which makes you lose faster, diet or exercise?

Hi, well, I've been using this site for about two weeks now, but just realized there was more than the food and activity log on the site (took me a while, lol, but I'm not very observant) , so this is my first post....Does anyone know what will make you lose weight faster, more intense dieting and a fair about of exercise every day, or more intense exercise and keeping your diet level with your natural calorie burn every day? I know 2 pounds, or 4 if you're more overweight, is pretty much the limit you should lose a week, but I was hoping for a little more of a change for a few weeks up until spring break, so I'll be a little less worried while on the beach :)

I would recommend intense exercise, with a low cal diet, if you wanna reach your goal quick.

both....simple answer...both work together...huggers

Click here...that's a URL to an article in the "Library" (the tab next to Community) about the benefits/importance of each

You need both, but it's always healthier to increase the exercise rather than reduce the calories....

If you do try to loose more than 2 lbs a week (if you are in an average to moderately overweight range) it is likely it won't be permenant, because your body will not have lost the weight by substituting muscle for fat which is the secret to lasting weight loss. If you just loose the fat and loose it fast it's much easier to put it back on and then some.

okay, so i'll up the exercise and keep the diet average instead of low. thanks for answering :) if the quick weight loss is usually not from your body losing fat replaced with muscle, will losing it by exercising alot and working those muscles more help keep from gaining it back? thats the logic I take from it, but I could be wrong...

thanks again, you guys:)

Pretty much, the muscle replacing fat, actually slows down the rate at which you see the numbers on the scale go down.... this is because one once of muscle weighs 10 times as much as one once of fat.

At the same time replacing fat with muscle should speed up the loss of inches on your body as muscle tightens and tones your body.

As you continue it also takes 10 times as much energy (energy is stored in the fat cells) to fuel an ounce of muscle as an ounce of fat.... so if you are loosing fat only, you will loose the weight of fat, but will be using less energy each day.... gradually your weight loss will slow down and plateau.

If you are replacing muscle with fat, you may not see the difference reflected on the scale as quickly but for each ounce of muscle that you gain you are using ten times the energy that you would have to have kept that going as fat, the muscle will help your metabolism keep going and you will burn off the excess fat in the long run and not hit plateaus as frequently. You should also have more energy then burning fat through diet alone.

As nearly everybody else has suggested is more of a combination of the two.

I recommend you start by reducing the amount of daily calories intake and with some light exercise.

As you move on, try to cut down on calories and increase exercise.

At some point you will reach a minimum amount of calories you can take, so there will be no scope for making your diet stricter. That's when you should emphasise more on the fitness plan.

As far as your exercise resume is concerned, you should see what suits you best. I follow a combination of aerobics and weight lifting.

Hope that helps.

I have a different experience. The past 3 months, I was exercising very intensely...running/walking 2-3 miles every other day and weigth training with normal caloric intake (which was over my recommded amount and I thought I needed to keep my energy level high). I did not loose a pound, in fact I gained 4-5 pounds and felt sluggish. Amazingly, since I started calorie counting, I already lost 4 pounds in 4 days...It is amazing--by the way I eliminated bread and sugar completely.

Hi sueloosepounds,

I combine a low-calorie intake diet (taking multivitamin and energy supplements) with intense exercise. I put a good two hours daily at the gym, combining aerobics and weight lifting. It's been working fine with me.

Keep in mind that when you train intensely you will probably see your scales going up as you turn fat into muscles (muscle weighs more than fat). What you also need to keep track of is your fat level.

Thus, although I haven't noticed any difference on the scales, I have seen the difference in my clothes, the points I've lost from different parts of the body and a reduced fat level.

If the real point is, "If I can only do one, and not the other"... I believe the choice for most people would have to be diet. Watch your intake and the quality of your intake.

If you didn't diet, you'd probably have to do a whole hell of a lot of excercising to lose weight!