What is more important, diet or exercise?

May 21st, 2012

Everyone has watched TV shows like “The Biggest Loser” and been amazed at how much weight can be lost.  In all honesty, those people are losing weight because they are exercising and eating a proper diet everyday for weeks.  They are not working their usual jobs like the rest of us, and have time to be coached by nutritionists and personal trainers.  For the rest of us who have to work for a living, their regimen is not feasible.  However, we can all learn to adopt a healthier lifestyle, which includes proper diet and exercise.

In terms of losing weight, the best way is to prevent the calories from entering your body.  For example, to burn off a single can of soda (140 cal), you would have to walk briskly for 20 minutes!   Don’t be fooled by orange juice, thinking it is any better.  Ounce per ounce there are just as many calories in most fruit juices as soda and your body treats them in pretty much the same way.  While you should still do exercise, wouldn’t it be better to drink a glass of unsweetened iced tea with lemon (or maybe with an artificial sweetener) and not have to think about fitting in a long walk in your busy day to compensate for the extra calorie load?

I have been seeing friends post Facebook pictures of food they’ve eaten with the caption “I need to go to the gym tomorrow and burn this off!”  But can you really burn it all off?  A famous bakery in NYC known for its cupcakes states that just one cupcake is 202 calories.  That would be 20 solid minutes of running on the treadmill!  You can guess how long you would have to run to burn off a burger with 500 calories!