Congratulations on your successful weight loss and the great info. here! You are absolutely correct, you can NOT out-exercise an unhealthy diet. If you follow a workout with high-sugar or high-fat meals you won't lose weight and you will eventually join the 36% of Americans that are now clinically obese. It takes both exercise and a healthy diet. Unfortunately, statistics show most Americans refuse to do either. -MS in Health

Thanks for your comment Bob. I love the way you put that: "You can not OUT-EXERCISE an unhealthy diet." I'm definitely pro-exercise at every opportunity, but I do feel healthy eating habits come first.

Both exercise and diet are very important to your long term health. Focusing on one but not the other is foolish.

If "you are what you eat", I'm dead meat..

To "Both", a resident of Downtown North: I agree that focusing on only one is foolish, but if you had to choose one, choose the food. You'll see quicker results and make it more likely you'll want to soon start exercising along with it. Starting with exercising leads to frustration and quitting when the food remains the same.

Food is a drug that we take many times a day. I have completely turned my state of health around by only eating real food. Yes, I work out too, and that is a definite quality-of-life plus, but avoiding the corporate junk is key.

About 2 years ago, my food choices evolved to the point that a friend recently noted that I'm doing the "paleo" diet. So I read up on the ideas behind it and realized that I've definitely gone in that direction. I'm avoiding grains entirely and am much the better for it. Dinners usually consist of a protein, a cooked vegetable, and a raw vegetable. I fill up quickly.

I'm at my lowest weight as an adult, and am not counting calories or really doing much besides eating clean. I recommend anyone dealing with cardiac issues, auto-immune disorders, GI upsets and high cholesterol to just clean things up and cut out the sugar. Try it for a month and see how you feel.

Both diet and exercise are important. I also think that working your abs is beneficial for anyone, regardless of how heavy they are. Strengthening your core can protect against back problems, and heavy people with protruding guts need that more than anyone else.

Move and you will live. Studies show that even if you don't get rid of your obesity or diabetes, if you exercise, you live longer.

That said, diet is just important to health, too.

Weight loss? It depends on if you are dealing with diabetes or just fat.

Y'all can't say "both"! The headlines states you must choose. It's easily diet. You can exercise all you want, but if you are eating too many calories, the fat will stay. A medium pace on the treadmill only burns 100 calories. How can you treadmill an hour and then slam down a milkshake or burger and think you can lose weight?

Obesity is not always the result of overeating.I had some hormonal problems which made me fat.I had to undergo surgical weight loss program to reduce my weight.Before the surgery at Credit Valley Clinic at Ontario,it was even difficult for me to sit in my car (due to which I left driving).I did not achieve 100% weight loss .But now the confidence came back to me that i can be myself again through a strict diet and exercise!

I was doing exercise but not get best result but after read this psot i must try to take diet.
Web Link

Thanks for your comment Luke. Glad to hear that you were able to find out what caused your weight gain and could do something about it. There's nothing like gaining back the confidence and having a vision of what you can be and work towards. I found that when I take it one day at a time, my food plan and exercise program shows results which encourages me to want to get up and do it again, day after day. It becomes a welcome habit. Best of luck to you.

Nice Post
I think exercise is better than diet.
http://www.fitnessequipmentcalgary.com

Excellent written article?the only way to lose body fat is by focusing mainly on your diet?Too many people focus only on exercising and wonder why they can\'t lose any weight?Eat clean to stay lean and you will see results!

http://bellybegoneforgood.blogspot.com

Looks like I disagree with just about everyone. Don't get me wrong, diet is important and I'm slowly making positive changes to my diet. But in my life, exercise has been far more important. I've stayed fit and trim by exercising hard on a regular basis (and for the most part not worrying too much about my diet other than having a fairly balanced one, but I definitely have a sweet tooth). It seems that a lot of you, not all, have the wrong idea about calories. Calories aren't the enemy, but the types of calories you eat. Also, fats aren't the enemy, but the TYPES of fat (some fats are vital and important to your diet). Natural sugar also has its benefits as long as you can keep it under 30 or so grams per day.

Also, a lot of you are forgetting that your metabolism is burning off calories all day, not just when you work out. You can eat more calories than you will burn off in one workout, because your body will continue to burn calories all day (just at a slower pace than during exercise). And exercise plays a key role in the speed of your metabolism. By not working out, you will not maximize your metabolism. Working out will increase the speed of your metabolism even after you are done working out. And without exercise, you may lose weight with diet, but you won't get CLOSE to firming up your body and muscles.

I may let my diet slide from time to time, but not my exercise because that's what keeps my body looking in shape.

Thank you for your comments Exercise from Charleston Meadows. I actually agree with most of what you are saying. I am a huge fan of frequent, effective exercising. When I changed my relationship with food and lost 40 lbs in 3 months, I know I couldn\'t have done it nearly as fast if I hadn\'t made a commitment to exercise.But I know that I couldn\'t have sustained this weight loss for the three years I already have without dealing with the food addiction. I also know if I hadn\'t made those changes to my relationship with food, all the exercise in the world wouldn\'t have made that much difference in my life. This blog post was directed at those compulsive eaters like myself who use food to deal with the challenges life brings every day.

You completed certain reliable points there. I did a search on the subject and found nearly all persons will agree with your blog.

I'd have to say diet. There are a plethora of video doctors, scientists and other various experts and they all spread out an take on whatever aspect of this dilemma they believe in and think they can make a buck and a name at.

I kind of subscribe to the idea that you cannot exercise your way to weight loss at least as first order effect because it just makes you hungrier when you exercise and when you diet your willpower will break at some point.

There are some people who say that studies with people who eat a nutritious diet and do no exercise can lose weigh more permanently, but it also takes longer.

But, on the other hand, exercise is good as it increases your metabolism or so they say, so that if you exercise enough, no matter whatever else you do, you rev your body up, and that is probably helpful.

I believe the best think you can do is avoid processed foods and foods with added sugar. Eat plenty of veggies and get a lot of fiber. A lot of doctors say the best and healthiest diet is a plant-based diet ... but they do not really say if that means vegan, vegetarian, or just eating meat and other rich foods responsibly and sparingly?

great blog here. I love your ideas .I notice off the people in my close sorounding that diet to loose weight, some of them loose quite a bit but others just cannot loose a pound and that is because of genetics.Each of us are a little geneticly different and what works for me will not work for you.In other words we do not store or burn fat the same way..The only way for some of us to loose weight is to have a " customized fat loss program" built for our particular type of geans . Food is the best medicine for our health. come and see why this works Web Link

CrescentParkAnon: Thanks for your comment. What I would like to do at this point is go beyond diet and talk about our relationship with food. That really is usually at the crux of why folks eat food that is not good for them or consume large quantities. Many of us use food as a drug or a pastime. We reward ourselves for a job well done, or a hard day at the office. We eat when we are depressed, or when we are feeling joy. It's also part of a general concept that we ought to feel good as much as the time as possible. The only problem is that the satisfaction or good feeling lasts only as long as that particular bite, sip or gulp your are taking. Once that's down the hatch we often need to follow it with another, then another, until we are satiated. And even then, for true compulsive eaters, we eat beyond that satiated point. There is often a hole that the compulsive eater is trying to fill, in their soul or inner being, that can temporarily be filled with food. But it's often a bottomless pit, the result of which can be seen in the large numbers of seriously obese folks in this country. Live to eat, or eat to live. That is the question! Any thoughts?

I consider both to be important to weight loss. Right now, though, I am focusing on exercise.

women gym in Malaysia
Web Link

> CrescentParkAnon: Thanks for your comment. What I would like to do at this point is go beyond diet and talk about our relationship with food.

Good points and I am glad someone is putting this up for discussion.

I am nor sure the first order issue is genetics as Sam, above, said. I am sure genetics plays an issue, but I think, and I'm just guessing, that it IS more our "relationship" with food. How we have been programmed and what we first were exposed to that was pleasurable, and how that integrates into our experience and identity. It's a system that is like offering heroin to babies before they have any idea what's going on.

I grew up with the standard American diet, when America was infatuated with fast, convenience, new, chemicals, colors, flavors, but maybe not yet conscious about toxic effects but also was a bit subdued.

I must have been at least 13 before I saw my first blue ice-cream, though I guess I did see those blue snow cones earlier ... that is, something that is totally chemically made. That's where I drew the line, but little did I know all the stuff I was eating behind the scenes, the preservatives, the inside coatings of containers, pesticides, insecticides, heavy metals, or the soil mineral depletion.

My generation's journey as been one of continuously discovering all the dumb things that were foisted on us, all way past the time when we accepted, indulged and often paid for it. That is one aspect of weight and good health I think might be the most important, the fact that food producers exploit whatever they can about human behavior at such a cold-blooded level, because I guess they themselves have to eat too and make a living.

I cannot help but notice how in terms of junk food and dessert eating places and dessert places we seem to have so many new yogurt, ice cream, cupcakes, hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, etc, it's like it is still taboo to turn a negative eye towards this trend because it is a way to make a living, and still when I go into Safeway I see a whole building full of chemically engineered "products" that all serve to wean us away from natural foods by simulating and then exaggerating the tastes and textures ... but whereas "wean" is usually meant to connote maturation or growing up, we not have a whole society full of desensitized people, and not just in terms of food either.

So ... our relationship with food ... just like everything else ... there is a lot of noise and distraction, disinformation and lies designed to keep us captive to often not the bast parts of our nature and not the most healthiest constituents of our bodies.

Hi Max, According to my point of view diet and exercise both are important for living healthy life style. It is the best combination. If we are using perfect diet and exercise plan.

John, I totally agree with you. My point all along has been that too many people think they can exercise their way to lose weight and get healthy, without changing their diet and overall relationship with food.