I need to lose weight, but I really hate to exercise. Can I lose weight by eating a low-calorie diet without exercising?
It’s possible; many dieters (especially women) avoid exercise at first and rely on low-calorie diets for weight loss. However, these same dieters often find that exercise can be the key to restarting weight loss that has suddenly stopped (see the section on plateaus), and most people who successfully maintain their new weights find that exercise is a necessary component of a maintenance plan. Another benefit of exercise (especially anaerobic exercises such as weight lifting–see section on “What is anaerobic exercise?”) is that it can increase the amount of muscle tissue in your body–the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
