I was reading a thread the other day and someone mentioned that they heard weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

I found it a very interesting idea, since I tend to place all my effort into my workouts, as I assume that is the most important aspect of losing weight. I stress less about cheating diet wise than I do exercise wise.

What do you think of this idea? What do you think is more important? I mean I am sure you could argue that they are equally important but in your opinion, which is more important to maintain?

I know that for me, I didn't lose weight until I acknowledged how truly important the diet part was. I've always been active and tried to lose weight with working out, but it didn't work for me. I think exercise is indeed important for many reasons, but diet is my bigger component.

I think it is different for each person.

i think it depends. for example, i think for people with central obesity or pcos, it's more exercise than diet. but you probably still need both.

i think diet and exercise is 80/20 for weightloss for me. that doesn't take away the importance of exercise for my physical and mental health, and of course to work on my body composition. but i really would be nowhere without eating properly.

I agree to an extent. I have pcos and thought a LOT about this. Exercise- cardio, specifically- is totally necessary in my maintenance. However, I could never lose a single pound until I made changes in my diet (eliminating pasta, bread, rice, etc...) and focused on portion control. And when I "forget" that I can't have these foods, I gain weight at warp speed. I can not go to the gym for a week and it doesn't affect my weight one bit. I forget my diet? 10 pounds, no problem.

I have a friend that is now at about 270...down appx 40 lbs. She has done this all through exercise. She eats junk food constantly and never ever watches what she eats. So ya, she has lost weight without watching what she eats. But is she healthy? Probably not...eating McDonalds everyday does not qualify as healthy.

I tried losing weight by working out hardcore but not watching what I ate very much. I ate decent, but not great. I didnt lose too much.....On the otherhand, there was a time that I never worked out but did Weight Watchers and lost over 25+ pounds that way.
So, for me its more watching what I eat. But the best results have been when I combined both!

I work out regularly, don't watch my food all the time... and I maintain... but when I watch what I eat -I loose. I'll say that exercise is essential to maintaining a healthy life style, and a healthy body - I see it as a tool to help me keep my weight loss going... but it really dosen't make me loose weight.

i did a google search to find the study i mentioned. it was on postmenopausal women with type II diabetes, which is not what i am, but i think that the study suggests something that is probably applicable to anybody whose fat stores are mostly visceral (that's abdominal fat, the fat around the organs, not subcutaneous fat, which is the fat right under the skin). anyway, what they found is that unlike for people with subcutaneous fat who can lose weight just through diet, diet alone is not sufficient to decrease visceral fat. it takes diet and exercise together to reduce it. so i was sort of wrong, but not totally. i'm not sure if you're familiar with statistics and scientific studies, but if you're interested in taking a gander at the actual study and data, it can be found here: http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/con...ract/90/3/1511.

I think you can get away with "just" exercise when you are younger, but it's definitely 80/20 (in my opinion) when you hit your 30s!

~CGH~

Thanks for the link! I am familiar with the various reports on on the necessity of exercise (particularly cardio) to pcos/diabetic patients and I certainly agree. I also don't think you were wrong at all!

I just noticed from my personal experience that diet is way more damaging to my weightloss and maintenance than exercise. It takes much less dietwise to send me spiraling than it does, if say, I'm slacking on my workouts. Cardio is *very* important, but if we're talking about the determining factor in losing weight, then for me it's definitely diet.

See in order for me to lose weight i have to either stop eating completly lol... Or east right and exercise alot.. 50/50 for me. I have a slow meabolism, so all the extra exercise i get is really important to me. If i am losing weight without exercise i am probably not eating enough or its a damn miracle lol

I would agree with the 80/20 ratio personally.

When I want to lose weight I can lose a good chunk just by modifying my eating habits, which I'm pretty good at. But I ALWAYS hit a certain point where the weight stalls and if I don't get more active it will stay stalled.

in my eyes its 80/20 no doubt about it!

For myself, it's definently the diet that contibutes most to my weight loss. I can work out all I want but if I'm not watching my diet too I don't lose nearly as fast. I think diet helps you lose the weight, and working out will keep you from looking flabby once you do