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Diet vs Exercise - Which is more important and why?
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Nutrition I would argue is very important, but sleep, stress management and daily exercise are so important they are interconnected in so many ways.
I would argue the SAD isn't even a diet. It's almost a devolution of what was once food. The gradual creeping in and pervasiveness of high-fructose corn syrup, along with GMO foods, and food "products" is a global phenomenon but I think found commonly in the West. In other parts of the world, the quality of food is on another level. Culture plays a large role in this I think.
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I've always said that the diet is more important towards the weight loss, but exercise is more important motivation wise to KEEP me on the diet.1
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Wherever I read these threads, and this is a subject that comes up regularly, some people always come off as feeling threatened that other people are able to bring exercise into their life and benefit from it. I see a lot of bizarre comments that are negative toward exercise here and don't make sense in any other light. Example: I've seen people say they can "undo" a walk with a bag of Oreos, I've never seen anybody say they can undo 30 years of savings with a poker game.7
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NorthCascades wrote: »Wherever I read these threads, and this is a subject that comes up regularly, some people always come off as feeling threatened that other people are able to bring exercise into their life and benefit from it. I see a lot of bizarre comments that are negative toward exercise here and don't make sense in any other light. Example: I've seen people say they can "undo" a walk with a bag of Oreos, I've never seen anybody say they can undo 30 years of savings with a poker game.
I think that's a good point, and cute, but not a fair analogy. You can't undo a substantial overall weight loss (that took a long time to gain before that loss) with one bag of oreos, sure. You can counter, hmm, the 25 bucks you put in your house down-payment savings fund this week in a pretty normal poker game (in arithmetic terms). The latter's more analogous to the potential impact of a bag of oreos on weekly deficit, let alone one walk (depending on the size of the bag!).
Overall, yes, I agree that some people here seem quite resistant to the idea that exercise is valuable, in sometimes cognitively bizarre ways. Being an oddball who got quite active separately (and long before) weight loss, I see both as very beneficial. I proved to my own satisfaction that exercise is not, completely by itself, enough for good health . . . and I have a pretty strong belief that good nutrition in a complete couch-sitter is not going to be enough, either, even though I didn't personally run that experiment.
All of us tend to biased by our own cases, including our personal tastes and preferences.1 -
I think anybody who thinks only exercise or only diet is all that's needed for good health is in for a rude awakening.
I don't think I've seen many people saying "if you exercise a lot nutrition is completely meaningless and you can eat anything you want without consequences." There are plenty of threads here about cico and people take time to explain that calories from iced cream and broccoli have the same effect on your weight, those threads always have a lot of side talk explaining that weight is but one last of overall health.
Overall it seems like the people who are very emotionally invested in the need for calorie restriction like the idea of having to choose between diet and exercise whereas people who enjoy using their bodies mostly take both approaches.6 -
I find the either/or conversation kind of misses the point.
There are absolutely people who are active enough to make a huge difference for their TDEE. Because these people can meet their calorie goal on higher calories, it often looks like they're eating "whatever" because if you have a lot of calories, you can meet all your nutritional needs while still fitting in a couple of beers and some nachos after that long Saturday bike ride. But I think most of these people are eating plenty of nutrient dense foods because athletes -- even recreational ones -- want to feel good during activity and you can't do that unless you're also doing things like being well nourished (obligatory disclaimer: this seems to become more important with age too).
For a sedentary person who is adding a few lower intensity sessions a week, the calories burnt are going to be more minimal and that meaningless "refuel" fun meal from the previous example may be the difference between them being in a deficit for the week or not. It's not that they have to choose between diet and exercise, it's that many sedentary people are not realistic about how many calories they're actually burning.
If I'm sedentary, I need 1,460 calories to maintain and hitting my needs on that goal is more like a puzzle game that can be derailed by a plate of french fries. Bump my calories to 2,200 (like they are in the typical summer) and everything becomes easier. The principals are the same, but the logistics and daily reality feel totally different.8 -
Definition of a "bad" diet is subjective. I relish in junk food weekly and have been maintaining. For many a "bad" diet means no junk food.ajwindsorii wrote: »You can't outrun a bad diet.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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The same goes for being at a normal weight and unfit.Diet for health. Exercise for fitness. One can be fit and unhealthy.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Definition of a "bad" diet is subjective. I relish in junk food weekly and have been maintaining. For many a "bad" diet means no junk food.ajwindsorii wrote: »You can't outrun a bad diet.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Sounds more like the diet from hell.
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For myself personally I found out that being more active has been more important for maintenance, than during my weight loss phase. First time through I lost a big chunk of weight with no extra exercise at all, (improved my health markers/corrected a health issue with just the weight loss). Started walking after I started transitioning into maintenance and its been very helpful to keep my mindset where it needs to be. Now I'm working on some 'pandemic weight creep' and I'm trying to make regular walks a thing again, (something I got away from over the past year). Being more active is part of my weight management plan-which I've now learned is something I actually have to keep doing to keep my weight in my maintenance range, go figure
In hindsight I should have added the walking back when I was doing my initial weight-loss phase, to cement the habit. Live and learn.
eta: OP, I just took a peek at your profile and wow, we've pretty much done the same thing lol
I've experimented with just about every way of eating during my years of maintenance. From WFPB to a two years experiment with very low carb/carnivore (I was featured on Shawn Bakers website haha). Now I'm just working on finding a balance with all of it. 2 -
If exercise was a pill, it would be the most widely used medicine in history.4
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I don't think that people here are actually resistant to exercise. I think people stress that it is not necessary for initial weightloss, for a very good reason:
When you are very out of shape and obese, the work involved in exercise can seem very, very literally painful. If you add in a lot of negative associations many people have to being overweight and in school gym classes, associations can make for another kind of pain.
I have always been active. I play freaking sports.
But anyone trying to push an increase in formal structured exercise on me would be met with a heck of a lot of resistance. Anyone suggesting an overall change in my lifestyle as well as my diet would have made me rage quit, the same way 'no more chocolate or you won't lose weight' would.
And again: I was starting as someone participating in a couple of organized sports and a lot of general walking and hiking.
I still do those things. I do more other activity on top since my weight made things more achievable and I just plain felt better and more able to. But the weightloss and dietary changes had to come before I could increase my movement, and that would have been MORE true if I was sedentary beforehand.
Heck, even today if you told me to 'exercise' my first thought would be something painful, boring, and difficult. Not... going out to hike 10 miles on the hard trail or trail running 5K with my dog. Because I have a very, very hardwired in negative association to structured exercise I cannot quite break, at least yet.3 -
Diet, 100%. It takes only minutes to eat 1000 calories but can takes hours to burn that many off.6
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diet>exercise2
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Once again, (better for what?) because I think the point gets lost after a while...2
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wunderkindking wrote: »I don't think that people here are actually resistant to exercise. I think people stress that it is not necessary for initial weightloss, for a very good reason:
When you are very out of shape and obese, the work involved in exercise can seem very, very literally painful. If you add in a lot of negative associations many people have to being overweight and in school gym classes, associations can make for another kind of pain.
I have always been active. I play freaking sports.
But anyone trying to push an increase in formal structured exercise on me would be met with a heck of a lot of resistance. Anyone suggesting an overall change in my lifestyle as well as my diet would have made me rage quit, the same way 'no more chocolate or you won't lose weight' would.
And again: I was starting as someone participating in a couple of organized sports and a lot of general walking and hiking.
I still do those things. I do more other activity on top since my weight made things more achievable and I just plain felt better and more able to. But the weightloss and dietary changes had to come before I could increase my movement, and that would have been MORE true if I was sedentary beforehand.
Heck, even today if you told me to 'exercise' my first thought would be something painful, boring, and difficult. Not... going out to hike 10 miles on the hard trail or trail running 5K with my dog. Because I have a very, very hardwired in negative association to structured exercise I cannot quite break, at least yet.
And much more exercise is painful and difficult if you are trapped in the spiral of orthopedic injury and weight gain.
Did you know you can step hard enough on a brake pedal to blow your arch apart? Neither did I till I did it at the age of 24. After two different surgeries, I rehabilitated to a life where I have a weightbearing budget. The goal of the budget is to be able to walk to bed at night, instead of crawl, and not hurt more than usual when I get up in the morning. Cause if you already hurt in the morning, you won't have the usual amount of weightbearing that day, and that throws everything off.
A lot of people saw that I was fat and said, 'You too can exercise! Start walking around the block! There's this thing called Couch to 2K!" and given that standing up for thirty minutes at a time is still a problem, I rejected their advice. And because the rebuilt foot fits in a shoe and I don't need a cane or a walker and I don't limp till I hurt, the perception is that I'm lazy and don't wanna get better. That would be inaccurate. It was just that the exercise that I could do was very limited, and accessing most of it required money, that I didn't have. (You don't pay for a gym when you're deciding whether you pay the gas bill or the electric bill that month.)
So for me diet came first. Then because my weightbearing budget increased, I could begin moving a little more. I think that feedback loop is better for me, and it's a powerful motivator for me, personally.5 -
I haven't read this whole thread, so I hope this has not already been covered. The way I look at it, just looking at calories for this food or that exercise is simplistic. A calorie is just a measure. I think you have to look at it as a dynamic balance.
If you eat X amount and do Y amount of activity and that keeps you at Z weight, that is the balance of calories in, calories out, you are at. You change that balance by lowering X, increasing Y or both. So if you start exercising as a weight loss strategy and you don't eat more, you should lose. The advantage of exercise over dieting is that it increases your metabolism, whereas lowering calorie intake can decrease it. I also find that just decreasing my food intake alone depresses me somewhat, whereas exercise does the opposite.
Of course the best thing is to do both. But I can't imagine ME losing weight without exercise.
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I'm not a fan of traditional exercise and the horror of going in a gym is too much for me to bear!
But I enjoy outside activities such as hiking and cycling.
The benifits from a hike/ bike ride for me definitely trump the calories I burn from it.
Burning calories is just a bonus.
There's no way I would go in a gym so I could eat pizza - I'd rather go without- or just eat the pizza and not worry about it 😂0 -
I’m medically exempt from exercising, if anything most of my doctors/specialists advise against it. So for me diet is definitely more important.2
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In terms if weight loss, I read an article from The Mayo Clinic that said as a general guideline 10,000 steps maintains weight, 15,000 steps (I am a walker) helps weight loss while dieting. With that said, in terms of health (along with diet) I consider exercise as the universal drug that helps your every part of our body. As you age it is important to use your muscles to prevent atrophy, I learned a great lesson when I broke my arm, both my doctor and PT said cardio exercise was important because it increased blood flow to the injured bones which accelerates healing. Since my arm was immobilized for 6 weeks, the amount my muscles atrophied was incredible. So I walked, even in my brace, which I believe was a major contributor to my success at gaining full movement of my arm. I also learned from them that blood flow decreases to your bones as you age and cardio becomes even more important for healthy bones. And we all know the benefits to our heart
Also, my husband has Parkinson's and his neurologist told us that studies have shown that daily exercise decreases the progression of the disease by 30% even without medication. As I learn more about Parkinson's and the role dopamine plays in the proper functioning of our bodies, I stay away from any diet that messes with the normal production, as low dopamine levels can affect every part of our body functions. At least I would check with your doctor prior to starting such a diet.
So I put diet vs exercise as equal in importance.1 -
@nationalvillage3215
Most of what you write makes sense, except the part from the Mayo Clinic and steps. There has been some research into walking promoting good health. The number that everyone points to is ten thousand per day, but that was made up from a company that sold pedometers. It's still a reasonable target that most people can achieve if they try even if they have to work up to it. The "magic" number for health seems to be a minimum of 7500 steps.
As far as how it affects weight loss or maintenance, that depends on calorie intake. If I walk 20,000 steps a day but also eat a big pizza and a couple pints, I'm not going to lose weight. If I take zero steps and eat fewer calories than my total daily energy expenditure, I'll lose weight.
This does not detract from the idea that exercise does a body good. It does! I'm going to get out in it today as it's a gorgeous one.5 -
Personally I think exercise is very underrated in the "diet community" and places like MFP. That said, as someone who values exercise greatly, diet is a bit more important.
This comes from someone who basically eats at maintenance and uses and relies on exercise to put me in a deficit for weight loss. That said, I do firmly believe I could diet, not exercise - and lose weight. However, I would have a much harder time if i exercised but never watched what I ate. So if we have to pick one - diet. But both are nearly as important.
I will say for me though that while I think diet is slightly more essential, my whole process RELIES on exercise. I find that when I exercise, I am more accountable in my diet as well. It's like when your parents told you that you had no concept of money and what it takes to make money before your first job. Knowing how hard it is to "burn calories" makes me appreciate my caloric intake more and not over do it.
So again, both are important but diet is slightly more essential. But do both and prosper 😎4 -
From all of the reading I've done and my own experiences, exercise seems to be more beneficial in regards to overall health and well being (obesity aside) than what my diet consists of. I tend to put a premium on good nutrition, namely because I feel better and it seems to better compliment fitness performance...but I've also gone through times where my nutrition wasn't the best or even close to the best but weight and health markers were stable with regular exercise.
In general they tend to go hand in hand for me.1 -
So, I last posted in June (and 25lbs heavier) and I feel the need to come back and say:
For losing weight diet was where it was at. And having a calorie budget meant that I focused extra hard so that budget kept me healthy and feeling good and not starved.
I really do have to admit though that now that I'm not just a healthy weight but toward the lower half of the range and maintaining, on a daily basis exercise (and for me that's just fun activity I enjoy) is more important to my daily life/quality of life/enjoyment of life and functional regular old health. It's a big chunk of what I LIKE doing, and in me feeling good. The activity also gives me more 'room' to eat and maintain, but that's pretty secondary.
I could not be at this place without having lost the 70ish lbs first, though -- and that was through diet.3
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