In the ongoing battle of the bulge for millions of Americans, could the importance of implementing a regular exercise regimen be overrated in how best to drop pounds? According to a study released by Loyola University’s Health Center in Chicago, the answer is yes.

Researchers from Loyola University, in tandem with several other universities – including one from Nigeria – set out to discover to what impact diet and exercise played in the lives of women and their weight levels and whether one or the other played a more requisite role.

To determine this, researchers looked at the diet and exercise habits of women living in Chicago and compared them to women living in the West African suburbs of Nigeria.

As anyone familiar with world renowned marathons like Boston and New York City knows, Nigerian men and women are perennial favorites to win or at least finish in the top five of these 26.2 mile treks. And when on-lookers get their first look at these Nigerian men and women as they cross the finish line, let’s just say none of them are mistaken for offensive linemen. So it comes as no surprise when the researchers’ numbers revealed the crop of women from Nigeria weighed significantly less than the women from Chicago – averaging 127 pounds to Chicago’s 184 pounds.

Given my marathon example, one would think the difference in weight among women living in divergent continents boils down to activity levels, right? Well according to the researchers, the activity levels were quite similar, in fact. Where the diverging continents’ women diverged was in what they ate.

For example, the Chicago women’s diet tended to be quite high in processed foods and fat. In fact, fat made up between 40 and 45 percent of their diets (meaning fat comprised more of their diet than protein or carbohydrates did; carbohydrates should make up the brunt of any diet).

By comparison, the only thing Nigerian women’s diet was high in was fiber and carbohydrates. And as their low weight levels indicate, they were clearly eating the right kind of carbohydrates.

Though the researchers urge further research – as they always do – their findings leave them confident that diet, not exercise, ought to be given priority when trying to losing weight.

I wish I could be as conclusive, but I’m afraid I can’t.

As anyone who is familiar with my articles knows, I’m a HUGE advocate of exercise. In fact, I’m inclined to suggest that exercise – not diet – is the most important aspect of weight loss (I won’t go that far, though). In my mind, diet and exercise are of equal importance; one is no more important than the other. I understand and agree with the researchers’ findings that exercise and a poor diet doesn’t translate into much weight loss because exercise increases the desire to eat (as more calories are burned, the more the body craves calories). So in that sense, I agree. But other studies show exercise is the ultimate catalyst in losing weight. A University of Maryland study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicated this. But if studies bear little in the way of persuasion and the only thing worth believing is what the senses tell you – after all, seeing is believing – Google Michael Phelps. Take a look at what he looks like and what he ate in his run for eight gold medals at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing (decked in muscle, yet consumed an average of 12,000 calories a day from sugar-rich cereals like Frosted Flakes and a pound’s worth of pasta made from refined flour). Those facts and pictures suggest diet plays second fiddle to exercise.

If I absolutely had to pick one – gun to my head – I’d pick diet as more important than exercise, but they’re as close to being equal in importance as anything I can think of and should be implemented in tandem.

The reasons abound as to why they need to be implemented in tandem, but chief among them is avoidance of disease. This is best accomplished through one’s diet. The body makes use of the diet’s quality nutrients through an efficient and revved up metabolism, which is realized with a regular exercise regimen.