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diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
now i know you need an equal amount of both - im not so bone idol to think i can eat maccy ds and cake every day but as long as im doing 10 miles im safe! lol
but some people believe body shape and definition is 90% diet.
others believe they can eat good healthy foods but also some nice naughtier foods in moderation as long as they train well.
ie potatoes, pastas and the odd choc treat - but train hard enough to keep well.
others dont train but eat chicken and veg for breakfast lunch and dinner lol!
which of the two do you think is most important to your body shape and definition. great hardcore training or an extra lean diet.
(now before it gets said I know that equal balance of each are good but Im asking - if you could only choose one or the other which would you chose that you believe genuinely would give you a better body than the other)
phew, hope this makes sense
x
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
im going to say just switching to a healthier more active lifestyle. By that I mean eating only healthy foods and getting the point to where you crave fresh fruits instead of pizza. If you live a healthy enough lifestyle you should very rarely crave junk food... I have done it before but a few times of breaking the lifestyle and then I went back to craving the bad stuff. If you treat it like a lifestyle instead of a diet you dont have an end goal where you will then go back to slacking off and you can find enough positive things in your diet to replace the negative ones. I also include being more active in this lifestyle. If you are living healthy, you dont need to run 10 miles a day to lose weight. Running a few times a week and doing a few crunches should suffice, and perhaps substituting walks and bike rides in place of car/bus rides when appropriate helps.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
^Pizza's not out of the question BTW. We make personal pizzas using:
Whole wheat flatbread
Minced garlic
Canned tomato sauce (there may be a better alternative, but it's easy)
Diced green peppers
Diced onions
Canned mushrooms (see tomato sauce comment)
Turkey pepperoni
Fat free mozzarella
Bake at 425 for about 12 minutes and you're good. Obviously you can add/substitute based on your dietary needs (maybe oregano and basil with the tomato sauce?), but I guess my point was that there are healthy ways to eat "junk" food.
Also, I am noticing that, even though I am working out, I have plateaued on weight/fat loss, and I think it's cuz I need to adjust my caloric intake down again. So both are important IMHO.
V
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
ok.
i wasnt asking in a sense of i dont know what im doing. i eat healthily, i hate junk food and never and i mean never eat it! and i run between 5 and 8 miles a day for fitness and training for marathons!
what im getting at is what you think is the most important ingredient? the exercise at a high eating what you want. or minimal bog standard exercise with the cleanest diet ever.
its a question out of curiousity!
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
I am a zero carber, I eat meat, fat and water...thats it! I am not looking for anyones negative opinion on my way of eating, as its what works for me and keeps me healthy. Am just adding to this thread with my own plan.
I tried low carb for years and bounced back, gaining weight and yo yoing like crazy. I started zero carb last year, I get all of my vitamins and minerals from the rare steak I eat daily and the animal fat I eat along with my meat and cook my meat in.
My doctor is thrilled with my weight and my numbers, she said my cholesteral is the best it has ever been and whatever I'm doing, to keep it up.
She tried preaching fruits and veggies to me but gave up when my numbers came back.
I also used to work out, but don't anymore. The working out stalled my weight loss and I am still losing, got about 15 lbs yet to go.
As soon as I cut the work outs, the weight started dropping again. I am building lean muscle eating protein (without the grueling workouts) and feel fabulous.
I hang at a forum called zeroing in on health http://forum.zeroinginonhealth.com/
they are a great (and firm) group of folks who are into the carnivore lifestyle for health as well as weight control.
I will never go back to eating frankenfoods. I feel amazing, no cravings, no falling asleep after a meal. No more eating disorders. I am healed and have finally found my plan for life.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stripperchic
ok.
i wasnt asking in a sense of i dont know what im doing. i eat healthily, i hate junk food and never and i mean never eat it! and i run between 5 and 8 miles a day for fitness and training for marathons!
what im getting at is what you think is the most important ingredient? the exercise at a high eating what you want. or minimal bog standard exercise with the cleanest diet ever.
its a question out of curiousity!
If you're where you want to be, I would say diet is going to be more important from a maintenance standpoint. MORE important, but that doesn't mean NO exercise (which you already know based on your post). Of course, I have no special qualifications or knowledge to back up that opinion...
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Starmaker
I am a zero carber, I eat meat, fat and water...thats it! I am not looking for anyones negative opinion on my way of eating, as its what works for me and keeps me healthy. Am just adding to this thread with my own plan.
I tried low carb for years and bounced back, gaining weight and yo yoing like crazy. I started zero carb last year, I get all of my vitamins and minerals from the rare steak I eat daily and the animal fat I eat along with my meat and cook my meat in.
My doctor is thrilled with my weight and my numbers, she said my cholesteral is the best it has ever been and whatever I'm doing, to keep it up.
She tried preaching fruits and veggies to me but gave up when my numbers came back.
I also used to work out, but don't anymore. The working out stalled my weight loss and I am still losing, got about 15 lbs yet to go.
As soon as I cut the work outs, the weight started dropping again. I am building lean muscle eating protein (without the grueling workouts) and feel fabulous.
I hang at a forum called zeroing in on health
http://forum.zeroinginonhealth.com/
they are a great (and firm) group of folks who are into the carnivore lifestyle for health as well as weight control.
I will never go back to eating frankenfoods. I feel amazing, no cravings, no falling asleep after a meal. No more eating disorders. I am healed and have finally found my plan for life.
i'm a paleo fan because you'll pry my leafy greens and apples and berries from my cold dead hands, but rock on!
it's funny, you never think of it that way at the time, but in my youth (including my time as a stripper) i pretty much ate paleo or carnivore. the only carbs i was really getting were from alcohol, if i drank that day. i just ate tons of steak and chicken and pork chops and green vegetables and loads of apples.
and i looked like i was carved, excellent musculature, all without going near a gym. only after discovering what paleo really is as a dietary practice did i put together that it was my diet, not 'lucky genetics' that gave me my six pack without exercise. the more you learn!
carbs are scary, scary stuff unless you work in the coal mines or something. paleo dieting finally explains why so many carbs make me ill and meat really is life-sustaining.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
I personally believe diet plays more important role than exercise. But a truly effective technique consists of a combination of diet and exercise.
Here is what works for me:
1. Coffee for breakfast
2. Early well balanced lunch which consists of protein, carbohydrate and suppliments
3. Skip the dinner. If I am really hungry I grab a slim fast or some juice. I absolutely try to stay away from a solid meal for dinner
4. Exercise. I start out with 30 minutes cardiovascular and then move on to resistance work out. I try to keep my total work out under two hours
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Dieting is what gets my weight down... cardio exercise just helps me have more energy and weight lifting or pole work helps define the muscles.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
^^ Same here. Exercise keeps me feeling fit and looking strong, but if I don't change my diet my weight won't go down.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
its strange because i tried it out both ways. and the one that effects me most is if i eat normal and train harder!
obviously i do an even balance of each to make it easier on myself but as long as i run 5 miles a day i can enjoy potatoes and pasta!
strange how different bodies work!
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
well, let me put it this way. i've lost 20 lbs so far, and in this matter....
1st 10 lbs: worked out a ton. did the yo yo, and it took 8 months to get it off. didn't watch my diet.
2nd 10 lbs: worked out occassionally. watched my diet, didn't eat within 4 hrs of bed. weight came off in 2.5 months
my friend is a trainer, and he said it best..... 80% of it is diet. you can lose weight without exercising, but if you exercise and keep putting crap into your body, you're wasting your time.
make sure you're not eating too much fat, and not too many carbs. i try to keep my protien intake up - when your pee looks a lil light neon greenish, you're doing it right.
also, watch your sodium and drink lots of water. it'll help to flush the bad shit out of your system.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
saturated fat is great for you (the stuff in pastured/free range meat and wild ocean fish). fat from vegetables that aren't oily to start with is awful for you.
carbs are of course horrible for anyone who isn't working 14 hour shifts in the coal mine or field.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
There is a dirty little secret in the fitness industry that you will rarely hear: Your body shape is influenced almost 100% by genetics.
They want you to believe that if you diet and exercise properly, or even obsessively, you can achieve a certain look if you weren't born that way. You can't. The diet and fitness gurus know this. That is why eating disorders, plastic surgery and steriod use is so common amongst gym rats.
Most fitness models don't have to work all that hard at maintaining their figures. I've known plenty of fitness champs (guys and girls) that eat crap all day long, work out for 45 minutes a day and call it good. They only have to really get serious about diet and exercise about a month before a competition.
Realistically, you can become larger or smaller through proper diet and exercise, but your basic shape won't change all that much. For instance, if you have big arms, no matter how much weight you lose, your arms will look big in relation to the rest of your body, even if you are unnaturally thin otherwise.
That's why I gave up on killing myself at the gym, and now eat pretty much anything I want. I went the plastic surgery route, instead. And My God! The amazing difference surgery makes can't in any way compare to what decades in the gym didn't do.
Saving for lipo now. I exercise daily with yoga and walk my dog 2x a day for about an hour. I eat healthy natural foods with lots of fruit and veggies. That is all that is needed for optimum health. The lipo will change my figure to the shape I want!
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cyril
I personally believe diet plays more important role than exercise. But a truly effective technique consists of a combination of diet and exercise.
Here is what works for me:
1. Coffee for breakfast
2. Early well balanced lunch which consists of protein, carbohydrate and suppliments
3. Skip the dinner. If I am really hungry I grab a slim fast or some juice. I absolutely try to stay away from a solid meal for dinner
4. Exercise. I start out with 30 minutes cardiovascular and then move on to resistance work out. I try to keep my total work out under two hours
Not to criticize, but you would have to be pretty sedentary to not just feel awful with this eating routine. Unless your lunch is huge, and that isn't a great way to go for most people.
How well does this work for social situations? Or do you just order a normal dinner when you are out with friends and/or eat a plate of food when at dinner parties or holidays?
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Paris
There is a dirty little secret in the fitness industry that you will rarely hear: Your body shape is influenced almost 100% by genetics.
They want you to believe that if you diet and exercise properly, or even obsessively, you can achieve a certain look if you weren't born that way. You can't. The diet and fitness gurus know this. That is why eating disorders, plastic surgery and steriod use is so common amongst gym rats.
Most fitness models don't have to work all that hard at maintaining their figures. I've known plenty of fitness champs (guys and girls) that eat crap all day long, work out for 45 minutes a day and call it good. They only have to really get serious about diet and exercise about a month before a competition.
Realistically, you can become larger or smaller through proper diet and exercise, but your basic shape won't change all that much. For instance, if you have big arms, no matter how much weight you lose, your arms will look big in relation to the rest of your body, even if you are unnaturally thin otherwise.
That's why I gave up on killing myself at the gym, and now eat pretty much anything I want. I went the plastic surgery route, instead. And My God! The amazing difference surgery makes can't in any way compare to what decades in the gym didn't do.
Saving for lipo now. I exercise daily with yoga and walk my dog 2x a day for about an hour. I eat healthy natural foods with lots of fruit and veggies. That is all that is needed for optimum health. The lipo will change my figure to the shape I want!
This is so true! For years I absolutely drove myself nuts wanting really tiny, thin legs like the women on my mom's side of the family. I was just completely obsessive working out sometimes 5-6 hours a day or more and skipping food for days at a time. Finally I realized that I can be scary skinny everywhere else and it just doesn't happen for me. I don't have much fat, but my legs are muscular and I've become resigned to the fact that they always will be. I'm going to be hourglass shaped regardless of how much gym time I put in or how much I starve myself.
As for the OP's question, I think diet is hugely important for weight and size, but firmness and looking good nakkie aren't gonna happen without some serious gym time. No matter how skinny you are no one looks good without some muscle tone. I also think working out will cancel out a hundred or so extra calories here and there, but if you are eating 500-1000 extra cals a day you are going to be fat regardless of gym time (with the exception of extreme body building of course).
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
I wish I had the motivation for either.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Paris
How well does this work for social situations? Or do you just order a normal dinner when you are out with friends and/or eat a plate of food when at dinner parties or holidays?
I eat something light - a bite or two.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
I exercise a lot and it firms up my muscles,but that's about it.It doesn't do much for the fat covering them. The only way I lose fat is by dieting.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
miabella
saturated fat is great for you (the stuff in pastured/free range meat and wild ocean fish). fat from vegetables that aren't oily to start with is awful for you.
carbs are of course horrible for anyone who isn't working 14 hour shifts in the coal mine or field.
Um, vegetables and fruit are carbs. But I get the feeling that when most of you mention carbs, you're talking about mainly bread products, pasta, pizza,et. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I feel a body needs a certain amount of fruit and veggies.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
fruit and veg are incidental carbs compared to grains. literally fractions of the same amount of carbs. and if you are living a primal lifestyle, which is the healthiest way to live, you are not eating the varieties bred for high-sugar (and thus high-carbs).
if you must go to an extreme, no-carb (i.e., total meat) is more heart-healthy than high-carb, which is typically vegan or vegetarian (pasta/rice/etc).
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
callista
well, let me put it this way. i've lost 20 lbs so far, and in this matter....
1st 10 lbs: worked out a ton. did the yo yo, and it took 8 months to get it off. didn't watch my diet.
2nd 10 lbs: worked out occassionally. watched my diet, didn't eat within 4 hrs of bed. weight came off in 2.5 months
my friend is a trainer, and he said it best..... 80% of it is diet. you can lose weight without exercising, but if you exercise and keep putting crap into your body, you're wasting your ..... <snips>
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How about a combination of diet & exercise, vs either/or proposition? Upon googling a calorie burning chart, it appears that callista's friend has the right idea. The chart says that to lose one lb, 3500 extra calories must be burned. That can be through cutting calories, or more exercise.
Lets say that someone has been eating a 350 calorie fudge brownie for dessert every dinner. Giving up that brownie for dessert would result in a gross weight loss of 3lbs in 30 days. If that individual had been gaining 1 lb every 30 days, then they'd have a net weight loss of 2 lbs every 30 days.
But, to burn that 10500 brownie sacrifice calories in 30 days, a 120 lb person would have to walk 132.9 miles in that period for same result. (burn rate for walking 3mph is 79 calories/mile, more for heavier person ). Still, exercise has its place as more muscle & less fat would burn calories faster (don't have exact number crunch on that factor). Number crunching aside, I find that exercise activity keeps my mind off food. (So does staying away from computer:)).
Before I go, I think some people have mentioned drinking water- good idea, zero calories, and gives brief feeling of some fullness. Enough time to keep one from stopping at McD's for Big Mac, and getting home for lean chicken(or fish) and steamed broccolli dinner.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
a high-fat (saturated, that is) diet provides satiety and weight loss (if desired) while giving the body that 'ripped' appearance people slave in the gym to acquire-- and all with very little of what is conventionally considered exercise.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
miabella
fruit and veg are incidental carbs compared to grains. literally fractions of the same amount of carbs. and if you are living a primal lifestyle, which is the healthiest way to live, you are not eating the varieties bred for high-sugar (and thus high-carbs).
if you must go to an extreme, no-carb (i.e., total meat) is more heart-healthy than high-carb, which is typically vegan or vegetarian (pasta/rice/etc).
I'm a vegetarian and every checkup my Dr comments on my cholesterol and everything being similar to levels she expects to see in preteens not 30-somethings. Even my blood pressure is fantastic. So I don't think saying vegan/vegetarian diets aren't heart healthy is very fair. Most vegetarians I know eat a ton of fresh veggies, nuts, with somewhat limited fruits and whole grains. It just doesn't seem possible for someone on a total meat diet to be healthier, unless you are talking about a veg that survives on Doritos and Pizza.
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Re: diet vs exercise - what do you believe?
Diet trims off the excess fat and weight.
Exercise makes the remainder look good.