When it comes to losing weight and maintaining healthy weight, diet wins hands-down. high-fiber, vegetable dominant or a “vegephile“ diet is the cornerstone of healthy weight maintenance.
There is a 80–20 rule that has been written about which is just about right. It estimates that the contribution of diet to your weight is about four times more important than exercise.
Obviously, exercise is important to maintain strength and flexibility. It further helps you maintain balance and flexibility and decrease fall risk. It will help you avoid injuries and stay active throughout your life. Additionally, muscle burns fat. Having a lower body mass index and carrying more muscle enables you to burn more calories throughout the day.
Unfortunately, it is easy to sabotage our weight goals by unhealthy diet habits. For example, a 12 ounce can of soda has between 125 and 180 cal. All of them come from sugar, between 8 to 11 teaspoons per glass. It will take close to 40 minutes walking at a medium pace just to burn off those calories, and this does not even consider the negative impacts of the insulin surge that occurs after consuming that much simple sugar.
The easiest way to achieve a long term, healthy weight is to eat a high fiber, plant-based diet. This will leave you feeling more full and allow you to eat fewer calories while remaining satisfied. Further, it decreases the transit time of food to your gastrointestinal track. This leads to a healthier balance of the hunger controlling hormones leptin and ghrelin which will decrease your appetite.
Stay well!
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