Diet versus exercise, what contributes more to pure weight loss?

I do various cardio exercises for 45~60 minutes a day, usually after dinner. Kept my diet under moderate control; laying off sweets/oily/starchy foods, eating extra proteins and fibers, etc.

I'm obviously doing something wrong if I've been at this for almost 2 years with only minimal progress. (-15~25 pounds currently)

Unfortunately, Google sucks at providing relevant advice, so I've been doing this blindly since.

Feed me your 2 cents!
(5'9, 240lbs right now; Just for you users who use mathematics!)

Well, it's easier to cut out calories with a diet than to burn the same amount through exercise.

Didn't realize you've been at it for almost 2 years. What kind of cardio stuff do you do to get your heart pumpin'?

Sidebar to the right.

60:40 Diet to Exercise ratio is what I believe to be the understood position of most trainers and such these days. While exercise is important, if you're counteracting everything you're working off by eating poorly you won't make much ground. I started off six months ago (270 6'1") going to the gym daily and working my ass off - while eating "slightly more healthy" than I had been prior to my desire to be healthier - and I lost only about 10lbs in two months. After that I completely altered my diet and have lost 50 in addition to that in the four months following. I completely stopped working out though, so I really need to get back into the swing of things again. Once school slows down for sure.

Good luck ~

While both are important, Diet has more effect on weight loss.

Well, it's easier to cut out calories with a diet than to burn the same amount through exercise.

Didn't realize you've been at it for almost 2 years. What kind of cardio stuff do you do to get your heart pumpin'?

I usually just do elliptical, bike, stair steps. I don't use the treadmill much 'cause it seems rather high impact for something that burns fewer calories than the others that are less impact.

60:40 Diet to Exercise ratio is what I believe to be the understood position of most trainers and such these days. While exercise is important, if you're counteracting everything you're working off by eating poorly you won't make much ground. I started off six months ago (270 6'1") going to the gym daily and working my ass off - while eating "slightly more healthy" than I had been prior to my desire to be healthier - and I lost only about 10lbs in two months. After that I completely altered my diet and have lost 50 in addition to that in the four months following. I completely stopped working out though, so I really need to get back into the swing of things again. Once school slows down for sure.

Good luck ~

What kind of diet did you go on during that time?

One should not work properly without the other one. Exercising beyond your body capacity, and without an adequate diet may bring many problems. Also, you won't lose as much weight just with a diet, so you'll need exercises anyway.

I can speak for myself that a good diet helps to make you maintain your weight, and even get more and more slim, with a healthy look, of course. I've always been into healthy stuff and those things since my childhood and i've always been a lot skinny. I don't exercise so oftenly, first because i can't take too much exercise without it affecting my health, and second because i barely had time to think on that lately, but regardless of that, i still develop muscles by just doing normal activities, and because of my diet, i tend to lose weight and give that impression. Diet can make miracles sometimes, and if you stop exercising, as long as you keep eating well, you can maintain your body shape for much longer.

If you stick to a normal eating patern (not a diet-program) and start excercising 4 hours a day, you'll lose most weight.

If you use a diet-program, then only 20~30 minutes of exercise per day is enough to prevent your body to go into hibernation mode to save energy.

It's almost impossible to do both (diet + 4 hours of excercise each day) because you'll quit after 1 week because of exhaustion and gain the weight back in 2 weeks...

One should not work properly without the other one. Exercising beyond your body capacity, and without an adequate diet may bring many problems. Also, you won't lose as much weight just with a diet, so you'll need exercises anyway.

Of course I'd continue doing both, I'm just curious as to which one has a higher impact over the other in the long run.

For example, if I exercised twice as much than I do now with a more moderate diet versus exercising as much as I do now but with a stricter diet.
The lack-of-progress thing is annoying me. :\

Find out your blood type and it'll be easier to see what you have to focus on eating more of. You also have to consider how much weight you want to lose and how long it will take. It's real simple, you burn more than what goes in estimations. If you want to lose 50 lbs in 3 months, you have to work out enough to burn the calories you eat a long with the additional to stay on that schedule

Find out your blood type and it'll be easier to see what you have to focus on eating more of. You also have to consider how much weight you want to lose and how long it will take. It's real simple, you burn more than what goes in estimations. If you want to lose 50 lbs in 3 months, you have to work out enough to burn the calories you eat a long with the additional to stay on that schedule

I'm type O.
Right now I'm trying to limit myself to 1500~2000 calories a day and I burn approximately 2200~2500 by existing -- at least that's what the calculator tells me. Sometimes I go over, sometimes I don't even get past 1000 calories because I feel sick to my stomach after one bite. I end up being unable to eat for a while, if not the whole day.

Iirc, Scooby once said that you can pretty much lose all the weight you want based on diet alone.

@Khaini: I've never heard about blood types affecting nutritional requirements. I thought it was solely based on cutting down depending on your daily caloric intake and daily caloric requirement. I've only ever heard of blood type affecting transfusions, not weight loss...

dieting, always. if you're talking about strictly weight loss, your diet is the most important thing. weight loss and gain is all about calories in vs calories out. and you burn a lot of calories normally throughout the day. a woman at 130 lbs and 5'8" at 30 years old burns 1400 calories throughout the day normally. you need to figure out your base metabolic rate, and adjust your calorie intake accordingly, and then supplement that with exercise. But it's not really healthy to have an adjusted diet without an exercise regiment, because you simply wouldn't be getting enough nutrition. with as few calories as you'd be taking in like that, you'd be low on protein or carbs or vitamins, no matter what it is, you'd have some kind of deficit, and more than likely, you probably wouldn't feel too great. so the smartest thing to do is to eat to get the nutrition you need, despite the calories involved, and then work to get those calories knocked out.

Base metabolic rate formulas:

Men: 66 + (13.7 X weight in kg's) + (5 X height in centimetres) - (6.8 X age in years).

Women: 655 + (9.6 X weight in kg's) + (1.8 X height in centimetres) - (4.7 X age in years).

dieting, always. if you're talking about strictly weight loss, your diet is the most important thing. weight loss and gain is all about calories in vs calories out. and you burn a lot of calories normally throughout the day. a woman at 130 lbs and 5'8" at 30 years old burns 1400 calories throughout the day normally. you need to figure out your base metabolic rate, and adjust your calorie intake accordingly, and then supplement that with exercise. But it's not really healthy to have an adjusted diet without an exercise regiment, because you simply wouldn't be getting enough nutrition. with as few calories as you'd be taking in like that, you'd be low on protein or carbs or vitamins, no matter what it is, you'd have some kind of deficit, and more than likely, you probably wouldn't feel too great. so the smartest thing to do is to eat to get the nutrition you need, despite the calories involved, and then work to get those calories knocked out.

Base metabolic rate formulas:

Men: 66 + (13.7 X weight in kg's) + (5 X height in centimetres) - (6.8 X age in years).

Women: 655 + (9.6 X weight in kg's) + (1.8 X height in centimetres) - (4.7 X age in years).

Sometimes I go over, sometimes I don't even get past 1000 calories because I feel sick to my stomach after one bite. I end up being unable to eat for a while, if not the whole day.

That's really bad.

Try and make your 3 major meals smaller and have healthy snacks more often to encourage your body to keep burning calories. iirc having certain types of tea in the morning help boost your metabolism, but tea is generally pretty good to have anyway.

（￣д￣） when did I double post....

Yeah, directly limiting your calories like that won't help anything. Your body will just fight harder to keep them. You'll lose weight, but it won't be taking the weight off of the fat.

Take this from the guy who lost all his quads and calf muscles from going anorexic.

Yeah, directly limiting your calories like that won't help anything. Your body will just fight harder to keep them. You'll lose weight, but it won't be taking the weight off of the fat.

Take this from the guy who lost all his quads and calf muscles from going anorexic.

Staving yourself will only make it more difficult. Haseo is 100% right.

I don't think he's starving himself.... Just the odd day he doesn't feel like eating or can barely eat for some reason. I have days where I feel bloaty and can barely eat, but I'll be damned if I starve myself. D: But yeah, completely starving yourself means muscles go first 'cause your body wants to save the fat for desperate times. And then you'd have to worry about flabby skin from not losing weight healthily. Co-worker did that once. =w=;

If you don't eat at regular-ish times, your body is going to go and try to store it via fat. Keep the metabolism up ― force yourself to eat breakfast or something in the morning when you wake up [iirc you're the guy that skips breakfast?]. Fibrous foods take longer to burn up while sugary stuff burns up very quickly.