43 Diet vs Exercise

DIET VS EXERCISE

What is more important for weight loss? Diet or exercise?

THINK OF THE GREATEST rivalries in the world … Ali vs Fraser … Australia vs New Zealand … Diet vs Exercise for weight loss.

This last topic has been the subject of much debate over the years.

So how do you achieve weight loss?

Every study that has looked at this says you need a Calorie Deficit.

This is when you consume less energy in calories than you burn.

It is a really simple concept, but that doesn’t mean it is easy. A SNIPPET OF SOME OF THE STUDIES AVAILABLE STATE: • Health professionals recommend that individuals with overweight and obesity lose weight by reducing energy intake while maintaining a healthful diet. • Individuals interested in losing weight should continue to be advised to regularly self-monitor energy intake and expenditure as well as to create a consistent daily energy deficit. WORDS ADAM BERRY

• Individuals can lose body weight and improve health status on a wide range of energy (calorie) -restricted dietary interventions. THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED IN THREE WAYS: • Adjust the energy in (what you consume through diet). • Adjust the energy out (what you burn). • A combination of both. LET’S LOOK AT DIET. Whenever I work with a client online, I always set them up to eat to their calorie deficit.

This is figured out using the free calorie calculator that is available on my website.

The reason I work this way is because it’s incredibly easy for so many of us to overeat. FACTORS THAT CAUSE THIS ARE: • Emotional overeating – it is not uncommon for us all to soothe our emotional state with food without realising it. • Vulnerability – food is a constant and therefore a comfort/or you believe it is scarce and eat more of it. • Food being addictive – there is evidence to suggest that for some people food can induce behaviours similar to those seen with other addictive substances. • Stress – when we are stressed, we eat for comfort. • Social difficulty – economic and educational status dictates the type of food you eat. • Impulsivity – we all like that extra snack … don’t we?

Whatever ‘diet’ you choose to do, it will be formatted so that you create a calorie deficit.

Problems with your weight loss arise when that deficit is too large and therefore unsustainable in the long term which leads to you giving up before you see results.

You have to eat every day, you can’t escape it, and therefore it is easier for you to influence your calorie intake to control your weight loss, as opposed to trying to ‘burn calories’ through exercise.

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NOW LET’S LOOK AT EXERCISE. Exercise does burn calories … but not enough calories for you to get into a deficit regardless of looking after your calorie intake.

Despite what your watch tells you, you’re not burning that amount of calories when you’re working out.

Studies have shown smart watches can be up to 60 per cent inaccurate when looking at calories burned.

If you are exercising solely to burn calories, you’ll very quickly destroy your relationship with both exercise, and food.

The sheer thought that ‘the more I eat, the more I must exercise’ will kill all self-confidence and motivation, because it is simply not possible for you to work out enough to ‘purge’ those calories from your system.

This is why when trying to lose weight, it is really important you separate the two: eat to your calorie deficit, and exercise to get strong in your body, mind and soul.

Exercise helps you preserve muscle and regulate hormones and, therefore, can be very useful in allowing you to eat to your calorie deficit.

Use your exercise as a guiding light for your weight loss that helps you stay on track dietarily as opposed to the sole method to create it.

To conclude … you need a combination of both diet and exercise to create weight loss.

To make that process as easy as possible, you need to adopt imperfect action; the ability to have self-compassion as you navigate your journey.

For example, you order take-out pizza.

The old you might have had the whole pizza, the ‘imperfect action you’ would just have four slices.

Either way … you are going to eat the pizza but by managing when and how it is going to happen, you know you’re still improving.

Imperfect action is the driving force for longterm sustainable habits that will build up over time and make both diet and exercise easier as you go.

To lose weight, I urge you to never pin your journey on only one aspect of this conversation.

Diet vs Exercise. It’s not a competition … it’s a blend of balance. Always. thegymstarter.com