When the goal is to lose weight, the ideal is to adopt both strategies, but if you only want to opt for one, find out whether you should diet or exercise.
When the goal is to lose weight, there are two strategies that are often adopted: dieting and exercise. Some people resort to just one or both. To know which strategy, or set of strategies, will work best in your case, you need a diagnosis: people are different and, for example, some eat emotionally while others do not. Weight management physiologist Teresa Branco told Revista Prevenir which option is best for achieving the results you want: diet or exercise.
Diet or exercise: the advantages of each strategy
If you just diet...
If you adopt specific dietary strategies for your case, if there is a hormonal balance and if your emotions are well managed, it is possible to lose weight, although a large part of this loss is due to the loss of muscle mass. The most important factor to take into account in dietary strategies is the choice of food, which must be in line with your hormonal profile, social life, preferences and lifestyle.
If you prefer physical exercise...
Physical exercise is fundamental to better weight management because it speeds up the weight loss process and reduces the loss of muscle mass. However, if there is no dietary control, exercise does not promote significant weight loss. Even so, high-intensity exercise can more easily lead to the loss of fat mass, while low-intensity exercise is unlikely to cause any change in weight. The ideal way to lose weight and fight flab is to do interval cardio training with intense strength training.
Diet or exercise: which is better?
The ideal is to adopt both strategies, but depending on the objective, one of them plays a key role.
Food management
Promotes greater weight loss and is the best strategy when you want to achieve significant weight loss in the short term.
Physical exercise
In the long term, physical exercise seems to offer the most benefits - people who remain highly active achieve better results in weight control after losing weight.
Other weight loss strategies
In addition to diet and exercise, there are other strategies that help with weight management:
- Dietary reeducation (forever)
- More active daily life (outside the gym)
- Hormone control (in the office)
- Stress management
- Managing emotions
