Why Exercise Isn’t as Important as you Think for Weight Loss
Introduction
The title of this article most likely shocked you when you read it. How can exercise not be important for weight loss? Many of the experts say that weight loss without exercise is not possible.
Please keep in mind that the intention of this article is not to say that exercise is not important. Exercise is very important for long-term health, and definitely important for weight loss. However, exercise is not the most important factor in achieving your weight loss goals.
Why Exercise Isn’t the Most Important
Exercise isn’t the most important because of the realities of every day life. If you are working a job and/or taking care of children, you likely don’t have much free time. If you don’t have much free time, are you more likely to not eat or exercise less?
The answer, of course, is that your exercise routine will suffer when you don’t have much time. If everyone was able to exercise 2-3 hours per day then maybe they could still lose weight on a bad diet. This, however, is not the case for the majority of people.
The biggest change you can make to lose weight is to modify your diet. You have to eat food every day to survive, which makes diet the logical choice for weight loss. The ideal situation is a combination of good diet and exercise.
Diet vs. Exercise
If you were thinking of doing strictly one or the other, which is not recommended, consider this example. If you lose 500 calories per day for 7 days, this equals one pound of weight loss. Burning 500 calories through exercise will take at least one hour depending on what you are doing.
If you wanted to lose one pound per week without changing diet you need to exercise at least one hour per day for all 7 days. With demanding work schedules and family time it’s becoming increasingly difficult to exercise this much.
One the other hand, if you consume 2,200 calories per day you can reduce it to 1,700 calories for that one pound of weight loss. Before you simply cut 500 calories out of your diet, it’s recommended you discuss with a nutritionist. A nutritionist can help you design a diet that is good for long-term health.
Don’t Forget to Exercise
Food is necessary for survival so you aren’t going to trim that out of your daily routine. It can be easy, however, to stop exercising all together. You can use any number of excuses to justify not exercising.
The lack of a regular exercise routine is detrimental to long-term health. One thing all experts agree on is that no matter what you are eating, you need to exercise regularly. Taking a weight loss supplement is also not good for you, as it might lead you to believe you can eat anything and not exercise.
Conclusion
If you take only one thing away from this article it should be to eat a balanced diet and exercise. It is simply not enough to do one or the other and most if not all experts will agree. Exercise is not the quickest path to weight loss by itself unless you have the free time to workout frequently.
Long-term changes in your eating habits combined with exercise will yield the best weight loss results. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking you can take a supplement and reach your goals safely. Anyone who tries to convince you of this is looking to make quick profit, not looking out for your health.
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