Diet or workout??

I'd say start the diet first so that you can make yourself get into the habit of making the right decisions. Add the workout in after a couple weeks.

Diet. There are many who say that 80% of the equation is diet, and fitness takes care of the rest. I love and recommend Tosca Reno's "Clean Eating" series... there are a few things in them that turned me off just a bit, but for the most part they are great.

Start your diet first, then in a few weeks add the exercise in.

You can eat your way through any sort of exercise regimen, and you will hear on here (repeatedly) that 90% of your success will be found in the kitchen.

Make sustainable, healthy changes to your eating habits (cause "diets" never last), and start doing physical activities that you enjoy. This doesn't have to be torture.

You've taken the first step by deciding to take the first step. Have a happy, healthy journey, and good luck!

Diet beats exercise every time. Focus on eating healthy and establishing that habit. No processed or junk food. Then add exercise. It makes you feel great and will help maintain your weightloss.

Experts say your body composition is:

80% Diet
10% Exercise
10% Genetics

I personally.. need to tighten my diet!

I would change eating habits first.

I think diet because you will see weight loss results where as with exercise and building muscle, you might see gain or slower weight loss. Also, it is good to get a handle on your diet before you start an exercise regimen so that you are not feeling hungry before, after, during exercise cuz that's no fun.

Looka like the overwhelming consensus is diet! :happy:

I'll say for me personally, I started with the diet first because it was the thing that didn't require effort for me to change since I didn't feel like I had the motivation to start both at once. After losing a couple of pounds, I was feeling a lot more motivated and felt more confident adding in the exercise, too.

Honestly I would say either one. Doing something is almost always better than doing nothing. Personally I started with diet first, because I needed some time to get some equipment together for a home gym. And a few weeks later, added the exercise routine. But I see no harm in doing it the other way around depending on circumstances and preference.

If your goal is to lose weight, I'd say diet first. Weight loss is about 80% diet and 20% exercise, so you'll see faster results changing your diet first. Once you get used to eating healthily, you can start trying to work that exercise in.

I'm not sure that's true. When I first joined MFP I stuck with a calorie deficit and my regular level of activity. I didn't lose any weight until I started exercising three months later., and then I was losing up to a pound a week!

I'm not dieting at all, but I have been following MFP and exercising and I've lost 4 lbs in 8 days

I choose exercise

You are right to overwhelming and stressful to do it all at once.

I started with diet and even did that in small incremental changes.

--I tracked with out worring about losing at first.
--Then I saw where I could make small changes that would hurt the least.
--Then every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.

--Then I started slowly adding activities my Ex made fun of me for counting every step in staircases.
BUT I was moving and kept adding more bit by bit, when I started going to the gym, I got myself there by saying "I'll go for 10 minutes"... once I got there I'd usually get into it and do more... but if I didn't get into it I wouldn't force myself , because I didn't want to associate the gym with suffering.

I'm doing well if I make it 2x a week, I'm not where I want to be yet, but my workouts got longer and longer to the point where my boss yelled at me for taking too long of a lunch.

For me, working out has always been first. I would rather build strength and stamina and stay the same weight than to lose weight and not be able to do a damn thing.

Get in the habit of moving and doing something everyday and then work out your diet.

I started with exercise first, I just started to feel so much better and loved what I was achieving so then I started to change my eating habits as well since I wanted to be healthy and love just how it feels getting healthier and healthier. You could always just pick a small goal at first with either diet or exercise and build from there.