Exercise vs. Diet: Which One is More Important?

Both exercise and diet can improve your health, boost weight loss, and more. However, the question remains: Which one is more important? The answer may surprise you! Let’s look at exercise versus diet to see which one has the biggest impact on your health and wellness.

The importance of changing both

A lot of weight-loss advice focuses on changing one’s diet or adding more exercise to an already healthy lifestyle. Changing only one of these factors will not help you achieve your fitness goals, so try and change both at once. If you’re unsure how to do that, just follow these simple steps...

Weight training will help you lose weight faster than cardio

Weight training burns more calories during and after a workout than cardio, leading to a faster weight loss. Cardio exercises like running or swimming burn calories during your workout, but they burn fewer overall than weightlifting workouts due to their shorter duration. Muscle tissue also burns more calories at rest than fat tissue does—even while you sleep—which helps you maintain a higher metabolism even when you're not working out (especially if you’re lifting weights). So if you're looking for faster weight loss results, adding strength training workouts to your routine will help you achieve them more quickly than just doing cardio alone.

Cardio burns calories while you workout

Exercising with cardio machines like treadmills and elliptical trainers, you can burn calories while exercising at your own pace. Depending on your fitness level, you can exercise between 400 to 800 calories in an hour of steady-state cardio exercise by maintaining a target heart rate of 150 to 180 beats per minute for most people. Overall, keep in mind that steady-state exercise will help you burn more calories over time than strength training because it helps increase endurance, which means that you’ll be able to work out harder and longer without fatigue interfering.

Do yoga

Yoga helps with overall fitness in several ways. First, it’s relaxing and can help lower stress levels, which are important for a healthy body and mind. Yoga also improves strength, flexibility, posture, cardiovascular endurance and much more. And yoga may even improve your sex life! So if you can’t get to a gym or just don’t like exercising with machines, there are plenty of easy ways to do yoga on your own at home or work during your lunch break!

Don’t do too much or too little

If you work out too much, your performance will decrease and you can risk injury. A too little exercise can lead to weight gain and poor health over time. Exercise more than an hour per day or less than 20 minutes a day, and you’re probably not doing enough or too much to get in shape (or lose weight). Aim for at least one hour of moderate-intensity physical activity per day—for example, walking at a brisk pace—spread throughout your week. Learn more about how to be active every day here. Add strength training exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, crunches, and planks to your workout routine two or three times a week for maximum results.

Don’t cheat on calories

Because calories from food are burned faster than those from exercise, diet plays a bigger role in your weight loss success than exercise does. Ideally, you should try to get 25-30% of your daily calories from exercise. This can be difficult for some people depending on how active they are during their daily lives and how many days per week they want to exercise each week. If you want to lose weight, think about where calories in your diet can be reduced first and foremost, then figure out ways you can add activity into your life while still balancing it with your other responsibilities such as work or school (since you don’t want an unmanageable amount of time spent on exercise).

See a dietitian about nutrition

There are lots of great ways to lose weight, but if you want expert help in making healthier choices, then it's a good idea to see a dietitian or nutritionist. They'll make sure that you're getting all your vitamins and minerals from food, not pills or supplements. They can also help with other health issues related to poor eating habits, such as heart disease and diabetes. Plus, they'll be able to teach you what foods are best for your particular lifestyle and tastes. If you feel overwhelmed at the grocery store (or during meal prep), then it's probably time to visit an expert who can help clean up your diet plan—and maybe even teach you some new recipes!

Stay hydrated

Drinking water helps keep your skin clear and elastic, your hair shiny, and your energy up—and it may even help you lose weight by speeding up your metabolism slightly. If you feel like you’re always on a diet or overly restricting yourself from certain foods, increasing your water intake can provide added benefits to help you stay healthy while also dropping pounds. Aim for at least eight cups of H2O per day; if that feels too constricting, try sipping in two to four cups more each day as a separate goal (more on where those extra eight cups can come from here). If weight loss were only about calories in versus calories out, no one would need to exercise!

"Health products "