Diet vs exercise

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I like to combine the two so that I can eat a bit more, also I think that some form of resistance training is good, not necessarily for losing the pounds but to retain lean muscle and look better once the flab is gone! I am preaching to my own choir right now, I have been more focused on the diet aspect (even then not as well as I need to).

For me, doing both is by far the easiest and most enjoyable way, but you can lose just by controlling your diet, and you can similarly lose by being careful not to increase calories but increasing exercise (although the latter is usually more challenging and slower).

I did both, but it was far easier for me to eat 1000 calories less per day than to burn a legit 1000 a day.

Weight loss requires that you eat less than you burn. I am a big believer in the saying, "You can't out exercise a bad diet." That said, walking five miles a day helps me by enhancing my mood, suppressing my appetite and giving me a little wiggle room for an occasional treat. Strength training, while increasing my appetite, helps me to retain muscle mass and remain strong and healthy. Since I am motivated to lose weight by my health, fitness is a necessary component for my journey. But for just seeing the number go down on the scale, you can do it much faster by decreasing your calorie intake than by increasing your calories burned with exercise.

Diet for weight loss; exercise for fitness. I eat all my calories burned by exercise.

If you mean fitness, then both are important. If you mean simply fat loss, then it could be either or both. Whatever method keeps you in a calorie deficit.

Personally, I would never stick to as few calories as I'd need to eat without exercise, which makes exercise very important for my weight loss.

Diet for weight loss, exercise for the win. This is not an either-or proposition. I can tighten up on my calories best I can but it can take a month or more for the results to show. When I increase my exercise, I see results in days. I am stronger, more flexible, with greater endurance and a skip in my step.

I do temporarily increase water weight from exercise. But exercise feels better than restricting calories.

diet/nutrition so i can stay healthy and lose weight, but exercise so i can eat more food and be happy not hangry

hamlet1222 wrote: »

Diet will always trump anything you can do in the gym for fat loss.

Diet to lose weight. Exercise is not necessary for weight loss. All of mine was done without exercise! I am, by nature, lazy, and with heavy asthma, exercise was hard because my lungs would give out long before the rest of my body. So I focused on adjusting my calories in first. In January, i took a walking class for my phys ed credit, and that helped me at least get into walking. I will probably never be a marathon runner, but at least I can walk the same speed and distance my husband does when he goes for a walk, and that's what counted for me! But my weight loss was done entirely by watching my calories in, so any calories earned from exercise are bonus. And normally used for Pocky and can of soda. XD

Losing weight is all about burning more calories than you consume. You can do that by adjusting your calories you consume with your diet, by adding exercise and burning more, or a combination of the two. Most people go for option three, but all three options are perfectly valid. Granted, exercise is good for other reasons, like keeping your heart and lungs in shape so you'll be healthy for longer, but if you don't want to or can't exercise, you can still lose weight.

Both. I do exercise because it's good for my heart/overall health. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I also exercise so I can eat that mini-Snickers bar in the evening, or the pizza on the weekend. No, I don't get all the pizza calories back in exercise, but even adding in 200 gives me some wiggle room.

Exercise helps health but the ONLY way I drop pounds is with reduced eating plan. I had gastric bypass 13 yrs. ago and lost from 252 to 152 in 6 months. After first year you must exercise to maintain and eat 5-6 small meals with really balanced nutrients to keep from gaining again. So many people think this surgery is a free pass but I must keep a mindful eating plan all the time to keep from going up again. MyFitnessPal helps me SO much because it is too easy for me to eat mindlessly. I am 73, diabetic since 1992, and my husband and I try to walk at least 30 min a day, and often walk for an hour or more 4 times a week. Th effort never ends.

scolaris wrote: »

I put calorie counting at the center & just use exercise activity or macronutrient ratios to 'boost' things more in my favor. The exercise calories give me better deficits & the protein grams I eat help me feel satiated longer and preserve my lean muscle mass as much as possible. But with out a solid working game plan on the calories my weight would maintain or gradually increase, it's that simple.

This is what I do as well! I realized after a lot of trial and error, that my workouts really only burned MAYBE 175-200 calories....(and i didn't even enjoy it). I was eating well over that. Once i adjusted how many calories I consumed and didn't really worry that much about exercise, weight came off. Now, my exercise is walking when I feel like it and I enjoy it!

For me the key was exercise. I went from maintaining 152 lbs at 1500 cals while sedentary, to eating 1700, being very active and now down to 125. So I got here by eating slightly more but moving much much more.