When it comes to weight-loss, which do you find more important, diet or exercise?
In my experience, the answer is most definitely diet. I tried going to the gym and working out with a trainer-developed program several times a week for about 6 months. I took up jogging for several months. I did feel great, but I didn't really lose much weight at all. And it wasn't just offset by gaining muscle, because my clothes didn't really feel all that differently either. I do think my body composition changed a little, but by an almost negligible amount.
Both times I've tried dieting I had pretty immediate, and relatively significant, results. The first time I just started paying more attention to what I was eating, stopped eating out so much, and made some common sense better choices. I lost just shy of 40 pounds, which was the amount I was overweight. The second time I tried the South Beach diet, eliminating carbs, sugar, and alcohol for two weeks and then slowly adding the good carbs back in after that. I lost the 20 pounds I needed to lose.
So, based on that experience, I'm convinced it's all about what you eat. I'm not saying exercise isn't great for you in many ways, but I don't think it's the key for weight-loss. It's great for your heart, and stress relief, and energy levels and, especially in my case, for bone density. The key to overall health is both diet and exercise, but the key to weight-loss is diet.
What do you think? What has your past experience told you is most helpful in regards to losing weight?