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You use exercise alone to shed pounds

Regular exercise is crucial for health and maintaining a healthy weight, but it won't help you lose weight unless you cut down your calorie intake.

"Patients exercise themselves until they're blue in the face, they're frustrated, they're sort of at a loss as to why they haven't had success," says Shantanu Nundy, MD, a primary care physician at the University of Chicago. But the truth is that exercise—maybe because it whets the appetite, maybe because we decide it's OK to reward ourselves with a treat after that workout, maybe both—often makes people eat more, which means you'll make up for the calories you just burned, and then some.

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