To stay strong and health throughout your lifetime, it's important to learn how to maintain a healthy weight. Unfortunately, more 72 million adults were obese in the United States as of 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, due largely to a lack of proper diet and exercise. Although you need a mixture of both diet and exercise to lose weight, which one works better overall depends on your individual lifestyle. Consult your doctor before beginning any new diet or exercise regimen.
Dieting
Losing weight depends on creating a calorie deficit. A deficit occurs when you burn more calories through exercise activities or basic body functions than you take in through your daily diet. By cutting calories from your diet, you can increase your weight loss. However, you can diet and still not lose weight if you are so sedentary that you still don't burn enough calories to create a deficit. It's important to keep in mind that you should not drop your daily calorie intake below 1,200 without the direction and supervision of a medical professional, because problems like eating disorders or malnutrition can develop.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise is one of the fastest ways to burn calories and create a calorie deficit. It is not only the amount of exercise but also the intensity level at which you perform it that determines how many calories per hour your body can burn. With exercise, you can still lose weight even if you don't diet, depending on how many calories your regularly take in and how much exercise you're getting each week. You can also still exercise and not lose weight, however, if you are consuming a high-calorie diet that cancel out those calories burned through exercise.
Strength Training
Strength training burns fewer calories than regular aerobic exercises like running, swimming or biking, but it does provide the additional benefit of increasing the percentage of muscle tissue in your body. The more muscle your body contains, the more efficiently you can burn the calories you consume. The more toned muscle you build through strength training, the easier it will be for you to maintain a healthy weight once you reach your weight-loss goal, MayoClinic.com adds.
Balance
As you can see, weight loss depends more on a balance between exercise and diet rather than one being more effective than the other. As such, make sure that you burn more calories than you consume to be successful in your weight-loss efforts. Adjust your calories and exercise as needed on a weekly or even daily basis if you find that you splurged on your calories or were unable to exercise a few days during the week. Don't be afraid to change up your routine as long as in the end you are creating a calorie deficit.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Halting the Epidemic by Making Health Easier: At A Glance 2010; March 4, 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Strength Training: Get Stronger, Leaner, Healthier; June 30, 2010
- MayoClinic.com; Aerobic Exercise: Top 10 Reasons to Get Physical; Feb. 12, 2011
- "American Family Physicians; How Can I Lose Weight?; 2000
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