Diet or exercise?
Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating
Diet or exercise?
If you could only bare to start with one, which should it be, diet or exercise? I've heard that if you start with movement, it will be easier to begin healthy eating habits. Something about not wanting to ruin your efforts. What do you think, keeping in mind that for diet I mean No S and exercise means urban ranger or 14 minutes of whatever.
Heidi
Heidi
SW 236.4
10/26/11 restart date
1st goal 21 day club !accomplished! 11/24/11
2nd goal 10% loss
3rd goal...????
10/26/11 restart date
1st goal 21 day club !accomplished! 11/24/11
2nd goal 10% loss
3rd goal...????
I'm pretty sure that all the 'literature' out there says that losing weight is largely down to diet rather than exercise. I do believe that exercise helps - it can help motivation, help to burn some calories, help to make sure you have a decent body structure underneath the fat you want to lose! However losing weight really all comes down to calories (speaking in a biological sense) and it's much easier to eat less - even on NoS where you aren't counting - than to exercise enough to burn off any excess if you aren't concentrating on diet at all.
Personally I do much better when I'm focusing on NoS AND doing regular exercise I think it's partly the motivation and feeling better when I exercise, and partly that the exercise helps to counter the days when I don't make great eating decisions!
Personally I do much better when I'm focusing on NoS AND doing regular exercise I think it's partly the motivation and feeling better when I exercise, and partly that the exercise helps to counter the days when I don't make great eating decisions!
I think it depends on what your goal is. If the goal is healthy habits, then either could be started first. If the goal is weight loss, then diet is the place to start.
There's no doubt that exercise is important for many reasons, but for weight loss, cutting calories is what gets the job done -- even without exercise. Also, I think exercise leads to better eating habits for some people; others use it as an excuse to eat more than usual.
There's no doubt that exercise is important for many reasons, but for weight loss, cutting calories is what gets the job done -- even without exercise. Also, I think exercise leads to better eating habits for some people; others use it as an excuse to eat more than usual.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
-
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:50 am
It would be diet for me. One time I went through a phase of just exercising more, instead of watching my eating. I joined curves, did the treadmill and workout tapes. It gave me an "exercise" head the way one gets "diet" head. I started thinking, "oh I'm burning TONS of extra calories now , so that must justify eating more!" well I ended up eating more alright and that habit stuck, but the exercise one didn't. So, I gained about 20 more extra pounds all the while telling myself, I'll just start exercising real hard next week. Next week never came...
So I'm working on food habits first and just learning to move more in my everyday life, that's the only exercise I have time for.
So I'm working on food habits first and just learning to move more in my everyday life, that's the only exercise I have time for.
Starting my No-S journey on Dec.30,2012
SW: 214 lbs (Dec.30,2012)
GW: 135 lbs
SW: 214 lbs (Dec.30,2012)
GW: 135 lbs
My eating bothered me more even than my weight so I started with changing my eating three years ago. I'm not a complete slug for my age, but I've never gotten a consistent exercise program going in that three years but have lost weight as my signature shows. I don't recoomend my attitude about exercise because in my opinion (and not just mine) exercise contributes more to good health than weight loss. Go for eating but don't wait as long as I have to get some minimal exercise going!
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23
There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23
There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)
If your goal is weight loss, diet is what will give you the most bang for your buck. Sure, some people exercise and then feel inspired to eat better, but I've been known to go the other way and justify overeating because I have exercised.
I find it a lot easier to start with eating, because it doesn't take any extra time to eat less. In fact, not snacking frees up time that would otherwise be spent buying, preparing and eating snacks. On the other hand, exercise, even the most moderate, requires time out of my daily routine.
I find it a lot easier to start with eating, because it doesn't take any extra time to eat less. In fact, not snacking frees up time that would otherwise be spent buying, preparing and eating snacks. On the other hand, exercise, even the most moderate, requires time out of my daily routine.
- Blithe Morning
- Posts: 1221
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:56 pm
- Location: South Dakota
-
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:19 pm
Diet or exercise
I agree, whether it s an s day or a N day, unless you are fasting, we eat everyday --even when the weather is bad. So, logically that would be the place to start since a modification of current habits is easier than starting a new habit from scratch. IMHO..Blithe Morning wrote:Eating, since as Iron Chef points, out you are already doing it.
-
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:22 pm
- Location: London, Ontario
My vote is focus on food first and I'll tell you why.
My ex was REALLY over weight to the point that he could not go for daily walks around the block without causing joint damage.
When we focused on food he was able to not only loose some of the weight that was bogging him down, but also gain the energy required to feel up to "exercises". I put it in quotes because a 20 minute gentle stroll would be scoffed at by the fit fanatics.
To get healthy it's important to put the proper nutrition in your body. There's no point forcing yourself to run 5 miles when you're going to go home and stuff chips in your face and guzzle a gallon on soda because you're so tired and hungry and can't stand for the 20 minutes it takes to cook dinner. Not only will you undo all the calorie burning of the run, you'll be eating up your body's nutritional reserves of vitamins trying to run on unhealthy food.
Healthy food = fuel to feel good on and happier you when you do get to exercise
Forcing exercise during unhealthy eating = even more unhealthy eating and miserable attitude that will eventually kill the exercise plan
Hope this point of view helps.
My ex was REALLY over weight to the point that he could not go for daily walks around the block without causing joint damage.
When we focused on food he was able to not only loose some of the weight that was bogging him down, but also gain the energy required to feel up to "exercises". I put it in quotes because a 20 minute gentle stroll would be scoffed at by the fit fanatics.
To get healthy it's important to put the proper nutrition in your body. There's no point forcing yourself to run 5 miles when you're going to go home and stuff chips in your face and guzzle a gallon on soda because you're so tired and hungry and can't stand for the 20 minutes it takes to cook dinner. Not only will you undo all the calorie burning of the run, you'll be eating up your body's nutritional reserves of vitamins trying to run on unhealthy food.
Healthy food = fuel to feel good on and happier you when you do get to exercise
Forcing exercise during unhealthy eating = even more unhealthy eating and miserable attitude that will eventually kill the exercise plan
Hope this point of view helps.
- NoelFigart
- Posts: 1639
- Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:23 pm
- Location: Lebanon, NH
- Contact:
Re: Diet or exercise?
Depends on your goal. There are enormous health benefits (whether you lose weight or not) to being active. (Weight and health are not the 1:1 correlation 1,000 word articles in women's mags try to imply)~hf wrote:If you could only bare to start with one, which should it be, diet or exercise? I've heard that if you start with movement, it will be easier to begin healthy eating habits. Something about not wanting to ruin your efforts. What do you think, keeping in mind that for diet I mean No S and exercise means urban ranger or 14 minutes of whatever.
Heidi
But unless your weight problem is solely from being sedentary (unlikely) you won't lose much weight without the diet component.
------
My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.
My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.