Exercise VS Food: Can You Out-train A Bad Diet?

So, you are at the gym and its Exercise VS Food time. You work hard burning a ton of calories with each session.

It’s sort of like your caloric insurance, giving you the freedom to splurge every so often, knowing that those calories are going to be zapped the next time you hit the gym.

If that’s been your mindset, it’s time to wake up to the  truth about Exercise VS Food.

Most people don’t realise how long it actually takes to burn calories. If you ate an entire meatlovers pizza for instance it might take you about 20 minutes to eat it. Each slice of pizza adds 400 calories to your body. The entire 8-slice pizza adds 3200 calories.

Now, if you were running on a treadmill for one solid hour, you would burn a grand total of 450 calories. Do the math, and you’ll realise that to burn off that entire pizza, you would have to run for nearly 8 hours non-stop.

Our pizza example makes it pretty clear that you simply cannot do enough exercise to make up for the damage caused by a bad diet. Most people who exercise regularly and yet don’t see the results that they expect are simply not strict enough on their nutrition.

If you’re one of those who are constantly frustrated at your lack of ability to lose body-fat despite working out all the time, it’s time to refine your eating plan.

Rather than negating all of your hard work in the gym, implement the following food tips will complement rather than compromise your fat burning goals.

Eat To Be Healthy Not Fat

As we’ve seen, Exercise VS Food comes down to a simple caloric equation. Food piles calories in quickly, while exercise burns it off slowly. You will never make progress by trying to burn more than you eat. To make some real headway you have got to reduce your caloric intake.

Many people of course, eat for emotional rather than hunger reasons. Knowing your caloric needs will help to control your eating and help balance the exercise – food equation: it’s time to wake up to the  truth about Exercise VS Food.

Calculate Your Daily Requirements:

Working out how many calories you need to take in in order to lose weight is essential for successful fat loss. The first step is to calculate your daily maintenance caloric needs. Go here to do this . . .

Daily Calorie Intake Calculator

Once you have your daily maintenance levels, reduce that number by 500 calories. Over the course of a week you will be taking in 3,500 calories less than your maintenance level – that’s the approximate amount of calories in a half a Kilogram of fat.

Now divide that number by the number of meals you’ll be eating throughout the day, to give yourself a total caloric level for each meal. You’ll want to measure out your calories for the first couple of weeks to get a good idea of the portion sizes you’ll need.

Eat Better

The Exercise VS Food equation is not just about calories. Unless you are  putting the proper types of calories into your system you will never make traction in the gym. By avoiding simple, refined carbs and increasing fibre rich green leafy carbs, healthy fats and lean proteins, you will be supporting your exercise efforts.

You should also be aware of any foods that you are sensitive to. Eating such foods will cause inflammation of the intestines, sluggishness and fat gain. To discover what foods you are sensitive to, follow a short term food elimination diet.

Just as important as eating the right foods, is eating the right foods at the right time. You should eat  the majority of your carbs around your workout, with your proteins taking precedence the further away you are from the workout.

Exercise Less

People who try to win the Exercise VS Food equation by exercising more run into a few problems.

Firstly, the more you exercise the hungrier you get. Sustained cardio exercise for instance, increases release of the hunger hormone Grehlin along with Dopamine and Seratonin, which cause cravings.

Secondly, the more exercise you do to control your weight, the more you must continue to do in order to maintain the same weight. You get to a point where your body expects a certain amount of exercise or else it will not respond. That leads to unsustainable demand for more and more exercise.

Thirdly, the more you exercise the more likely you are your going to release the stress hormone called Cortisol. Once this becomes a normal state for your body to be in, then all the hard work to get rid of fat will not pay off. Cortisol will slow or even stop your body burning fat, as your body will be under a constant state of stress.

A Better Way

Trying to defeat a bad diet with exercise is a fast track to getting fat. It puts you in a negative mindset in which you are constantly making up for bad choices – and never getting there. Don’t let yourself go there.

Take control of your taste buds and make the changes that will allow your food consumption to work along with your hard work in the gym to get you the body you deserve.