My husband and I are having a disagreement. He says that weight loss is 75% diet, and 25% excersize. I seem to recall reading somewhere that that it is 85%. Can someone settle this?

I've heard 90%/10%. But I think it varies. If you exercise more and burn more calories, obviously it counts for a larger percentage of your loss. Also, I think exercise becomes more important as you go along... as you lose weight, your calorie needs lower, and you can only cut your food intake so far, so exercise can make up the difference.

I think the point of those percentages is just to show that what you eat has more of an effect on your weight than the exercise you do, because you can eat in a few minutes something that takes an hour to burn off or more.

That's kind of just a saying. I don't know if there is any such real statistic. I tell my clients that they could exercise all day and night but if their diet sucks they'll never lose weight, consistantly at least, which kind of indicates that diet is like 100% and exercise is a bonus. It's definitely the biggest peice of the puzzle that's for sure. I've lost weight not working out at all while dieting but never the other way around. I would say that it is for sure more than 75% though.

I'm not sure either...all I know is you can lose weight withought exercising, but eating differently...but you're not going to lose weight by eating like a pig but working out every day. I'd say either 90-10 or 100-bonus

Hmmm, Ok, I guess no one is right :P. I think I read that in a Personal trainer hand book. I know that I read somewhere that if you only diet without excersize that you will get smaller, but never change your shape. Like if your pear shaped, you will just be a smaller pair, but still be big on the bottom

Unfortunately nothing is cut and dry. Every-ones bodies react differently. Some people cannot change their shape no matter what they do. That's what's hard about training, you can't predict how people's bodies are going to change throughout the course of the training. Look at Oprah, she's been up and down weight wise, but she is always true to her pear shape, she has said, no matter what she does her butt, hips and thighs are always bigger proportionally than the rest of her. There are also about a million personal training books out there, just as there are about a million personal training certificates. I would ask a Doctor if you really wanted to know, that way you would get a point of view from someone who actually went to medical school to learn about the body.

But isn't that if you just eat really bad food all the time?
What about the last stages where you still have some fat to get rid of and you are exercising. Wouldn't the exercising be more important if you have a pretty sensible diet?

I think the moral of the story is do the best you can in both areas

You'll always be roughly the same body shape - whether you just eat less, just exercise more or both.

The only difference is if you are a pear...you'll be a smaller pear lol.

Personally I LOVE being pear shaped. I adore having larger hips because it makes my waist even more defined. I'd never want to lose them.

As to the 75% vs 85% debate...I don't think it really matters. It's just a number and no one reacts the same to a regimented formula. For myself I eat well most of them time and I exercise 5-6 days a week. That does it for me!

Liv

I guess it just depends on how fast you want to lose the weight. At least when I work out, I can almost fell the fat melting. I know for a fact that even if you work out really hard, and eat "normal" the weight won't budge. Been there and done that for 2yrs...............................

Either way, I'm pretty sure that I am right about the 85%

Thanks,
Little Miss Can't Be Wronge

I have not been super strict on my diet, however I have been trying to be an exercise maniac...I have seem my body transform for sure...but the scale has not budged...the fat that is on top of my muscles is still there...I do believe the only way to get rid of that will be through what I eat.

Technically, it's 100% diet because you can lose weight just by watching what you eat and not exercising at all. Of course, that's not recommended and most would want to exercise in order to tone and look better and strengthen the body but there are plenty who lose weight without ever exercising.

I guess one way to look at it is that you can consume more calories with exercise then with out, to lose the same amount of weight. One thing about it. We should all do exactly what works for each of us.