Diet is absolutely more important than exercise for overall weight control.
But I think exercise is more important for physical and mental health. I also find that when I skip exercise, I am more likely to reach for food in stress, because exercise is a great relief valve for stress.
They go together. I think it has to be both, not either or.

Totally agree.

I exercise 1 to 2 hours a day, and I think that's one reason that I can eat a lot more than I thought I could and still maintain my weight.

Since you were more specific about what you meant by giving up good eating for a month, I almost want to say that I would rather do that than stop exercising (and this is from someone who previously eschewed exercise). I say that because as long as I don't pig out, I think I could probably intuitively stay within 3 to 5 lbs. of my current weight by just eating normally & exercising. Even though I do believe that eating is the most important in terms of weight loss or gain, I would be loathe to give up exercising because once I lose momentum with that, I think it would be really hard for me to get back into it.

I hope this doesn't come across as cavalier (or tempting maintenance failure), but truly I don't follow a plan anymore. Over three years ago I just started incorporating changes in my life that I knew I would stick with.

With exercise for example, I just kept adding activities and/or increasing the time I did them. I tried a lot of things but never forced myself to do anything I didn't like. I ended up finding exercising 4-6 hours a week made me feel good without feeling "punished" so that's what I continue to do. It's just a habit now.

I counted calories while losing and found a level that I was comfortable eating and decided to see where that would land me weight wise. So while I still would love to lose 20 more lbs, I've been maintaining in @5 lb. range for 19 months since I stopped logging/counting calories. In the 16 months it took me to lose the 100 lbs, I truly ended up changing my diet to feel comfortable eating healthier foods in reasonable quantity. If the jeans get tight I cut out "the goodies" until they feel comfortable again but don't change my eating drastically.

Even during the active part of weight loss, I weighed in no more than once a month because standard for myself was that I was sticking to the new lifestyle NOT making adjustments just because I saw a certain number on the scale. I truly wanted to make a lifestyle change, as a lifetime of "dieting" hadn't gotten me where I wanted to be. And so far, its working. Wish I'd figured this out 20 years ago. but maybe I needed the patience that comes with age to do it this way.

I never had a huge loss like most peeps here, but I have been maintaining a 25lb loss for over 5 years now! My gain was from an injury and I sat idle being I couldn't do much. Basically feeling sorry for myself, poor me syndrome set in & excess food was my comfort plain and simple.....

I have always been an advid exerciser all my life & when I couldn't work out due to injury, I started to climb the walls! I played many sports in highschool and have always been very active. I continue to play in sport leagues now even at age 45!

Basically to lose the weight I ATE & EXERCISED for the body I wanted, not for the body I had! As my signature states diets make you look good in clothes, but exercise & weightlifting make you look good naked!

In summary, I continue to eat healthy 80% of the time & 20 % of the time not so much. I exercise for an hr EVERYDAY!

For me it is all about balance. I eat healthy with some unhealthy foods tossed into the mix for sanity sakes, which keeps me balanced both mind & soul & I exercise for fitness & strength! I can give a punch & certainly take a punch too if needed!

Another group of wonderful posts. Thank you!

Reading your responses has clarified for me the food vs. exercise thing. As much as I've 'talked' about exercise being good for this-and-that, I've always, deep down, looked at it as a way to drop weight, i.e., how many pounds will I lose if I do X. But today I dawned on me that it is about physical conditioning,,,balance, strength, coordination, etc. Somehow, that makes me want to exercise more, it takes the 'weight loss' pressure off. It's like 'if I exercise today I'll be more graceful, stronger and get good muscles' rather than 'I've got to get in this exercise 'cause i'm too fat'.

I think it's great that you've been able to maintain your weight loses! It shows that you've engrained in yourselves healthy habits that you could live with in the long-term.

thanks again

I read this post and meant to respond yesterday, but haven't had a minute until now. Like Saef I don't claim to be perfect. I began my journey at age 15 and 220 lbs. I got down to 140 seven years ago, and have regained some weight (up to 167 two years ago, been creeping back down since then). Still, I really have changed a lot about my adult lifestyle versus the teenager I was way back when.

I really enjoy exercise. I look at it as a form of therapy in addition to a way to burn calories. I try to follow a workout plan that varies with the seasons, but as I am a planner it is helpful to come up with some idea of what I'll be doing over the week. I must say I never had a problem with exercise, though I have to admit don't really care for running. I've gone through various phases where I ran a lot, including some 5Ks, weight lifted pretty intensely, right now I'm just going for balanced. I also try to incorporate more active things in my everyday life and my job includes a fair amount of activity. It's actually hard for me to sit on the couch and watch TV, and hard for me to sit at a desk for long periods. It's not that I feel guilty sitting down, I just have trouble doing it. (When I was a teenager I could sit and watch TV for hours and hours.)

Even though I love exercise, I would choose to stick to my eating plan for a month because that is the hardest part for me! Sometimes I feel like that is such a failure, but then I realize that I'm being hard on myself. I struggle with portion sizes and boredom eating, still, but I eat pretty healthily. I really enjoy my veggies, fruits, oatmeal etc. There are times when I realize how much my eating lifestyle is ingrained in me. Every year when I come home from a week of Christmas vacation and decadence with my family, I crave salad. My body is smart!

I basically ignore exercise and eat well. I hate exercise and like healthy foods.

Megan, and Glory, thanks for posting. This is such great support for me.

I've set a mini-goal for myself for this coming week to eat CLEAN and get in exercise around that, but to not use exercise as an excuse to pick up take-out. I think mini-goals relating to reinforcing healthy habits is what I need now. And 'one thing at a time'.

Thank you, again

1. How do you approach exercise? Do you go along with standard guidelines/ recommendations as to #of sessions a week? Do you set goals? Do you journal? Do you catch-as-catch-can?

I approach exercise in a "if I don't like it, I won't do it" manner. Meaning I go with the flow. I function in cycles in many, many aspects of my life, and it's the same here. So if I'm in a "I want to run" period, I run a lot. If I'm in a "let's walk a lot period", I walk a lot. The downside, of course, is that since I don't really stick to one specific activity in the long run, I don't become very good/trained in what I do. I probably couldn't run a real marathon, for instance. On the other hand, I feel I've gained a healthy approach to regular, daily life exercise, too, on top of having become more sporty, and it evens out in the end anyway.

2. If you had to chose - for one month - to stay on plan with either your food or your exercise, (i.e. you would have to drop one for the month) which would you chose to stick with, and why?
Stay on plan with food. As long as I'm not going overboard with that, I can maintain easily enough. But if I were to let it go to the dogs, I'd have to do 10 hours of exercise/day to counteract the weight gain that would necessarily ensue.

1. How do you approach exercise? Do you go along with standard guidelines/ recommendations as to #of sessions a week? Do you set goals? Do you journal? Do you catch-as-catch-can?

I am fairly firm on the exercise thing - I don't like to leave any more than 3 days between workouts. I don't have a set schedule at the moment - it's pretty much based on how I'm feeling - if I'm sore or overly tired then I'll make slight adjustments to the kind of workouts I do. I like to do at least 2 cardio workouts a week, and one strength/resistance workout per week. Apart from that I just roll with it. I probably don't decide what workout I'm going to do until a couple hours prior. I don't belong to a gym, all my workouts are either on DVDs, the pilates reformer, or running/walking outside.

2. If you had to chose - for one month - to stay on plan with either your food or your exercise, (i.e. you would have to drop one for the month) which would you chose to stick with, and why?

If I had to choose, it would probably be to stay on plan with my food. It would be much easier for me nowadays as I've started calorie counting. If I'd been asked the same question a year ago I'd probably have said exercise instead, because I had no idea what my requirements/intakes were.

1. How do you approach exercise? Do you go along with standard guidelines/ recommendations as to #of sessions a week? Do you set goals? Do you journal? Do you catch-as-catch-can?


During the warm months last year (May-October) I walked 4 miles five days a week, walked 6 miles one day on the weekend and rode my bike 20+ miles one day on the weekend. I do better when I exercise every day.

During the cold months I tried yoga and Couch-to-5K but exercised very little. My original plan was to do P90X during the cold months, but that did not work out at all. I pretty much floundered when it came to exercise last winter and didn't get much done.

Now that the warmer months are back, I have resumed walking. I want to sub weight lifting for walking 3 days a week, though. I'm not sure how that will work out as walking is really mentally refreshing to me, and I fear I won't get the same mental down-time from weight-lifting as I do from walking. We'll see.

2. If you had to chose - for one month - to stay on plan with either your food or your exercise, (i.e. you would have to drop one for the month) which would you chose to stick with, and why?

I would choose exercise because my eating habits are much better without much effort on my part when I exercise. I really struggle with food if I'm not exercising. It's like I eat to fuel my active plans, and I like challenging myself to hike and ride my bike further, etc. Last fall (and last weekend) I did a half-marathon. I like pushing myself physically, and my eating kind of takes care of itself when I am. If I exercise, I deal with stress better, and I am one who eats if I don't have another way to deal with stress.

But I'm still learning so in six months I might answer differently. I began losing 50 pounds two years ago and have kept at least 30 of them off.

I maintained an 80 pound weight loss for around 9-10 months before deciding to lose some more weight...

For me, exercise is important. It makes me happy, and makes me feel really good about myself. I exercise a minimum of 6 days a week (if 7 then that extra day is just a walk) and usually 2x per day. I do not like paying for or going to the gym so all of my exercise is outside or home DVDs. Right now I walk about 3 miles a day and am doing insanity. Once I'm done insanity I'll be starting p90x.

If I had to pick between giving up paying attention to food or exercise for a month- bye bye food. When I maintained my weight for almost a year, some of my food habits started coming back (a few extra Oreos, pizza twice a week, etc) but I always stayed within 3 pounds of my goal weight. I exercised daily and it just works for me I guess. Plus, I simply just don't like NOT exercising daily.

When I decided to lose some more weight, all I've changed is instead of doing Jillian videos, I started insanity (I start week 5 tomorrow) and started the fast 5 way of eating. I was never a breakfast person and despite it being "crucial" for losing weight, I never ate breakfast while losing any of my weight. I still don't watch what I eat, just when I eat I guess.

Hi guys,
thank you for posting & keep up the great work