We all know that in order to be "the best version of ourselves", we need to really nail both our diet and exercise routine. But the reality for a lot of us is we don't always eat the right thing, and we don't always have time to exercise as much as we should. That said, most people wouldn't mind losing a bit of weight, so in an imperfect world where you can't always get everything 100 percent right, which should you hitch your weight-loss wagon to: diet or exercise?
As the latest episode of AsapSCIENCE explains, if we look at things from a perspective of just burning calories, there are plenty of ways of doing it. If you want to burn 200 calories, for example, you could go for a 20-minute run, surf for an hour, or belt out your favourite song 23 times in the shower (seriously). But all of these take time. If you want to burn a lot of calories, even with strenuous activity, it'll take a good chunk out of your day.
So what if you just never ate those 200 calories in the first place? A single chocolate bar often contains more than 200 calories, so is it really worth it? While daily exercise is a no-brainer and we all should be doing it, in the interests of weight-loss specifically, would you rather ditch the hour walk, or ditch the chocolate?
"Many physicians point out that there are a lot of high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie foods we could cut from our diet to see weight-loss results more quickly," says AsapSCIENCE.
Studies do actually support this - research has shown that a person's diet tends to have a bigger impact on their weight than their exercise habits, and just look what happens when cultures with similar exercise habits to ours take on a vastly different diet.
As we reported back in May, when researchers asked 20 fast food-loving Americans to swap diets with 20 people living in rural South Africa, they found that within two weeks, the Americans had "remarkable" changes in the biomarkers that indicate colon cancer risk. Turns out, in just two weeks, a better diet actively reduced the Americans' risk of developing colon cancer. While this isn't directly related to weight-loss, the influence of our diet beyond how we're exercising is clear.
So never stop exercising - that would be a really bad idea - but if you're looking to lose weight, focus on your diet first if you want to see the fastest results. Watch the video above to find out more info from the boys at AsapSCIENCE, and watch below to see all the crazy ways you could exercise off that 200 calories: