Exercise is better than diet for weight loss?

I can't see a graph

This thread is useless without ... the graph you are chatting about!

I'd have to disagree, diet is 80%, exercise is 20%, but one or the other is better than neither, and both combined are better than either independently. (I lost 15+kg a few years back using weight-watchers and healthier eating while continuing the level of exercise I had been at before anyway.

I can’t see a graph

Just imagine one alongside a pic of a bloke falling off a ladder/de denting a car/painting a picture. That's all you need. 🙃

Surely it goes soemthing like:

Increase exercise and maintained food intake = some weight loss (although you could gain weight as you increase muscle mass).

Decreased food intake and maintained exercise = some weight loss.

Increase exercise and decreased food intake = more weight loss.

Try this approach for sustained losses

I can’t see a graph/>

I’d have to disagree, diet is 80%, exercise is 20%, but one or the other is better than neither, and both combined are better than either independently

Indeed. I thinks it's well possible to have been getting it wrong in one or both in the past.

My thoughts these days is that your first goal needs to be to reflect back and see where it went wrong for you. For most it'll be a bit if both. Your weight loss program is to work out how the new you that you want to be long term lives, then turn it up to 11 for the short term whilst you want to reduce rather than sustain weight.

For me the biggest change, was a change in mindset - remembering that it is ok to be hungry. And that when you are hungry you can function, exercise even, without resolving the situation immediately.

For me the biggest change, was a change in mindset – remembering that it is ok to be hungry.

It's also ok to not be skinny and malnourished.

Not sure if there is a point to this post

Have you experienced near death at all? Isn't that the basis for all your posts?

It’s also ok to not be skinny and malnourished.

True... But I'd contend it's also ok to challenge that middle aged in the comfortable west should by default mean it is ok to be soft around the edges.

I went from athlete in my 30s to 'soft' in my late 40s. I'm now far (far) from skinny but when I lost the weight it literally changed my life. What I'd started to believe was what it felt like to be middled aged turned out to be self generated bollox.

I’d have to disagree, diet is 80%, exercise is 20%, but one or the other is better than neither, and both combined are better than either independently.

I've been working on weight management programmes for the last few years.

Nobody puts a firm percentage on it, but I think you're in the right ballpark.

For very overweight people, diet brings fast results. As people near a healthy weight, it's more of a balance.

Personally I think it's fascinating how some people (like OP?) find the diet side pretty easy, whereas others (like me) prefer to do a lot of exercise to keep on top of weight.

Does this work?

[i]Have you experienced near death at all?[/i] - Lots of looks likely but no. Only a couple of times seriously though.

When I have had success in reducing weight and getting fitter it has been a combination of healthy eating, resitance training and lots of exercise. I can't run due to knee damage so exercise is mostly cycling, sea kayaking and swimming.

The resitance training is home exercise with modest weight as I hate gyms but my partner used to be a fitness trainer and offers help.

Rather than massivley reducing the amount I eat I have concentrated on reducing sugar and fat in my diet, We are vegetarian so that helps a bit as well.

I would worry less about weight and concentrate on body fat loss.

This works for me until your body gets used to the changes

Long steady efforts like all day hikes and bike rides are so good for weight loss because they keep you further from the fridge.

Long steady efforts like all day hikes and bike rides are so good for weight loss because they keep you further from the fridge.

Haha, it's funny because it's true.

I'm sure I was snacking less when I was doing 9 and 10-hour days on the bike on holiday last month.

A few catchy phrases spring to mind.

Correlation does not equal causation.

You cannot outrun a bad diet.

If you want to get fitter/stronger, body mass is the wrong metric.

Obviously, you're doing exactly the right thing, eat less, move more. Remember how much food it takes to gain 100 kcal and how much exercise it takes to burn it. It's amazing just how efficient the human body is (or how we've managed to cram a lot of calories into food).

I agree that diet and exercise are better than one or the other or of course neither. If the graph can be seen now there is a couple of weeks where the weight line declines slowly but is pretty much a plateau. This was a period of weight loss purely down to diet. Add the exercise either side of the plateau and the weight loss is much greater. I guess it is mostly because I am not strictly dieting - Indian take away last night, steak in stilton sauce and creamy mushrooms planned for tonight. I am just replacing the other food I ate with oats.

[i]Personally I think it’s fascinating how some people (like OP?) find the diet side pretty easy, whereas others (like me) prefer to do a lot of exercise to keep on top of weight.[/i]
I don't think diet is easier than exercise, it just takes less time. I have a fairly full life and swimming 2km (80 lengths) of breast stroke takes me about an hour, so with travel and change that is 90 minutes out of my day. Eating yoghurt and oats takes the same time as eating a sandwich so is in effect zero time from my day.

@midlifecrashes 😀

Seriously though, I exercise as a food enabler. 😉

What I've found is that weight drops off me much more when running than when cycling. I've lost about 6kg this year as I've been concentrating on running more than riding. I now hope to find a better balance between the two while maintaining my current weight. 

[i]Long steady efforts like all day hikes and bike rides are so good for weight loss because they keep you further from the fridge.[/i]

That reminds me of my training plan for my first every 24 hour solo race. I entered this as a Friday night beer fueled bet/brag a couple of months before the event was due to start. I broke my arm on the Saturday morning during my first practice ride and the cast was going to be on for 8 weeks - or until the morning the ride started.

Not a problem, there are other forms of training. I switched from drinking 750ml bottle of Leffe to 250ml bottles of Duval. This would make me get up and walk to the fridge more so seemed the perfect training plan. I came 9th out of 23 in category so it must have worked. Fact!?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n8b6

The Infinite Monkey Cage did an excellent episode about food and nutrition. One of the points raised was that studies show that exercising doesn't result in weight loss.

Clearly I am an anomaly

Yeah. I'm calling bollocks on that too.

Clearly I am an anomaly

I think it was over the long term in a larger group.  If you've just used a 1000 cals exercising then, chances are, you'll be in your sofa for longer than you normally would. The people who lose weight and keep it off are the ones who fidget and fiddle and are constantly doing stuff, even if it's not 'exercise.'

Does this work?

Nope!

Yeah. I’m calling bollocks on that too.

Seconded

Yeah. I’m calling bollocks on that too.

Where do you stand on the strawberry debate?

You don't seem to have trouble uploading pics of artwork or cars. Can you paint the graph on the wing of your Porsche and take a pic of that?

Edit: graphs visible now I'm on PC, but not on Drac's iPad.

So my understanding is that diet is FAR more effective than exercise on a population level, where BMI is also still quite a useful tool.

However when you get to us sporty types, it can get more complicated - as Onzadog hints above.

I've absolutely lost weight by increasing exercise, but like many of you I'm way over the recommended exercise guidelines, but most people in weight management programmes will be pretty sedentary.

The infinite monkey cage has a physics person, physics is made up. So they must be wrong.

I am using the same links I use for all my pictures which is confusing, although there are a few threads where people refer to photos I can't see to it might be the STW hamsters. Try a thumbnail of it : [url= https://i.postimg.cc/5jG5tRK5/Sustained-Weight-loss.pn g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/5jG5tRK5/Sustained-Weight-loss.pn g"/> [/img][/url]

[i]Yeah. I’m calling bollocks on that too.[/i] - Bollocks to me being an anomaly or something else? Also, what was the first thing you were calling bollocks?

Yeah. I’m calling bollocks on that too.<br />Seconded

Go and listen to the podcast. IMC doesn't tend to give airtime to idiots, so I'm guessing there's some decent science behind it.  😀 

I frequently say to patients "it's easier to NOT EAT 100 calories than it is to burn 100 calories..."

DrP

Yeah. I’m calling bollocks on that too.

It depends what sort of exercise you do and how it impacts your baseline activity and also whether it boosts what you eat.
If I do a park run tomorrow and collapse on the sofa for the rest of the day then its quite possible I would use less calories than if I spent the whole day pottering around. I might also reward myself with a fry up in which case I am definitely losing out.
If I want to lose weight then I have to watch what I eat. Doing exercise just means I can eat more and have a beer whilst still hitting the (adjusted) target.

Good effort. It's obviously working. 

This helps explain how you can eat way more than you can burn off in a day.

To clarify my approach.

Diet - I have switched a sandwich or similar for lunch and any other snack to a single bowl of oats with 0% fat greek yoghurt.
Exercise - I have added 2km swimming 2-3 times a week but not changed the rest of my days 'doing stuff'

The graph shows the effect over 2 months for a sample size of 1 (me)

For the record - when I first stopped drinking alcohol and switched to just water, plus a similar exercise routing to my current one I lost 20KG fairly quickly - okay it was from a higher starting point. When I started drinking alcohol free Guinness* (not calorie free) I put 10KG back on over about 9 months.

* I cut down greatly on the AF Guiness for the month before my 'diet and exercise' but there was a negligible drop in weight although I am sure it is helping.

Whenever I go on a multiday cycling trip, I end up gaining weight. I don't hold back on the grub, but that's part of the fun. 😊

It's both. I lost 12 pounds in the last month on a bike tour. More exercise and less chocolate and Greggs.

Never hungry and never bonked.

Because exercise builds muscle density and mass, so you can decrease your body fat but weigh more through exercise.

Please remember that WCA had a debilitating ankle injury and all.day hikes are not an option hence swimming alot.

Try the STM diet. No easy carbs after lunch. Eat lots of food with less than 100kcal per 100gms. Veg basically plus a piece of chicken or fish.  Try a longish ride over lunch time and miss out lunch , and eat dinner early every night , around 6pm .

So you get a chance to reduce the easy energy by pottering around after tea.

The graph shows the effect over 2 months for a sample size of 1 (me)’

So you are both dieting and doing exercise?

I clarified the diet and exercise a couple of posts back on the last page but the big weight losses happen when exercising and only very small loss when just dieting

Exercising 100 calories off is the same as eating 100 calories fewer, ergo both are as effective as each other.

How hard or easy you find it to do either of those is entirely individual and not objectively measurable.

5 simple rule to weight loss:

- Walk whenever possible, that includes using the stairs instead of the lift. 

- Do not buy crappy foods, this also means no junk foods stored in the house. If it's there then you will be tempted to eat it. 

- Eat regular balanced meals with a decent amount of protein and vegetables, this way you shouldn't be hungry. 

- Make exercise part of your weekly/daily routine.

- Minimise or give up alcohol, no good choices ever come after a few beers. Alcohol is also rather calorific.

Are you adjusting the weight metric to account for lost body parts?

 I’be upped the exercise as part of the 100 day jobbie but lost barely any weight cos I’m still drinking (not right now, like) and eating crap, I think the diet is the main driving force and exercise speeds it up and, with more muscle/higher metabolism, makes it more likely to stay off

The initial weight loss from dieting is apparently mostly water.

High sodium and high carb diets can lead to water retention.

That probably describes most people's diets. 

Most calories burnt a day are from just being alive. This calculator works out your basal metabolic rate:

https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html

Where do you stand on the strawberry debate

If you stand on strawberries instead of eating then, you're an idiot. Hth! 🙂

Unless you're picking strawberries off plants growing on the ground in which case it's probably accidental so I forgive you.

Standing on strawberries is less calorific than eating them though.

Long steady efforts like all day hikes and bike rides are so good for weight loss because they keep you further from the fridge.

Feel like this could be aimed at me.
But it's true.
A good weekend riding every day does way more for my health than just the physical activity. Oneup nearly got the slogan right for me, in reality it becomes "Ride more, Eat less".

“no good choices ever come after a few beers.”

jaeger bombs?

Beer garden sumo?

Stealing your mates dads pornos?

Breaking in to the bowling club?

Unless a doctor/ dietician says otherwise, set exercise as your goal and just try to enjoy yourself.

Dieting as a singular goal will only bring disappointment in the short term. Toss the scales.

You will experience cravings for delightful things as your exercise-induced metabolism rises. Don’t ignore them, but keep your teeth tip-top.