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. Here's why. Let's say you want to lose a pound a week. You'll need a daily deficit of roughly 500 calories. On a diet, you can reach that goal by cutting back your portion sizes at dinner by one-third and eating an apple instead of a slice of apple pie for dessert. To burn that number of calories through activity, however, you'll need to jog for an hour. If you're more concerned with how you look than with numbers on the scale, though, exercise may be the way to go. By increasing physical activity, you'll burn fat and build muscle tissue. Dieters often end up losing both fat and muscle tissue. Scientists at Queen's University in Canada recently compared the effects of diet versus exercise in 30 men. Over three months, volunteers in both groups lost more than 16 pounds. But the exercisers lost almost two pounds more body fat than did the dieters. "Losing fat and not muscle is really the goal of healthy weight loss," says exercise physiologist Robert Ross, who led the study.

　　Exercise also may be your best bet if you're committed to losing weight and keeping it off for good. In the mid-1990s, obesity researcher John Foreyt, and his team at Baylor College of Medicine, tested three weight-loss approaches in a group of 127 men and women. Some volunteers ate a low-calorie diet. Others exercised at least three times a week doing brisk walks. The rest did both. At the end of the first year, the dieters had lost an average of 15 pounds, the exercisers 6 pounds, and the combination group almost 20 pounds. After the second year, however, the dieters were heavier than their starting weight. People in the combination group regained all but five pounds of their losses. Only members of the exercise group held steady. Why? Foreyt has an idea. "No one ever grows to like dieting, but some people begin to like being more physically active," he says. "Over time they're more likely to stick with exercise than

with diet —— and to maintain their weight loss." Your best approach is one that suits your temperament and lifestyle. Like to cook? "When you prepare meals yourself, you can control exactly what goes into them, which makes it much easier to cut back on saturated fat and add more fruit, vegetables and whole grains to the menu," says John LaPuma, a physician and director of a weight-loss research and education program in Santa Barbara, Calif.

　　If you hate the thought of counting calories, you're a candidate for exercise. Be prepared to burn plenty of calories, though. Most people who lose weight through activity have to expend about 2500 extra calories a week, the equivalent of taking a brisk hour-long walk daily. Finally, consider your past. If you've tried and failed at one approach, consider the other. "A lot of people have become so frustrated that they begin to think they'll never be able to lose weight," says Marcus. "That's when it's time to try something new. Even a small step forward can help people regain confidence and convince themselves they can make even bigger changes."

↑TOP　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(877 words)