Exercise vs. Diet: Which is Better?

It is pretty straight forward when we talk of weight loss, cutting calories and hitting the gym is probably what crisscrosses your mind. Exercise vs. Diet: eat less, workout more.

But these are rather textbook answers that miss out a lot if you are to follow it. I mean, not everyone has a house with a fully equipped gym or rather a fully stocked whole grain fridge. So which of the two will suit your needs better? Is it a bowl of salad or jogging a two mile road?

What do the Experts Say?

Study after study has been carried out to distinguish which of the two reigns gold when it comes to efficient weight loss. Philip Stanforth, a professor of exercise science at the University of Texas and the executive director of the Fitness Institute of Texas, weighed his thoughts on this rather controversial matter. He acknowledged both exercise and diet as vital in your weight loss program. He noted that diet has an edge over exercise when it comes to shedding of those pounds but sustaining the new weight requires exercise.

However, our lifestyles and the current world we living in limit us to finding the easy and most effective way. This is now where practicality comes into place. He argued that it is practical to cut off maybe your favorite junk food that say adds some 500 calories to your body compared to walking 30 miles just to shed 3,000 calories. It is by far much easier to just tame your craving than taking the 5 mile walk every day.

The Exercise Pros and Cons

Exercise is a good way to establish long term maintenance. This way, you are able to keep track of your weight gain and loss significantly since you do not just gain 2 pounds haphazardly or maybe lose out of the blues. With your new found weight, exercise is more efficient since it will ensure your are in constant workout therefore you are assured even if you slip one day and go astray of your diet, you can easily lose those calories.

You acquire that body shape by working out. Going for a calorie free diet sheds off that fat but the model shape you want to be or those abs you want to build you will not find in the diet alone. Actually, when you cut of the calories supply, you just become smaller and flabby since at times your body starts to use up the lean muscles in your body to cater for the calorie deficit but the shape and body muscles, you have to earn it the hard way.

Exercise comes along with other positive effects to your body aside from the weight loss. Study has had it that it boosts your metabolic rate which goes a long way in improving your calories burning in the body. Quality sleep goes hand in hand with the gym. It also lowers the level of cholesterol in the body. You kiss goodbye to high level of stress since working out exterminates those accumulated bad hormones in the body that are responsible for stress.

Workouts also post positive results; only that they are long term. Expert Shawn M. Talbott, PhD, nutritional biochemist and former director of the University of Utah Nutrition Clinic noted that those who were on a closely monitored diet shed 23 pounds in about 15 weeks, whereas those who were hitting the gym lost an average of 6 pounds in 21 weeks. If you do your math well, you will figure out that the one hitting the gym will achieve the 23 pounds loss in roughly 80 weeks. This shows just how exercise requires a lot of dedication and commitment.

The Importance of Diet

Now this is the alternative that many have argued to be the best way out of that weight problem that has been haunting you for days. Calories in calories out is mechanism the diet code follows in order to achieve expected results. The diet accounts for almost 75% of the weight loss while 25% is exercise. But why is the diet the ultimate plan?

With reference to Shawn M. Talbott’s analysis above, the diet outmuscled the exercise by far since it posted positive results in a short span of time. Twenty pounds in about 15 weeks only will surely give out enough motivation even to increase the calorie deficit in your body by a huge margin. And all this is just acquired without even moving a single muscle, how easy can this be? With the emergence of the supplements and weight loss drops, you do not have to worry about the cravings and your huge appetite anymore. As a matter of fact, you do not even need to worry about those occasional burgers and dessert that at times you just cannot run away from. Weight drops suppress one’s appetite and still increase your metabolism rate without even moving out of your chair.

What actually many may not know is that you practically loss a lot of calories by the simple things you do in your day to day routine. This is what is termed as the resting metabolic rate. The Katch-McArdle formula explains how it works. By this, we are talking about 200 pound man with about 30% body fat losing 1743 calories according to the formulae by just being alive. In the long run, one may be losing 2100 calories just even without leaving the bed. So you find even most of the work is already done even without even hitting the gym.

Choose Both!

Exercise and diet are more effective when incorporated together. Exercise offers more of a post-diet plan. It all determines with your determination, sustainability and target. Being also realistic with yourself counts a lot. You do not expect to shed almost 40 pounds in just a week. Once you figure out your body really good, you can now know the types of food good for you and the exercises best fit for you.

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