Why Diet is as Important as Fitness in Weight Loss

When it comes to weight loss, most people focus on the fun aspect: the workouts, exercises, and challenges they can do. While these are important and can make the experience more engaging, many forget about an equally important factor: the diet.

In this post, we outline precisely why your nutrition plays a huge role in fitness and weight loss. Let’s dive in.

Your Diet And Weight Loss: The Fundamental Link

While people often believe that training matters most for weight loss, that isn’t the case. The truth is, how you eat will have a far more significant impact on your ability to lose weight, and it all comes down to a simple equation:

Calories in versus calories out (CICO).

Weight loss is not about finding a special diet, revolutionary training plan, or ancient Chinese secret. It’s about consuming fewer calories than you burn each day. In doing so, you create a calorie deficit and force your body to break down fat and lean tissue for the remaining energy it needs to function.

Various approaches can work not because they are unique but because they allow you to establish and maintain a calorie deficit. For example, when a gimmicky diet leads to weight loss, it’s because you’re consuming fewer calories than you burn.

Eating is far more critical than training because you cannot out-do a poor diet. For example, most people can sit down and eat thousands of calories worth of processed food. But, have these same people burn the same number of calories through exercise, most will fail.

For example, a cheeseburger with large fries and a 12-ounce milkshake from McDonald’s is 1,341 calories. You can have that meal in ten minutes and go about your day, likely to feel hungry a few hours later. But, to burn these calories through exercise, you would have to:

• Lift weights or hike for three or more hours
• Run for two and a half hours

Going Deeper: Macronutrients

Aside from eating the right amount of calories for your goals, you should also pay attention to your diet composition and ensure an adequate intake of proteins, carbs, and fats. Each of the three macronutrients plays essential roles in our health, well-being, and weight loss efforts.

For example, consuming enough protein is important for maintaining muscle tissue while losing weight. As a result, you’re far more likely to lose fat and achieve a lean and athletic appearance. Protein is also crucial for recovering after exercise, which allows you to exercise more frequently and make quicker progress.

Carbs are also important because they supply your body with the fuel it needs, allowing you to train hard, recover well, and burn extra calories. Removing carbs from your diet might seem beneficial for weight loss, but it often leads to low energy levels, poor mood, brain fog, and loss of motivation.

Fats seem the least important, but they are heavily involved in many ‘background’ processes inside the body. The nutrient plays a vital role in brain function, nutrient absorption, hormonal balance, and other processes that dictate how we feel and what results we can hope to achieve.