Diet VS Exercise – Which One Is More Effective For Losing Weight
By Brian Darrow

Just how important is eating right for weight loss compared to exercising for weight loss? Before we let these two weight loss heavyweights (no pun intended, ok maybe a little) go head to head let me start by saying that both have a key role in your goals for weight loss.

Round 1. Aerobic exercise does have the ability to burn an abundance of calories at the time the exercise session is taking place. A good thirty to forty minute aerobic activity can usually burn between 300-400 calories. Aerobics are definitely effective in obtaining a healthier heart. Getting your heart rate up and sustaining it for an extended amount of time is essential for your overall fitness level. Although cardio vascular health is very important and is an added bonus for trying to loose weight with aerobics, we are only looking for overall effectiveness at getting those extra pounds off.

Round 2. Resistance training or weight lifting is another form of exercise that is very popular especially in men. However more and more women are finding out that adding a couple of pounds of muscle can transform their bodies drastically. Weight training has a vital role in a couple areas of weight loss. First weight training performed with little or no rest between sets (commonly called circuit training) has the benefit of building muscle and getting the heart rate up just as with aerobics. Building muscle is essential when trying to transform the shape of your body. Also with every pound of muscle added, your body will burn 50 more calories a day, even on days that you do not work out. In my opinion there is no comparison between weight training and aerobics in terms of transforming the way you look and shedding some pounds, but let’s not close the book on this battle just yet…

Round 3. A balanced diet is crucial for someone interested in weight loss. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions across America and the main reason is our diet. We live in the fast food age and without changing our eating habits there is little or no hope for us as far as loosing weight. I am sure that we all know someone that goes to the gym constantly or someone that stays very active and is still overweight. Their body just never really sees the physical benefit of all that exercise, why? Because they are not watching what they eat. Eating a balanced low fat diet means eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, especially the dark colored vegetables as these are loaded with nutrients and antioxidants. Eat only lean cuts of meat, so you are going to have to opt for the baked fish instead bbq ribs. You can workout regularly with aerobics or weight lifting and without changing your eating habits your weight loss will be very lack luster as compared to someone that only changes their eating habits.

Knockout. It is pretty clear that if you want your short term and long term weight loss goals to be met that you are going to have to eat less fat, sugars and simple carbohydrates and eat more in terms of a well rounded balanced diet including lean meats with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Weight loss is 75% diet and 25% exercise, so even though exercise can assist in your weight loss and is very important as far as overall health, it cannot make up for continuous bad eating habits.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Darrow
http://EzineArticles.com/?Diet-VS-Exercise—Which-One-Is-More-Effective-For-Losing-Weight&id=609120

Tags: weight loss, weight loss tips, fitness, nutrition

Related Posts:

Filed under: Fitness tips • Nutrition

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!