Weight Loss: The Role of Healthy Eating and Exercising

Eating right and getting the right amount of exercise everyday will increase weight loss and your overall health compared to not eating right and not getting the right amount of exercise. Both play a major role in a person’s overall health, but research shows that eating right plays a more significant role in losing weight than exercising. In 2015, studies showed that weight loss is more successful when you control the amount of calories that you take in (“Exercise or Diet? One is More Important For Weight Loss”). However, even though calorie control can make weight loss successful, what you are eating to get those calories plays a big role. For example, if you eat a lot of fast food, candy or drink a lot of drinks that are high in sugar, the chances of you losing weight even if you exercise daily will be very unlikely. But if you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and have a well-balanced diet, this will increase your chances of weight loss. In addition, eating healthy takes up less time than exercising. For example, Kate Bratskeir explained how “You could put on your gym clothes, go to a workout class and come home and shower to burn some calories, or you could just not eat a candy bar.” By replacing a candy bar with a healthier choice, you wouldn’t have to spend all that time exercising.

This does not mean that if you eat healthy that you shouldn’t have to worry about getting exercise, but you won’t have to worry as much compared to if you were to make unhealthy choices. Even though exercising has a number of benefits such as helping with a person’s skin, memory, bones as well as weight loss, relying on exercise alone to lose or control weight has a number of problems. Aaron E. Carroll claims that “It’s just not true that Americans, in general, aren’t listening to calls for more activity”(“To Lose Weight, Eating Less is Far More Important Than Exercising More”). Studies showed that from 2001 to 2009, there was an increase in the percentage of people who got sufficient amounts of exercise. However, even though there was an increase in the amount of people that exercised in America, there was also an increase in the amount of Americans that were obese. Although exercising is very important when it comes to losing weight, watching the amount of food you eat (portion control) and the type of food you eat is a lot more important. Why is that? Studies in 2011 (meta-analysis) showed the relationship between fat mass and physical activity (To Lose Weight, Eating Less is Far More Important Than Exercising More”). In these studies they were able to prove that being active is not the main reason to determine whether a child becomes overweight or not. However, for adults it’s hard for them to tell if a person that is physically active has a lesser chance of gaining excess weight compared to a person that’s not physically active.

The relationship between food and exercise is what plays a major role when it comes to weight loss. People fail to realize that there is more to losing weight than just getting the right amount of exercise. If a person does not get the right amount of nutrients in their body or keep control of their calorie intake, the chances of them reaching their desired weight loss is nearly impossible. By eating the right foods such as fruits, vegetables and white meats, your energy levels will increase. As a result, it will help you lose weight consistently instead of making it harder for you to lose weight (lifehack). It has been estimated that when it comes to weight loss and dieting, 75% of weight loss is from dieting and 25% is from exercising. Throughout lots of research, it shows that a majority of people that have lost weight in short periods of time lost weight because of healthy eating and dieting. People that want to lose weight and reach their desired weight faster, usually diet.

Unhealthy eating can end up causing major health problems in the long run such as obesity, high blood pressure and more. Getting health problems like these will make it hard for you to lose weight and if it’s bad enough, can cause death. Furthermore, diseases can take a toll on a person mentally which also makes it harder for he/she to lose weight in the long run. Getting exercise actually helps prevent your chances of getting diseases.

Although both exercising and eating healthy are needed in order to lose weight, if a person really wants to get the results that they truly desire, it takes more than just exercising. Watching what you eat and making the right healthy food choices is essential.

Works Cited

1. Aaron E. Carroll. “To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More”. The Upshot, 15 June 2015, www.nytimes.com. Accessed 2 July 2018.
2. Arlene Semeco. “The Top Ten Benefits of Regular Exercise”. Health Line, 10 February 2017, www.healthline.com. Accessed 2 July 2018.
3. Kate Bratskeir. “Exercise Or Diet? One Is More Important For Weight Loss”. Wellness, 4 February 2016, huffingtonpost.com. Accessed 3 July 2018.
4. Lewis Humphries. “6 Reasons Why Diet Is More Important Than Exercising For Weight Loss”. Lifehack, July 2016, www.lifehack.org. Accessed 4 July 2018.
5. UsNews. Health.usnews.com. Accessed 5 July 2018.