If there’s one question that always lingers around weight loss it’s this: Is cutting calories best or is exercise more important?
There’s an overwhelming emphasis on exercise today. New trends and workout regimens are always emerging, encouraging most to head to the gym or go for a walk, or take a yoga class etc. at least a few times each week. Likewise, there’s a growing emphasis on healthy eating with the growth of health food stores and even healthy alternatives in most major restaurants.
Dieting vs exercise: which is actually best for weight loss?
The answer: Cutting calories. However, you shouldn’t discount exercise entirely either.
Cutting Calories is a More Effective Method for Weight Loss
Consider this: To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn. If you’re eating fast food every day and going to the gym, the likelihood of weight loss is slim to none. It is much simpler for most people to decrease calorie consumption than it is to continue consuming too many calories and then attempting to work it off in the gym every day.
Traditional math suggests if you burn 500 more calories than you eat every day of the week, you’ll lose between one and two pounds. This is typically why most people turn to calorie restriction as a means to weight loss. However, some people take calorie restriction too far and cause more harm than good as a result.
Typically, very low calorie diets – specifically those between 800 to 1,500 calories per day – are only healthy for those with a BMI greater than 30 (i.e. an individual classified as obese). Being too restrictive on your calorie consumption if you’re of a “normal” BMI can cause an array of health problems, including metabolic damage.
Still, you cannot underestimate the influence of cutting calories on weight loss. According to Shawn M. Talbott, PhD “It’s much easier to cut calories than to burn them off.” That’s because it takes only 10 minutes to eat a fast food meal of over 1,000 calories, but it will take hours in the gym to undo what you’ve done. This also doesn’t account for the poor nutritional value of high-calorie, high-fat foods that many dieters struggle to cut out as they lose weight.
By focusing on eliminating a manageable, healthy number of calories and consuming a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grain carbohydrates, you’ll put yourself in a much better position to succeed with your weight loss goals.
Exercise Plays a Secondary, Yet Important, Role in Weight Loss
It’s a mistake to assume that you should lose weight solely through diet alone.
According to Michele Olson, PhD, without exercise “only a portion of your weight loss is from fat – you’re also stripping away muscle and bone density. Since working out stimulates growth of those metabolic tissues, losing weight through exercise means you’re burning mostly fat.”
In contrast, exercising too much can have adverse effects on weight loss. Exercise increases hunger (ghrelin) and appetite (leptin) hormones. If you exercise too much, you will consume more food and often negate the effects of exercise on your weight loss efforts. Exercise without dieting causes the body to grow tired as well, meaning may become more sedentary in your life outside of the gym.
As is the case with diet, it’s important to strike a balance with exercise. If you overdo it, you run the risk of over stimulating your appetite and essentially “ruining” your workout by eating too much. Should you not workout at all, you won’t burn fat on the body and will compromise muscle and bone health.
Ideally, you should do both cardio and strength training at the gym. Doing so will help you burn calories while building muscle strength, helping you lose additional weight.
Read: How to Build an Effective Weight Loss Exercise Routine
Amp Up Your Weight Loss Efforts With Diet, Exercise, and PhenQ
While cutting calories is more effective for weight loss, you shouldn’t underestimate the need to incorporate exercise into your routine as well. Doing so allows you to strike a balance that keeps you healthy as you shed the pounds and helps you keep it off from a long-term perspective.
To boost both your diet and weight loss efforts further, PhenQ can help. PhenQ is a complete supplement that burns fat, prevents additional fat storage, boosts energy, and suppresses appetite. In doing so, it helps support your healthy eating efforts while giving you the energy needed to go to the gym.
Answering the question posed at the beginning of this article is simple: Efficient weight loss begins first with diet, then with exercise, and, if you want to become the best version of you, PhenQ.
