Diet Vs Exercise
anmille8
Posts: 49 Member
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/04/health/diet-exercise-weight-loss/index.html
I read this article and author makes an interesting point that if you are trying to lose weight should focus on diet and not exercising. For example the calories you burn exercising can be easily eaten away and a vigorous workout could just make you more hungry. What do you all do? Focus on diet or diet and exercise?
I read this article and author makes an interesting point that if you are trying to lose weight should focus on diet and not exercising. For example the calories you burn exercising can be easily eaten away and a vigorous workout could just make you more hungry. What do you all do? Focus on diet or diet and exercise?
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Replies
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I am focused on health, so diet and exercise. Since I track what I eat, I do not eat more than I exercise away. Also, generally a really intense workout won't make me more hungry until the next day, when I can plan filling foods.13
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I agree with this. Exercise is great for a lot of things health related, but plays a pretty minimal role in weight loss. I walk for health, I eat at the correct calories intake for my weight management goals (I do not factor in any calories burned from my walks).6
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Calorie deficit to lose weight, created 95% by food, sometimes with a little extra help from my exercise.12
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I actually started a thread on that article last week... here's the (brief) discussion:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10716838/article-why-exercise-wont-make-you-lose-weight#latest
For most people, exercise buys them a small amount of buffer calories. The bulk of the calorie deficit needs to come from diet.
If your goals are more fitness-oriented, then of course a person should take that into consideration.6 -
I don't think of it as an either/or. I make sure the calories I consume match what my body uses. Part of what my body uses comes from exercise, but the important thing is to make sure to hit my overall goal.6
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I actually started a thread on that article last week... here's the (brief) discussion:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10716838/article-why-exercise-wont-make-you-lose-weight#latest
For most people, exercise buys them a small amount of buffer calories. The bulk of the calorie deficit needs to come from diet.
If your goals are more fitness-oriented, then of course a person should take that into consideration.
This is how I look at it for me personally-I know I'm burning a few calories by walking (today it was around 75), but I just figure that covers any tracking errors/overestimating with my food intake and over the long term it all evens out (and it does, based on my long term trends).
But yeah, I'm not fitness oriented at all. I walk because my doctor recommended it for cardiovascular health, (and there's a large number of elderly people that walk in my neighborhood and seeing them out there walking and being active and mobile in their 70's and 80s makes me think that they may be onto something
).
edit: clarification5 -
losing weight happens in the kitchen.
gaining health, happens through exercise
Combine the two, and the results are magical.21 -
This content has been removed.
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Well both, but this article is assuming one isn't tracking caloric intake and output and just winging it.
Purely based upon the value of input vs output the food you eat is the primary variable. 1400 kcal/day intake > 300 kcal day output from exercise.0 -
I've been in maintenance for going on 6 years and exercise regularly. For one thing, if exercise defaulted to losing weight I'd ultimately just wither away. Secondly, even though I exercise regularly, I typically put on about 10 Lbs over the winter and the holidays...point being that you can gain weight even when exercising regularly because ultimately it comes down to what you're eating and your diet.
I am in the process of cutting that winter and holiday weight right now...I haven't changed my exercise, I'm just eating a little less and drinking less.
Weight management in general largely comes down to diet. I exercise for my overall health and well being and fitness. Bottom line is that people don't really burn as much as they think they do with exercise, and unless you're training like an athlete, your calorie expenditure from exercise is dwarfed by your calorie expenditure from just being alive and going about your day to day...it's a nice little added bonus in most cases, but that's about it. Regular exercise does have numerous health benefits though.11 -
Its always diet first and then you could exercise. Exercise makes you stronger so you could do such basic activities with no problem. I also find that exercise help form your body shape better too; because you can loose weight in certain areas faster than other parts of your body.6
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I focus on both, but I put more emphasis on my diet.0
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I exercise regularly but eat all of my exercise calories (the mfp way of tracking) so any of my losing, bulking, maintaining comes from the calories I eat. I like it what way.4
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I find I'm less hungry when I exercise and eat back a portion of the burned calories than when I don't exercise and eat less. (I'm on 1360 to lose 1/2lb per week. Eating back around 50% of my exercise calories, I take in around 1600 most days and I'm good. But on days when I decide not to exercise and just eat the 1360, I tend to have more hunger).3
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Personal experience?
I was already very active (workouts 6 days most weeks) for 10 years, while obese. I stayed obese.
Worse yet, my health markers (cholesterol/triglycerides, blood pressure) stayed bad.
I was already vegetarian, and eating lots (too much) of mostly home-cooked whole foods.
So, I used calorie counting to eat at the right level, learned along the way how to stay satiated and happy on that level (and get good nutrition), and lost around 50 pounds. I'm now in year 3 of maintaining a healthy weight.
I put this in a lot of threads. I don't think it's out of place here:
Appropriate calories for weight management + sensible, balanced eating for good nutrition + exercise for fitness = best odds of long term good health.
Long term good health is what I want . . . especially now, at age 63, looking around at my age-mates, plus those just a bit older, and seeing their choices bear fruit (good and bad).12 -
This was me prior to MFP. I imagine the majority of people believe this. The misinformation campaigns from the diet/fitness industry are massive.5 -
This was me prior to MFP. I imagine the majority of people believe this. The misinformation campaigns from the diet/fitness industry are massive.
At the gym I go to, most of the people there are working with one of the trainers as it is not an open to the public gym. I know all of the trainers well and personally and they all really emphasize diet...but still, there's people I've been seeing in there for the last 3 years that haven't changed one iota except to get stronger and more fit...they don't listen to the nutrition advice and some of these people are in there 2-3 times per week at $50 a pop.2 -
Diet is definitely what does it for me, for weight loss (or weight maintenance)... I do like having some extra calories to work with when I work out, but I exercise mainly because I like feeling stronger, having better posture, and just looking and feeling less flabby... I notice a massive difference when I exercise regularly, in my shape/size, even if my weight stays basically the same4
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
This was me prior to MFP. I imagine the majority of people believe this. The misinformation campaigns from the diet/fitness industry are massive.
At the gym I go to, most of the people there are working with one of the trainers as it is not an open to the public gym. I know all of the trainers well and personally and they all really emphasize diet...but still, there's people I've been seeing in there for the last 3 years that haven't changed one iota except to get stronger and more fit...they don't listen to the nutrition advice and some of these people are in there 2-3 times per week at $50 a pop.
yea it's interesting how you can work out so hard and not lose weight. Is there anyway to raise your BMR?0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
This was me prior to MFP. I imagine the majority of people believe this. The misinformation campaigns from the diet/fitness industry are massive.
At the gym I go to, most of the people there are working with one of the trainers as it is not an open to the public gym. I know all of the trainers well and personally and they all really emphasize diet...but still, there's people I've been seeing in there for the last 3 years that haven't changed one iota except to get stronger and more fit...they don't listen to the nutrition advice and some of these people are in there 2-3 times per week at $50 a pop.
Since it's a gym you're using and speaking positively about, I assume it's good diet and nutrition advice.
I visited one locally that had a good rep for fitness improvement, but the owner was all about how I should give up being vegetarian (after 40 years or thereabouts at the time) and eat paleo. Um, no.
I might have signed up anyway (good pricing and workout model), but I also found the owner a complete overbearing jerk, so uh-uh (even though I would've mostly been working with one of his minions, most of the time).
If I had signed up, I probably would've stayed fat (but gotten fitter), too. I'm not the only one who doesn't want to change eating habits, I'm sure. 4 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
This was me prior to MFP. I imagine the majority of people believe this. The misinformation campaigns from the diet/fitness industry are massive.
At the gym I go to, most of the people there are working with one of the trainers as it is not an open to the public gym. I know all of the trainers well and personally and they all really emphasize diet...but still, there's people I've been seeing in there for the last 3 years that haven't changed one iota except to get stronger and more fit...they don't listen to the nutrition advice and some of these people are in there 2-3 times per week at $50 a pop.
yea it's interesting how you can work out so hard and not lose weight. Is there anyway to raise your BMR?
Short answer: No.
Adding muscle mass will make a tiny difference (like 2 or 4 calories per pound per day, I forget which), but it takes a long time, and barely/rarely happens in a calorie deficit.
You can change your exercise, or change your daily activity level (NEAT). That's a more productive way of looking at it. (https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss).5 -
Awareness of both the calories in and calories out sides of the equation is really the ticket here.
Lots of people assume workouts alone will lead to weight loss. An equal (if not greater) number assume that eating “healthy”/“clean”/keto/low carb/paleo/vegan/other arbitrary and possibly meaningless term will result in weight loss.
From a health standpoint, we should all be eating food that provides us with the necessary nutrients and getting sufficient cardiovascular and resistance/strength training exercise.
From a weight loss standpoint, we need to burn more calories than we consume in order to lose. For me, there’s a sweet spot where I can have some freedom with food, but still be eating less than I burn, while being active but not SO active that I get ravenously hungry.
If I’m less active than that, I have trouble sticking to a valorie deficit (I don’t do well on lowish intake). If I’m more active than that I generally end up fighting excessive hunger.
While mathematically, exercise isn’t necessary for weight loss, and my overall calorie deficit is the same whether I exercise some and I eat a little more or don’t exercise and eat a little less-the ability to have a snack or have a steak without needing to save up calories or just not be hungry...that all makes a world of difference for what is sustainable and what isn’t.
So it’s a solid both for me-BUT only within the confides of knowing it’s all just CICO.5 -
I think for some people exercising can be enough if they gained their weight really slowly, so they barely ate above their maintenance prior to exercising. I was one of these people (I had to lose only about 20 lbs however I was overweight since I was a child, so I really ate close to my maintenance), and starting to exercise helped me lost most of my excess weight without making huge changes in my diet. This is why some people might think that it can be enough cause there are people who are successful at weightloss without eating 'diet food', and it's probably easier to think that doing 30 mins of cardio a day will lead to success. However when I got to those last 7-8 lbs, I couldn't succeed in weightloss barely through exercise, that was the point when I realized how important is the calorie deficit to lose weight.
So I say that diet is more important but it doesn't mean that exercising can't be enough. Those 200-300 calories are a lot when you are not far away from your goal weight and you should eat very few calories otherwise if you wanted to lose weight without exercising.
For obese people the dietary changes should be the first thing they do if they wanted to get to a normal BMI, however adding exercising is very important for health as well, so it's best to do both.0 -
They talk, in the article, about walking. But what struck me as a ~200 lb man, is that I have to run more than a marathon distance each week for 1 lb of fat loss each week.
Or I could stop drinking pop.
Course dumbass I am, I'm doing both 4 -
When first I diet, I lose weight.
Then when I lose weight, I stop dieting.
Then when I stop dieting, I gain weight.
I cannot diet.
I'm going to carry on with both exercising and eating.5 -
i focus on a calorie deficit1
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When I first started MFP, I downright refused to exercise outside of walking my dog. I did diet only and it worked. As I lost more weight, I WANTED to move more and exercise, so I did. I'd say the first 30lbs or so (out of 100+) I lost ONLY focused on diet.5
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That's not 100% true. For me, exercising has been more effective than diet to lose weight. Assuming that exercising doesn't impact weight loss is definitely false. Of course, diet works well but I believe a good balance between diet and exercising is the most effective way to lose weight.7
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For me, it's exercise.
I DO pay attention to calories, and can slowly lose weight doing so. If I exercise, even when I don't pay that much attention to calories, I lose weight much more, and as long as I stay somewhat active, it stays off. I don't tend to be that much hungrier when I exercise, so I'm sure that is part of it. It's
I have a cousin who is the opposite. She can exercise till the cows come home and how her hunger increases makes it so she never seems to lose weight. But a diet, without exercise - she loses weight a lot.
Personally, i think it kind of depends on the person and how exercise and/or diet impact them, mentally and physically.0
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