Is Diet or Exercise Better for Losing Weight?

When faced with a decision to diet or exercise, I chose to exercise. I am addicted to working out; even when I’m tired and stressed, I always make time to jump on the elliptical to burn some calories. Once I get past the ten-minute mark, everything seems to go a lot smoother. I feel pumped, ready to take on any challenge. Without exercise, it’s safe to say I would go crazy, given my anxious tendencies.

If I’m trying to lose weight, I simply cut back on my food intake for a while and exercise harder. But I know many people hate dieting and working out. If you’re one of those people, and you’re trying to lose weight, you may benefit from knowing what each can do for you separately.

Many folks have believed for years that exercising boosts your metabolism. Yet many people who exercise for a few weeks may notice that they haven’t lost much weight at all. The relationship between activity and weight loss is complex and confusing. A team of researchers at set out to uncover more about the relationship between the two by studying the Hazda, a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania.

These people walk miles and miles every day to find food. They are one of the most active people in the world. Researchers strapped GPS devices to each tribe member, then measured their energy output and metabolic rate.

They found that the Hazda only burned about the same amount of calories as a typical westerner. So the team decided that the main reason for the obesity epidemic in America is actually not our sedentary lifestyles…it’s what we consume, and how much we eat at a time. They also reiterated that more exercise without a major diet change will not solve the problem.

Essentially, this means the Hazda don’t eat as much as we do, and their metabolism is slow to “counterbalance their higher energy expenditure.”

Researchers say that most current weight loss calculators don’t “accurately factor in metabolic slow down and some even over predict based on exercise.” They also added that “it’s been known for some time that, calorie for calorie, it’s easier to lose weight by dieting than exercise.”

The bottom line is that exercise provides many benefits to our overall health, but if we want to drop pounds significantly, we have to cut calories in our diets.