Do You Have to Do Exercises With Weight Watchers to Lose Weight?

Embarking on a new diet plan is a great way to improve your health, but it can be daunting to try an ambitious exercise plan at the same time. If you have just signed up for a nutrition plan such as Weight Watchers, you may be wondering how important exercise really is for weight loss. Technically, eating healthier will directly lead to weight loss, but you get a lot more out of your diet when you combine it with exercise.

Diet Makes a Big Difference

• While weight loss can be slightly more complicated than one simple statement, essentially it is safe to say you lose weight when you take in fewer calories than you expend. If you are at a steady weight before you begin Weight Watchers, then the change in your daily calories will be enough for you to start losing weight. Even if you do not add any exercise, you should still see some weight loss. But avoiding exercise will ultimately rob you of the many benefits of combining diet and exercise.

What Diet Doesn't Do

• While dieting does help bring down cholesterol and blood pressure, it doesn't preserve or build lean muscle mass. You will not get stronger and may, in fact, get weaker from diet without exercise. As you age, you already are at risk for losing 1 percent of muscle mass a year, and skipping exercise only adds to this problem. Exercise helps your heart perform better, improves your metabolism and builds strong muscles that burn calories and protect your bones. If you lose weight through diet alone, the number on the scale will go down, but your body composition -- meaning the percentage of fat in your body -- will remain the same.

Diets Don't Last

• According to the National Weight Control Registry's analysis of members who were able to keep weight off for long periods of time, 89 percent of members used diet and exercise, while only 10 percent kept it off with diet alone. While Weight Watchers has an impressive track record of being an effective nutrition plan, in general, people who lose weight through diet alone are far more likely to gain it back, or gain even more.

Exercise is Easier Than You Think

• While an ideal exercise plan includes 60 minutes of activity a day, you can start with as little as 20 minutes a day to start feeling the benefits. Or, you can break up the 60 minutes into smaller chunks. Take a walk after work, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or park at the back of a parking lot and walk. Upping your activity level even a small amount can be beneficial to your body and will give you the energy and motivation to add more exercise in the future. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that most adults get at least 150 minutes of cardio a week to maintain weight, as well as one or two strength-training sessions. More may be required to lose weight.