Whats more important diet or exercise?

Yes but did you notice that I did say that exercise plus diet helped maintain my crash diet results far better than dieting alone? When I don't exercise I can only hold onto weight loss for a couple months at max. So considering exercise can help me maintn crash diet results for 8 months or longer, imagine the maintainence on a more reasonable diet?

Even a reasonable caloric deficit is hard to maintain - the only people who can keep trim are those who maintain a regular exercise program.

It's no harder to maintain a reasonable caloric deficit than it is to maintain a reasonable exercise program. Both require dedication, commitment and self-discipline. I see just as many people fall off the exercise wagon as people who fall off the calorie deficit wagon. For many people it's more difficult to find/make the time to exercise than it is to eat.

If you're speaking solely of your personal experience/struggles, that's one thing; if you're putting it forth as a broad generalization which applies to everybody, it's presumptuous and invalid.

[ETA:] From looking at some of your prior posts, I can see why you've had trouble maintaining a caloric deficit:

My goal is to lose as much fat as possible in 2 months - I've down excessive running + 1200 cal diet before, PSMF, and crash fasting diets and while I can usually get the weight down as much as 15 lbs in 3-4 weeks, I end up regaining everything and sometimes more... so this time I want to do it right but still fast!

Trust me - I used to run 8-13 miles 3x a week on 1200 net calories with mostly carbs and the weightloss stalled after 2 months.

No wonder you find a caloric deficit so difficult to maintain. That's why I specifically refer to a reasonable caloric deficit. 1200 calories and/or crash fasting diets are not reasonable - nor sustainable.


You also seem to agree that exercise programs are just as difficult to sustain and require dedication:

I like running and lifting - it's just I overdo them and get burned out and stop after a few months (my longest lifting stint was 8 months, running like 4)

Ok I just noticed that u said beginners - yeah diet is most important but ur gonna regain all the weight and more once u get off the diet. Trust me, I've been doing this yo-yo dieting junk for 9 years I know what works and doing it through diet alone is a short-term, unsustainable way to lose weight.

And the evidence? Isn't it upward of 80% of people who lose weight regain it. It is natural for us to store fat because our bodies were designed for long periods of fasting as a result of insecure food supplies. What I am saying is that the majority of people will eventually cave in and start eating badly and regain weight - the only way to counter-act this change is to exercise. Ignore my own experiences because they may be at the extremes of diet/exercise, but the statistics don't lie. Most people who lose weight through dieting will regain it. Period. However, the majority of people who have a regular exercise regimen do not suffer from obesity, revealing which has the greatest value in terms of long-term weight-loss.

My first attempt at becoming less fat involved increasing my exercise without dieting. I was able to loose 12.5kg/28lbs and then reached a plateau. This also required a high level of exercise and a big time committment. As soon as my personal circumstances changed and I could not give that much time to exercise the weight went back on.

Following reports from a colleague at work that he had slimmed considerably from dieting alone I decided it was time to try. What I found is that as I lost weight from dieting I naturally felt more energetic and and took up more opportunities for exercise.

Ok I just noticed that u said beginners - yeah diet is most important but ur gonna regain all the weight and more once u get off the diet. Trust me, I've been doing this yo-yo dieting junk for 9 years I know what works and doing it through diet alone is a short-term, unsustainable way to lose weight.

The key phase there is "once you get off the diet". If you're luckly enough that following your instincts with regard to what to eat and exercise to take leads to being slim and healthy then fine but I'm guess you're not like that as otherwise why would you be here? Whatever change you make to your lifestyle, both to diet and exercise has to be for the long term.

From personal experience (70lb lost). To begin with a moderate amount of exercise (walking etc) was the first step i took. Once that became habit i tweaked my diet (cut down sugar and started eating salad for lunch).

Once that became habit i upped my exercise (resistance training), then once that habit was in place adjusted my diet again. (healthier main evening meal, minimizing "treats")

its been 2 years now of incremental adjustments, at no point has it become depressing (quite the opposite). at no point has it been too hard, yeah i had the odd curry the odd pizza. yeah my weight plateaued occasionally but you know what...

I can squat 110kg and deadlift 130kg. I can run a half marathon. I am in the best shape of my life.

Is diet more important that exercise no...
Is Exercise more important than diet no...

But getting them balanced to work around your life that is the key. and adjusting slowly has given me better results than i ever thought I could.

Just saying

I would say diet, personally. It's not impossible, but it is quite difficult, to out-exercise a bad diet!

I always recommend people change their diet slowly though. Not go for a "diet" but to make overall lifestyle changes that are healthy and sustainable for the long term. Slowly but surely - it doesn't create the quickest initial body changes, but that sustainability bit makes a huge difference over a long period of time!