Exercise Vs. Healthy Eating

OREGATO

Hi guys,

just wondering, what is the main factor in losing weight? I'm currently trying to shed a few pounds but find that its difficult for me to fit as much exercise in as I can.

I'm trying to eat as much healthy stuff as possible and cut out the crap and eat at more regular intervals. Also drinking gallons of water a day.

But i'm just curious, having a healthy diet and doing less exercise, am I wasting my time? or does it help?

Do we all react differently as well? i.e. some will be able to shed pounds just by adjusting their diet while others have to do exercise as well as diet.

What are your thoughts/personal findings?

I'm trying my best to fit exercise in (I walk a lot more now than I used to cause of my job location) but apart from that its very difficult to keep up regular exercise. My diet on the other hand, I'm very disciplined and I'm trying my best to work on it.

koHd

I find if you do both it'll happen fast. Doing one alone is a very slow process to lose weight.

BraziliaNZ

from my experience diet seems to be the major factor in losing weight, I'd say for me it's probably 80% diet and 20% exercise to get in shape

metamorphosis

Everyone's different and it depends really on the frequency you train. some weeks i could train up to ten hours. ergo - lots of calories burned and i can be a little less lenient with what i put into my mouth.

I truly believe in this mantra - Ea rightt to lose weight and exercise to get fit and everything else will fall into place.

Whole unprocessed foods

InKonspikuou2

You strip fat in the kitchen. Not in the gym. Of course you need the exercise too but without a clean diet it's a waste of time.

You say you are short on time. But you can do a lot in your house in 20 mins that will be good exercise without talking up as much time as a walk outside. Such as jumping jacks, jogging on the spot, squats, jump squats, push ups, lunges, side lunges, planks, high knees, burpees, crunches, torso twists, bicycle crunch, etc. You can make up your own circuit such as 1 or 2 mins for certain exercises or a certain amount of reps. You should find videos on youtube for anything i mentioned above.

LowOdour

Diet dictates alot imo. I have put in so much excersise in the last few months.
First 7 weeks, ate really well and exercised alot. Lost a stone,
Since then ive lost about 8lbs in 3 months because my diet hasnt been good enough. would have easily been down another 6lbs if i had contunied the way i was going.

Then again, certain things will always knock you off track...its up to you how you deal with them.

Khannie

OREGATO wrote: »

But i'm just curious, having a healthy diet and doing less exercise, am I wasting my time? or does it help?

Diet has an immediate impact on your wellbeing IMO. Exercise takes a while before you reap the rewards.

In my experience people don't eat enough veg. If I had to give one piece of advice to help shift weight through your diet it would be to replace carbs and starches (rice, bread, potatoes etc.) with veg.

metamorphosis

Khannie wrote: »

Diet has an immediate impact on your wellbeing IMO. Exercise takes a while before you reap the rewards.

In my experience people don't eat enough veg. If I had to give one piece of advice to help shift weight through your diet it would be to replace carbs and starches (rice, bread, potatoes etc.) with veg.

Gotta agree here ... and when you do swap out starchy foods for veg the weight falls off pretty quickly.

rubyred

A wise person once told me "Diet to look good in clothes, work out to look good naked".

G-Money

Khannie wrote: »

In my experience people don't eat enough veg. If I had to give one piece of advice to help shift weight through your diet it would be to replace carbs and starches (rice, bread, potatoes etc.) with veg.

Isn't it incredibly boring to be just eating lean meat and veg at lunch and dinner every day?

I'm not saying I wouldn't try that, but I really love my carbs. Do you mean cutting out all bread, rice, potatoes? Even brown/wholegrain rice and bread?

InKonspikuou2

grandmaster wrote: »

Isn't it incredibly boring to be just eating lean meat and veg at lunch and dinner every day?

I'm not saying I wouldn't try that, but I really love my carbs. Do you mean cutting out all bread, rice, potatoes? Even brown/wholegrain rice and bread?

I wouldn't cut out all carbs. After all they give you energy and can be a good source of vitamins, minerals and phytonutirients. That is if you are eating good carbs which haven't been too processed from their original state. Such as beans, nuts, wholegrain bread, pasta and cereals, brown rice. Fruits and vegetables are also good. And for potatoes try find sweet potatoes. What Americans call yams. You don't have to eat things really bland either. There are a lot of sauces out there that are fine once you are not covering your food with them. Just enough for taste. I also try avoid carbs after 8 or within a few hours of going to bed.

abcjonesy

grandmaster wrote: »

Isn't it incredibly boring to be just eating lean meat and veg at lunch and dinner every day?

I'm not saying I wouldn't try that, but I really love my carbs. Do you mean cutting out all bread, rice, potatoes? Even brown/wholegrain rice and bread?

I cut out bread,pasta,rice etc... (i eat porridge in the morning and peanut butter on oatcakes when having a cuppa in the evenings to avoid the bickies) and swapped for veg and the weight has fallen of. gone from 16 stone to 13 since the summer. I also stopped eating junk food and processed food and I have been eating as per advise given in the stickies in the fitness and nutrition & diet forums.(well 80-90% of the time) There has been many weekends where i did get take-outs and times where i ate at friends houses and had pasta's/rice/spuds etc. I was excersizing for the first month but then had an injury. I didnt excersize for the last 2 months but still continued to loose weight. I kept drinking at weekends as normal (too much!!!)but tried not to eat crap after nights out and tried not to eat comfort/junk food on hangover days. So I would be of the opinion that weight loss is definetly down to what you eat from my own experience.

Personally I found cutting out starchy carbs a bit strange at start cause it was the main thing in my diet but now when I do buy a big white roll at lunch or a big portion of white pasta I feel bloated, lethargic etc... I'm enjoying my new menu making up my own sauces and different meals than i would have eaten previuolsy.

p.s thanks to all the boardsies who wrote the sticky's and post here all the time. Great wealth of knowledge.

Khannie

grandmaster wrote: »

Isn't it incredibly boring to be just eating lean meat and veg at lunch and dinner every day?

I'm sure it would be. Definitely. I couldn't do it. It's one of the reasons Paleo doesn't suit me. I can't convince myself that I shouldn't ever eat delicious things.

I have those protein oat based pancakes for breakfast most mornings. Mid morning snack would generally be something like some fruit and low fat yoghurt or a hunk of mozzarella unless I'm at home (if I am, I might have stew or something like that for a mid morning snack. It's not always practical to have that in work though.). Lunch would be something with meat and veg alright but it's rarely just a lump of meat and a bunch of veg. There'll be some kind of flavouring involved...spices...tomato based sauce...something like that. Otherwise I might have a salad for lunch from the canteen.

I'll give you a more solid example for dinner. When my family is having spaghetti bolognaise I'll skip the pasta and have the meat sauce with broccoli and green beans or some other veg instead. I'll still have a piece of garlic bread or two. I've cut out a shed load of low value carbs (pasta) and replaced it with veg. Win. I'm not prepared to cut out garlic bread completely though. I like it.

Same if we were having a Sunday roast. I'd load up on the veg and maybe have 1 roastie.

I wouldn't bother with rice ever tbh. I'd rather eat the meal without rice and substitute in biscuits after. (half joking, but you get the idea.....nutritionally they're not a million miles apart )

grandmaster wrote: »

I'm not saying I wouldn't try that, but I really love my carbs. Do you mean cutting out all bread, rice, potatoes? Even brown/wholegrain rice and bread?

Fup no. I really love carbs too. I'd always always always eat something delicious and "bold" in a day. Usually it's biscuits with my coffee.

Mostly I'd skip out on bread, unless I don't have a fight coming up and then I'll eat wholegrain in limited quantity (as I did with lunch today). I train a lot though. I'm small but I burn a shed load of calories each day (training days it's regularly approaching 4000). It's easier for me to sneak in some bread if I fancy it and it'll do me no harm.

TommyKnocker

grandmaster wrote: »

Isn't it incredibly boring to be just eating lean meat and veg at lunch and dinner every day?

I'm not saying I wouldn't try that, but I really love my carbs. Do you mean cutting out all bread, rice, potatoes? Even brown/wholegrain rice and bread?

Why would it be boring? Different meats or fish each day. Different selection of veg and different sauce or meat/ flavored with with different herbs/spices etc.

Veg are also carbs (fibrous variety ). I haven't had a starchy carb with dinner in the last 6 months, I just have a bigger helping of veg, and I find I am satiated without feeling "Full" eating this way.

Lunch is sometimes a wholemeal Pitta with a protein source and salad leaves and veg. Other times It's a large amount of mixed salad leaves and veg with meat/fish, some fruit and/or cottage cheese mousse.

It was strange at first when I reduced my starchy carb intake, but I soon got used to it. And it made a noticeable improvement in my BF %.


Best Regards,

M