  Similar to the Sun, other stars shed mass and magnetic flux via ubiquitous
quasi-steady wind and episodic stellar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We
investigate the mass loss rate via solar wind and CMEs as a function of solar
magnetic variability represented in terms of sunspot number and solar X-ray
background luminosity. We estimate the contribution of CMEs to the total solar
wind mass flux in the ecliptic and beyond, and its variation over different
phases of the solar activity cycles. The study exploits the number of sunspots
observed, coronagraphic observations of CMEs near the Sun by SOHO/LASCO, in
situ observations of the solar wind at 1 AU by WIND, and GOES X-ray flux during
solar cycle 23 and 24. We note that the X-ray background luminosity, occurrence
rate of CMEs and ICMEs, solar wind mass flux, and associated mass loss rates
from the Sun do not decrease as strongly as the sunspot number from the maximum
of solar cycle 23 to the next maximum. Our study confirms a true physical
increase in CME activity relative to the sunspot number in cycle 24. We show
that the CME occurrence rate and associated mass loss rate can be better
predicted by X-ray background luminosity than the sunspot number. The solar
wind mass loss rate which is an order of magnitude more than the CME mass loss
rate shows no obvious dependency on cyclic variation in sunspot number and
solar X-ray background luminosity. These results have implications to the study
of solar-type stars.
