Can you use exercise to lose weight? Yes, so long as your diet is revamped as part of your program!

It's probably safe to say that half of all Americans need to, or want to, lose weight. Maybe you want to drop just 10 pounds, mainly so your current wardrobe still fits attractively. Other people have significant weight problems and need to lose 50 pounds or more. Besides your physical appearance, your motivation includes health concerns. Once you form a pattern of overeating every day, with a penchant for sweets, fatty foods and other junk type foods, this can be a hard habit to break. Some people think that, exclusively using exercise to lose weight, they can keep right on eating as usual. The rationale is that when you employ the exercise to lose weight program, you're burning calories, so you'll reach your goal without changing your diet, or at least not by much. It won't work. Let's see why.

1.What does exercise accomplish in a weight loss program? Whether you need to shed 10, 50 or 100 pounds, this means that your body has excess fat. An exercise program burns off excess fat, while toning flabby muscles and providing benefits to your cardiovascular system. On the other hand, if you only modify your diet and don't exercise, when weight comes off, you'll be left with sagging skin all over your body, not an attractive result.

2.Exercise alone won't get you to your goal. Why? If you watch the 'Biggest Losers' TV show, you might know that after couples partners had spent time at the program's official weight loss and training center, one of the couples from each 'team' were sent home for one month to see how they did on their own. Some, who adhered to both the diet and exercise regimens on their own, lost significant weight, one man losing 25 pounds. Others, who abandoned the diet, but worked out for hours every day, lost no more than two pounds! That's proof that when you exercise to lose weight, a healthy diet is a must for success.

3.How does a healthy diet program affect weight loss? The bottom line to losing weight is reducing your caloric intake. If you reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, you'll lose about a pound a week. When you don't drop the sugar laden foods, those calories turn right back into fat. When you add plenty of fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates, you get a reversal of this effect. The calories these foods contain often require that your body burns more calories than the food contains. So you realize a net reduction in calories consumed. Add in the exercise to lose weight factor and you've effectively reduced your calorie consumption on all sides, resulting in safe and maximum weight loss.

You can see that, if you're serious about losing weight, diet and exercise work hand in hand. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you can simply exercise to lose that weight!