Have you heard this...?

AbiLuV

I have heard several times it (weightloss) is 80% diet and 20% working out. Would you say you agree?

nopeekiepeekie

I would say 30% diet 20% working out and 50% overcoming mental/physical roadblocks.

shellshalla

I'm not really sure, but i'm interested to hear people's responses.

HealthyChanges2010

I'm not familiar at all with the %'s but to me they are equal, one without the other doesn't work well for me. Sometimes it's easiest to begin one for a bit then jump right into the other so as not to feel overwhelmed. I did that a few years back, changed some bad eating habits and then later joined a gym.

For me working out is huge, builds muscles that rev up my metabolism to continue burning cals far into the day, fueling my body properly makes that possible.

Dunno about that statement just know what's working for me now.
Becca:flowerforyou:

aippolito1

Amen, clarissa!

mrsw510

Diet is definately a big part of it for a while I wroked-outed an hour a day for 5-6days a week but didn't lose a pound. I got frusterated and quit. Now looking back on that, I was eating like garbage still.

This time around I started eating healthier about 2 weeks before I started excerising and I lost 10 lbs just from changing my eating habits.

BullDozier

No expert, but based purely on personal experience, I'd say it is at least 75% diet, 25% exercise (I'll ignore the psychological aspect because I think there is a larger range there based on the individual. I think diet/exercise is more universal). When I exercise, and just vaguely try to "eat better" my results are nil. When I really buckle down, track what I eat, and eat right, I can lose weight whether I exercise or not. Exercising will accelerate the weight loss, but I can't imagine how long I'd have to work out every day to get that same rate of weight loss while not strictly monitoring what I eat.

CMomma23

For me... Working Out Helps me eat better... So does drinking more water... I just tend to be less hungry and more conscious of what I put in my mouth... I would say it's kind of a 50/50 thing... Also, alot of times, when people just change their eating habits, they will begin to move more without really noticing and vice versa... It's that way for me anyway...

ironsister

I am a regular reader of Oxygen Magazine and have read a couple of the Eat Clean books and they all state 80% nutrition, 10%excercise and 10% genetics

lvfunandfit

I can work out like crazy and eat what ever I want and have zero changes! When I focus on my diet alone I see the numbers falling on the scale but my body shape is still frumpy. Working out and getting into shape helps you become tone, defined and lean and it changes your shape from frumpy to fit! BUT, without the proper diet working out won't get you there alone. So I tend to agree that what you put into your mouth affects your entire health and eating badly can ruin your workouts while eating healthy can help you become more fit and in shape. They do go hand in hand but what you eat tends to weigh more heavily on whether or not you achieve your fitness goals.

rnroadrunner

I would have to agree. most of us would never lose weight if we didn't restrict our calories. that is why this site rocks:happy:

calicowgirl0582

I had a personal trainer awhile back and she said they go hand in hand. you can loose weight with just diet and no exercise, but you are likely to end up flabby as you have the extra skin. Good ol' cardio is what it takes to loose that. Plus you want to look toned, not just thin. That's what I think, but I know its one that has a lot of different opinions on.

Mindful_Trent

I lost about 30 lbs from Sept 2009-early Jan 2010... (I've gained some back, but that's another issue) The majority of this weight loss was due to simply changing my diet to where I was eating primarily lean meats, whole grains and lots of fruits/veggies, and low-fat dairy. I did exercise some, but not as much as I "should" have been... (typically I was making it to the gym 1 to 3 times a week.) So for me, the higher emphasis on diet over exercise seems to work for me at this point in my weight loss journey. It probably varies by person, and probably depends on what your diet/lifestyle was like before, and how much you have to lose.

MandyKayFrench

The way I think about it is down to the basic calorie equation - more out/less in = weight loss. If you think about it, you will never be able to negatively impact the calorie equation by exercising. You can't ADD calories by exercising.

BUT you can easily negate an entire weeks worth of workouts with one piece of cheesecake!

So without being able to put concrete percentages on it, successful weight loss HAS to be heavily focused on the diet side. It's the only way you can truly get the most out of your work outs and decrease the overall calorie equation effectively.

emilymccowan

I think that they both go hand in hand. If you're eating better and tracking what you eat and are actually able to see what you're putting in your mouth, that alone is going to shred the pounds. Along with actually being able to see what you're eating, that's going to be motivation to do better on your workouts, which in turn helps you lose even more weight than just dieting.

FitChickBritt

Diet definitely plays a bigger role in exercise! I don't know what the exact "percentage" would be- IMO it would really depend on what your goal was and where you are at now.

PJilly

For weight loss, I'd say it's 90 (diet)-10 (exercise). For overall health and well-being, I think it's 50-50.

thirtyby40

I am not sure about the percentages but from experience I would definitely say diet is more important in LOSING weight. However I think exercise is key to keeping it off. Let's face it once we have lost the weight if we want to keep it off we better stay active!

gecallo

I've heard of those percentages quite often, but mainly from bodybuilders or people who are looking to build lean muscle mass.

crking

I would disagree...I don't diet, although I watch portion control. I have had much success just working out & using Chalean Extreme. BUT I think it all depends on the person. Not everyone can just work out only.

lessertess

Yes, that is true. You can't out exercise poor eating habits. Eventually they will catch up with you.

Mindful_Trent

I would disagree...I don't diet, although I watch portion control. I have had much success just working out & using Chalean Extreme. BUT I think it all depends on the person. Not everyone can just work out only.

I think for some of us, when we use the term "diet" we mean portion control... for me I don't use "diet" to mean a crazy restriction of calories or restrictions on specifically what I can eat... I just use it to mean that I try and generally eat healthier food choices in reasonable portions.

I am not sure about the percentages but from experience I would definitely say diet is more important in LOSING weight. However I think exercise is key to keeping it off. Let's face it once we have lost the weight if we want to keep it off we better stay active!

I completely agree with this. I'm sure that once I get to a healthier weight, exercise will become much more important in keeping the weight off and also building a fitter body - muscles, etc. I do think exercise is important (even now), but unless I can control what I eat, exericse isn't going to do me much good.

rybo

My personal experience has shown its about 80% exercise 20% diet.

lilmissy2

I have heard that before and it is based on the energy in vs energy out equation. I apologise that I don't have the exact info in front of me and had a rubbish day at work so won't go look it up :P but it goes something like:

A 30 year old male with a light activity level burns about 10000kj per day. A certain amount of exercise (I think they use an hour walking or something like that) burns 2000kj, thus the remainder for the balance to be equal is 80% (the impact of diet).

Sorry, this is a poor poor effort of putting it into words, but you get the gist?

Of course, depending on your type and duration of exercise, that figure could be swayed quite a lot. I guess the point of it is that it actually takes a lot more exercise to burn foods off than people realise. I think the concept isn't designed to discourage people from exercise but more to discourage the common misconception that if you exercise, you should be able to eat whatever you like.

PJilly

I would disagree...I don't diet, although I watch portion control. I have had much success just working out & using Chalean Extreme. BUT I think it all depends on the person. Not everyone can just work out only.

I think for some of us, when we use the term "diet" we mean portion control... for me I don't use "diet" to mean a crazy restriction of calories or restrictions on specifically what I can eat... I just use it to mean that I try and generally eat healthier food choices in reasonable portions.

Excellent point. For me diet just means the food I eat.

lwebsmfp

I haven't tried one without the other so I don't know. For me, I think my body responds well to both eating less and exercising. I notice that my weightloss is slower when I exercise less but it's faster when I include exercise.

AbiLuV

I guess there is no "regular" or "normal" result for this for, as everyone has found different things and levels that work for them and the results that they are seeking. I know one thing no matter the % a healthy diet AND an active lifestyle are a must for a healthy life. Thanks everyone for your comments!

LuckyLeprechaun

I've found that just food changes will result in weight loss, but toned, nice looking results will come from exercise. Since more exercise earns you more food, exercise provides a nice level of motivation all its own. You can do just food changes, so I guess that would mean it gets a higher percentage, but the best results come from a combination

canstey

It seems to me that it is 100% diet. It is all about the "up to 1000 calorie deficit" and that you should eat your exercise calories. Therefore any caloric deficit benefit to exercise is eliminated by following the guidelines. So when you talk about pure "weight loss" as in what the scale reads, it can only be controlled by diet because you have to eat enough to create the 1000 calorie deficit and you don't need exercise to reach a healthy 1000 calorie deficit.

There are plenty of benefits to exercise but it appears from the research that increasing muscle mass while losing weight isn't really one of them. It is possible to gain a slight amount of muscle and still lose weight but not enough to make a significant change to body composition whether you exercise or not. If anyone has any research data indicating otherwise I would love to see it because the current research is rather depressing. I exercise because I want to increase my fitness and the extra calories help me maintain my 1000 calorie deficit more easily.

Also exercise does not have an "after burn" where a person will burn additional calories after the exercise is over. I can't find the original paper I read but here is a link to a news article referencing the research and also discusses that strength training is over rated for increasing metabolism.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30826120/

iplayoutside19

Here is a post I wrote on my MFP Blog back in January about this subject.

"I worked out today, so I can eat that."

The above statement is something I had been telling myself for years. For the most part I have always been pretty active. Mt Biking, swimming, golf, weight lifting.

Because of that I would justify my bad eating habits with the statement above. I worked out, rode, swam, today so it's ok for me to slam a 44 oz of Mt dew and polish off 20 chicken wings.

It wasn't until I started this process last January that I began to realize the error of my ways..besides feeling like crap, looking like crap, and buying larger clothing. A trainer on another fitness website made the statement "You can't out excersise a bad diet". I began to understand. However, it was until I started logging at MFP that the situation was really illustrated to me. If you put it in numbers it becomes very obvious. A 44oz of Mt Dew, depending on the ice, runs between 600 and 500 calories... just on a drink.

That's 2.5 miles of running for me, an hour and a half of walking, or an hour of strenuous swimming. Mix in the wings I mentioned above, you're looking at 4600 calories in just one meal. I'm not even going to contemplate what I'd have to do to break even on that. The math just isn't on anyones side.

Last week was kind of a free-for-all week nutritionally. However, that thought entered my mind. And it annoyed/scared me. That's the mentality that got me in this situation in the first place....never again. The new mentality is You can't out excersise a bad diet.

I like to excersise, it's my favorite part of the whole fitness process. For every 4 times I visit the Fitness forum, I visit the Nutrition forum once. You get the point.

There are a lot new people on MFP with NYR trying to get their lives in order. If they're like me they have limited resouces in both time, money and energy.

Spend your time, money, and energy on the nutrition side of this process. You just don't decide to eat healthy one day and you immediatly know what to eat and buy. Granted there are some obvious things you can do. It's a never ending process. In order to maintain long term success you need to spend some time researching foods, and recepies. You need to find meals that you honestly enjoy eating. That way you don't feel deprived, and you're less likely to fall off the wagon.

Don't feel overwhelmed. Change one meal, one drink at a time. Get comfortable with your change, and then find something else you can change.

However you do it, just remember: Eating THAT is what got you here.

BullDozier

It seems to me that it is 100% diet. It is all about the "up to 1000 calorie deficit" and that you should eat your exercise calories. Therefore any caloric deficit benefit to exercise is eliminated by following the guidelines. So when you talk about pure "weight loss" as in what the scale reads, it can only be controlled by diet because you have to eat enough to create the 1000 calorie deficit and you don't need exercise to reach a healthy 1000 calorie deficit.

I think the exercise comes in two factors here. First, exercise makes it much easier to consume the right number of calories to maintain the propper deficit. IE, if I need to consume 1700 calories a day to lose a pound a week, that is incredibely hard for me to limit myself to that number of calories. I'm always hungry. I love certain high calorie foods (many that are healthy, but high calorie). Three 500 calorie meals and 2 100 calorie snacks, and I'll be hungry from the minute I wake up until the minute I go to sleep. Exercising gives me more calories to play with, which makes it easier to get through the day, which makes it easier to stay on a program.

Second, exercise is plain and simple good for your body. I would think an out of shape person who uses exercise to lose a significant amount of weight, will fall in love with exercise and it could remain a part of the rest of their life, which in turn will help that person maintain a healthy weight.

Can you do it on diet alone? Yes, but I think exercise makes it easier, which is why I wouldn't say diet is 100%.