Is It True Weight Loss is 80% Diet and 20% Exercise?

Is it true 80 diet and 20 exercise?
You cannot lose weight if you exercise and consume a diet that compensates for your activity expenditure.

While attempting to reduce weight, a combination of exercise and dieting yields the best results. Theoretically, if you want to lose weight, it is about 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise. Generally, it is said that diet plays a major role in weight loss.

  • Some people can lose weight just by reducing their calorie consumption, but the results are unlikely to remain without some physical exercise.
  • You can spend hours at the gym, but if you continue to eat high-calorie and unhealthy foods, you would not go very far.
  • So, exercising without a good diet is pointless, as well as a healthy diet alone is insufficient.

This ratio may not work for everyone. Hence, the optimal solution is to find the balance between diet and exercise that suits you.

What is the importance of diet for weight loss?

Because dietary caloric deficits may be sustained, you can lose weight without exercising. However, you cannot lose weight if you exercise and consume a diet that compensates for your activity expenditure.

This suggests that for your weight loss objectives, nutrition is more essential than exercise. However, it does not mean you should completely avoid your workout program. Instead, ensure that you are moving your body to increase your strength and endurance. Simultaneously, balance your food so that you can discover the ideal combination of nutrition and exercise to burn off excess fat.

When you consume fewer calories than you burn, your body loses weight. However, most people cannot continue an intense training regimen. It is especially difficult for those who are overweight or obese because they lack the fitness and endurance to exercise regularly.

To shed one pound of body fat in one week, you must produce a 3,500-calorie deficit. Even if you work out every day, yet continue to consume more than you burn, you will gain weight.

Creating a deficit only through exercise is extremely challenging, especially because people frequently overestimate how many calories they have burnt and overeat to compensate for the physical activity they completed. Intense exercise can sometimes make people crave more food than the calories they have spent.

SLIDESHOW

The Best Diet Tips: How to Lose Weight the Healthy Way See Slideshow

What is the importance of exercise for weight loss?

What you eat is more important than how you burn it off, but fitness can help you break through plateaus and reach your long-term goals. You may achieve a plateau, which means your body resists losing weight as you start eating less. Exercise plays role in weight loss and keeps you fit after you achieve a plateau.

  • It is always best to combine both diet and exercise to achieve good results.
  • More physical activity when losing weight increases the number of calories your body utilizes for energy.
  • The combination of burning calories through physical activity and lowering the number of calories you eat results in a calorie deficit, which leads to weight reduction.

Most weight loss is caused by a reduction in calorie consumption. However, research reveals that the best way to keep weight off is to participate in regular physical exercise. Most significantly, physical exercise decreases the risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in addition to weight loss.

Exercise should include both strength and cardiovascular training, rather than just cardio. Both types of exercise burn calories, which causes stored fat to be used as a source of energy.

Cutting calories through eating is simpler than burning calories through exercise, but a rigid diet that takes away 500 to 1,000 calories per day is far more difficult to maintain. You might starve yourself, which may cause you to overeat.

You could feel fatigued all the time. Instead of depriving yourself of 500 calories a day, burn 250 calories in the gym, building your muscles and bones and promoting a healthy heart. Then, save the other 250 calories by avoiding junk foods.

Bottom line

  • To lose weight and keep it off, stick to the 80/20 guideline of dieting and exercise.
  • Creating a calorie deficit and increasing your metabolism through exercise will assist you in your weight loss quest.
  • Combine exercise with a nutritious diet, and you will be on your way to losing weight.
References
Image Source: iStock Image

Edwards T. Healthy Weight Loss = 80% Nutrition + 20% Exercise. https://nutritionstudies.org/healthy-weight-loss-80-nutrition-20-exercise/

Fitness Nation. What Is More Effective: Diet or Exercise? https://fitness-nation.net/2021/07/23/what-is-more-effective-diet-or-exercise/