DozenDiets.com

 So my second diet principle has been something I  have noticed over various diets, but I have seen it even more with this low calorie diet.

The second diet principle is this : Diet + Exercise is critical to have optimal weight loss results

Now I know lots of people have success with only one or the other, but it doesn’t work for me and I have a theory for why that is. Again, I should offer my disclaimer that I am not a physician or a nutritionist nor am I a physical trainer. Still, I think that when I cut calories alone, meaning I just diet and do not exercise, that my metabolism slows down to accomodate for the lower intake of energy and I don’t burn as many calories. I don’t have the exercise piece to tell my metabolism that it can’t slow down. Of course lean muscle mass is also said to burn more calories than fat so that may have something to do with it as well.

Likewise, when I just exercise I don’t get the results I want and I think this one is even easier to explain. Lots of times I have heard people say “I can’t control what I eat so I will just work out more”. That is an awesome idea, but the problem is that you just admitted that you can’t control what you eat. Now, when you ramp up the exercise, the first thing that happens is your body says “hey, I am working MUCH harder these days. I need more energy to keep up!” and yor appetite goes up. Your appetite goes up substantially. So now you find yourself working out more, but you aren’t tracking calories, carbs or fat and you know you have trouble controlling what you eat so all of a sudden you are eating 4000 calories a day to keep up with the extra energy you expend working out.

I actually think if I was going to pick one of those two cases to be in, I would exercise. You may not lose weight, but the benefits in fitness, breathing, self esteem are tangible and you are less likely to suffer from some sort of depression.

Having said that though, I have heard diet + exercise compared to two wings of an airplane and you would never want to choose to go with just one. I didn’t used to believe that as firmly as I do now. Now, I believe it strongly enough for it to be my dozendiets.com dieting principle #2.

JG