Which is more important - Diet or Exercise?

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  • PeterSedesse
    PeterSedesse Posts: 124
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    75% diet 25% exercise

    But that is only if you are trying to lose weight. Once you get to your target weight, exercise is much more important to be healthy and feeling good.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
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    It is a combination for me. Training hard keeps me on track with my eating and also keeps things tight as I lose. I have the best results being careful of my diet and combining cardio and weights at least 5 times a week. Once I fall off the workout wagon, I tend to fall off the healthy eating wagon too. You can lose weight by diet alone but I doubt it will look pretty naked.
  • Shirotora88
    Shirotora88 Posts: 121
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    Diet is 80% and exercise is 20%
  • Richardlaing1
    Richardlaing1 Posts: 23 Member
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    Is there a reason you don't track calories perfectly? I found it very difficult to guess. I have completely eliminated sugar and grain from my diet and attribute that to at least in part to feeling so much better overall. After a couple weeks I did not miss them at all. I do exercise but I make sure I have plenty of recovery time. I only do one body group to failure each visit along with stationary bike. This does 2 things for me. Prevent over training "more recovery time" and allows more energy for each body group. It is very hard to push to failure but that is what triggers change. I feel your frustration regarding long plateaus but they will break. Sadly our bodies establish a set weight and will down throttle our metabolism to accommodate fewer calories. Continued exercise with break through that eventually. The only way I can keep this in context is the knowing that I am not on a diet or temporary lifestyle change. This is just what I do. It is me.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    No matter how much you exercise, you will never lose a single pound if you eat all the calories back.

    However, you can lose weight with zero exercise due to the fact that your body burns calories at rest.

    Diet is essential for weight loss. Exercise is not.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    If you're not weighing and measuring your food, you don't know how much you are really eating. And at 5'6" and 143 lb, you don't have much weight to lose, which means you have to be even more diligent in your logging to keep from blowing your deficit.
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
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    Nowhere do I see you mention that you are logging? If you haven't set up a goal with MFP, and don't have a suggested calorie goal each day, then, IMHO, you are missing out on the best feature that MFP has to offer. If you let MFP figure out a goal for you, using 0.5 lbs weight loss per week, and start logging, and trying to hit that calorie goal each day, you might see some results.

    It looks like you have a goal of 13 lbs to lose. In the scheme of things, this is not a lot to lose. Often, the last few pounds are the hardest to shift. I'd recommend you start logging, and focus on calories in / calories out. And keep up with the exercise.

    But as people keep saying, you can't outrun your fork.
  • lisacarrana
    lisacarrana Posts: 38 Member
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    Diet. Diet. Diet.

    You can't out train a bad diet.


    This is the best answer. You will notice changes very quickly with all your training if you tweak your diet to suit you.
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
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    Yeah, dont look down on your friends who have made a commitment to change their diet and losing weight without having exercised...its in no way a short cut. Watching what you eat not only is the basis of weightloss, but its difficult to do. Even you admit that you are not committed to tracking what you eat...if it were easy to do, you yourself would be doing that no problem. But its *hard!* definitely nothing to scoff at your friends at for doing successfully.

    As others said, diet (and by that I dont mean going on a diet, but as in eating habits) is what changes your weight...working out is for fitness and to help change your body comp. As long as you are eating at a deficit, you *will* lose weight, just not as fast as someone who is not working out, because you are also building muscle.

    Now definitely do not change your fitness routine, if you are sticking to it and also committed to tracking what you eat, then you will be much better off *in the long run* than your friends who are only tracking what they eat and showing the results *in the short term*. That is because, as you start to lose weight, because you are also getting fit, your body will be more toned in the end.

    But you cant just workout and not track what you eat as well, if you are going to chose one over the other, I would chose tracking what you eat over exercise, because if you dont have your diet under control, which is the key way to lose weight, then your progress will reflect that. But you dont have to choose...just make a commitment to keeping on top of what you eat and stay on track, and you will get the payoff.
  • Hilary1471
    Hilary1471 Posts: 15
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    I found myself in this situation when I started my exercise and calorie limiting my weight went up by 4 kgs in 3 weeks I was gutted, sweat, blisters and tummy rumbles and all I had to show for it was jeans that wouldn't even zip. I still don't know exactly what the cause was however last week I sprained my ankle very badly and haven't been able to any of the exercise I was doing before, walking, jogging in place or star jumps and although I haven't lost a kg this week I haven't gained it either. I am starting to think my body is just resisting my efforts.

    This pedantic weighing food is all very well but in 2,3 years time I don't want to be bringing a set around in my handbag in case an apple is 120g instead of 110g's so although I do look at that something is and log it im not going to be snipping about a few cal's here and there.
  • sigsby
    sigsby Posts: 220 Member
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    They are equally important!
  • slucki01
    slucki01 Posts: 284 Member
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    For weight loss it's diet and calorie deficiency. Exercise is important for overall health and it can give you some extra calories to burn or eat.

    I agree with previous posters -- if you're not measuring/weighing and logging you're probably eating more than you think
  • slashypotterness
    slashypotterness Posts: 10
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    Technically-diet, realistically...they are about equally important. By that I mean, when losing weight you WILL NOT lose without proper diet, whereas you CAN lose with proper diet and no exercise. With that said, I personally don't understand why anyone would want to lose weight without the added fitness to it (in less perhaps they are morbidly obese and aren't mobil enough to exercise).

    In less you are losing about ten pounds or so, losing weight without a good strength training regime is what leads people to be skinny fat. In other words, you become a smaller version of what you already were but don't look any leaner...in fact, some people end up looking worse with lose skin and flabbiness.

    So to answer your question, no there is no way to lose weight without proper diet so it is what you should pay MOST attention to, but exercise is such a close second that you might as well consider them equally.
  • lsgibbs83
    lsgibbs83 Posts: 254 Member
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    I track my food and exercise. I know I can lose lbs by better eating alone; however, I have found that exercise helps.

    I work with a nurse on my weight loss plan. She has told me that muscle burns more calories than fat and to build muscle strength training is necessary. I combine cardio and strength training for 1 hour 5-6 days a week. I used to be the person who didn't like to sweat. Now I love it. As a bonus, at my age (I will be 50 in the spring) I was starting to get night sweats. Since I started exercising the night sweats have completely stopped.

    I say do what works best for you. If you have a support system of professionals (your physician, a workplace wellness program, etc...) work with them to develop a personalized plan. If you don't like exercise you will be miserable, it will feel like a chore, and you are less likely to stick with it.

    Lastly, I not only measure success by the scale, I also take measurements weekly. On weeks when the scale doesn't move as much I have found that my measurements go down a little more.

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  • maram29
    maram29 Posts: 100 Member
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    Measure. Every day. Every damn thing. It matters. You will see. You are doing so many amazing things for yourself. Do this one more thing. Every thing. Every damn day.
  • MrsMizart
    MrsMizart Posts: 1,275 Member
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    If you want to lose weight, reduce your calories.
    If you want to look good in your clothes, do lots of cardio.
    If you want to look great naked, lift weights.

    Love this!

    I think that, if I may, I'll print it out and have it framed :-D
  • suppakana
    suppakana Posts: 307 Member
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    You can't out-exercise a bad diet.
  • bramble345
    bramble345 Posts: 50 Member
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    I started off doing exercise to lose weight, it didn't work because I still ate whatever I fancied BUT I got hooked on exercise and have loads more energy and my shape changed for the better. Now I do the exercise for fun and count calories to get rid of the fat, and slowly its working.
  • WhoIsAmber
    WhoIsAmber Posts: 161 Member
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    I used to be "conscious" of my portions. I'd eyeball my cereal as I poured it into the bowl, "that looks like about 2 servings," and I'd go off to eat. I bought a food scale and poured out about how much I usually would eat and it turns out, I was eating over 4 servings of cereal instead of just 2, giving me 200+ calories that went un-logged. Same goes for peanut butter which is also much higher in calories so, I don't even want to guestimate how many calories that made me go over in the past.

    Invest in a digital food scale, I did and it was the best investment I've made so far when it comes to my weight loss. I use it multiple times a day so I know exactly how many calories I'm consuming.

    *EDIT*
    I think dieting and nutrition are most valuable when it comes to losing weight. I only do some cardio when I've really gone over my calories just to bring my net back down... I know, the wrong way to go about it, but eh~
  • lsgibbs83
    lsgibbs83 Posts: 254 Member
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    If you want to lose weight, reduce your calories.
    If you want to look good in your clothes, do lots of cardio.
    If you want to look great naked, lift weights.

    Love this!

    I think that, if I may, I'll print it out and have it framed :-D

    THIS!!

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