How many times have you been told “you have to move it to lose it” or “you are what you eat? ”

But when you’re trying to lose weight, what’s more important exercise or diet?

Depending on who you ask, you may get very different answers, but the research suggests one of these it actually more important for weight loss success.

So, when it comes to losing weight, what you put in your body is actually more important than exercise. But, also, it’s what you don’t put into your body as well! Wait, what? That sounds confusing right?

Truth be told, what we eat, as in the quality of the food, as well and quantity such as the total calories and the micronutrients breakdown, all play a very important part in the weight loss equation. Now I’m sure the next question you may be asking is, “then what’s all the fuss about exercise in the first place?” Why do our doctors and every diet program promote diet AND exercise?

I’ve written before about exercise and why we need to do it in the first place. Basically, there are so many benefits to exercise in that regular physical activity improves our overall health. It’s not a free pass to sit on the sofa and skip out on getting our move on! What I’m trying to convey is what we eat is a key factor, but it’s also important to recognize it’s dangerous to cut excessive amounts of calories in the hope that we will lose weight quickly.  Our bodies need calories for our everyday involuntary bodily functions like breathing, blood flow, and blinking. Another thing I’ve learned over the years is, you cannot exercise off a bad diet. If we are eating excessively and think we’ll just burn it off with exercise. This sounds like a great idea on paper, but in reality, it just doesn’t work.

One of the best ways to have sustained weight loss success is healthy eating. Another way is to include sound lifestyle changes that include a nutritious eating plan filled with fresh foods. This includes: fruits and vegetables, whole grains,  low-fat dairy, healthy fats, little to no processed foods, low-fat proteins, legumes and beans. This will give us a great start. Lastly, a regular exercise routine, that is challenging, gets our heart rate up, and works our muscles.

So what’s the game plan?

1.  First, focus on what you eat. Making changes to calorie intake, eating fresh foods, removing junk, high calorie, high fat, stacks and beverages should be our top priority. When I first began my journey, I put 90% of my attention on what I was eating, I made a plan, 5 meals per day, and I drank plenty of water each day.
2. Cut calorie intake by 500 calories per day, this will give you 3500 calories per week which equals 1 lb. You think 500 calories to cut each day is a lot? I’m sure you don’t even realize how quickly calories add up throughout the day. Just one grande frozen coffee drink from Starbucks is 409 calories. A mid-afternoon snack small bag of chips is 274 calories, a candy bar (Snickers) is 215 calories, and a small french fries is easily 365 calories. All this would equal approximately 1070- 1129 calories. Even if you don’t normally eat or drink these things every day, it’s so easy to see how the calories jump up quickly. Just by cutting out some of these types of regular treats and replacing them with lower calorie choices is all it takes to begin to create a calorie deficit, which is essential to losing weight. While creating a calorie deficit by adding exercise, you burn calories which increases your overall calorie deficit which helps you avoid pleateaus boosts metabolism, which helps turn up your internal furnace to burn more calories even while resting.
3. Keep track of your eating. There’s lost of helpful apps available to make this easier. Personally, I use MyFitnessPal, but there are other food tracker apps out there like LoseIt.
4. Add exercise to burn calories. This which will increase your overall calorie deficit even more. At first, start slowly, especially if you’ve never exercised before. In the beginning of my journey, I could only walk 15 minutes, but, over time, I added more time to my walks and added other types of exercise as my health and fitness improved.
5. Review progress weekly. Look back at your week’s worth of meals and exercise. How did it go? Do look at this as a learning opportunity and a way to make any changes and continue what’s working well.

So when it comes to diet and exercise, they are both important components on the road to weight loss.  By improving the quality of what we eat, our calorie intake, keeping it simple, taking it one step at a time, and having a positive mindset, we will be that much closer to achieving weight loss success.