Diet vs. Exercise
Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and University of Texas, Galveston, conducted a research study on 127 men and women who were at least 30.8 pounds. They were assigned randomly to experimental design groups to examine the effects of diet only, exercise only, and a combination of diet and exercise.
The two-year study results suggest that dieting produces weight loss followed by regain after treatment ends, whereas exercise alone produces smaller weight losses but better maintenance.
Why? Gale B. Carey, a nutritional biochemist at the University of New Hampshire, demonstrated that exercise training makes fat cells more sensitive to hormones that tell them to release fat. Adenosine, on the other hand, tells cells to hold onto their fat. Exercise helps fat cells ignore adenosine.
If you exercise without reducing your caloric intake, or even overeat, fat cells lose their ability to ignore adenosine. Dietary overindulgence attenuates the effects of exercise.
So what does this mean? Eating a wide variety of foods, plenty of fruits and vegetables, limiting processed carbohydrates and fats in combination with regular exercise are the best ways to lose weight.
Until we find that magic bullet....