Which is the Key to Weight Loss: Diet or Exercise?

It is true that either diet or exercise when used individually can bring about weight loss. However, it is impossible to determine which one is a more effective tool as each one depends on the other. Although an extremely rigorous exercise schedule would make you lose weight, you would need nutrition from a diet to sustain your body. In the same way, if you tried to diet to lose weight and had no physical exertion at all, your body would have much lower nutritional requirements. Taken individually both diet and exercise are powerful weight loss tools, but when combined, they are unstoppable!

Diet tips

• If you have an unhealthy diet with huge servings for an extended period, your stomach and your mind gets accustomed to it. If you try to change the food you eat as well as your serving size, you will land up feeling famished and there are higher chances of you abandoning your new diet. So make sure that you Add healthy salads to your meal but do not change your serving size. Once you have adjusted to your new diet, start to decrease your meal size slowly until they are small or medium sized servings.

• Raw vegetables and fruits are high in soluble and insoluble fiber. Eat plenty of salads that contain raw vegetables like carrot, cucumber, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower etc. The fiber on these vegetables will keep you feeling full for a longer period of time so you will not feel the need to snack.

• Have fruit salads instead of fruit juices as juicing fruits ruins their fiber content. You can make a healthy yogurt topping for your fruit salad to break the monotony. You can also pour a spoon or two of honey over the fruits and then top it off with a spoonful of crushed nuts. Find healthy ways to spice up your salads so that you enjoy your meals and therefore have a higher chance of sticking to your diet.

Exercise Tips

• As with your diet, do not make sudden drastic changes to your exercise habits as you are less likely to stick with them. If you have always had a relatively sedentary lifestyle, do not start a vigorous exercise schedule. You will definitely strain your muscles and could even tear a ligament. For the first few days, concentrate on stretching and warm-up exercises. In addition to this, concentrate on exercises like aerobics and pilates for the first month or so as these exercises help to strengthen your muscles.

• Schedule your exercise routine with plenty of small breathers in between sets. This will allow the muscles of your body to relax and will prevent muscle cramps.

• Do not exercise just before or after eating a meal and make sure that you drink plenty of water to keep your body well hydrated. The key to weight loss is a healthy diet and a regular exercise schedule. Do not try to lose as much weight as possible, instead concentrate on a healthy lifestyle and you will see the excess pounds melt away!