I’ve heard it said that you can’t ‘out-exercise’ a bad diet, but is this true? There are many people, celebs included, who claim they never watch what they eat, they just exercise like a boss. But how effective is this in the war against weight loss?
According to the experts, the best results come from a routine based on 75 percent healthy diet and 25 percent working out. This suggests that exercising is not as important as our food intake. This is partly because it takes an awful lot of effort to work off those extra calories. Having said that, a healthy diet with reduced calorie intake may help you shed the pounds, but it’s not necessarily going to make you look like a supermodel without a complementary fitness routine. This is because you’re also losing muscle and bone density, which leaves skin looking saggy. So, although the number on the scales looks good, your general physique might not reflect that. In other words, if you want to fit into those jeans and create a slender toned silhouette, then you need to exercise, too!
But if this is the case, then why won’t exercise alone burn fat and give you a super-trim shape? According to a survey carried out by the nutrition clinic at the University of Utah, those who dieted for 15 weeks without exercising lost 23 pounds and those who exercised without dieting for 21 weeks lost six pounds. So exercising works, but not as well as if its combined with a diet plan. There’s no escaping the fact that it’s harder to burn extra calories than it is to consume less.
I’m an advocate for the ‘everything in moderation’ approach. In other words, if you make a few effective changes to your diet and exercise routine, then you should see results. The trick is in combining the two effectively. It’s a bit like balancing the spices in a curry. You want to make it tasty enough to be enjoyable, but not overly spiced so that it blows your head off and you never want to repeat the experience! On the flip side, if you don’t add enough spice then the results will be bland and nondescript. Think of your favourite TV double acts, whether it’s Ant and Dec, French and Saunders or Mel and Sue, you can’t have one without the other, it just doesn’t work! The same goes for diet and exercise. According to those in the know, a healthy balanced diet which includes lean proteins, whole grains and lots of fruit and veg is the ideal way to start. Add in a high-intensity, muscle-building workout two or three times a week and you should have the perfect recipe for success!
