With excess weight a greater problem than ever, the question of whether changing eating habits or exercise is more likely to produce weight loss is vital. A new study confirms the overall research findings that dietary change, specifically eating less fat, produces more weight loss than changes in exercise. But it also shows that changes in one kind of behavior may help promote changes in the other, especially among women.
Because even if you lose weight through dieting alone, your body won’t burn fat any easier. To rev up your fat-burning engines, focus less on how often you empty your plate and more on how often you fill your walking shoes. When a group of sedentary and overweight older adults recently tested three weight loss systems -- exercise only (mostly walking), diet only, and exercise plus diet -- there was no question about the results. When it came to fat burning, the walkers won hands down over those who simply watched what they ate. The bodies of the people who strutted their stuff used more fat to fuel their activity.
We become overweight when we consume more calories in food and drink than we burn up. To lose weight, we need to shift that balance and burn up more than we consume. We can accomplish that by consuming fewer calories, burning more, or both. Cutting calories doesn’t necessarily have to mean going on a “diet.” It can just mean avoiding or limiting one or more foods high in calories from fat (such as high-fat meat, cheese, or snack foods, or too much added fat), lots of sugar (like sweets or sweetened drinks), or alcohol. Cutting calories can also be accomplished by reducing our portion sizes, or by eating smaller portions of those high-calorie foods and filling up on larger portions of low-calorie vegetables and fruits.
In another study in J.A.M.A., research from the ongoing Women's Health Study found that overweight and obese women--regardless of how regularly they exercised--were up to nine times as likely to develop diabetes as women of normal weight. Bottom line: there's no easy way around it. Stay trim and active.
Diet vs. Exercise
