Can You Out Work a Bad Diet?

I have heard it so many times over the years, “I want to get in the best shape of my life, what workout should I do?”  This is an admirable goal and well intentioned, however, even though working out is a huge part of “getting in the best shape of your life” if all you’re concerned about is exercise, unfortunately, you are missing the most important part of the equation. Exercise is a huge contributor to health, building an aesthetic physique, and weight maintenance and weight loss, but exercise alone most likely won’t lead you to the fat loss you need to get in the best shape of your life.  Here is a surprising fact about exercise, especially when it comes to weight loss:

DID YOU KNOW…

• Many people initially gain weight when starting a new exercise program

What’s the reason for this?  Well one reason is that because of the increased activity level, many individuals feel increased hunger and therefore increase their caloric intake.  This happens subconsciously and when trying to lose weight, can be discouraging.  

It is true, exercise will most likely increase your appetite.  But if you’re burning enough calories, you could theoretically eat more calories and still lose weight, right?  Well that sounds good in theory but let’s take a look at the math on that to see if it actually plays out that way.  

While it might make sense to you after reading this, you may not have known this before…

The bigger the body or person, the more calories you will burn doing the same activity as a smaller person.  

Using a little bit of reasoning… It requires more energy to move a 220 lbs body than it does a 110 lbs body.  This is important to note because as you continue to lose weight, the same activity will not burn as many calories as it used to which will obviously make it more difficult to continue to lose weight at the same rate as time goes on.  

As far as how many calories you burn during exercise, let’s examine these numbers a little closer to see what activities may help you outwork a bad diet… or not. 

The only activity that burns less calories than weight training is walking.  Every other activity on my list above burns more calories than weight training.  So if you’re after an initial calorie burn, cardio is an awesome way to do that.  The thing that weight training does that other forms of exercise doesn’t and won’t do, is build muscle.  Muscle is a metabolic super power!  Muscle causes the body to burn more calories at rest, every single day.  Cardio in any form, won’t and can’t build muscle.  So although in the moment, cardio will burn more calories than lifting weights, over time, lifting weights will build muscle and allow you to burn more calories when you’re not exercising at all.  Just a final note on this, if you are looking to lose weight, a combination of cardio and weight training will be your best option. 

Let’s take a look at a few food items that someone might consume if you are eating what I would consider a “bad diet”.  Now quickly before we look at these food items, just to be clear, these foods may be consumed as part of a regular diet for someone who’s maintaining weight or even on a weight loss diet but they should not make up the majority of your nutrition.  I don’t really believe in “good” or “bad” foods.  Food is fuel for the body and serves a purpose.  On a weight loss diet, food should be filling and full of nutrients.  Foods that have high calories, not filling, and easy to consume high quantities because they’re extra tasty may not be the best option on a weight loss diet.  Here’s a look at a few of those options:

Of course the list of snack foods is much, much longer than the short list I have put together above, but this list will serve our purpose and give you a good idea of how many calories you burn during exercise compared to how many calories are in common snack foods. 

If you were to only take a quick look at this list you might come to the conclusion that you CAN outwork a bad diet but upon further examination, I think you would see the answer is the opposite.  It will be very difficult to outwork a bad diet.  For example, who eats just one slice of pizza?  Not many people.  1 slice of pizza is only 150-200 calories but if you were to consume 2 slices and 2 servings of chips like most people might, the calories then would be 620-700 calories.  Many people could easily eat more than that, maybe even double that amount!  There are very few exercise options that will burn nearly 700 calories, especially for someone who is not in the best of shape to begin with.  For example, looking at our exercise list above, a 220 lbs person who runs at a 10 min/mile pace for 30 minutes would burn 919 calories, however, most people who are 220 lbs are not in shape enough to run that fast for that long.  

To get straight to the point that we all know we’re ultimately going to arrive at, the answer is no.. no you cannot outwork a bad diet.  The types of foods that we consume on a “bad diet” have too many calories and exercise in general does not burn nearly enough calories to keep up with as many calories as we consume on those types of diets.  

However, there is still hope!  

You don’t need to eat a bad diet!! You can consume a healthy, nutritious diet that is full of tasty foods that fit your caloric intake goals while at the same time exercising on a weekly basis to help burn calories, build strength and stamina, look and feel great, and stay healthy in general.  We don’t need to be on any far end of the spectrum of exercise or caloric intakes to see health and weight improvements.  Eat a generally healthy diet, exercise on a regular basis (2-4X/week) and do it on a consistent basis for months and years at a time and you will look and feel better.  

This is not the sexy attention grabbing headlines.  It’s not the cleansing fruit juice for a week advice or the special this or that diet that goes along with “These 7 exercises for weight loss” type of thing.  It’s basic, boring, tried and true advice that actually works.  Do the boring stuff.  Eat your vegetables, exercise regularly - lift weights and do some cardio, get some protein, limit your sweets.  It’s moderation.  Try it for a year and let me know how it works out for you.