Most people need both, from my personal experience. I’ve known people on perpetual diets who can’t seem to lose a pound because they never burn any off.
“Most people need both, from my personal experience. “
I agree. It’s a matter of balancing the caloric ‘checkbook’. Eating fills the account. Exercise spends from the account. If you spend faster from the account, while decreasing how much you put in to it, it will deplete faster.
In the army, we all knew body weight was 75% diet, 25% exercise. Exercise is still important, but not even close to how important diet is.
Of course if you’re building cardio and muscular endurance, then physical activity is very important too.
I would agree with that.
The key to losing weight and keeping it off IMO pretty much boils down to something as simple as: “East Less & Move More”.
But more precisely – “eat less but don’t ever starve yourself” – “eat healthier, eat a variety of things, but stay away from the fad diet du jour” – “move more but focus on simple and achievable and sustainable exercise”; (especially exercise as simple as just taking a brisk 20 minute walk every day; taking the stairs instead of the elevator where possible; don’t always look for the parking space closest to the door, and perhaps adding some simple calisthenics, some light weight training using hand weights but not over doing it, add some simple stretching). Start slow, keep it simple and incorporate little changes over time, but don’t make it a chore, but something you actually like doing or at least can tolerate for 10 minutes at a time, maybe only once a week to start.
I have a friend who over the 30 years I’ve known her, has constantly been “dieting” and often trying one fad diet after another. Most recently, only in the last 5 years or so – Atkins > the “grapefruit diet” > vegetarian > vegan > paleo > fasting with juice cleanses > back to being a semi-vegan (she thought she could eat cheese eggs and still be sorta be a “vegan”) > high fat – low or no carbs > no or very low fat – and “whole” and “raw” foods only > various ethnic food kicks > gluten free and “organic”. I love her dearly and she is my best friend in the world, she’d do anything for me and I for her but since I moved out of state and we don’t get to see each other as much anymore, when we get together and go out to eat, it’s always a challenge to find a place that serves whatever fad diet she’s on at the time. But then again, bless her heart, she “cheats” a lot.
She has had some success with losing weight on some of these diets, but always gains it back and sometimes gains back even more.
She also had gone on several exercise fads, sometimes in combination with a fad diet and sometimes thinking if she exercised a whole lot more, that she could eat anything – years ago bought a mini-trampoline and told me it was the greatest thing ever, how I should get one too – until she broke her ankle; then it was Zumba and she was going at least 5 times a week until she got bored and sick of it; then it was the very expensive elliptical machine she bought and put in her basement and was using it at least an hour or two every day, that she now uses as a place to hang laundry from. LOL!