If you dread dieting and exercising, you're probably hoping that just one of the two might be enough to help you lose weight. Cutting calories by eating better and burning them off by exercising are both effective for weight loss, but each has drawbacks when done individually. The best strategy to lose weight is to choose a method that you know you can stick with, and for most people, that means combining diet and exercise in a reasonable program.
Diet vs. Exercise
When it comes to dieting and exercising for weight loss, there isn't a definitive answer as to which is better. Both help you accomplish the goal of burning more calories than you take in, so they can be equally effective. What seems to matter most is the method of dieting or exercising you follow. If you choose to do just one, you're more likely to have to resort to extreme measures to achieve weight-loss results. Making drastic changes to your diet or exercise program is a risky way to lose weight, since it's usually extremely difficult to maintain long-term, meaning you'll gain back any weight lost as soon as you resume your old habits.
Why Dieting Matters
Many people consider dieting to be the clear winner for weight loss, mainly because it's far easier to cut calories than it is to burn them. If your goal is to lose 1 lb. per week, you need to create a deficit of 500 calories per day; you can accomplish this by skipping the large order of fries one day and the dessert-like coffee drink the next. To burn that many calories through exercise, however, a 160-lb. person would have to do an hour of cross-country skiing or swimming laps. Of course, you have to be willing to stick to those dietary changes day after day, which can be tough when you're used to indulging during happy hour, weekly pizza nights or special restaurant dinners. Without exercise to burn them off, those extra calories can easily negate the ones you cut the other four or five days a week.
The Role of Exercise
For most people, it's tough to burn hundreds of calories through exercise every day. It takes a time commitment and serious physical exertion that most people would simply rather skip. But exercise has an advantage over dieting in that it can help you boost your metabolism naturally. If you weight train often enough to build muscle, your metabolism will increase because your body burns more calories maintaining muscle than it does fat, reports MayoClinic.com. That means your body will burn more calories all day long, even on days you can't work out. But as with dieting, taking exercise to the extreme usually backfires; daily strenuous exercise is likely to leave you exhausted and miserable after a few weeks. Besides that, life is full of interruptions -- vacation, injury, illness -- that are bound to get in the way of exercise from time to time.
The Best Strategy
Though it may not sound appealing, combining diet and exercise is actually the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off because you can take a moderate approach to both and still have success. In other words, you can lose weight without having to exercise seven days per week or swear off pizza and ice cream for life. To eat fewer calories and burn more without overhauling your habits completely, focus on cutting your food portions by about 15 percent, saving junk foods for special occasions and getting 4 to 5 hours of exercise per week. The best thing about exercising and eating better for weight loss is that they balance each other out; you can minimize the damage of overindulging at a party by doing an extra 20 minutes of cardio the next day, or make up for a missed workout by eating a little bit lighter throughout the day.
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