Yes, exercise is effective in losing weight but it’s not the shortest route you can take. Conventional wisdom says you need to exercise more and eat less in order to lose those extra fats. But health expert, Dr. Michael Mosley, strongly challenged this idea. He said the shortest and easiest way to lose fats is through diet.
Mosley believes you don’t need to punish your body by pushing too hard in the gym or running for long hours at the park. What you need to do is to simply eat less. It’s true that you can burn calories by doing intense exercises but you can also lose calories even when you’re doing nothing but sit on your bottom.
The body has a base metabolic rate or BMR, which is the energy consumed by the body to fuel basic functions such as sitting or even blinking. This accounts for at least 60 percent of the body’s energy expenditure while digestion takes up 10 percent. The rest of your energy fuels other activities like when you work out or walk into the bathroom. This only means you burn only a small number of calories while working out regardless of whether you’re an active person or not.
If exercise is your only means of weight loss, you’re getting the whole idea wrong. According to studies, running 10 kilometers per hour for 10 minutes can burn 372 calories, that is if you’re able to sustain that effort every day. And this takes lots of effort and discipline to truly achieve this goal.
Thus, Mosley suggested another much easier way to achieve the same energy deficit without sweating it out. It only takes cutting out a can of soda, cutting out your sweetened snacks, and reducing the portion of your dinner every single day. Instead of having ice cream for dessert might as well replace it with crunchy fruits, like apple or yogurt.
Which is the best way to lose weight, exercise or diet?
In order to maintain a healthy weight, the first thing you should consider is the number of calories you take in every meal versus the number of calories you can burn. It’s as simple as that. If you think you’re unable to burn lots of calories, then you must watch your food intake and make sure you’re not taking in energy more than you could burn.
The problem with most people is that they reward their bodies and feed themselves with foods high in calories believing it’s okay. After all, they’ve just burned off some extra calories. Others even say, they exercise so that they can eat whatever they want, which is absolutely wrong. The truth is, they burn fewer fats and take in some more by eating everything they want.
Research says you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. This is because our body is adaptable. It can adapt to the higher activity levels we do. Instead of burning more calories, it can hold onto as many calories as possible to fuel all our activities. It’s as tricky as that. If you exercise for the sole purpose of losing weight, then you should reconsider.
Exercise is important
However, this doesn’t mean you should avoid exercising. Exercise is important for your overall health and wellbeing. You need to exercise to keep your blood in proper circulation, strengthen your muscles and bones, keep your body flexible, boost your mood, and reduce the risks of heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other debilitating diseases. Exercise is also the best tool to maintain a healthy weight.
Balance your exercise
Another pitfall that some people commit in their weight loss journey is doing only one form of exercise. Because their focus is weight loss, they tend to forget that the body is a complex machine whose parts need to be used and strengthened. They focus only on aerobic or cardio exercises. They set out to either run, jog or swim. These are good exercises but your body will benefit more if you add resistance exercises to your training, especially when you’re already 30 and above. People start to lose muscle mass after the age of 30. That is why sagging skin is visible in your 40s if you don’t lead a more active lifestyle.
Strengthening your body doesn’t need to be as laborious as weight lifting. Squats and press ups will definitely do it as long as you’re consistent in doing them regularly.
Practice eating healthy
Weight gain basically starts with what you eat, which means weight loss should start with what you eat as well. You don’t need to take more effort and time to spend on exercise if you just know how to eat well. You don’t even need to follow a strict diet wherein you deprive yourself of food. Failing to follow a strict diet plan will only make the matter worse. The fact that you fail to do on something you intend to do will make you feel bad about yourself and may account for low self-esteem. Besides, cutting out a whole food group isn’t good for your body too.
The best thing you can do is follow a diet plan where you don’t deprive yourself of food but only change what you eat. You can try high fat but proven effective diet such as a Mediterranean diet. The idea is not around cutting fat, but switching to a much healthier alternative. Olive oil as an alternative to saturated fats. Oily fish instead of hamburgers, and nuts instead of sugar laden snacks.
Fiber is another important component in your diet. Fiber plays an important role in keeping your body healthy. High-fiber foods include bananas, apples, strawberries, beans, legumes, and nuts. Aside from their many benefits, these fiber-laden foods can help you maintain a healthy weight by making you feel full, thereby decreasing your cravings for food. And when you’re feeling full, you trick your brain into thinking you’re not depriving your body of food.
