Diet or Exercise?
- Thread starter mihas
- Start date
mizzie
New member
Both, defiantly!
See, weight loss is basically calories in vs. calories out. You need to eat fewer calories than you burn. That's where the diet comes in. Healthy food is usually less packed with calories and has more nutritional value. You'll still be able to eat plenty of food and not go hungry, yet still lose weight.
But, when you lose weight, you don't just lose fat. You also lose muscle. That's where the exercise comes in. When you exercise you help your body maintain lean muscle mass, so you burn more fat than muscle. You also burn some calories as a bonus.
See, weight loss is basically calories in vs. calories out. You need to eat fewer calories than you burn. That's where the diet comes in. Healthy food is usually less packed with calories and has more nutritional value. You'll still be able to eat plenty of food and not go hungry, yet still lose weight.
But, when you lose weight, you don't just lose fat. You also lose muscle. That's where the exercise comes in. When you exercise you help your body maintain lean muscle mass, so you burn more fat than muscle. You also burn some calories as a bonus.
Agreed with both.
I also find exercising helps me maintain my diet, because after working out I feel too guilty to waste all the effort I've done on eating junk
So true antyoch.
I have a mini fridge stocked with a bunch of zero carb/calorie/etc sodas, but on the top shelf there are some regular lime and/or caffeine free sodas that I refuse to simply throw out (I can't stand wasting items, even if it is all of $3 worth of sodas). Those top-shelf sodas have been sitting there for almost four months now, and whenever I think about having one, the thought hits me "Geeze, that is 1.5 miles to walk that thing off. Just go for the 0 soda!" Once someone gets used to counting calories (and if they eat the same meals daily like I do), they can quickly do the math in their head to figure out about how much effort would be needed to work off the indulgence. It just isn't it worth it in my book!
Also, to agree with the others mihas...yes, certainly do both if you can. When I first started trying to lose weight, I had a good few months of success by combining diet and exercise. When winter hit, I stopped exercising, but I kept on top of my calories. The result? I fluctuated by a few pounds, but basically stayed at the same weight. However, when warmer (relatively) weather hit again in March of this year, I started walking again (and added weight lifting). Since then, I have dropped 23 more pounds, and have added noticeable muscle to my arms.
I know without a doubt that a combination of diet and exercise makes the needed difference for me to keep losing weight, so I am betting the same combination will help you as well