eat it. I went to London on business last week and totally skipped the meals on the plane- brought my own food from the airport concessions, where I had much wider choices. I glanced at the trays of stuff they were serving on the flights and saw things I probably would have eaten just because they were in front of me and there wasn't much else to do. Glad I passed them up.

Bonus: I landed in London Sunday (after almost zero sleep on the redeye and only 4 hours the night before because tmy Friday PM flight was cancelled at 1 AM), had 2 days packed with very productive meetings on Monday and Tuesday, flew home Wednesday, put in 2 full days of work in the US office Thursday and Friday, and I feel pretty normal. And I'm 60.

Healthy eating pays off.

alinevann

I've read, and I've found it to be true for myself, that it's probably 80/20/20... 80% diet, 20% exercise, and %20 your genes. I love to exercise, and think it's veryimportant, but my reasons for doing it are not just for weight maintenance...cardiovascular health, stress relief, etc. You can look at other cultures that are much more laid back about exercise, yet have very different eating patterns from the U.S., such as more fresh foods, fewer GMOs and fast foods, etc, and they often have a much lower obesity rate. So, even thought it's a triad, I think what you eat would be at the top!

akb2006

Eating healthy makes the biggest difference for me. The days that I have super bad days and eat junk even if under my "goals" for the day I feel sluggish, feel like crap, am tried, just feel blah. When I am eating good fats, more protein, fruits, and veggies I FEEL better and my body wants more of that. My problem is once I have one bite of the bad stuff it goes in my mouth at amazing speeds. I think you can definitely lose weight either with 75% diet or 75% excersize but there is no way I'd beable to do that much excersize if I felt run down and like junk by eating junk. KWIM?

1ConcreteGirl

I can't believe this thread has collected an entire page of people talking about healthy eating WITHOUT ANY SETTLED DEFINITION OF WHAT THAT MEANS.

Carry on, this is good stuff.

neandermagnon

I don't agree with trying to put a percentage on one or the other. Both are important, but for different reasons.

to lose weight, it's nothing more than a matter of calories in versus calories out.

to be healthy, you need to eat healthy foods and do exercise.

Healthy eating and exercise also usually help to get rid of excess fat because when someone is properly nourished, they're less likely to get cravings and excess hunger, and exercise burns calories which means you can eat more and still lose weight, plus it protects lean muscle mass, etc, etc, so many benefits I can't list them all. However, these things alone won't always result in fat loss, as you can eat too much of healthy foods, and if you're eating the same number of calories as you're burning off, you will not lose weight, no matter how healthy the food is or how much you exercise. People who are very fit and healthy but are still fat, this is the reason why.

Being healthy is a separate factor to losing weight, and although losing excess fat can help to improve someone's health, a slim person who never exercises and eats junk will not be healthy. Carrying excess fat (or not) is just one aspect of health, it's not a sole determining factor. It worries me that in all the efforts to tackle the obesity problem in many countries, the only message that is getting out there is that fat people need to eat healthy and exercise to become slim people. Meanwhile slim, sedentary, junk eating people are not getting the message that their health is at risk too if they don't eat healthy and exercise. IMO people need to make this distinction more. *Everyone* needs to eat healthy and exercise. People who are carrying excess body fat need to eat a little less than they burn off in order to lose the excess fat. That's the message that should be getting out there.

neandermagnon

I can't believe this thread has collected an entire page of people talking about healthy eating WITHOUT ANY SETTLED DEFINITION OF WHAT THAT MEANS.

Carry on, this is good stuff.

Healthy eating = providing your body with all the nutrition it needs without making yourself ill in the process.

people are going to argue about the details (like whether eating a big mac once a week or pesticide residue in non-organic foods will make you ill or not) but surely everyone would agree with the above definition at least?

DavPul

So we all know that a healthy diet is crucial to losing weight,

Like that Concrete Girl said, what does eating healthy even mean? Vegans have an answer, but the Paleo people won't like it. Organic people have an answer, but the Gluten free people don't like that.

While everyone else is debating what eating clean consists of, there's a while lot of people eating food they enjoy and simply eating less than they burn each day. Calories are calories. Eat less, move more, rinse, repeat, profit

droneofvelvet

You can be eating healthy or clean foods, but even if you don't necessarily count calories, you have to be aware of the energy your food gives you vs. how much you expend. For me I believe having a good looking, thin body was directly associated with exercising frequently. Eating healthfully is something you should do for yourself by default for the thousands of other benefits. Weight loss is all expending more than you consume it's that simple.


I've had an experience where I dropped from 145 to 120 in a matter of weeks a few years ago from illness and not eating anything and you think I would be overjoyed, but I was actually happy when all the weight came back on. It was not a good look, don't ever think my body fully healed from that experience. So treat yourself right and burn it up by moving your body .

jjrichard83

I've read, and I've found it to be true for myself, that it's probably 80/20/20... 80% diet, 20% exercise, and %20 your genes. I love to exercise, and think it's veryimportant, but my reasons for doing it are not just for weight maintenance...cardiovascular health, stress relief, etc. You can look at other cultures that are much more laid back about exercise, yet have very different eating patterns from the U.S., such as more fresh foods, fewer GMOs and fast foods, etc, and they often have a much lower obesity rate. So, even thought it's a triad, I think what you eat would be at the top!

Yep, 120 percent!





:P


Eating healthier (less processed crap and more veggies) is much better for your overall health. Look at it as your body and health as a whole. Your weight and body fat is one section of that.

symonspatrick

No I do not believe eating healthy is crucial to lose weight. Eating healthy is how you look good and feel good as you lose weight. And there is no fixed percentage of weight loss for exercise. Do no exercise and you can lose weight or exercise constantly and you can lose weight, the percentage is up to you. Exercise is to make you look awesome and feel good. Your diet or what you eat is the most important thing, eat more than you need and gain or eat less than you need and lose.

Tatiyanya

It might be not crucial (abeit helpfull) to weight loss but goddamn, you /should/ be motivated by YOUR HEALTH in first place!
Healthy foods fill my belly more than fast foods and sweets do , so its much easier to get caloric deficit.
Also deep fried stuff, sodas and sweets did quite a number on my skin and , sorry for TMI, my pooping ability in the past.
Now while eating what I want, just clean and healthy I have skin as smooth as babbys bottom. Poopin is fine too

You dont /have/ to eat healthy, but you should. Zer body, it will backfire if you misstreat it ;[