We become overweight when we consume more calories in food and drink than we burn up. To lose weight, we need to burn up more calories than we consume. We can accomplish that by either consuming fewer calories, burning more calories, or both. Cutting calories doesn’t necessarily have to mean going on a “diet.” It can just mean avoiding or limiting one or more foods high in calories from fat, sugar, or alcohol. Cutting calories can also be accomplished by reducing our portion sizes, or by eating smaller portions of those high-calorie foods and filling up on larger portions of low-calorie foods such as vegetables and fruits.
Objective analysis shows that cuts in calorie consumption add up faster than increases in exercise. Studies show that a combination of smaller portions and changes in what we eat can easily reduce calorie consumption by up to 500 daily, whereas burning an extra 500 calories daily can be a daunting target especially for women.
Exercise plus lower calories for women
In a University of Minnesota study, moderate or substantial drops in dietary fat were linked to weight loss in overweight and obese men and women, regardless of how much they changed physical activity. On average, these successful program participants decreased the number of high-fat foods they ate by five to ten servings a week. In women, even substantial increases in exercise were not enough to produce weight loss if they did not decrease fat consumption. Men, however, were able to lose weight through increased exercise alone.
For men, the effects of exercise and dietary fat seemed to have independent effects on the amount of weight lost. For women, although exercise alone was not a successful weight loss strategy, at each level of dietary fat reduction those who increased exercise − moderately or substantially − lost more weight than those who changed activity less.
Whether exercise changes metabolism to allow more successful weight loss, or whether its stress-reduction benefits allow more consistent progress in changing eating habits, this and other studies show that both increasing exercise and decreasing calorie consumption clearly seems the best weight-loss choice for everyone.
Go here to get more information on how to design the perfect diet for you and your body type.
This site will also give you animated exercises for dieting that are easy to do at home or at work, don't need any fancy equipment, and will make your diet much more effective.
