Well, with this email, you can figure out if you should put your emphasis on diet or exercise to get the results you want. Without further ado, I present the contenders for your weight-loss attention…
In the Left Corner: Diet
While fad diets have tried their darndest to malign the fine name of dieting, proper diet continues to be a vital way to lose weight. In fact, research has shown that if you’re only going to do one thing in your journey to weight loss, it should be dieting.
What does dieting mean exactly? It means taking very careful note of every bite you put in your mouth. But you can’t stop there. Because paying attention to what you eat isn’t going to make you lose an ounce of weight. You’ve got to take note of it and then be conscious of how your body feels after you eat something. Your body is always communicating with you. Did you get itchy after eating Yoplait yogurt? Did you get a headache after that sandwich? Are you phlegmy after drinking milk? Those signs, which usually occur about 20 minutes after eating and can last up to 72 hours, can be tell tale signs of inflammation caused by what you are eating. And inflammation is the number one cause of weight gain! So, buy yourself a little pocket notebook and start recording everything you eat on the left side, and any symptoms you are experiencing on the right side. In no time, you will see a pattern of what your body is experiencing -pimples, diarrhea, constipation, gas, itchiness, breathing problems, etc – and what you are eating.
In the Right Corner: Exercise
Like diet, there have been all sorts of fad exercise programs that have spanned from dangerous to ridiculously funny. But exercise hasn’t lost its place in the race for weight loss. Why? Because savvy people realize you’ve got to hit the gym if you’re going to maximize your weight loss. The best technique for weight loss is to add more muscle to your body. Each pound of muscle burns anywhere from 25 to 50 extra calories per day! (So, a 10 pound muscle gain will burn 250 to 500 calories per day.) So exercise is your golden ticket for adding more muscle to your frame!
Exercise rocks in the world of weight loss because it is the best way to ensure your weight you drop is fat and not muscle. When you exercise, your muscles tone up and grow stronger. With more muscle, your body’s ability to shave off calories increases, making it easier to burn calories even when you’re doing nothing at all. Diet can’t do that!
Who Wins the Battle?
More than likely, you read this hoping that exercise alone would help you lose weight because you hate the idea of watching what you eat. Or maybe you’re just the opposite, and you prefer to watch your diet but absolutely loathe exercise. Well, there’s bad news for you either way. This battle that has been waging on for decades (okay, make that centuries) is ultimately a draw.
If you’re not willing to eat right and exercise, the success you see today will be gone tomorrow. Try as you might, one of these ingredients alone is not enough to help you lose weight, keep it off, and have an overall healthy lifestyle. In fact, you will find that once you become serious about losing weight, you will be careful about what you eat because you don’t want to put all that exercise to waste. At the same time, you’ll be able to push yourself harder in the gym because you will have more energy than every before!
So stop pitting diet against exercise and do both. Your good health and thinner self await!
Are you exercising regularly? Are you challenging yourself in each workout? Call or email me today if you answered no to either of these questions – and I’ll get you on the fast track to fitness and fat loss, Dr. Phil Nicolaou, Diet and Weight Loss Specialist in Philadelphia!
