Today's society is consumed in finding the fastest, easiest, and most effective way to lose weight. According to The Huffington Post, "In a recent Gallup poll, 49 percent of Americans said they would like to lose weight ... " (Sara G. Miller). That is almost half of all Americans who are not satisfied with their weight or health. The obesity rates in America are still on a rise, and people are scrambling to find the best way to lose their extra weight. For over three decades, scientists and researchers have been looking for the most effective ways to help overweight people meet their goals. Most experts still argue whether exercise, diet, or both of these combined is the ideal tactic for losing the extra pounds. After looking over many studies and scholarly articles, a combination of working out and dieting will ultimately lead to the best results when losing weight and maintaining weight loss. 

In recent years, working out has been a popular tactic to lose weight. There is everything from signing up for a pilates class at one's local gym, to paying hundreds of dollars a month for a personal trainer. People in America rely on hours at the gym and hundreds of dollars to help them achieve their weight loss goals. After all their time, energy, and money is gone, and they are still not where they want to be physically, they wonder what the problem is. Aaron Carroll from The New York Times states, "A 2011 meta-analysis, a study of studies, looked at the relationship between physical activity and fat mass in children, and found that being active is probably not the key determinant in whether a child is at an unhealthy weight" (Aaron E. Carroll). The problem with relying on only working out to lose weight is an energy imbalance. A human body is a machine that runs on fuel that a person puts into their body. To make sure that a person's body has enough energy, one must make sure that they are putting a sufficient amount of calories into it. 

Not only does is matter if one is putting the right amount of energy into their bodies, but it also matters what kind of energy they are putting into their bodies. If a person fuels themselves with empty calories, such as fast foods, the body is not going to run as well as it should, and in turn, will not perform the tasks that that person wants it to. If a person is consuming empty calories, it is impossible to be able to lose weight with just working out alone.

In a study that was performed by Robert Ross PhD and many other noted scientists, they tested the effects of exercising to decrease the fat mass in a group of overweight men. The researchers separated the men into diet induced weight loss and exercise induced weight loss. Their findings suggests, "Despite the observation that low levels of physical activity are a major cause of obesity (13), increased physical activity alone is not thought to be a useful strategy for obesity reduction. Some reports have suggested that physical activity in obese adults results in only modest weight loss (approximately 1 to 2 kg) independent of the effects of diet restriction" (Robert Ross PhD). In short, physical activity alone is not sufficient enough to rely on for losing all of one's weight. 

Other studies also have proven that there are only so many calories that one can burn while exercising. Another group of researchers were interested in this topic, so they tested it out on a small group of roughly 300 people living in the United States, Jamaica, and Africa. Carina Storrs, a writer for CNN, reports that, "A team of researchers measured their activity level for seven days using an accelerometer, similar to the kind in the Fitbit and other wearable devices, and also measured the number of calories the participants burned over the week" (Carina Storrs). The findings were that the people who performed more physical activity did burn more calories than people in the group who did not perform as much physical activity, but only up to a certain point. This study is one of many that suggests that burning a great amount of calories at the gym is a less realistic way to lose weight than the majority of people have thought in the past. Herman Pontzer states, ""We can't push the calories out [value] around too much," Pontzer said. Our bodies work very hard to keep it the same"" (Carina Storrs). 

Dr. Holly F. Lofton, the director of the Medical Weight Management Program at NYU Langone Medical Center, also has some thoughts on this topic. She states that, "Over time, as you do higher levels of activity, you don't increase your energy expenditure [or calories burned] in a linear way" (Carina Storrs). She explains that a person that goes from being completely sedentary to performing physical activity, like walking or jogging, will increase the number of calories that they burn, but a person who performs extraneous activity will hit a plateau of calories burned. Lofton proposes that if a person has hit that plateau, they should start doing different physical activity to work different muscles in their body such as swimming or biking. She also proposes, "It may also be possible to decrease and then increase your activity again and get an increase [in calorie burning]" (Carina Storrs).  One's body gets use to the amount of exercise performed daily, so changing the amount and the level of difficulty is necessary to see progress.

Working out alone will help one be able to maintain their weight loss for a certain period of time, but at some point that person will hit a plateau and most likely regain some of the weight they had previously lost. Exercise is an important component of weight loss but is most effective when paired with caloric restriction (dieting). Although it is most effective when paired with dieting, it is very important for everyone to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. The USDA Choose My Plate.gov has the correct amount of physical exercise that should be performed for every specific age group. The USDA states that for adults: "Adults should do at least 2 hours and 30 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a moderate level OR 1 hour and 15 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a vigorous level." For children: "Children and adolescents should do 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day ...  and should include vigorous-intensity physical activity at least 3 days a week." For young children: "Children ages 2-5 years should play actively several times each day. Their activity may happen in short bursts of time and not be all at once." (United States Department of Agriculture). They also state that for young children the physical activity should be 'fun' so that children do not get a negative feeling about working out at such a young age. 

The Boston Medical Center reported an estimated number of 45 million Americans who claim to be on a diet each year. Their findings also state that almost two-thirds of Americans are obese or overweight. Although this statistic is frightening to most, it also means that a majority of overweight Americans realize that they are overweight and are making moves to change their health. 

Although dieting is a common and popular technique that the majority of people use to lose their unwanted weight, dieting alone is simply not the answer. A study was performed by researchers who were interested to see if exercise alone, dieting alone, or both of those components combined was the best weight loss tactic for overweight people to rely on. The researchers found around 200 overweight men and women who were susceptible to coronary heart disease because of their weight. They randomized these people into four groups: exercise alone, diet alone, exercise and diet combined, and a control group. Sigmund Anderssen, a researcher who was involved in the study, stated, "The results show that diet and diet + exercise are about equally effective in reducing BP, and the effects may be dependent on the baseline level." (Sigmund Anderssen). The results of this study show that diet alone does a have more positive effect than exercise alone, but diet and exercise combined also has positive effects. One must note that it is proven in other studies that diet alone is an adequate tactic, but can also lead to the participant hitting a plateau and regaining their lost weight back over time. 

The Medical Daily, a reliable online journal that covers medical and science news, published a recent article that covers the topic of dieting alone. Samantha Olson, a writer for Medical Daily, reports, "More than 80 percent of people who lose weight regain all or most of it back within two years." (Samantha Olson). The article acknowledges that dieting alone has led to great results while trying to lose weight, but also has a negative effect over time when people do not incorporate exercise into their diet plan. Olson says that losing weight with dieting is a trap that most people fall into on their journey to lose weight. Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology reveals, "We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people." (Samantha Olson). This is where exercise steps in. Since dieting alone will not give one the best results, exercise is key to maintaining the weight loss and even losing more unwanted weight. 

When dieting, many people do not know where to start. They have trouble in finding the right foods to eat, and the foods that they should stay away from. Health.gov has set dietary guidelines for everyone to follow that will benefit those trying to lose weight. They state that one should include a variety of dark vegetables rich in color, fruits, whole grains, oils, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy products. Health.gov discloses the food products that one should avoid if possible which are trans fats, saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium. They state that if alcohol is consumed, it should be consumed in moderation; one drink a day for women, two drinks a day for men. 

One cannot turn on a television or go online without seeing an ad that claims to help one lose weight quickly. The media is overtaken with products and pills that declare they will satisfy one's weight loss needs. In 2012, ABC News that the annual revenue of the weight loss industry in America was 20 billion dollars. The money that was spent went to a range of diet meal plans, diet pills, workout videos, and more. Sadly, many studies have proven that the majority of these weight loss tactics will not work, and can actually have a negative effect on the consumer's health. 

Breaking Muscle.com is a health and training website that publishes articles that teach the public about many relevant topics that are important to one's health and knowledge. Tom Kelso, who is an Exercise Physiologist, published an article that looked deeply into weight loss tactics. He quotes Melinda Monroe who is a professor of nutrition and exercise sciences at Oregon State University and devotes her research to this topic. Melinda findings show, "She discovered no research evidence supports any single product resulting in significant weight loss. And in fact, many have detrimental health hazards." (Tom Kelso). Monroe discusses how these weight loss supplements have no clinical trials examining their effectiveness. She states, "For most people, unless you alter your diet and get daily exercise, no supplement is going to have a big impact. I don't know how you eliminate exercise from the equation. The data is very strong that exercise is crucial to not only losing weight and preserving muscle mass, but keeping the weight off." (Tom Kelso). Every static leads back to the fact that a continual plan of diet and exercise is the most effective way to lose weight.

Although many Americans might be discouraged to find out that their hundreds, if not thousands of dollars spent has gone to waste, there is still hope for weight loss. Monroe's suggestions are on the same baseline as many other researchers in this field; eat fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fibers. She also suggests that making a meal plan for one's day is important, so that there is no spontaneous snacking. Staying away from processed foods and instead eating high fiber foods will increase the 'thermic effect' and speed up one's metabolism is also suggested. 

For decades, many studies have proven that diet and exercise combine is the more efficient way to lose weight and keep the weight loss. A study performed by Ph.D. Leonard H. Epstein and many other researchers in the field looked into this exact topic. The study was focused on overweight children. The children were randomized into three groups: diet alone, exercise alone, and diet and exercise combined. The study shows, "Significant decreases in percent overweight were observed at 0 to 2 months and then at 2 to 6 months for the children who were exercising, whereas percent overweight in children in the diet-alone group decreased only from 0 to 2 months. In addition, a significant improvement in fitness was observed only for children in the diet plus exercise group" (Leonard H. Epstein). This explains that the researchers did see a weight loss in the diet alone and the exercise alone groups, but then over a period of a few months, those groups stopped losing weight or gained it back. The results show that the most effective group was the diet and exercise combined group. 

Exercise and diet combined is the best way to lose weight, but many people make the mistake performing these tactics, stopping when they reach their goal, and gaining the weight back. To maintain weight loss there needs to be a consistent practice of both exercise and diet to keep the weight off, and continue to lose it. Not only is this combination proven to have positive outcomes for weight loss, it is also proven that it has a direct positive effect on one's health, as well. Another study looked into a group of men who had fatty livers. The researchers wanted to see if the combination of exercise and diet would help the men's fatty livers to decrease and what they found was very positive. "In the treated group, weight, blood biochemical data such as aminotransferase, albumin, cholinesterase, total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose values, and steatosis were significantly decreased after the trial." (Takato Ueno). Not only did it decrease the size of the fatty livers, it had major effects on other unhealthy aspects of the body. 

After searching through decades and decades of studies, articles, and scientific journals, it is clear that exercise alone, dieting alone, and media weight loss ads are not the correct or healthy way to lose unwanted weight. The healthiest and most effective was to lose weight and maintain ones weight loss can be done through the combination of diet and exercise.  ght children. The children were randomized into three groups: diet alone, exercise alone, and diet and exercise

 
