Personally I'd say it's more like 85% diet and 15% exercise. I say this because I exercised for months without dieting and lost only a few pounds. I've lost 27 pounds since I began watching my diet.
Jennifer Ann...I SO appreciate this post. I have been working out like a wild woman the last 4 months but not very devoted to clean eating, especially with the holidays, and have only lost 15 pounds. I needed to hear this, especially since you had so much success after changing your junk food intake. By the way, do you cook a lot? I am struggling to love cooking and have purchased Tosca's Clean Eating Cookbook, but haven't been able to force myself to make one thing. Can you maintain a life of clean eating if you don't really like to cook?
Elizabeth
IMHO, this "75% diet and 25% exercise" nostrum is ridiculous. How can even you make those measurements, let alone apportion their importance in developing and maintaining a healthy body composition and performance capacity. My "diet" is about as dirty it can be - chips or Cheez-Its or cheese doodles every night, M&M crunchies each weekday afternoon, grazing on DH's french fries when we go out, smoked cheese and veggie quesadillas at Chile's . . . the list goes on, and I'm a size zero in a skirt. I seldom bring that up, but I think it warrants noting here.
Sorry I can't be of more help. All I can suggest to you is: let go of it. IMHO, it's a myth.
annette q. aquajock
IMHO, this "75% diet and 25% exercise" nostrum is ridiculous. How can even you make those measurements, let alone apportion their importance in developing and maintaining a healthy body composition and performance capacity. My "diet" is about as dirty it can be - chips or Cheez-Its or cheese doodles every night,
annette q. aquajock