How To Lose Weight – Diet Versus Exercise

Wondering why you can’t lose weight despite your exercise?

Why aren’t the scales shifting?

This article helps you know how to lose weight most effectively with diet and exercise.

This is important information for you if you have pelvic floor problems and worry you can’t exercise effectively for weight loss.

Read on to learn:

• Diet or exercise for fastest weight loss?
• Why it’s difficult to lose weight with exercise
• How much walking to lose 1kg (2.2 lb) of body fat?
• How to lose weight most effectively
• Increasing muscle for permanent weight loss
• Diet & exercise for your pelvic floor health

Diet Or Exercise For Fastest Weight Loss?

Your diet plays the biggest role in helping you lose weight.

The best place to start if you’re having trouble knowing how to lose weight, is by addressing your diet first.

Scientific studies show that low calorie and low fat diets are more effective for losing weight than exercise alone ¹.

Why It’s Difficult To Lose Weight With Exercise

Why is it so hard to lose weight in spite of all your regular exercise and hard work?

The problem with relying on exercise to lose weight is that burning  kilojoules requires a lot of exercise. 

Here are some examples:

1 Regular milk coffee, cappuccino, flat white or latte 54 cals (227 kj) = ~18 mins moderate pace walking

1 Slice brown bread with butter (230 cals or 1075 kj) = ~ 76 mins (1hr 6 mins) moderate walking

1 Plain croissant 270 calories = ~ 90 mins (1.5 hours) moderate walking

So you’ll need to walk for an extra 20 minutes just to burn off that sneaky 2nd cappuccino you had for morning tea!

How Much Walking To Shift 1kg (2.2 lb) Of Body Fat?

To lose 1 kg of body fat you need to burn off around 37,000 kJ (8843 cal).

Chances are that you walk at a moderate speed i.e. 4.5 – 5.2 km/h (2.8 -3.2 mph).

Walking on a level firm surface at moderate speed this would take you 2,947 minutes or approximately 50 hours of moderate walking.

That’s a lot of effort indeed for a small return!

Exercising regularly (without dieting) can promote some weight loss, especially if the exercise if high intensity however exercise alone is not the most effective method of weight loss.

How to Lose Weight Most Effectively?

Studies show that combining diet with appropriate fitness exercise promotes substantially more weight loss than diet alone – even when the exercise is low intensity¹.

This is good news indeed for women with pelvic floor problems or weight gain with menopause who want to protect their pelvic floor from injury and avoid high intensity running and jumping-type exercises.

Increasing Muscle For Permanent Weight Loss

Muscles burn energy.

The more muscle you have, the more energy your body will burn during rest and with exercise.

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Unfortunately when you lose weight through diet alone, you lose body fat and muscle.

This can make keeping your weight off long-term challenging.

Combine diet with regular strength exercises to promote fat loss and preserve your lean muscle to help you better manage your body weight².

Preserving or increasing lean muscle makes you more effective at losing weight and keeping it off long-term.

If you’re living with pelvic floor problems, combining appropriate strength training along with low impact fitness exercise is the ideal combination to help you lose weight and keep it off long-term.

Diet & Exercise For Your Pelvic Floor Health

If you suffer from pelvic floor problems, managing your body weight and pelvic floor safe exercise can help your pelvic floor in a number of ways.

A. Decreasing Abdominal Fat 

Exercise helps reduce the fat around the abdominal organs (known as visceral fat). Visceral fat sits directly above your pelvic organs weighing them down.

Some forms of low impact exercise are effective for losing abdominal fat even without dieting ³ e.g. interval cycling

If you’re overweight, reducing visceral fat may help reduce the pressure on your pelvic floor which can ease prolapse symptoms, bladder control problems and perhaps prevent problems worsening.

B. Increasing Whole Body Strength

Keeping your body strong with pelvic floor safe strength exercises helps you reduce the load on your pelvic floor with your everyday activities.

For example strong lifting muscles will help you reduce the likelihood of strain on your pelvic floor when you’re carrying the washing, moving the shopping or lifting children.

A complete pelvic floor management approach should involve whole body strengthening as well as pelvic floor training.

Key Points For How To Lose Weight

If you’re struggling with your weight address your diet as your priority to help you manage your weight and lose weight if you need to.

• Combining diet and appropriate exercise will provide best weight loss outcomes.
• Include muscle strengthening exercises to help you maintain lean muscle and lose fat with your diet.
• Manage your body weight and keep your body strong to promote your pelvic floor health.

Next: The Best Exercise For Weight Loss That Avoids Prolapse Worsening

References

1. Shaw K, Gennat H , O’Rourke P & Del Mar C. Exercise for overweight or obesity Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2006 Oct 18;(4):CD003817.

2. Adegboye A & Linne Y. Diet or exercise, or both, for weight reduction in women after childbirth Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Jul 18;(3):CD005627.

3. Boutcher S High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss J Obes. 2011; 2011: 868305.

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