Is Diet or Exercise More Effective For Fat Loss and Muscle Tone?

So is diet or exercise more important when it comes to losing body fat? I am the author of a fitness site so obviously I am a big believer in exercise, but to be honest, you can get pretty dramatic results from diet alone. In fact, I would say that 90% of the people who are having a tough time losing weight are simply messing up when it comes to diet.
In a Perfect World You Should Combine Diet and Exercise

Have you ever been too busy to exercise? Me too! Well, you can't use that excuse when it comes to eating a clean diet. No matter how busy life gets, you always have time to eat well. So, while you may go days and even weeks without visiting a gym, you can eat well every single day.

"You Can't Out-Exercise a Big Mac"

A Big Mac has 540 calories. Do you realize how much exercising it takes to burn those calories? Well about an hour on the elliptical trainer at a moderate pace would do the trick! So after an hour of boring cardio, you are back to square one. You probably won't lose weight at all especially if you added the fries and soft drink. Large fries would be an extra 570 calories and a large non-diet soft drink would be an extra 310 calories. So how much exercise would you have to do to burn 1,400+ calories? Let's not even go there!

It is Easier to Create a Large Calorie Deficit Through Dieting

The best way to lose weight is through creating a large daily calorie deficit. The goal is to for your body to use more calories each day than what it consumes. If you wanted to lose a pound of fat on your body, you have to create a 3,500 calorie deficit over time. If you wanted to lose 2 pounds per week that would be a deficit of 7,000 calories over a week...or a daily calorie deficit of 1,000. Do you know it takes close to 2 hours of moderate cardio to burn 1,000 calories. The best plan is not to eat those calories in the first place!

Fat Loss Isn't Quite This Simple

The body is actually much more complex than simply responding precisely to a calorie deficit. There are WAY more variables that come into play when it comes to fat loss; the type of food you eat, the timing of your meals, the metabolic effect of exercise, the muscle sparing effect of resistance training, etc. There are a lot of things that come into the fat loss picture that I'm not addressing here.

Diet Play a Bigger Role in Fat Loss Than Most People Realize

If you are eating a bunch of calories, a large part of your time spent in the gym is a waste. What is crazy is that over 80% of all articles in fitness magazines focus on exercise, while diet is the key to getting a great looking body. I am a HUGE believer in regular exercise, I just think that diet is what is holding most people back from hitting their goals.

Diet is What Makes Your Cardio Much More Effective

Show me an overweight person who works outs hard 5 times a week and I will show you a person who doesn't eat well! The mistake people often make in gyms is that they copy the workout routine of a person who is in great shape. The real reason that person is in great shape is because of their clean diet. True weight loss happens "behind the scenes". Working out speeds along the process, but the foundation of a great body is in a clean diet.

Bonus: Here is a Way to Increase Your Self-Discipline

Want to make sure you eat well as well as exercise? Plan to exercise later in the day and make yourself eat well to "prepare your body" to get the most out of your cardio workout. When you eat lower calories leading up to your workout, your body will burn fat for energy. If you eat strictly all day that workout will do wonders for you. So what happens if you don't "feel like" exercising once the evening rolls around? Well, you just spent all day preparing your body to get the most out of exercising. It would be foolish to miss this great window of opportunity when it comes to burning off unwanted body fat. You will find that you will naturally find the self-discipline to exercise more, the stricter you are with your diet. This is how to truly transform your body!


About the Author
Want a slim and toned body like Jessica Alba or Will Smith? Learn the Diet and Exercise techniques of Hollywood's Hottest Actors and Actresses. Click here for expert, up-to-date, Fitness Tips!