Diet or exercise?
"Evidence is accumulating to support the sugegstion that exercise...more effective than dieting in the maintenance of a desirbale body composition...in one experiment 3 groups of people were put on a weight loss programme representing a daily deficit of 500 calories."
The first group had 500 calories fewer, and no exercise.
The second group had 250 calories fewer, and did 250 calories worth of exercise.
The third group just did 500 calories worth of exercise.
All groups lost 5kg over the 16 week period, BUT here is the breakdown of the losses:
1st group lost 1.1kg of muscle.
2nd group lost 6kg fat, and gained 1kg muscle.
3rd group lost 7kg of fat, and gained 2.2kg of muscle.
Informaton above from: "Sports Nutrition for Women" by Bean and Wellington, 1995, p.107
Note that the first group that lost weight through a calorie deficit alone, and did no exercise, actually lost muscle which is the stuff that is required to burn calories; this may explain why food restricted diet plans, that do not incorporate exercise, eventually end up with the weight loss slowing down and the person on them starts gaining weight even whilst eating just a little food. The 2nd and 3rd methods are more preferable because they preserve muscle tissue, with the 3rd group losing the most amount of fat over the same period as the others, and still being allowed to enjoy eating normally and not having to endure cravings.
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