Why the best weight loss program includes diet and exercise...

In their search for the best weight loss program, many people ignore the vital role that exercise plays in maintaining a healthy body weight.

Of course, your diet plays an important role in helping you lose weight. Truth is, it's probably more important than exercise. Once you've reached your target weight, your focus will shift away from the best weight loss program to a plan geared towards weight maintenance. That's when physical activity assumes far greater importance.

Best weight loss program

Contrary to popular belief, losing weight isn't all that difficult — it's trying to keep it off for good that's the real challenge. For every 10 pounds of weight they lose, most will have put 7 pounds of it back on just one year later.

The problem with using diet alone to maintain your weight is that it's very difficult to get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs when you're on a low-calorie diet. And there's a growing body of evidence showing that some vitamins play a vital role in reducing the risk of some common diseases.

For instance, a deficiency in just three vitamins has been linked with an increased risk of heart disease, even in people with normal cholesterol levels. What's more, a diet containing sub-optimal levels of certain minerals — but not necessarily low enough to cause signs of a clinical deficiency — can leave you feeling tired and lacking in energy.

Unfortunately, it's extremely difficult to get all the nutrients you need from a pill. Take vitamin E for example. Most consumers aren't aware that eight different compounds make up vitamin E. The majority of vitamin supplements contain only alpha-tocopherol. However, the three other tocopherols and four tocotrienols also serve a purpose.

More importantly, there are literally hundreds of other nutrients in food besides vitamins and minerals. Fiber is one good example. Researchers from Tufts University have shown that simply adding an extra 14 grams of fiber to your diet each day will lead to a 10% reduction in calorie intake. In other words, you'll end up feeling fuller on fewer calories.

Exercise

The best way to ensure you get an adequate supply of vitamins and minerals from your diet is simply to eat more of the right foods, and then to balance this increase in calorie intake with an increase in calorie expenditure.

A good example of the importance of physical activity comes from a trial of overweight women taking part in a weight loss program for 18 months. Individuals averaging 280 minutes of exercise each week maintained a weight loss of almost 29 pounds. This was far greater than the 14 and 8 pound weight losses shown with 150-200 and 150 minutes of exercise per week, respectively.

Moreover, individuals averaging approximately 280 minutes of exercise each week didn't gain any weight from 6 to 18 months of the study. In contrast, those exercising for only 200 minutes each week gained weight during the same period.

This study shows clearly that increasing the amount of time spent exercising aids weight control, simply because the longer you spend exercising, the more calories you burn. In other words, it doesn't really matter how long you exercise, as long as you're burning a minimum number of calories each day.

Of course, this minimum number will vary from person. However, members of the National Weight Control Registry, a group of people who have lost an average of over 60 pounds and kept it off for at least six years, report burning at least 2,830 calories per week — or just over 400 calories per day.

Remember that this doesn't have to be in the form of structured exercise. Several short bouts of physical activity lasting just 10 minutes are equally as beneficial as one long bout.

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Reference
Jakicic, J.M., Clark, K., Coleman, E., Donnelly, J.E., Foreyt, J., Melanson, E., Volek, J., & Volpe, S.L. (2001). Appropriate intervention strategies for weight loss and prevention of weight regain for adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33, 2145-2156