Which is More Important For Weight Loss Diet or Exercise

In the never-ending battle to lose weight, one question has always been pondered.

What is more important to focus on if you’re trying to lose weight?  Is it your diet or is it your exercise?

Which is More Important For Weight Loss Diet or Exercise?

Bob Harper, who was one of the most famous of the trainers on The Biggest Loser television show has weighed in on the debate, and the results may surprise you.

He says “It’s not even close”… according to Harper,

“It is all about your nutrition. It is 80 percent nutrition. It is 20 percent fitness,” he says. Via today.com

This makes sense, considering the simple fact that “you cannot out-exercise a bad diet.”

This means that you cannot just eat and eat and then think you are going to just exercise away the excess calories.

And now, science is also backing up these findings.

Science backs up Harper’s assertion. According to a report from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges published last year, regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease and other illnesses, but “does not promote weight loss.” Via today.com

The reality is that it takes a lot of exercise to get rid of the excess calories taken in when eating poorly.  A lot!  And most people don’t realize how much it takes.

So How Much Exercise Does It Actually Take To Burn Off That Indulgence?

To give you an example, this list below shows you how many calories you’d need to “burn” if you wanted to negate the indulgence of any of these fatty favorites:

• One can of Coca Cola.  To burn off the 240 calories you chug in one can of Coke, you would have to walk about 3 miles.
• One slice of pepperoni pizza:  To burn off the approximate 325 calories in a slice of pepperoni pizza, you would have to bike ride, hard for about 30 minutes.
• One Hershey’s Chocolate Bar:  To burn off the 210 calories in one yummy bar of chocolate, you would have to run for about 45 minutes.
• Lunch of a burger and fries:  Depending on the type of burger and what’s on it, this favorite fast food lunch can have anywhere from 325 to over 900 calories. A large order of fries can have up to 450 calories. You would need to walk for two to three hours to burn off that junky lunch!  Yes…three hours!

The Post-Exercise “Reward” Effect:

The other problem that often happens to people when they start to exercise, is that they think they have a license to eat more.

They work out hard for an hour at the gym, they’re super hungry when done, and then they feel they can go have a big meal afterwards because they “earned” it.

But many times this ends up in a person just eating so much they completely negate all the benefits of the calorie deficit they may have created from their hour at the gym!

So again, when it comes to the question, “Which is More Important For Weight Loss Diet Or Exercise” the answer is always in the diet.  Diet is your main weapon against the weight loss battle. And it’s a battle you can surely win if you always remember to eat a healthy “clean diet” at the forefront of your efforts to battle the bulge!

So now let’s take a look at the BEST way to eat to maximize your exercise efforts.

To Your Health!
Laura.