Diet or Exercise?

I am convinced that we lose weight by dieting and keep it off with exercise.

That said, exercise can be very beneficial to losing weight, and one must certainly continue to watch their diet while in maintenance mode.

Losing Weight

I walk for two hours every morning. I walk 12.5 kilometers, which is about 7.5 miles, and expend about 500 calories. But, there are cookies at Panera Bread that have more than 500 calories! When losing weight, one must first concentrate on what they eat.

At the same time, some exercise can be very beneficial. I was in the exercise area of Walmart and tried to lift a 25-pound barbell. I found it to be really heavy.

Then I realized that I had the equivalent of eight of those barbells attached to my body before I lost the 190 pounds. Every time I stood up or climbed a flight of stairs, I was expending energy to lift all that weight.

As I lost weight, though, the energy needed for daily living decreased day by day — making monitoring what I ate more and more important.

So, yes, do incorporate exercise into your routine but realize that diet will be the core of your plan to lose weight.

Keeping It Off

After reaching your goal -- or even when approaching your goal — exercise will become more and more critical to maintaining your weight.

You still have to monitor what you eat and track your weight, of course, but I’ve found exercise after reaching my goal helpful at keeping me on track — and to expend more calories so I can eat more of the foods I enjoy.

In Conclusion

Both diet and exercise are important to both losing weight and maintaining one’s goal weight, but the focus should be on dieting while losing weight and on exercise while maintaining one‘s goal weight.