Diet or Exercise for Losing Weight?

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Sports, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

One Leg Squat

Wrong question! Obviously both- and a new study confirms that. There has been a training misconception that if you exercise, you can eat anything you want. But that only applies to Michael Phelps! Actually, the “Afterburn” effect has been written and talked about quite a bit and it turns out that for the average exerciser, the effect is very minimal. But, keep in mind that the average exerciser really doesn’t do very much. I still think that the afterburn effect is valid, but only for people who are exercising with a high intensity level. For instance, on days that I train arms, the afterburn effect is minimal. But on the day after I do legs, the afterburn effect is noticeable and even my appetite is much greater. So, if you are a 30 minutes on the treadmill or bike type of person, don’t count on your body burning extra calories due to afterburn. But if you are a powerlifter or bodybuilder with a high intensity workout, it does have an effect. At any rate, read the article, learn what you can from it and adjust your workout and diet accordingly. The final word is this- for weight loss, it is diet first and exercise second. You can eat more calories in 5 minutes than you can burn off on the treadmill in 2 hours! Eat smart.

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The new paper offers additional evidence that exercise does not boost metabolism as much as widely believed, Endress says. In addition to the misperception that exercise greatly hikes fat burning after exercise, there is also the false belief that weight training dramatically increases metabolism by adding muscle, he notes.

While it’s true that a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat — about seven to 10 calories a day versus two calories — most people don’t put on enough muscle to make much of a difference, Endress says.

“Building muscle is very difficult for most individuals because it requires heavy weight workouts and a higher intake of calories,” he says. “Average fitness enthusiasts [who are working out to gain muscle] will only add four to five pounds of lean mass,” he says, and burn an additional 28 to 50 calories a day. (Men tend to gain more muscle, on average, than women.)