Health Matters: Is Diet or Exercise More Important?

Sara Waxman, OOnt, is an award-winning restaurant critic, best-selling cookbook…

Diet or Exercise? What Works?

This interactive infographic from the Pritikin Longevity Centre has taken all the key scientific findings on successful weight management and distilled them into an engaging, easy-to-understand format.

It’s also inspiring. There’s a very good chance you’ll get to the end of this infographic and say, “I can do this!” You’ll discover that everything doesn’t have to be a struggle. There are easier, better ways to get and stay lean.

Keep reading! Now’s your opportunity to look better, feel better, and, best of all, live better.

Which One Is More Important for Weight Loss?

Diet or Exercise?

Every year tens of millions of people try to lose weight. But very few succeed. Most people fail because they try to lose weight with diet alone or exercise alone, instead of switching to a healthy lifestyle.

Diet Only

ONLY 5%

OF PEOPLE HAVE KEPT THE WEIGHT OFF 5 YEARS LATER.

What happens to the crash dieters?

Starvation mode

Cutting out large portions of calories can easily lead to caloric and nutritional deﬁciencies, which can lead to side eﬀects like headaches, muscle cramps, constipation, trouble sleeping and loss of bone density.

Heart issues

Crash diets and fad diets, especially those full of meat and fatty dairy foods like cheese, can damage your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease.

Difficult cycle

When your body doesn’t get all the nutrients you need, your energy is sapped. This makes it harder to stick to any diet.

The End Result

Hunger pangs
Small chance of success
Low energy

Exercise Only

✘

CONTRARY TO POPULAR MYTH YOU CAN’T JUST SWEAT YOUR WAY TO WEIGHT LOSS.

What happens to obsessive exercisers?

Undermine Exercise With Overeating

A 185-pound person who runs for 30 minutes at a 5 mph pace will burn 355 calories. Just one poor choice can wipe out that calorie expenditure. Two slices of cheese pizza, for example, contain over 500 calories.

Ignores Metabolic Rate

Exercising regularly burns a small number of calories. You burn most of your calories through natural body functions like digesting and breathing.

Small Amount of Weight Lost

Studies show that even when exercisers lose weight, they only lose a very small amount. A meta-analysis of over 700 weight-loss studies found that people who only exercise lose just six pounds over a 21-week period.

More Exercise ≠ More Weight Loss

Working out twice as long doesn’t lead to twice as much weight loss. Rather than expending a consistent amount of energy during a long workout, your body adapts metabolically to the increased physical activity. While exercise is important,
its benefits shrink over time.

The End Result

Exhaustion
Small amount of weight loss
Risk of Injury
Increased appetite that leads to weight gain

Lifestyle Change

✓

CHANGING HOW YOU APPROACH MANY FACETS OF LIFE IS THE ONLY WAY TO REDUCE WEIGHT PERMANENTLY AND IN A HEALTHY WAY.

4 Components of Lifestyle Change

1 Exercise

An effective exercise program includes cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, and stretching.

2 Food Plan

A healthy food plan helps you feel comfortably full throughout the day.

Your diet should include:

Fresh and raw fruits
Frozen and canned fruits without added sugar

The more color variety in your vegetables, the better, including green, red, and yellow.

Whole Grains, such as Whole Wheat, Oats, and Brown Rice.

Lean Sources of Protein, such as Beans, Fish, White Poultry Without the Skin, and Nonfat Dairy.

3 Sleep

Not getting enough Zs is unhealthy. When you’re sleep deprived, your metabolism slows down and you start to crave foods that are CRAP (calorie-rich and processed).

4 Support

The support of family, friends, or a support group of other people with similar health and weight-loss goals can help you stick to your healthy new lifestyle.

Lose Weight At A Healthy Rate