Eat Less or Exercise More? (Part 1)
Updated: Jul 20, 2021
The bottom line and ultimate determining factor with regards to whether you are going to lose weight or not is whether you are in a calorie deficit, meaning you are consuming less calories than you are burning!
It doesn’t matter what exercise or nutrition plan you are on (yes that includes keto), if you’re in a regular calorie deficit, you will lose weight! Simple!
So, if you are burning 2000 calories per day with your day-to-day activities, moving, walking, talking and exercising, but you’re consuming 1800 calories per day, you have a 200-calorie deficit which your body will obtain by burning fat and you will lose weight.
Alternatively, you could consume 2000 calories per day but increase your physical activities by exercising more so your body actually burns an extra 200 calories per day. The result is that there is still a 200-calorie deficit which your body will obtain by burning fat and you will again, still lose weight!
So, as you can see, you can either eat less or move more!
But which is better?
Our Power Plans suggest creating most of your calorie deficit from manipulating your diet by eating fewer calories than you’re burning.
Why? Because it might take you an hour or two to burn 200 calories via exercise whereas you could probably create that same 200 calorie deficit simply by eating 2 or 3 slices of bread less or skipping that extra coffee (or switch to a low-calorie coffee creamer and sweetener)!
Which do you think is easier? Skipping that extra latte, which literally just takes a few minutes? Or exercising for an hour or two?!
Think we can all agree that in this example, skipping the latte easier!
Eat and drink 200 calories less every day for 17 to 18 days and you will have burnt about 3500 calories, which is equivalent to burning a pound of fat!
It’s that easy!
That’s why it always amuses me when patients say they’re not losing weight because they haven’t had time to exercise when in reality a simple, small, daily dietary calorie deficit is all you need to lose weight!