Diet and exercise—two bases for weight loss. But the question is, which is more important: diet or exercise? Losing weight without diet and exercise is a dream. However, many may wonder which of these two methods is more effective for losing weight.
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Diet or Exercise For Weight Loss
As the saying goes, “you can never lose weight with an irregular diet.” What you eat has a bigger impact on your fitness than how much you exercise. Even without exercise, you can burn excess body fat by changing your eating habits and maintaining some rules of a healthy lifestyle.
First, limit your daily calorie intake to create a calorie deficit. Include more protein in your diet. Be careful about carb and fat intake. No sugar and sugary drinks. Avoid processed foods. By following these simple steps, you can easily lose excess weight.
However, if you lose weight by changing your diet, sometimes the weight starts to come back when you return to your normal diet. For this, if you exercise along with diet control, the weight loss becomes more stable. So following a healthy diet along with exercise gives better results.
Which is More Important: Diet or Exercise?
All the calories you take in come from food and drink. If you fail to control your calorie intake while exercising, you will only lose a fraction of the calories you take in. The normal metabolic rate consumes 60 to 80 percent of the total energy produced by the body. About 10 percent of calories are used to digest the food we eat, which simply means that only 10 to 30 percent of calories can be lost through physical activity.
Why Exercise?
Nutrition plays an 80 percent role and fitness a 20 percent role in weight loss. You can lose weight just by dieting, but exercise has definite health benefits. First, it will help you burn more calories and speed up the weight loss process. Second, it will help strengthen your muscles and build muscle mass. Also, daily exercise keeps the heart healthy, helps control irritability, and strengthens bones. Even if you don’t want to lose weight, you should exercise every day for 30 to 40 minutes.
We don’t always have control over our daily food menu, but we can control how long we exercise or what type of exercise we do. It is relatively easy to overcome laziness, but it is not so easy to overcome sudden hunger from time to time.
According to various studies, the plan should be a little more complex for those who want to lose weight. When embarking on a weight loss mission, exercise should be at least 20 percent of your daily routine in the beginning. It is possible to control the body’s calories by controlling the amount of food, but exercise is more important for burning fat. It makes the weight loss more permanent and stable.
Additionally, regular exercise improves sleep. Along with this, the efficiency of the digestive system increases, mental stress decreases, and cholesterol levels in the blood also decrease. In essence, the end result of exercise is an increase in physical performance. So, exercise should not be avoided under any circumstances.
My Experiences
During my fitness journey, I tried to lose weight in many ways over a long period of time. In my experience, diet is more important than exercise for weight loss. You can lose weight by only dieting without exercise, although it will be very slow. But you can’t lose weight by only exercising without controlling your food. I think that 50-60% of weight loss depends on dieting, 30-40% on exercise, and 10-20% on healthy habits like sleeping, resting, and managing mental stress.
After losing weight, it is very important to maintain it. For this, you must follow some weight maintenance rules. After losing your weight, if you stop dieting and exercising, or go back to your previous habits without following weight maintenance rules, you will gain the weight back. So, as diet and exercise are important for weight loss, maintenance after weight loss is also important. Otherwise, weight may be regained.
How to Start?
Experts say that your weight loss plan should include both exercise and diet. Losing weight is part of a normal lifestyle, so it requires sustainable change. This mission should start effectively. Losing weight permanently is exhausting and time-consuming, but if you follow the right approach, your body will change. Along with that, various improvements in health will also occur. So whatever you do, make a solid plan first. Try to give equal importance to both.
Why Aren’t You Losing Weight After Diet and Exercise?
Many people complain that they cannot lose weight at all, even with an effective diet chart and necessary exercises. As a result, the diet chart is discarded, and exercise is skipped. But do you know why your strict diet plan and exercise routine are failing? It could be because of you. Due to certain activities and some physical problems, you are not losing weight despite following a strict diet and exercise routine.
Try to eliminate these factors first and treat any physical problems. Then start a diet and exercise plan, and you will get results quickly.
Why Aren’t You Losing Weight After Diet and Exercise?
Many people complain that they cannot lose weight at all, even with an effective diet chart and necessary exercises. As a result, the diet chart is discarded, and exercise is skipped. But do you know why your strict diet plan and exercise routine are failing? It could be because of you. Due to certain activities and some physical problems, you are not losing weight despite following a strict diet and exercise routine. Try to eliminate these factors first and treat any physical problems. Then start a diet and exercise plan, and you will get results quickly.
Uncontrolled eating after excessive exercise
Many people over-exercise in hopes of quick weight loss. But because of your physical needs after exercise, you unknowingly eat more. This doesn’t help you lose weight at all; it just wastes time and effort.
Sleep deprivation
Another reason for not losing weight can be your lack of sleep. If you don’t get 7-8 hours of sleep every day, stress hormones increase in your body and trigger hunger. As a result, you eat more food and do not lose weight at all.
Thyroid problems
If weight doesn’t come off after diet and exercise, get a thyroid checkup. Weight does not decrease due to thyroid problems and may even increase day by day.
Avoiding all fats
Avoid all types of fat for fear of gaining weight? Then know that this is another reason why you are not losing weight. Some fats, like fish oil, olive oil, and nuts, help in weight loss. Don’t skip them.
Consuming sugar
You’re following a very strict diet, but having sugar with tea/coffee or juice? Will that work at all? Not at all. You may not lose weight for this reason.
Eating and going to sleep
No matter how much you follow a diet or how little you eat, if you go to sleep immediately after eating, you will not lose weight. You should wait at least 3 hours after eating before sleeping. That is, it’s better not to eat late at night.
Vitamin D deficiency
Can’t lose weight despite hundreds of attempts? Check if your body lacks vitamin D. A deficiency in vitamin D increases the likelihood of obesity. So, eat foods rich in vitamin D and get up in the morning to take a walk in the gentle sunlight.
Excessive stress
Stress doesn’t just affect your mind. Its effects can be seen in your body as well. Mental stress, i.e., the stress hormone produced in the body, increases hunger. This is why you cannot lose weight.
Bottom Line
Exercise is important for everyone to build strength and improve flexibility. Although diet is more important for weight loss, you must include physical activity in your routine. It’s not necessary to enroll yourself in a gym. Simple jogging, yoga, or walking can be helpful. Apart from diet and exercise, your lifestyle habits and sleep patterns also affect weight loss.
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