DIET vs. EXERCISE: What’s in for you?

• Posted by Evert Chris Dimalanta January 27, 2014 - Filed in Health - 1,019 views

  In this modern world where beauty speaks more of the physical, being healthy is oftentimes being mistaken as being slim. This drives people to resort to either diet or exercise in order to maintain a slim physique. However, traditionalist would always counter that losing weight should aim to fight diseases and boost overall well-being and not merely for flaunting.

  
  Diet is to restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight. Exercise, on the other hand, is any activity that requires physical effort, carried out especially to sustain or improve health and fitness. But between the two, which one has the more effective approach to staying slim? To some, if your goal is to reduce body fat and maintain a healthy body is long term, then you should opt for exercise. Others, however, would argue that you can actually lose weight without exercising by maintaining a diet program fit for your body type. Dieting would mean consuming few calories while exercising would entail burning more calories. These days, however, modernists believe that a combination of both – diet and exercise - is the best way to lose weight and improve your health.

  
  To shed some weight entails patience. A pound of body fat contains about 3,500 calories and in order to lose a pound, you have to cut down 3,500 calories from your diet. In the alternative, you have to burn 3,500 extra calories through exercise. But it is still important to combine exercise with a program of caloric restriction. The best advice is to lose about half a pound a week. This means one has to cut down his food intake but should not be overly done to cause senseless hunger all the time. To solve this, you have to add more vegetables and fruits to your meals and stay away from calorie-rich snacks and sweets.

  
  The real challenge is not changing your lifestyle but in maintaining a new lifestyle to keep fit. But if you are really determined, motivated and focused, nothing is impossible.