"If the goal is to lead a long and healthy life," then an active lifestyle with good sleep and stress management as described by GP means you begin tuning into your body much more. This increased body and mood awareness in turn precipitates a healthy diet that actually works for your body and supports your exercise regimen and healthy lifestyle.
If you just diet but at not active or sleeping well or are stressed, you are not necessarily leading to a long and healthy life. Perhaps weight loss, but not the stated goal of a long and healthy life.
I’m not talking about moderate vs vigorous exercise. Check my comment. I’m talking about exercise AND sleep/recovery AND stress. Ie a 360 view on your current mental and physical health.
What I’m saying is that if you are thoughtful about exercise, sleep, and stress, then you will be paying attention to your mood and energy level. And thus you will notice that eating junk food has detrimental effects on your mood and energy level.
People tend to follow diets blindly, and sometimes pure weightlifting routines, but rarely do people blithely exercise, manage sleep, and track stress without increased awareness of what effect diet has on them.
I’ll ask in return: let’s say you have a great diet and do yoga twice a week, but you are constantly sleep deprived and high cortisol from stress, does that lead to a long and healthy life?
If you just diet but at not active or sleeping well or are stressed, you are not necessarily leading to a long and healthy life. Perhaps weight loss, but not the stated goal of a long and healthy life.