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More and more people are overweight and buying gym memberships, risking impacts on their joints by going jogging and even going on drastic fasts with the hope that one or the other will work.
Knowing which one will actually work will go a long way towards actually reaching your weight goals.
At first glance, in the debate of diet vs exercise, it seems to be that the obvious answer for when you want to shed some pounds would be to rigorously exercise your thighs away.
After all, have you ever seen an overweight marathon Olympian? The fact is that when you eat more calories than you expend, the result is that the pounds begin to pile up slowly but surely, one Christmas dinner at a time.
Before you know it, you have the same problem that everyone has such as your favorite jeans won’t zip up. You may suddenly gather all your resolve and dive headfirst into an unplanned exercise routine such as jogging or brisk walking without taking anything else into consideration.
However, exercising those pounds away while ignoring what you eat won’t be sustainable in the long run, and probably won’t work. People tend to revert to old habits and sedentary lives when no progress has been made.
That is why so many people are looking for a weight loss solution once and for all, and the numbers seem to be increasing with every year that passes.
If you haven’t already noticed, there are so many weight loss fads that are attracting millions of consumers spending hard-earned money for a quick fix.
More than ever before, fad diets that promise rapidly shedding pounds without feeling deprived or hungry abound. The things, is most people know that pounds that you shed quickly are regained just as rapidly.
What most people want to know is how to keep pounds permanently off. What is the verdict when it comes to diet vs exercise? Losing weight slowly but surely will result in more permanent weight loss. In fact, tweaking your lifestyle to accomplish this is a matter of figuring out what works in the competition between diet vs exercise.
Long Term Weight Loss
The conclusion is that long term weight loss is going to come from a combination of regular exercise that you can do for a long time and restricting those calories.
This is the most sustainable method of losing weight. Each day, you need to exercise to burn more calories than you eat. When you exercise more but eat the same things, you can create a sustainable deficit.
Also, your rate of metabolism will increase so you will burn the calories more effectively. The thing is, what about those days you don’t go to the gym? Will you be able to lose weight when you take a few days off?
The solution is picking a sustainable activity you can maintain long term. For most people who had led sedentary lives, working out can be tough on your body and put pressure on the lower joints and limbs.
If this sounds like something you are going through, what you can do is ease into a workout program. Try swimming to ease impact on joints and knees. Once you shed some weight, try cycling, brisk walking or even jogging to alter your routine and prevent boredom.
As a matter of fact, even if your goal is not weight management, there are so many benefits to health that you get from combining regular physical activity and a well-balanced diet.
Remember, if you are overweight, you are risking pre-diabetes, among other diseases. When you combine sensible diets and moderate physical activity, you lower your risk for all diseases including diabetes.
Which one is really more important, diet or exercise?
If you’ve ever eaten too much and have told yourself it’s okay, you will be burning it off soon at the gym anyway, then you are not alone. A lot of people go through this type of dialogue with themselves at one point or another.
The question is, can we really just go to the gym to burn something off? Even junk food we eat day after day? Remember there is a reason junk food is called junk and even if you go to the gym a lot to burn off food, you may not need as much effort if you understand what works better, diet vs exercise.
Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle also known as the eighty-twenty rule? Essentially what this rule says is that eighty percent of your results come from twenty percent of the effort you put in.
This applies to economics, i.e., eighty percent of a country’s wealth is created by twenty percent of its residents. It also applies to sales in which they say twenty percent of customers create eighty percent of revenue.
What it means is that in many aspects of life, sometimes, the smallest differences make the biggest impact. Perhaps the smallest tweaks you apply to certain aspects of your daily life will have a huge impact on things that mean the most to you.
For example, perhaps skipping milk and getting rid of sugar entirely every time you drink a cup of coffee is going to help you shed the most amount of weight compared to anything else you decide to do in reaching your goal.
Certainly, this applies to maintaining a healthy body weight and fitness as well. In other words, twenty percent of the habits you develop as part of your lifestyle will in effect give you eighty percent of your results. Your small actions will create your biggest health and life changes.
The question is, exactly what are these actions that will lead to the most dramatic results in the way your body performs, feels and looks? The answer is that twenty percent of the food you select to consume will determine everything.
That’s right, in the battle diet vs exercise, diet wins. Food is so much more important than exercise. But why?
Clearing out all our bad choices of food, the ones we eat unconsciously and getting these replaced with the most nutritious selections we can possibly find is going to result in the biggest changes.
Food will always win the battle when it comes to diet vs exercise. It is impossible to out-exercise bad habits you have when it comes to eating. Think about it, are those three pancakes soaked in butter and drenched in syrup really worth two hours in the gym?
The 500 Calorie Per Day Work?
You might have heard that there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. Thus, if you want to get rid of fat you will need to start burning more than you eat in terms of calories.
Theoretically, you can thus drop a pound of fat per week just by starting to burn five hundred calories daily more than what you eat. For example, burn 2,500 calories each day and eat 2000. In one week, you should be one pound lighter. The catch is that most people don’t burn five hundred calories.
For this reason, if you ignore food choices, the equation simply won’t add up. For people that are already going to the gym and already exercising but aren’t seeing the pounds come off, the culprit might be food.
What needs to happen is that these people will need to burn calories an extra hour in the gym on top of what they are already doing. To put it another way, if you are overweight, eating the same stuff you have always been eating and going to the gym without seeing much results, you will need to level up and double the time you are in the gym to go an extra mile or do an extra workout. The question is: Are you willing to go to the gym twice a day? Most people simply don’t have the time for that!
Because of this, some people are tempted to go on a fad diet or a drastic diet. Keep in mind that everyone needs food for survival. Actually not getting enough caloric intake may even backfire.
The reason is that a fad diet with extremely restricted calories will put your body into survival mode and hang on rather than let go of what remaining stored fat it still has. Keep in mind that the key is your food selections.
The truth is, altering the choices of what you eat will help shed off those pounds more than altering your exercise schedule.. So the age old debate diet vs exercise, focus on your diet and you shall soon see and feel the difference before too long.
If you are already exercising, then keep doing that. If not, then adding an exercise regimen to your week in a consistent way should be extremely effective in your journey to better health.
Vegetables need to be the foundation for every one of your meal choices. You cannot find any other food type that offers the same level of nutrition at such minimal calories.
In contrast, stay away from food in a pack. When you eat something from a can, jar or box there are huge chances that these choices have low nutrition value and are high in calories.
Remember that it is important to plan for cheat days where you can indulge in meals or snacks that are outside of the healthy list. This way, you can get back on track with ease.
Eating lots of high volume, low calorie veggies and fruits will crowd out other food groups high in calories and fat. Pile on the vegetable on your plate for every meal and you won’t have that much room for dessert.
Your diet will be enriched with fiber, phytonutrients, minerals and vitamins when you do this and because your body won’t be looking for any more nutrition since it has what it needs, it will be unlikely for you to crave anything else.
Substitute whole grain choices and skip refined grain such as pretzels, cookies, cakes and bread. By doing this you feel full faster and add much-needed fiber. Select whole wheat pasta and bread, whole rye crackers, bran flakes and brown rice and you will soon realize first hand why diet wins in the debate between diet vs exercise.
Light alternatives for everything including dairy products, mayonnaise, salad dressings and drinks will help you effortlessly shed unwanted pounds.
Use low fat, light products and even hummus instead of a heavy cream dip. Instead of mayo, use mustard on sandwiches. Instead of fried potatoes, how about roasted sweet potatoes. Rather than cream in your coffee, use skim milk. Creamy dressing on your salsa can be switched to a bit of vinaigrette.
Now that it is clear that when it comes to food vs exercise, food wins.
However, exercise does have tremendous benefits that contributes to the health and longevity of your body that cannot be denied. For this reason, even if food is the clear winner, exercise still does have its place and needs to be incorporated for a balanced, well-rounded lifestyle.
Diet Vs Exercise- So Which Is It?
When it comes to diet vs exercise, of course some exercise types are going to be very effective but in all honesty, and after looking at all the studies and results that actually last, the right food choices determine results in such dramatic changes.
There’s a saying that “you can’t out-exercise bad food choices,” and that saying is true. You can only get the results you seek with the right food choices.
Thus, diet wins. Tweaking your diet and adding in moderate to heavy consistent exercise will help you win the weight loss battle. Cutting out all junk food and making better food choices packed with nutrition with less calories will help you win the fitness battle slowly but surely.
Remember that exercise still has a role of maintaining great posture, muscle tone and helps strengthen your bones among many other benefits. This means that even if diet wins, you should keep exercising for good health.
Also, a healthy and well balanced diet along with regular exercise will go a long way. If you are willing to invest in healthy eating, you are likely to show interest in discovering other options that can help your body, such as exercise. It is also in the interest of anyone who enjoys consistent physical activity to maintain good nutrition to achieve optimal performance.
