Don’t get the wrong idea from the headline. Weight loss is not an either or proposition. Of course, diet combined with exercise is the way to go. But, the question is which is the more important aspect.

People want to understand if they can just eat what they want and then exercise off the extra calories. Others hate going to the gym and wonder if they can simply reduce their caloric intake and lose weight without breaking a sweat.

How you lose weight is going to be best determined by your lifestyle and even the reason for losing the weight. For instance, you may be enrolled in the HealthyWage app in which you earn money for losing weight, so you want to make sure your approach is effective. Or, if your weight is causing health problems then working out may be more of a challenge than simply dieting.

In this article, I will go over few things to keep in mind on your weight loss journey to make sure you are doing things the way that’s right for you and your goals.

Focus on food

I’ll cut the suspense and get right to the point. When you are starting your weight loss journey, you need to focus on the foods you eat. Your diet is going to play a much bigger part in losing weight than exercise.

If you could only do either diet or exercise and not both, then you will lose more weight by cutting your calories.

Now, you can cut your calories and eat junk food and still lose weight. There have been some viral videos of people eating only donuts and losing weight because they limit their caloric intake according to their weight and age.

Of course, this is not recommended because your diet needs to be a total lifestyle change so you can keep the weight off. You can fill up on the right foods and not feel hunger pangs during the course of the day and still come in under your calorie limit.

How many calories you should be eating per day is going to depend on a lot of factors, so make sure you talk to your doctor or a nutritionist before you get started.

Diet combined with exercise

When you are focused on what you eat and how many calories you take in per day and combine it will exercise you are doing your body a big favor.

You are increasing your circulation so your body is bringing nutrient rich blood throughout your body and lowering your risk of stroke and heart disease as well as lowering your stress levels among other health benefits.

You won’t lose that much weight by exercising, but you are toning your body so you will look better as the pounds drop. You would need to be burning around 500 calories per day to lose weight through workouts which is very difficult to do at a gym.

Conclusion

The only solution to a healthy lifestyle is to combine with good food with exercise.