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Old 09-29-11, 09:56 AM  
pumptmuscle
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Which is more important, diet or exercise (updated) & wow has my opinion changed

I don't post many threads here, especially anything regarding a previous post I've made, but after what's happened to me recently, I feel I have no choice. I believe life is about growing and learning and what I've learned recently has really changed me, both mentally and physically. I hope this thread can help others and maybe help them to grow (umm, or maybe even "shrink ) based on the knowledge I've gained and experiences I've had.

Last year, I posted a thread asking which you felt was more important, diet or exercise. My answer was that it was definitely exercise. This being a forum that's all about exercise, I felt for sure most would agree with me. I was even hesitant to post that thread because I thought just about everyone's answer would be exercise. The results though were around 85% or so saying diet was more important. Needless to say, that really surprised me. I felt, ok sure...if someone is eating a lot of food and it's basically all junk, that's one thing. However, if someone's eating in a healthy kind of way, the exercise burns additional fat/calories, increases muscle mass and allows them to lose weight or maintain it much more effectively than without it. On a personal level, at the time of that post, I'd been regularly exercising since 2004 and was eating in a way normally thought of as healthy (at least much better than the average person was). Despite those things, I'd gradually gained 40 pounds in about 1.5 years. Although, in retrospect, I guess I was ignoring certain realities (or maybe I was oblivious to them), I still believed exercise was more important than diet. Then I got $15. ("Wait Bob...what the heck does that mean??" Don't worry, I'll get to it...things were getting too serious so I threw in that curve ball. )

Five weeks ago, I saw an Ebay promotion where if you try a risk-free 30 day trial of Netflix, they'll give you $15 in Ebay Bucks, basically a $15 gift certificate to buy what you want from there. I'm not much of a movie guy but for the $15 to use on Ebay, I decided to do it. I rented one movie in the first 2.5 weeks or so and wasn't much into it. With about 1.5 weeks left to go before it expired, I figured I may as well just use it since it was free and I already had it.

I like documentaries and one of the ones I decided to watch was called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." We can't talk about diets per se here but I'll just say it inspired me to do what I've been doing since watching it (I started it the next day). As has been the case for years, my exercise regimen stayed the same. Literally, the only thing that changed was what I was eating. Within days, I could feel my body changing and becoming thinner. Since 2004, although my exercise regimen has basically stayed the same, my body hasn't. As I think back, the way I was eating and the way I looked at the time were always directly related. I guess that, for people with weight issues, dealing with them is so frustrating. There's a part of us that wishes a day could just come where we wake up and say "Great...I can finally eat what I want, not exercise and be (or remain) thin." For me, and many people like me, that day will never, ever come.

I began this change 5 weeks ago and I'm still shocked with what's taken place with my body. I turned 42 last month and for almost 30 years, my weight has been up and down and up and down....lather, rinse, repeat...blah blah blah. As time goes on, and especially with successive weight gains after loses, the body becomes less resilient, making future weight loss efforts that much more difficult. Not to mention the mental toll of viewing yourself more and more as a failure and and the increasing feeling of successful weight loss being futile. To have such dramatic changes take place after all that my body has been though, especially with no change to my exercise routine, is almost inexplicable to me (granted, I'm eating very cleanly so not a total shock but still incredible). I will say that in the last couple of weeks, I've gotten into kettlebells again. My exercise intensity has increased but the main changes took place well within the first 3 weeks where I did the exact same type of exercises as I had before. Ironically, old habits die hard so I don't know what I weigh (I just plain ole hate scales) but I've lost so much fat, I can actually see my abdominal wall in the mirror. All my clothes are looser and my body is getting harder and harder. It's all because of how I'm eating. I literally have no choice but to say that diet is much more important than exercise since the way I was exercising has basically stayed the same (even before restarting the kettlebells, what I was doing was still advanced and intense).

I've been thinking of posting this for about a week or so but what really made me want to do it now was seeing a show called "Half Ton Man" yesterday. It was about a man who weighed over 1,000 pounds and had been bedridden for 4 years. They showed pictures of him when he was younger and he was actually very thin. He had personal issues when he was younger and like a lot of people, he turned to food. At his heaviest, he was eating 30,000 calories a day...almost 2 weeks worth for a normal man. They profiled another boy who, as a teenager, weighed over 800 pounds. He also ate a lot and ate very poorly. While they both are extreme, they also represent what millions and millions of people are going through...struggling with their weight, often unsuccessfully. The way I see it, people with true weight issues are all in the same boat. The best way for someone to be successful with their weight loss/maintenance efforts is to be as educated as possible. From what I saw from that show, and particularly from my own experiences lately, I have to do a complete 180 from how I felt in that post last year.

I really hope this can inspire someone else who's unsuccessfully struggling with their weight to maybe make an honest assessment of just what's taking place with how they're eating. It's still hard for me to grasp just how dramatic these past 5 weeks have been. Any way I can be of help to others, with the knowledge and results I've had recently, makes me feel very good too. I feel obliged to be passing this on and I'm very grateful for what's taken place. Maybe it took almost 30 years to finally understand this whole thing, but better late than never.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:03 AM  
Pascal
 
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Great post, Bob. I have exercised consistently (at least 5x's a week) for over half my life, but I struggle with overeating and daily (hourly?) junk food consumption. I worry that I will just never figure out or get a handle on the eating component. I still have hope, though.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:17 AM  
momof10
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Michigan
Bob, I enjoyed reading your post. I have always known that diet is for me anyways about 85% and exercise 15%. I have experimented over the years with having 10 babies. I can exercise 3 hours a day at high intensity, but if I am not eating super clean, I lose no weight or inches. When I combine the high intensity workouts with a super clean diet, I get awesome results. Exercise does make a huge difference when comparing diet alone or diet with exercise. I want to maintain my muscle mass or even increase it as I diet. I don't want to just diet and lose my muscle mass.

Cheryl
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Old 09-29-11, 10:21 AM  
Missiscipi
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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This is a GREAT post. Thank you!
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Old 09-29-11, 10:24 AM  
Pie
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Great post. I've been meaning to watch that documentary but never got around to it. I will now make it a priority.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:27 AM  
Helen S
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Thanks Bob for reopening this topic. I agree that for me, eating is more important. Exercise helps me maintain. But if I want to lose weight, I need to eat better. This has become more important as I've become older. When I was younger, I could eat as much junk food and eat a lot. It didn't matter since I could burn it off with exercise. That's not true anymore.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:31 AM  
Gams
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
So we're talking about which is more important for weight loss, right? Then I'd say diet. My answer would be a little different if we were talking fitness.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:32 AM  
Jane P.
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I started exercising because I didn't want to diet, and it worked for a while. However, I eventually made the same discovery. I had to diet in order to continue to lose fat.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:40 AM  
Fidget Queen
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Beautiful post! I think what we choose to fuel our bodies with makes all the difference if EVERY aspect of our lives, but, like you said, making that honest assessment about what we are actually eating is what matters most.

And I think the kind of food we eat influences fitness, as well. It doesn't create fitness (only exercise can do that) but if we're fueled properly, our bodies will become healthier and more fit.
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Old 09-29-11, 10:41 AM  
Breezy Trousers
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by pumptmuscle View Post
II like documentaries and one of the ones I decided to watch was called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." We can't talk about diets per se here but I'll just say it inspired me to do what I've been doing since watching it (I started it the next day).
Between you & Suegy, there's going to be a serious VF run on this documentary! Can't wait to watch this.

I'm working on this same issue. I think GAMS makes a good distinction.

For years, my brother, a personal trainer, would say diet is 80% of the equation. Now he thinks it's closer to 90%.
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