avatarElaine Hilides

Summary

The article emphasizes that maintaining a healthy diet is crucial for weight management, as exercise alone cannot compensate for a poor diet.

Abstract

The article discusses the common misconception that increased physical activity can offset the consumption of unhealthy foods. It cites a study involving over 350,000 participants, which concludes that a bad diet cannot be counteracted by exercise. The piece highlights that processed foods high in calories can quickly undo the calorie deficit created by typical exercise routines. It also points out that not all calories are equal, and the body may compensate for increased exercise by boosting appetite, leading to negligible weight loss. The article suggests that while exercise has many benefits, including reducing visceral fat and improving mental well-being, it is not an effective strategy for significant weight loss if paired with a diet of high-calorie, processed foods. The author encourages a combination of healthy eating and exercise for overall health and fitness.

Opinions

  • Exercise alone is insufficient for weight loss if one's diet consists of high-calorie, processed foods.
  • A "bad diet" is characterized by low fruit and vegetable intake, no fish, and high consumption of red and processed meats.
  • The body may negate the calorie-burning effects of exercise by increasing appetite, making weight loss challenging.
  • Exercise can lead to the loss of visceral fat, which is more beneficial for health than losing subcutaneous fat.
  • Engaging in regular physical activity can improve self-esteem and mood, potentially leading to better food choices.
  • The author suggests that combining exercise with a diet of natural, healthy foods is the most effective approach to weight management and overall health.

Do You Believe the Amount of Exercise You Do Equals the Calories You Eat?

Sorry to tell you, you can’t outrun a bad diet

Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash

“But you always put on a stone a week on a cruise”, Annie said sincerely, “There are so many cakes and desserts, and then there’s the midnight buffet.”

I’ve heard variations of this sentiment from clients over the years. As if it’s inevitable that they put on weight because they’re on holiday, or it’s Christmas, and let’s not talk about chocolate Easter eggs.

But it’s okay, they tell me. I’ll ramp up my exercise sessions to run it off.

If you revamp your diet while you up your exercise regime, this might be possible, but if you keep eating too much of the wrong type of food, I’m sorry to tell you, you’ll never outrun a bad diet.

Can You Ever Exercise Away a Bad Diet?

A study of more than 350,000 people in the United Kingdom found,

“You cannot outrun a bad diet, nor can you outeat an inactive lifestyle. We should strive to be counted as good in both habits.”

The researchers looked at the amount of exercise each participant did in an average week and how vigorous it was, the idea being you might be able to “outrun a bad diet” with more vigorous exercise.

For this study, a “bad diet” consisted of low fruit and vegetable intake, no fish, and lots of red meat, especially processed meat.

Think about it: if you’re doing an average-paced exercise like biking or walking on a treadmill, you’ll burn around 350 calories an hour.

But if you consume fizzy drinks and processed food at 70 calories a minute, you can eliminate an hour of exercise in five minutes.

Maybe you think it doesn’t matter if you eat junk food as long as you work out. Sorry, not so.

If you eat a pizza one day and tell yourself that you’ll go to the gym or for a run the next day to balance the books, you’re fooling yourself. Even if you have an intense workout the next day, you’re only likely to burn around 600 calories.

And if you eat a diet full of CRAP food and, this isn’t a judgement, I’m talking about Calorie Rich And Processed, the kind of food that can be consumed quickly and doesn’t fill you up; you won’t realise that you’ve consumed a high amount of calories because you equate the calories to the feeling of fullness.

After all, you can’t possibly have eaten a lot because you’re still hungry.

But the average cooked burger weighs around 750 calories and can be eaten in minutes. You might not realise they’d have to jog a quarter of a mile for each bite of the average chocolate bar like Mars or Snickers.

Do you believe the amount of exercise you do equals the calories you eat?

People continue to think that the amount of activity they do equals the calories they take in.

But not all calories are created equally.

Dr Colin Carriker, an exercise physiologist and associate professor of health and human performance at High Point University in North Carolina, says,

“You’re overconsuming calories and will have to do way more exercise than a person can sustain on a long-term basis.”

If you come home or go out after exercising and eat a big salad, you’re not going to consume as many calories as you would if you picked up a burger and fries.

Research shows that because calorie intake rises to match any calorie loss, it’s difficult to lose weight with exercise if you aren’t changing what you eat.

You might burn off 1500 calories a week with an intense exercise regime. Still, your body will probably compensate by boosting your appetite so that you consume 950 calories more per week, so your weight loss will be negligible.

And, if the pounds aren’t coming off, you’re more likely to blame the exercise than that junk, so you junk the exercise.

What Happens if You Eat Well and Exercise and Still Can’t Lose Weight?

So what happens if you’re eating fruit and vegetables, pulses and nuts, good fat and fibre, but the pounds still aren’t coming off when you exercise?

This is because you might lose body fat but gain lean body mass.

But while exercise combined with a healthy diet may not affect your overall weight, it will shift the most dangerous body fat, the visceral fat, around our organs.

Everybody is obsessed with the subcutaneous fat they can grab or complain about, but it’s the visceral fat you need to shift.

An average overweight person who might lose around ten pounds from calorie restriction will remove about 13% of their visceral fat, but if the weight loss were achieved through exercise, the loss of visceral fat would be about 21%.

So, exercising for weight loss is not the answer if you want to shift a significant amount of weight, especially if you’re eating biscuits or crisps on the way home from the gym. However, incorporating exercise into your day is still a win-win.

You might not regret working out, but they do regret not working out.

Feel Good with Exercise

Another plus of exercise is that the more you exercise, the better you feel about yourself, as it increases endorphins, dopamine, and adrenaline.

It’s true that these chemicals can be released by your brain when you think about someone you love or something you like to do; you know that your brain is the mind’s pharmacist, but exercise is a physical way to release these happy chemicals, and when you’re feeling happy and good about yourself, you might not want to eat biscuits and crisps on the way home.

Because you’re feeling good about yourself, you want to prolong that feeling rather than throw it away with an empty crisp packet, so exercising might steer you away from a junk diet.

You’ll experience a feedback loop the same way you do when you eat badly and then continue to eat badly because you’ve already started, so what’s the point of changing now?

You can experience the same feedback loop in the opposite direction and feel good, so why would you want to jeopardise the feeling?

Final Thoughts

Don’t despair, even though Mark Twain said,

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

Exercising is good. Eating real, natural, healthy food is good.

Put them together, and you can’t lose. Especially on a 5k run.

Life
Healthy Foods
Exercise
Wellness
Health
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