Can We Out Exercise a Bad Diet?

July 22, 2013 / Nutrition / Source: Nutrition

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a firm believer in good nutrition and I believe that it plays a HUGE role with our health and fitness…and physical appearance.  In fact, I can tell you from experience that how you eat will directly affect how you feel.  I was not a healthy eater when I was younger, and I was fairly picky and I could not even imagine eating or even trying many of the foods that I now eat.  Now, I crave the healthier options and have no desire to eat items such as white bread or Doritos, etc.

Next, aside from choosing healthier food options, is the amount of food that we consume.  I often cringe when I hear people say that they will do a little bit more exercise to make up for the extra food that they are going to eat (or just ate) because that is actually a big misconception.  In the article below, Does exercise make you FAT?, they revealed that despite the increase in activity among Americans, the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation reported that it hasn’t made a dent in the obesity epidemic.  In addition, the article does a great job of comparing the amount of exercise that is needed to burn off the calories that we eat.  Therefore, it is clear that we need to change more than just our activity level.  Physical exercise is very important, but it is only a small part of the equation.  Our nutrition, both the type and amount, is key.

For more information: Does exercise make you FAT? Experts say we're deluded about how many calories we burn doing it... and then we over-eat