Although exercise is good for weight reduction, improved digestion and a good dump, your diet remains more important in weight loss than exercising! It takes some time to burn a significant amount of calories even with strenuous activity.
There are many ways you can burn a few hundred calories; running for 20 minutes, an hour of surfing, or singing your favourite song 23 times! We hear about nutrition and exercise every single day. While we all know a good combination of exercise and diet is essential, which one is more important? If you had to choose, should you be hitting the gym more, or limiting your calories?
Limiting your calories contributes more than hitting the gym
Compare this to the number of calories in, say, a chocolate bar – which is often over 200 Calories. You could either walk for about an hour to burn that 200 calories or you could simply not eat that chocolate bar. It all depends on your level of physical activity, and your goals, are you trying to add or lose weight?
Many physicians point out that there is a lot of high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie foods we could cut from our diet, to see weight loss results more quickly.
And studies tend to show that diet does indeed play a bigger role in weight loss than exercise. A 2011 meta-analysis of children found that their level of physical activity was not the main determining factor of their weight. And a study of 3000 adults found that minimizing calories was linked to greater weight loss maintenance than exercise alone.
Furthermore, studies comparing industrialized and developing countries show that the rate of physical activity is fairly similar between the two, making activity and exercise an unlikely culprit for obesity rates in the industrial world. It’s their diet that has made their obesity rates so high!
It’s never a bad idea to start a workout routine, but what exactly does that mean for your body? From dealing with that nice feeling in the muscles to stimulating your digestive system, there are many things your body goes through when you hit the gym.
When you exercise, your muscles tear, literally. Have you ever started a workout routine only to wake up the next day unable to move? There’s a good reason for this – your body is trying to repair the tears you created in your muscles when you worked out. If you continue working out this is how you will start to notice your body is changing and your muscles are getting bigger.
Faster digestion is another thing that happens. Did you know that exercise can help you if you’re feeling constipated? Well, it’s true, working out speeds up your digestive system and can send you to the restroom more often. Because working out speeds at the time it takes for food to go through your system it means your body is absorbing less water from your stool. The less water absorption, the quicker it is to go through your system. Therefore, if you need some help in getting that poop out, hit the gym and let nature do its thing.
Combine them; exercise and a drop in calories
Of course, a combination of diet and exercise would yield the best results long term. Exercise has many health benefits beyond weight loss, like slowing the aging process and improving mental health. But at the end of the day, if you’re looking to lose weight, focus on your diet first.
This is how you can do that! We know that people hate counting calories, but you can do it measures. Reduce the food portion you are having by getting a plate that’s 75% of the current size of plate you eat with. Don’t be tempted to serve a mountain of food: serve normally, and see what results you get.
Some of the foods you eat are in small packs (especially junk), but they are very high in calories. You need to limit your intake of these foods, for example, beer. The calories in beer are so high, you must learn how to drink it in good measure,(Igwe must hear this ohh!) to ensure that your calories and not increasing and that your liver is not working on overdrive!
