Diet alone won't whittle your waistline- you need to move it

Got to get rid of that spare tire around your waist? Eat less and move more, say the experts. The trouble is, nobody's too forthcoming on just how much less you have to eat and just how much more you have to move to lose weight. And do you really need to do both, or will diet or exercise alone do the job?
In other words, as many couch potatoes want to know, do you really need to exercise?
Sure, there are those who lose weight by diet alone, but scientific studies combined with anecdotal evidence suggest that most of those successes are short-term. Losing weight solely through counting calories, reducing portion sizes and restricting high-calorie foods (especially the ones we love) takes an incredible amount of willpower that is difficult to maintain day in and day out, year after year. Hence the high incidence of weight regain after diet-only weight-loss strategies.
How, then, do successful weight-losers keep the pounds off? Do they possess a determination matched by few, or have they stumbled on a strategy that others can learn from?
According to the U.S.-based National Weight Control Registry, a database of more than 4,000 adults who have lost at least 13 kilograms (30 pounds) and kept it off for at least a year, 89% combined diet and exercise to lose weight, 10% used diet alone and 1% used exercise only.
How much exercise are we talking about? An increasing number of experts believe it takes more exercise than previously thought to whittle away extra pounds. According to University of Colorado researchers Victoria Catenacci and Holly Wyatt, in an article last month in
Endocrinology and Metabolism, most published studies looking at exercise and weight loss counsel a dose of exercise that is better suited to improving health than fostering weight loss.
"The majority of studies that we reviewed used exercise prescriptions of 60 to 180 minutes per week," Catenacci and Wyatt say in their article.
Catenacci and Wyatt contend that, without concurrent dieting, only large doses of exercise will result in substantial weight loss. Pointing to a few important studies to back their claim, both researchers believe that working out long enough and hard enough to produce an energy deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day will result in weight loss comparable to dieting by itself.
How do you translate a loss of 500-1,000 calories through exercise into a time frame you can shoot for? First, everyone burns calories at a different rate, so it's hard to be exact. And remember, your goal is to create an energy deficit, so your eating mustn't burgeon in the meantime. But to give you an idea, consider that a 60-minute run at a moderate pace burns about 600 calories (people with heavier frames burn more than those with slighter figures).
By now, you have probably realized the conundrum in this approach to weight loss. The likelihood that someone who carries 25 or more extra pounds and who has avoided the gym for the past decade can run for an hour is somewhere between slim and none.
Clearly, the best approach to weight loss is to tone down the exercise to more manageable levels and combine it with a modest level of dietary restriction -- both of which will be easier for the average Joe looking to tighten his belt.
As the pounds disappear, it's important to keep your exercise habit intact. Study after study suggests that the tandem of diet and exercise is the best combination to keep lost weight from finding its way back onto your hips. The successful weight-losers registered in the National Weight Loss Registry provide an example: 90% exercise an average of 60 minutes a day.
So there it is. The experts are right. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and move more. And while the numbers above seem daunting, remember that you don't have to get there quickly. Barring a coming highschool reunion, weight loss is best done slowly.
Small changes in diet and exercise can gradually be increased until they become substantial, resulting in more and more weight lost over time. And even if you are not successful in getting back into your highschool prom outfit, a little more exercise and a little less food will make you feel better and improve your health. Both of which are achievements that are worth the effort.