Is It Possible to Lose Weight Through Only Proper Diet and Not Exercise?

We always say that a diet and exercise program go hand-in-hand with weight reduction, but can you lose substantial amounts of weight just utilizing one or the other? There are many different scenarios to consider here, such as your starting point, is it just weight you want to lose regardless to overall health, and do you want the weight reduction to be long-term. So we will answer the question explaining how both diet and exercise contribute to the weight loss process, and why it is necessary to incorporate both.



If you start off with a lot of weight to lose, and your diet is not good at all in the first place, simply by changing to a healthy diet will in all likelihood cause you to lose some weight. This burst of nutrition that your body is unfamiliar with will start the metabolism moving again, and you will happily think you have found the answer. But probably far ahead of reaching your weight-loss goal, you will hit a wall, and this is where many people think the diet is a lost cause. It's just your body adjusting to the increased metabolism caused by the diet change.

The idea is to keep the metabolism running at full throttle, and that is what exercise can do for you. One of the dieting myths is that you can lose weight by cutting back on calories. The main reason why crash diet plans don't work is when you cut your caloric intake to, let's say, 1200 calories a day, you are not providing enough fuel for your body to function. This causes the body's defensive mechanisms to go to work, as it senses famine and begins to shut down. This causes your caloric threshold to be reduced, and not only don't you burn excess fat, you feel tired and listless as well.

A different approach is through exercise. When we work out, we tell the body to increase metabolism. Of course to do this it will need additional calories, but instead of wasted calories like sugar or junk food, we will throw fat-burning foods at it. Our energy levels remain high, allowing us to continue to exercise, and because the body's nutritional levels are being met it has no reason to keep surplus supplies (in the form of fat). And off come the pounds.

Which brings us to another myth: as long as you eat healthy foods, you can eat as much as you want and it will all get burned away. For a few people that may be true, especially when they're young and they have healthy livers that can deal with a lot. Unfortunately for most of this that is not the case. Although not all calories are created equal, almost all of us can't handle too much of a good thing. But if you give yourself a variety of foods, eat in moderation, and get a balanced calorie intake throughout the day you will not feel much hunger and still be able to burn fat.

One last myth I'd like to mention is that exercise turns fat into muscle. Fat cells are different types of cells, and to lose fat and gain muscle, those fat cells must go and the brand new muscle cells must be built. Not really important to know during your workout, but just a little fun fact.