Focus on Diet or Fitness

nessa_bby
nessa_bby Posts: 2
edited February 14 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi!
I have a question. Should i focus on staying within my calorie range or working out? If i workout i tend to get hungrier and want to eat more. Any advice would be helpful.

Replies

  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    I focus on diet first. Both are important but to lose weight it is easier to not eat the calories than to burn them off with exercise.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You use your diet for weight control; exercise is for fitness.
  • Really good question, especially as many studies show people often eat more energy after exercise than they burn.

    Ive worked on some lab experiments where we put people on a treadmill and they run but don't know how long for / speed etc and afterwards are asked to eat from a buffet what they think they burned. People usually consumed about 200kcal more than they actually burned showing the mismatch.

    Bringing it back to your question, if your going for weight loss then its all about your net energy balance. If you are -500kcal net a day then it shouldn't matter whether you are exercising or not. That being said, exercising is advantageous for a huge number of health reasons.

    I would go for the exercise option, but make sure that you do not overeat post-exercise - try eating lots of protein which is very satiating!
  • Jkn921
    Jkn921 Posts: 309 Member
    Both in combination as diet is about calorie deficit and fitness is good for your overall health. Which one is important is your choice :)
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
    You use your diet for weight control; exercise is for fitness.
    ^^ this.

    You would have to do tons of exercise to lose weight. Calories in versus out regulate your weight and exercise is for fitness.
    Stef.
  • skydiveD30571
    skydiveD30571 Posts: 281 Member
    If i workout i tend to get hungrier and want to eat more.

    That's natural and to be expected. You need more energy to support those activities. Also your "calorie limit" goes up when you exercise so you can eat more and still be at a deficit.
  • Okay, thank you.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    It's often said that you diet (or count calories) to look good in clothes, and you exercise to look good naked. :smile: Also, you can't outrun a bad diet.

    It's a little more complicated than that, but not much. You lose weight because you are eating fewer calories than your body needs. However, if you're not using your muscles, your body will effectively say (if it could talk), "Hey, those muscles aren't getting much use. They have protein that I could use to keep the rest of the place up. Let's grab some of that protein and repurpose it." So if you don't do at least some exercise, some of your weight loss will be lean body weight (i.e., muscle, since you won't lose much bone or connective tissue).

    Hence, it's a good idea to do some resistance exercise (google body weight exercises for some basic routines) and cardio (for endurance) as you lose weight. Make sure to eat enough to cover the extra work, but beware of eating too much, as has already been mentioned. Plus, websites, fitness equipment, and even heart rate monitors tend to overestimate calories burned in exercise, so be conservative in your estimates. I did a lot of exercise in 2012 and gained 10 lb. I did even more in 2013 and lost weight, because I was counting calories.
  • ladybarometer
    ladybarometer Posts: 205 Member
    Both.
    The best workouts you can do are the ones you'll actually DO - so if you don't like running, or the stair master, find something you enjoy doing that gets you moving - that's what i do! I hate the treadmill, and I get so bored on cardio machines so I do zumba, kick boxing, and spinning to mix things up a bit.

    Although weight loss will obviously result in you being smaller, working out allows you to appear even smaller than your scale things you are. You can compare a number of people that all weight the same, and they may all look different depending on their lifestyle, diet, ect...
  • Vonikins
    Vonikins Posts: 56 Member
    I have been using both, but my first focus has been on diet. I am a carb-hog and I know that if I don't watch it, that macro can consume my daily calories. I used to struggle with bringing my carbs under control because I wasn't strategizing about what i would eat instead of carbs. Now I'm focusing on a protein centered diet with a secondary focus of making sure I am getting a good balance of dietary fiber so that the carbs I am consuming have more overall nutritional value. As for exercise, I had an epiphany last year that the greatest source of my body image issues is my body composition rather than just my size, and the only real way to change my composition is through exercise. I love swimming and dancing, so I have been finding resources, like joining a 24hr gym, so I can do activities I love and can keep up. Diet will probably get you in the ballpark you want, weight-wise, but probably for the definition that your mental image is striving for will only be achieved through changing your body fat composition and building muscle definition.
This discussion has been closed.