Can You Achieve The Same Results Through Exercise As You Can With Dieting?

The key to sustained weight loss is keeping energy intake and energy output in balance. Energy intake is the number of calories you consume and energy output is the number of calories you take in.

When you take in only as many calories as your body needs, your weight will remain constant; if you take in more calories than your body needs, your body will store the excess calories as fat and you will gain weight; and, if you expend more energy than you take in then you will burn excess fat and lose weight.

It seems simple enough, but many people have trouble finding the right balance of diet and exercise that will enable them to maintain the weight they want.

So what is the big weight loss secret? Contrary to popular belief, there’s really no secret! Maintaining a healthy weight is really just a matter of common sense.

Exercise alone is not the answer because if you continue to take in more calories than you burn, it doesn’t really matter how much you work out, you will still gain weight…or at least not lose any. And diet alone is also not effective because you can limit the number of calories you take in but, if you are not burning them through exercise, you will also not lose weight.

Many people look to medical weight loss to help them find the right balance. Through support, guidance, tips and interactivity with other members, medical weight loss can help people achieve a healthier lifestyle.

One of the most widely accepted assumptions in our society is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. Period. But many people get hungry when they exercise, so they often eat more on the days they work out than on the days they don’t.

The basic problem is that exercise burns calories and you must burn calories to lose weight, but exercise can also stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued by exercising!

Many people reward themselves after working out. They figure that since they work out they can eat more. They may burn 300 calories each and every workout, but increase their daily calorie intake to make up for those calories burned.

Other people will exercise more to make up for eating too much. So, it seems that maintaining a healthy weight is mostly a matter of willpower. It takes a certain amount of discipline to lose weight, but why make this harder than necessary? The challenge is that we have to learn to exercise AND to avoid donuts!

The quickest way to lose weight is to diet as if you weren’t going to exercise at all…but then make sure and exercise! In short, it’s both what you eat and how hard you try to work it off that matter. Everyone should exercise to improve their health, but maintaining a balanced diet is just as important.

Tags: maintain a healthy weight, medical weight loss, Weight Loss, weight loss benefits

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