Which one is more important in losing weight and being healthy - diet or exercise?

Exercise by far. A healthy diet is important, but if you expect to lose weight and keep your body in balance, you have to exercise. You feel better immediately and the results will look a lot better. And your body will find its proper weight.

Both, I think, in good measure, with the percentage of each not worth splitting hairs over.

I would say about 70/30 towards exercise. Obviously a healthy diet is important, but you need to burn the calories to lose the weight.

Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Fitness happens at the gym.

Another person told me you can eat healthy as much and as long as you’d like, but if you don’t exercise you can’t lose weight.

That’s simply untrue. I went from 165lbs to 125lbs in four months doing low-carb with absolutely no exercise. Your diet is the most important part of weight loss and health.

My weight loss actually slowed when I began working out a couple of months ago. It’s incredibly slow right now, but I eat healthy and work out because I don’t want to just be skinny; I want to be fit.

I’d say it’s 75% diet, 25% exercise if we’re talking weight loss. It’s 50/50 if we’re talking being healthy.

My diet has stayed the same the past 3 years but I’ve gained weight because I quit my daily fitness routine. I think everyone is different, but both exercise and diet are equally important.

I think they’re both equally important.
Sad to say though, I don’t do either.
I get my excercize running around at work all day, I don’t eat very much healthy food either.
If I feel like I want to lose a couple pounds I just drink a lot of coffee and I won’t eat much.

I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” percentage ratio. We’re all built differently.
Personally: Portion control is a more important factor than what the food is. Sugar has a poor mental effect on me, so I avoid it, but religiously restrictive diets are no good in the long term.

At least some exercise every day is vital. Even if it’s in small increments like taking stairs or parking at the far end of the grocery store lot. carry out your bags and do curls with your cheesecake and 12-pack all the way to the car. That has to add up, right?

@Blueroses Most definitely! I’m almost positive that curling cheesecake and beer is the best form of exercise there is.
Good for you!

My nephew is a trainer and actually made the cover of Men’s Fitness Middle East this month. He says, “Abs are made in the kitchen. 90% diet, 10% exercise.”
That being said, I have lost tons of pounds over my 52 years with diet alone but I never kept it off until I started exercising too.

It’s easier to lose weight by adjusting your diet than by exercising more because of the sheer amount of time, energy and dedication it takes to burn calories through exercise. That’s why people tend to credit diet more with fat loss than exercise, but it doesn’t actually have more of an impact, it’s just easier to control given the two options.

Here’s my nephew on the cover photo of their Facebook page. He looks kind of scary.

@judi He is intimidatingly fit but I don’t think he got that body in the kitchen unless he has exceptionally heavy cutlery!

Maybe he swings an ax instead of a knife?

Or a chisel.

Definitely a chisel @Judi ;0)

I agree with @Blueroses. Portion control is the hardest part of maintaining a diet.

Three reasons: we are hungry for nutrients we don’t recieve so our body keeps “feeding” us the hungry signal.

The types of food we eat encourage use to eat more. Chemicals: msg, aspartame etc.

Packaging we eat what is in front of us without awareness or taking the time to monitor our fullness. Starts with childhood clean your plate to prepackaged foods and busy daily lives.

Obviously I agree with @livelaughlove21 on this. Eh I like carbs and think they are necessary though. It is more diet. If you don’t have the proper fuel how are you going to be able to maximize and maintain goals.

Also worth noting muscle adds weight. It speeds up your metabolism and changes you shape so clothes fit better. But if you are going by weight alone there will be plateaus and sometimes you might even gain. But in a good way.

Every one is different. And exercise releases endorphins which raise seratonin levels. Which might work to make you eat less and be more conscious about what you put in your body.

I would say 67 diet and 33 exercise for me.

Had anybody done Shaun T’s Insanity workout?

@Katniss No but my upstairs neighbor did it for two weeks in Jan and I thought there was chance we’d be chutes and ladders roommates. By the way the odd thing about it was she seemed to be all over her apartment. I would move from the kitchen to the living room and I swear she was following me sometimes she seemed to be in my bed room and office too.

The 80/20 idea seems valid. Exercise is an important factor in weight loss, but it can’t stand alone. You need to cut calories as well. Exercise will make you fitter and healthier, but it burns far fewer calories than people believe.

Example. When I go to my health club and spend 45 hardcore minutes on aerobic machines, I expend approximately 450 calories. A single scoop of Ben and Jerry’s would negate that achievement.

Example. Someone I know started running several times per week. After each run, she’d reward herself with a fancy coffee drink and blueberry muffin. Despite her regular running, she gained weight. She did a bit of quick arithmetic and learned that her coffee-and-muffin treat contained more calories than her run had burned.

I medium sized frosted doughnut is 250 calories.
You have to walk 1 hour at 4 mph to burn 250 calories.

Which is easier to do? Which do you think most people would do if they read the manual that came with their body?
How many people are willing to spend an hour walking to burn off a doughnut? (From what I can see, the answer is: “not many.”

If you are lazy, it is clearly more effective to adjust your diet. I give it 80/20. Or maybe 90/10.

@Unbroken Oh, I don’t do low carb anymore. That was just an example. Working out on low carb would be nearly impossible for me. Plus, the “logic” behind being able to eat a plate full of bacon but not an apple is seriously messed up.

Diet. I would say at least 80% diet unless you are exercising for 8 hours a day. When I say exercise in this context I mean like you are training. Dancing, swimming, not just walking or standing on your feet at work. Even then what you eat counts, but the percentage changes.

It actually sucks but diet :(

Proper exercise. Yet his is only possible when you are at most overweight. Obese people can’t exercise properly.

There are studies that show extended life expectancy for slightly overweight people who were exercising regularly compared to normal weight couch potatoes.

@mattbrowne can you tell me why you think obese people can’t exercise properly? I could see morbid/clinical/extreme obesity being an issue in mobility, which could limit the range of exercises that they are capable of, but I’m not sure why people who are classified as “obese” would necessarily have physical impairments affecting their ability to perform a wide range of physical activities with proper form.

Just to be clear, I’m talking about a BMI in the “obese” range, such as these people:
1
2
3

Although it isn’t the norm, many athletes are obese according to BMI charts. Sarah Robles is an Olympian at 5’10” and 270lbs. I don’t know that someone can get to Olympic level athletic skill and not do it properly.

That’s not to say that people who are obese may be less likely to exercise, but I don’t see why it would affect their performance any differently from someone who is not obese and has no prior training.

@DigitalBlue Which is why BMI is useless…

BMI is not perfect but it is the best we have so far.
(I have an internal rule. I never criticize or pooh pooh a suggestion unless and until I come up with an alternative. You might notice that about my posts. I will never say something is not useful and then not offer an alternative.

So for those who feel BMI is not useful what would you suggest?
Ratio of waist size to height?
Percent body fat? Pinch test on belly and/or back of arms?
Heart rate increase after walking up a flight of stairs in 15 seconds or less?
Time to run 200 yards?
Anything else?

@LuckyGuy, at the least it should be adjusted male and female. BMI is probably accurate for me but if my husband tried to get down to where BMI looked healthy he would have to start losing bone!

I agree with @Judi that BMI should be adjusted a little for men. The old height and weight tables were, because we know the average man has more muscle mass than a woman. All these tables, BMI, etc, are for the average person, not people who bulk up.

I’m not talking about whether or not to classify people using BMI, but to suggest that people who have a BMI in the obese range can’t exercise properly sounds like hooey to me.
I also just realized that the photos in my links above aren’t what I linked to, that’s very odd.

Being obese has become a concern of mine. I have been weighing in between 146 and 151 at 5’6 this last month or so. So technically I am obese.

People tell me I am skinny. Really I am not sure. I am active and do work out but still I consider my stomach quads to be problem areas.

Equally important, about 50/50, diet alone not work well, need exercise too.

@Unbroken Uh, where are you seeing that 151 lbs at 5’6” is obese?

Your BMI at that weight is 24.4. You aren’t “overweight” until you go over 25. The healthy weight range for you is between 120 and 159.

You’re not even technically overweight, let alone obese.

I saw it on a chart somewhere. Besides I still remember females were encourage to have a goal weight of 120 when I was growing up… Shrug.. guess it is unfounded. But that type of conditioning takes work to undo.

@Unbroken I remember that also. I don’t know where it came from. My 2 best friends are 5’10 and 5’11, 160 and 172 lbs respectively, and enviously fit and gorgeous.

Perhaps that 120 came from 50’s cinema contracts when leading ladies stood no taller than 5’3”? That would give them a curvy and sexy look.

@Blueroses 5’3? Hmmm.. New info, thanks.

@DigitalBlue – Obese people can’t exercise properly for two reasons: overstraining their hearts, overstraining their joints. There’s one exception: exercise in swimming pools (buoyancy).

You can lose weight FAST just dieting. Exercising will cause you to gain muscle, thereby increasing the weight. I find I can only lose weight with exercise if I exercise and then stop for about a week.

The most rapid weight loss I had was when I was going through a period of high anxiety and living off of 1000 – 1500 calories a day for about 3 days, no exercise at all and just sitting around at home. I lost about 3 – 4 lbs. The problem is it’s hard to keep up that kind of calorie intake naturally when you are not anxious and / or unhealthy in some way.

Losing weight fast is a bulletproof recipe for gaining weight afterwards. Weight loss should be slow and gradual and must be combined with a life style change to be able to maintain the lower weight long term. Muscle gain has a positive effect, because muscles burn calories even while not using them.

@mattbrowne Ya, tell me about it. I gained back that weight i lost in 3 days in about less than that. Muscles do burn more calories, however they may also appear bulky. I try working out and then stopping for a bit so the muscle mass shrinks.

@sparrowfeed Women don’t bulk up like men – we don’t have the testosterone required for that type of muscle growth. Women CAN be muscular, but it takes a whole lot more lifting than most women do.

So many women are scared to lift because they’re scared of bulking up. It’s an irrational fear and they’re missing out on some serious calorie burn. Cardio is fine, but you stop burning as soon as you step off that treadmill. Weight lifting keeps burning calories for hours after the workout. Plus, I’ll take a toned body over a skinny body any day.

I bulk up my butt a bit when I go jogging / rollerblading.

@sparrowfeed I’d welcome that bulk. A little booty never hurt anybody.

@livelaughlove21 It is gratifing to hear another woman speak up to that fact. Though I often find it falls on deaf ears, at least to those I am speaking to. Maybe others will benefit from reading it.

@Unbroken Have you read The New Rules of Lifting for Women? I love it – it’s been super helpful to me, and even female trainers at the gym have found it useful.

I love seeing women lift. It’s refreshing. I just started and I really enjoy it. I can’t wait to start seeing results!

I achieved good muscle tone by using 10 lb weights. I started with 5 lbs, then moved up to 10 lbs.. It really doesn’t take much, and I did it all in the comfort of my own home.

@jonsblond You’re lucky. You must have good genes working in your favor. For most women, lifting light weights with high reps does absolutely nothing. It’s basically cardio and probably won’t even work to maintain the muscle you have if you’re losing weight.

I was also doing kickboxing aerobics. Maybe that had something to do with it?

@livelaughlove21 No I haven’t. Will have to check it out sometime.

I use the Bowflex when the weather is shitty (pretty much always). 30–35 lbs for upper body and 40–65 lbs for legs and rowing, depending on what group I’m working. Sometimes I’ll test myself using high wt settings with bench press or leg press just to see what I can do, but that’s not a regular thing.

If I want to maintain stamina, I go with more reps lighter weight. If I want to tone more, I use more weight and struggle. Always alternate workout groups daily.

One thing I’ve learned, girls, is don’t use weight resistant crunches to tone your midsection often. It gets strong and tight, but bulky.