which plays bigger role? Food or exercise?

I'd say it's 70% diet, 30% exercising. You can't out-exercise a bad diet.

However, you should make sure to pay attention to both of them. 1 hours of exersice a day is fine, no need to over do it. Strength training to keep your LBM, some cardio/HIIT and you're save.

Do you have any health conditions? If not, there is absolutely no reason to eat a 100% "clean". Clean means you're only eating fresh, completeley unprocessed foods. Just try to eat healthy and you'll be fine.

I don't want to put exact percentages on them, but I do feel that diet is more important than exercise when it comes to fat loss. To lose fat, you need to have a calorie deficit, and if you put more emphasis on your exercise than your diet, then you will most likely have to exercise A LOT more than just 1 hour a day (meaning, since we tend to eat way more than we think anyway, if you don't pay close attention to it, it can really get out of hand! If your TDEE is 2200 and you are eating 2800, then you already have to exercise off 600 calories just to maintain, so you'd need to burn off probably twice that amount, or about 2 hours a day, to lose weight).

I'd rather eat a sensible moderate deficit and not have to kill myself in the gym on a daily basis. When I lift weights, I am trying to gain strength and retain lean mass anyway, not burn calories. And since I don't enjoy much cardio, I would rather keep it at twice a week like I currently do than have this need to do it 7 days a week to make up for a bad diet.

Edited to add that by a "bad" diet, I mean one that is too high in calories preventing weight loss. I do not demonize ANY foods and lose fat consistently eating those "evil" carbs and fats that way too many people are scared of for no good reason (except those with medical conditions or allergies of which I am not talking about).

There's been numerous studies on this and the answer is that food is the single biggest factor. No matter how much you exercise, if you're putting more in your mouth than you need you'll gain fat.

Exercise is good for toning muscle, cardiovascular (and overall) fitness and it can up your basal metabolic rate a little.

(Now before a pedant comes along...yes, if you had the time to dedicate *hours* a day to intense exercise you'd lose weight because you'd be burning a crap-load...but for the average person who perhaps as an hour a day spare, exercise alone isn't going to do it.)

You cannot out exercise your food.

A nice warm pancake breakfast with egg on toast. 800 cals?
A lunch of ceasar salad with a lot of dressing and some bread on the side? another 800-1000 cals
A dinner of a pizza hut pizza Chicken Supreme 12" is about 2200 cals.
drinking with this 1,5l of coca cola add another 700


So without adding a bag of crisps (200 gr, 1000 cals) there's people who easily eat about 4500 calories in a day. Say they need 2400. That's 2100 too many. Or about 3 hours of running. Now if you add some candy and crisps and maybe a bigmac late at night because you're hungry.. Well, you get the picture. If you do not watch what you eat you can exercise all you want and it will not help you.

I second the 70% diet / 30% exercise. Eating the right foods and eating throughout the day plays a vital role in metabolism. Exercise won't do much if you are consuming processed foods and sugar on a regular basis.

To lose weight, diet is absolutely key.

To maintain a healthy and fit lifestyle and maintain weight, exercise is absolutely key.

For the most part diet is 80%, exercise is 20% of it but I believe *mentally speaking* exercise plays a bigger part than that.

I don't like my body without exercise, I just look skinny and flabby. I prefer a body trained with weights (for me). I look healthier and better in a bikini.

It depends.
If you eat "X" calories a day and it is a surplus for your body that has caused an ever so slight weight gain over the years, then suddenly you start working out while eating the same "X" calories, but now you expend more and are in a deficit. You will lose weight.
In this case the exercise "makes all the difference"

Now, if you take those "X" calories, and just eat less so that you are in a deficit, and dont work out then it's food that has made all the difference.

The BIG thing to always be aware of is that exercising does NOT give you a license to turn your eating into a free for all.

Diet 100%.
You can lose weight without exercise, you CAN'T lose
Weight without a calories deficit.
I love cardio though,so I'm not hatin exercise.

I always say food because you're pretty much always going to be eating, even if you're not exercising. A broken leg may keep you out of the gym and a thunderstorm may keep you off the running trails, but your stomach is still going to growl.

Plus, it's usually easier to adjust the food part of the equation to compensate for decreased or increased physical activity. It's not as easy to try and add in additional exercise during the day to compensate for higher caloric intake.

For weight loss, food.

The only exception I see to this is say a person is eating at maintenance but is overweight. Suddenly they start doing 1 hour work outs 6.7 days a week burning 500 calories per workout but continue to eat at maintenance They are going to start losing weight right? They will have to adjust their maintenance calories once they start losing weight but it is inevitable that they will start losing since they are creating a deficit.

It may depend on where you are and what your goals are.

I've seen pics of women who only do diet and they look scrawny when they get done compared to other women who weigh more, but have the same body fat, only they are filled up with attractive lean muscle with that extra weight (they aren't body builders, but fit looking).

I'd rather look "fit" than "skinny" so both roles are equally important to me. Not to mention, at 1200-1500 calories, earning those extra snacks is pretty good motivation to workout. LOL

For me, food.

The battle with fat is won in the kitchen. You could easily out eat any progress you make exercising. You can also lose weight by changing your diet without exercising one single minute. How healthy you'll be is a whole other issue of course.