Diet vs Exercise To Lose Weight: What Is More Important?
Sometimes I like to think I have a secret.
A secret that no one else in the world will ever know.
A secret so important for the well-being of mankind that I’m scared to share it because it will just blow the minds of everyone and create a new world order.
This secret might be bigger than Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
It might change the world more than when Sir Isaac Newton discovered Gravity.
Heck, it might just change your life.
This is actually far more important to me than changing the world - which is the premise of this Blog Post. I can’t change the world at once - but I certainly can change the mind of one person at a time through words like these, and slowly over time that might help make a change in the world.
But if it doesn’t - at least we had this moment. You and I. And that means an awful lot to me - so much in fact that I would love to have a few more moments with you.
Without sounding too creepy - I just wanted to ask you to be my friend.
As your friend, I will send you some very important things, like educational material, inspirational material and maybe just some stories from my life which you can enjoy reading with a coffee, beer or glass of wine.
See - I told you we could be friends.
If you would like to send me a friend request then please just fill out the form below and I will be in touch once you have finished this article.
Table of Contents for:
What's more important Diet vs Exercise vs THIS to lose weight?
How does Diet help you lose weight?
How does exercise help you lose weight?
My secret: How does Imperfect Action help you lose weight?
Being Optimal is a privilege
To Conclude…
How does Diet help you lose weight?
I have failed to see a scientific study that doesn’t look at the topic of weight loss and explains that in order to create weight loss a Calorie Deficit must be achieved.
And I have read a lot of these studies:
“Health professionals recommend that individuals with overweight and obesity lose weight by reducing energy intake while maintaining a healthful diet” [1]
“Individuals interested in losing weight should continue to be advised to regularly self-monitor energy intake and expenditure as well as to create a consistent daily energy deficit” [2]
“Individuals can lose body weight and improve health status on a wide range of energy (calorie)-restricted dietary interventions” [3]
“With the increasing obesity epidemic comes the search for effective dietary approaches for calorie restriction and weight loss.” [4]
“Overall, for significant safe weight loss, an energy deficit was required, which was commonly achieved by reduced fat intake” [5]
“An energy deficit is the most important factor in weight loss” [6]
*She* sadly I don’t get to make sure GIFS are balanced…so please don’t get offended if you are a female reading this.
But I think you get my point when it relates to just how important a Calorie Deficit or Energy Deficit is for losing weight.
Being in Energy Balance you will maintain your weight.
Learn how to maintain your Calorie Maintenance Level in my blog post that has helped thousands of people so far
To create a Calorie Deficit you will need to do one of three things:
Adjust the energy in (what you consume through diet).
Adjust the energy out (what you burn).
A combination of both.
When I set a client up, who has a weight loss goal, I will always work on their dietary intake to create the calorie deficit first.
It is incredibly easy to overeat due to a number of factors.
Emotional Overeating:
It is not uncommon for us to use food to soothe our emotional state and thus compulsively overeat without realising it to meet unmet needs from our childhood [7].
Food is Addictive:
This sums me up pretty well, sat here, in a coffee shop, writing this post.
A study called "Food Addiction: Implications for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Overeating” concluded that:
“There is evidence to suggest that, for some individuals, food can induce addictive-type behaviours similar to those seen with other addictive substances” [8]
With this pretty awesome graphic attached:
This graphic also gives us great insight into other reasons we can easily overeat:
Stress
Social Difficulty
Cravings
Vulnerability
Impulsivity
Other emotional responses both positive and negative
You can see the complex web of why, when looking at weight loss as a goal for someone, we must always address Energy Intake.
There are also many studies that advocate for all different types of dietary control to aid weight loss.
Whether that is:
The Keto Diet (please do not do this and find out why here)
Intermittent Fasting
Low Fat, High Carb
Low Carb, High Fat
High Protein
Slimming World and Weight Watchers
Paleo Diet
Vegan Diet
Carnivore Diet
Vegetarian Diet
Celery Juicing
Essentially it doesn't matter what diet you do from a purely physiological point of view - if it gets you into a Calorie Deficit it will work.
This does not mean I am advocating for all of those dietary behaviours - I am simply informing you that they are all designed to create a calorie deficit. In fact, of that list, I would probably advocate for only one or two of them in general terms.
cough - I am a vegetarian - cough
But in terms of being able to adhere to it for long enough, to protect your relationship with food, or at the very least rebuild it, many of the diets I have listed will be absolutely damaging to you regardless if you achieve your goal or not.
And this is why diet is so very important in the discussion of weight loss.
You will eat every day, and relatively speaking it is easier for you to manage your food intake throughout the day to create an energy deficit than it would be to exercise.
Let us say you are working on a 500kcal deficit diet each day.
All else remaining equal, that is simply not having the Venti Iced Mocha with Whipped Cream at Starbucks each day which comes in at ~450kcals.
That’s an easier thing to adhere to than getting into the gym each day to try and burn 500kcals.
Its easier to learn an element of portion control and increasing lower calorie foods in your diet than it is to show up to the gym for 75 mins a day to burn calories.
It is better for your overall well-being to increase your vegetable and fruit intake to help create a calorie deficit each day than it is to panic about getting to the Spin Class at 5 am when you have a family at home - or a stressful job to go to.
How does exercise help you lose weight?
I’m not sitting here, denying science.
Exercise does burn calories.
But it doesn’t burn enough calories for you to get into a deficit each day irrespective of your food intake.
It is also incredibly hard to know how many calories you are burning in a workout. Believe it or not having a watch on, made by a computer company, isn’t that scientifically accurate, in fact, this study [9] found them to be up to 60% inaccurate.
The other issue I have with using the Gym to burn calories is that it creates a hamster wheel scenario.
When you get into the habit of burning calories in the gym, you also get into the habit of demonising food - and you end up on this perpetual path of trying to undo the calories you ate, which destroys your relationship with food and exercise.
In an average strength session, you will be lucky to burn 300kcals.
On a Cardio Machine you will burn more in the moment, but less over time - and the more you eat the more time you have to spend burning calories.
Which only damages how you feel both on the inside and the outside.
This is why it is incredibly important to separate the two.
Allow your diet to dictate your Caloric Deficit and make sure you exercise to get strong.
Not just in the body, but in your heart, in your mind, in your soul.
When working out, ask yourself:
Does this exercise make me feel stronger?
Do I feel accomplished for completing it?
Do I want to get that feeling again?
And if the answer is yes, regardless of calories burned, then you are exercising in a way that will make you feel good.
And that is what is most important in this scenario.
Exercise can help you lose weight in other ways too...but these take time.
Preservation of Muscle Mass
By lifting weights, you will preserve or potentially increase your muscle mass. Which over time will increase your metabolism because muscle is more efficient at burning calories than adipose tissue (fat).
When you only diet and eat fewer calories to lose weight, without exercise you will lower your metabolism by up to 20% [10].
As you lower your calories to lose weight, you need to work against this as a lower metabolism will not help you in the long run - and the best way to prevent this lowering from occurring is by lifting weights.
Regulation of Hunger Hormones
Our two friends: Leptin and Grehlin.
Grehlin is like a little gremlin that sits in your stomach and whinges at you telling you that you’re hungry - even when you aren’t.
Grehlin = Gremlin.
And in people with higher-weight bodies, their ability to control the production of grehlin is reduced - and their sensitivity to listening to it is increased.
This study called: “Acute Exercise and Appetite-Regulating Hormones in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Meta-Analysis” [11] concluded:
“An evidence synthesis of the six studies on overweight/obese individuals indicated that a moderate reduction in acylated ghrelin occurs after acute exercise”
By exercising, the effects of grehlin are reduced and therefore over time will help you achieve a calorie deficit.
Now onto Leptin.
Leptin is the hormone that tells you you're full.
And its tricky. The more Adipose Tissue we have, the higher levels of Leptin in the body - but when levels are increased for so long, we develop a resistance to it.
Creating a “Leptin Resistance”.
This resistance is more prevalent in Obese Individuals and inherently runs through families [12].
And as you can expect…Exercise might be one of the best ways to combat Leptin Resistance as this study from the University of Oslo confirms [13]:
“Long-term changes in lifestyle consisting of decreased intake of dietary fat and increased physical activity reduced plasma leptin concentrations in humans beyond the reduction expected as a result of changes in fat mass.”
Which is a conclusion I love for two main reasons.
“Long Term Changes in lifestyle” is something I am on board with. There’s little point, to try and change things quickly for a short period of time hoping those changes will last a lifetime.
Engaging in long-term physical activity and reducing your dietary fat in the long term has better results for your Leptin Resistance, and probably your overall health (a fair inference) than just losing weight.
How I Like To View Exercise For Weight Loss
Use it as your guiding light, as a signal for you to stay on track with your diet.
I used to play badminton with my best friend - and after every session, he would want to go for a beer - which made no sense to me.
Yes. I enjoy Beer like the best of them.
But, I used to think to myself what was the point of slogging it out on a court for 90 minutes to then harm all of your recovery efforts with a couple of Beers.
I used the movement as a way of improving my willpower and my desire to keep my diet in better place.
And if you can do that over time - you will then see the effects and benefits of weight loss as a result of your movement.
Because it will lead to better dietary choices.
It will reduce stress which will lead to better dietary choices.
It will help your Mental Health which will lead to better dietary choices.
But either way, you are looking to use exercise to improve your dietary choices and create a better balance in your life in favour of your goals.
My secret: How does Imperfect Action help you lose weight?
This secret is the greatest superpower you will need in this whole “weight loss thing”
It is understanding the concept of imperfect action.
I think, it is fair to conclude that to lose weight you need to combine both Diet and Exercise to help you.
But knowing this doesn’t necessarily help.
Because as you can see, the complex hormonal balance in your body just from Leptin and Grehlin is a hard thing to control, combined with the fact that not everyone finds the ability to, or the enjoyment out of exercising in a manner that might be “optimal”.
I was on a call with one of my online Clients on the Strong & Confident Program the other day and I was explaining this concept to him.
He is a very high Politician in the UK - and as you can imagine he, therefore, has a very crazy life. He also sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee - and at the time of writing this - Europe is at War.
Nonetheless, he has big goals and wonderful aspirations and it is my pleasure to help him.
And at the moment, helping him the most is putting the brakes on him.
Telling him not to work out, rather than do more.
He wants to try and aim for four workouts a week - and I am having to tell him not to. I am a fan of four workouts a week, truly I am, but not when it means that you will only be able to do it for a few weeks, and missing workouts will have a bigger negative effect on your feelings of accomplishment and strength than only doing three workouts a week.
But no one needs perfection. You need consistency and setting up a system that
will inspire consistency over perfection is imperfect action at work.
I know one thing to be true for him, if he gives up, nothing will change - and therefore making sure that he is set up in a way that will not make him feel like he can’t stay on top of everything will lower the likelihood of him giving up.
There is a point of diminishing returns in all things we do.
When doing more, is actually counterproductive.
MRV stand for Maximal Recoverable Volume.
You want to get the best bang for your buck - especially if you struggle with adherence over time. Therefore staying where the curve is steepest is best.
Doing more isn’t worth it - and what determines what is recoverable is dominated by one thing: Stress. The more stressed you are, the lower the amount of maximal recoverable volume you will be able to take on.
And how much exercise do we know to be too much?
That’s determined by time - not necessarily the amount of workouts.
Previously I stated that I like clients to do 4 workouts a week - Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower.
However when I program this, I don’t program four hours of workouts.
I try to keep my workouts to 30mins of working to intensity for my clients. This would be the time outside of a warm-up and a cool-down, but from the load, they will really need to recover.
You need to keep between two and three hours a week.
That’s all you need to do.
Examples of Imperfect Action
Can’t get to the gym for an hour? Go for 30 minutes.
Can’t get to the gym for 30 minutes? Go for 20 minutes.
Want to have pizza for dinner? Order a massive salad with it too.
Have a night out? Maybe substitute Pints for halves. Mixers for Soda Water. Large Glasses of wine for Smaller ones.
When I was at Drama School we had to write our own film - and they bought in two professional writers to help us learn how to do it.
The very first thing, and most useful thing that these two writers told us was:
“Don’t get it right, get it written”
And that is the best way I can sum up Imperfect Action.
Nothing needs to be perfect or exact. Nothing needs to be optimal.
It just needs to be done.
If getting it done means it might not be perfect….then get it done anyway.
Do you know how many of these blogs I have written with spelling errors in them?
A fair few.
Because if I fretted over getting everything right all the time, I just wouldn’t get as much work done as I need to and I comprehend that the quality of what I write and how I help people is more important than the odd spelling error.
Over time, all of these imperfect actions add up. They compound within you, inspiring more action, more results and more motivation.
You see, no one gains weight from missing one workout, no one gains weight from eating one McDonald’s.
It is the build-up of these behaviours over very long periods of time that creates weight gain.
And therefore the reverse is true.
It is the opposite of the all-or-nothing mindset you need to approach this with, because all-or-nothing mindsets always lead to nothing - if that wasn’t true - you wouldn’t be sitting here reading this.
Tick off and sweat the small stuff more.
Being Optimal Is A Privilege
Privilege is a word that is banded around a lot these days. I do feel that sometimes it’s on the verge of being overused.
However, this concept is very important to understand when it comes to imperfect action.
In fact, privilege is important to understand full stop. I remember when I first grappled with this idea during the Black Lives Matter protests and it took a lot of interesting and eye-opening conversations to understand the concepts set behind my privilege.
I also remember my birthday in 2021 was almost ruined by being attacked online for “not understanding my privilege” when I commented on a post about how progressive overload works.
I was described as an “SIS White Man, who has a genetic advantage over the rest of the world and has never had to worry about his health and therefore has no right to comment or to help those who have had struggles I would never understand”.
I have a 7-inch scar down my chest, which I have had my entire life because I have to worry about my health each and every day. In fact, I was born with a condition that means I will have had to have gone through open-heart surgery twice in my lifetime - and at the moment, I am just waiting for the day I am told “let’s go in again”.
Never judge a book by its cover.
When you are on the Socials seeing people “succeed” you have no idea what privilege is afforded to them that isn’t afforded to you:
Genetic
Societal
Family
Occupational
Health - Mental and Physical
Financial
I used to struggle with this.
I honestly used to believe that if Chris Pratt could change his body the way he did, then I should be able to too.
But what that doesn’t take into account is the fact that I have a very different life to him.
He has chefs who manage his food each and every day.
He has Personal Trainers paid for by Hollywood Studios in order to make sure he changes the way he needs to.
He also has the allure of being able to put in the work because at the end of it is a $3m bonus, on top of actually being contractually paid to workout and change his body.
I do not.
He has a significantly greater privilege than me to help him manage his change.
And that’s not his fault, that’s not my fault.
Its just fact.
You may not have the ability to execute what is optimal - and understanding the concept of Imperfect Action is a release from the pressure of making sure you are “doing everything right”.
You need to do what you enjoy.
And setting yourself up for an optimal diet, an optimal workout plan and an optimal weight loss journey is more than likely setting you up for failure.
Because you simply do not have the privilege that is required for an optimal environment.
To Conclude…
To lose weight your diet is the driving force.
To help make that process easier. and more maintainable exercise is the driving force.
To make the journey as easy as possible with self-compassion and taking pressure off of your shoulders…
To allow you to coach yourself through the journey and to talk to yourself with self-love…
To keep your mindset in the place that will help you most…
Imperfect Action is the driving force for long-term sustainable habits that will build up over time and make it easier as you go.
The National Weight Loss Registry [14] is a database of over 10,000 members that have lost over 30 pounds and maintained that for one year or more.
They conclude:
98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.
94% increased their physical activity, with the most frequently reported form of activity being walking.
There is variety in how NWCR members keep the weight off. Most report continuing to maintain a low-calorie, low-fat diet and doing high levels of activity.
78% eat breakfast every day.
75% weigh themselves at least once a week.
62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.
If you want to lose weight, I urge you to not look at the picture of one vs the other.
Diet vs Exercises.
This isn’t a competition.
It’s a blend of behaviours that create a bigger picture over time.
Balance everything always.
What’s Next?
I hope you found this article useful, and that you feel a lot better about your struggles at the moment.
If you would like to join my free Facebook group: Straightforward Fat Loss then click below:
Added to all of that, if you would like a Free Calorie and Macro Calculator then just put your email here:
References:
Tatiana Andreyeva, Michael W. Long, Kathryn E. Henderson, Gabrielle M. Grode, Trying to Lose Weight: Diet Strategies among Americans with Overweight or Obesity in 1996 and 2003, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 110, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 535-542, ISSN 0002-8223,
Robert A. Carels, Kathleen M. Young, Carissa Coit, Anna Marie Clayton, Alexis Spencer, Marissa Hobbs, Can following the caloric restriction recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans help individuals lose weight?, Eating Behaviors, Volume 9, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 328-335, ISSN 1471-0153, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2007.12.003.
Thom G, Lean M. Is There an Optimal Diet for Weight Management and Metabolic Health? Gastroenterology. 2017 May;152(7):1739-1751. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2017.01.056. Epub 2017 Feb 15. PMID: 28214525.
Johnstone A. Fasting for weight loss: an effective strategy or latest dieting trend? Int J Obes (Lond). 2015 May;39(5):727-33. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2014.214. Epub 2014 Dec 26. PMID: 25540982.
Ramage S, Farmer A, Eccles KA, McCargar L. Healthy strategies for successful weight loss and weight maintenance: a systematic review. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2014 Jan;39(1):1-20. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2013-0026. Epub 2013 Nov 4. PMID: 24383502.
Kim JY. Optimal Diet Strategies for Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. J Obes Metab Syndr. 2021 Mar 30;30(1):20-31. doi: 10.7570/jomes20065. PMID: 33107442; PMCID: PMC8017325.
Miller KD. Compulsive overeating. Nurs Clin North Am. 1991 Sep;26(3):699-705. PMID: 1891402.
Adams RC, Sedgmond J, Maizey L, Chambers CD, Lawrence NS. Food Addiction: Implications for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Overeating. Nutrients. 2019 Sep 4;11(9):2086. doi: 10.3390/nu11092086. PMID: 31487791; PMCID: PMC6770567.
News.iastate.edu. 2020. Activity Trackers Not As Accurate For Some Activities, ISU Study Finds • News Service • Iowa State University. [online] Available at: <https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2015/08/19/activitytrackers> [Accessed 22 June 2020].
Fat facts. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2022, from http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/fatfacts.html
Douglas JA, Deighton K, Atkinson JM, Sari-Sarraf V, Stensel DJ, Atkinson G. Acute Exercise and Appetite-Regulating Hormones in Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Meta-Analysis. J Obes. 2016;2016:2643625. doi: 10.1155/2016/2643625. Epub 2016 Dec 27. PMID: 28116150; PMCID: PMC5223036.
Lee, J., Reed, D. & Price, R. Leptin resistance is associated with extreme obesity and aggregates in families. Int J Obes 25, 1471–1473 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801736
Reseland JE, Anderssen SA, Solvoll K, Hjermann I, Urdal P, Holme I, Drevon CA. Effect of long-term changes in diet and exercise on plasma leptin concentrations. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Feb;73(2):240-5. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/73.2.240. PMID: 11157319.
“National Weight Control Registry.” Nwcr.ws, nwcr.ws/default.html