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A Combination Approach
Like many frustrated dieters, Carmela Turner figures she's tried them all -- low-calorie diets, low-fat diets, starvation diets. "I'd lose maybe 20 pounds and gain them right back again, plus a few more, usually."
Last January, when she hit 257 pounds, Turner decided enough was enough. She ditched the idea of dieting and did what her ex-football player husband had been advising all along: She joined a fitness club, where she began working out five times a week. Ten months later, she had lost 85 pounds. "I don't know why, but exercise just worked for me," says Turner, 38. "And to my surprise, I love it."
Pat, 39, always figured exercise would work for her too. An editor at a New York-based health magazine, she hit the gym five times a week and went hiking with her husband every chance she got. "But all that exercise didn't keep the pounds off," says Pat. When the scale hit 200, she turned to dieting, cutting back on fatty foods, sweets, and total calories. "A year later I'm down to 162 and still losing weight."
Researchers stress that we need diet and exercise to drop pounds. "The most effective way to lose weight is with a combination," says Rena Wing, co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry. But experts also admit that many would-be losers find it helps to concentrate on one or the other. "A lot of people feel overwhelmed at the thought of changing everything -- diet, lifestyle, the whole shebang," says Bess Marcus, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University Medical School. "So ask yourself, 'Where do I want to start? What am I willing to focus on?'"
The answer depends on everything from what you hope to achieve to how your life is organized. If you're in a big hurry to drop pounds fast, dieting is the way to go. Decades of research have shown it's the surest and quickest method. "It's much easier for most people to cut back on calories by controlling what they eat than by burning an equivalent number of calories through physical activity," says Wing.
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