Exercise or Diet. What’s More Important to Lose Weight?
Do you believe it’s easier to shut your mouth or move your fat *ss?
Let’s put something straight here.
There is just one way to lose weight :
Calorie Deficit.
Calorie deficit is when you spend more calories than you eat, Your calorie output is higher than your Input.
There are two ways you can achieve that:
1- Increase the amount or calories you burn.
This can be done through exercise, or any physical activity which makes your body “consume more fuel”.
2- lower the amount of calories you consume.
Aka. eat less.
Calorie deficit is the only way you can lose weight and these are the two paths how you can reach it.
All the other stories, ways and super formulas from coaches and gurus you read around, are either a truth build in top of this, or a lie trying to sell you something.
But a calorie deficit alone won’t give you the body you want, nor the lifestyle, at maximum, you’ll see a lower number on the scale.
Are We in agreement with that?
Good.
Your Mind
Most people who struggle with weight or body issues, because they believe in order to get in shape they need to practice a ton of exercise,
that they do a diet, they won’t be able to eat anything that’s tasty, and their life will fall apart because of it.
Even the reason for wanting to get in shape, sometimes makes no sense.
to see some lower number on the scale, fit inside that desired piece of clothing, maybe date that hot friend around.
Some others even believe they are way past the moment of exercising, going to the gym, and creating a healthy lifestyle,
They tell themselves the body can’t handle anymore, and just accept the victim mentality.
Well, while some of these things might actually happen, and some others shouldn’t even matter.
Most are all weak foundations to build something so important such as your health.
In order to actually get in shape, achieve your desired goals, and become your best version.
The first thing you need to change is your mindset.
Your Body, Health and Life, won’t change until your mind does.
Become your best healthier version isn’t about seeing a lower number on a scale, just fitting inside some piece of clothing, or practicing some exercise you hate for 1 hour, and then going back to old self destructive habits.
In order to do that you need to become a completely different person, with different habits, and routines.
And to become this new you, will take effort and time, especially time for you to accept this change.
This happens because getting in shape is a never ending process,
Is something you work on every single day.
But eventually the new different habits you adopt, become the daily routine,
and it gets easier.
Dieting
It would be hypocritical to want to become healthier, and neglect dieting.
And I don’t mean dieting in the way of going on a diet, not eating this or that,
I mean it on the total spectrum of how you fuel your body.
From my experience, most people fail with their body, and diets because they see it simply in a negative way.
The idea of following a diet and not being able to eat any delicious stuff while on it, is pretty much what makes you hate diets.
The idea of:
“I can’t eat this because my nutritionist told me not to,
if i do it will feel like I destroyed my entire progress and he will know I cheated the moment he looks at me,
But…..He is not here and I can’t resist temptation,
so I guess it’s just a small piece”
And boom! the entire chocolate bar is gone.
After eliminating more than 90 Kilos, and trying most of diets you can find around (you can read more here)
This is the reason why I don’t believe in restrictive diets.
Diets which tells you what you can and can not eat, never really work in the long-term.
The idea of “you MUST NOT eat this or that” is not healthy or sustainable.
We are humans, We love to do everything that’s forbidden.
Falling into temptation is the 1st sin of humanity, isn’t it? Wasn’t that the reason why god kicked us out from paradise?
Something based on resisting temptation will never work for us.
My biggest gain of conscience about myself, eating disorders and nutrition came when I had zero control over me.
When I started to live alone, I had no more mom, relatives or anyone buying the food I would eat, and had to go to the market by myself.
Going by myself, I could buy 10 chocolate bars, 2 ice cream pots, 5 pizzas, 2 bottles of soda, and 3 packs of chips, my mom wasn’t there to tell me I couldn’t eat the entire bar.
And I could eat one for breakfast, another one for lunch, and then at dinner I would eat another while binge watching some Game of Thrones.
Needless to say, I wasn’t the best example of health right?
After literally trying every single sugary treat under 2$ I could find in every different chain of markets, I started to feel bad about not finding anything new.
And at some moment my mind started to change from
“I can eat all of these delicious things”
to
“If I keep eating all this junk I probably won’t live much longer, and then my mom will be sad because I died in this stupid way, this is not a healthy person diet”
And I decided to take care of my nutrition.
Another point I see, is that most people lie to themselves all the time with the “I don’t know how to cook, I don’t know what to eat”
and then proceed to grab the easiest snack available and shove down their throat.
Well, first things first:
Stop lying to yourself!
You know exactly what kind of food is good or bad, and you also know exactly what habits and actions keep you stuck where you are.
But you feel comfortable in those shoes, and keep finding excuses to stay there,
first because the hormonal shots in your brain while eating the chocolate bar in comfort feels good,
second because you are afraid of change, afraid of committing, and literally killing this version of you which lives in complete comfort.
Little secret:
You won’t become a new person, unless you kill the one you already are.
And that works for every area of your life, if you don’t understand that, just reflect over and over until you do.
The healthier version of you, probably doesn’t do half of the actions and habits you have every day.
The only difference between you and your alter-ego version, is how you live your day,
how you both take every single action,
nothing else.
If you want to achieve your fittest version, start thinking about diet and nutrition as something positive.
Think about it not as “I can’t this or that” but as fueling your body the best way you can,
Because food is fuel for the body, not for the mind.
And until you understand and accept it,
you will keep struggling with emotional eating,
Thinking you will get satisfied after that chocolate bar.
Exercising
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” ― Socrates
Nowadays I divide the world between people who consider exercise torture, and those who consider pleasure.
One will keep stuck with self sabotaging, destructive habits and pretty much never achieve anything they tell themselves in their lives.
The Other will wake up at 6 am feeling like sh*t and wanting to explode the phone on the wall,
look out the window, feel it’s cold and see it’s raining, but without a single second thought,
“whatever”
they will put on their shoes and go out for a Run.
Just because they know the moment they start running, all of those problems disappear, and it’s just you against yourself.
Which kind are you?
And believe it or not, this has nothing to do with running, but you need to find your “Morning Run”.
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If you want help to become your fittest version, and stop struggling with body issues, you can follow me Here on Medium where I write about Health Lifestyle, Fitness, Weight Loss, Mind Health and more.
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Thanks and Have a nice day folks!
See you tomorrow.
–DGaspar.
