Getting and staying fit requires both a commitment to diet and exercise, but for some reason a lot of people get the idea that it’s possible to offset too much food with exercise. Technically exercise burns off calories, but not enough that you can eat whatever you want.
In fact a lot of people suggest that what you eat (and don’t eat) is a lot more important than what you’re doing in the gym. Especially when it comes to losing weight.
The concept of calorie in calorie out is not as simple as it seems. It doesn’t take into account the differences in resting metabolism weight, how one type of food affects your blood sugar differently than another food, or how your hormones respond.
No one would actually suggest that eating 100 calories of cheese is the same as eating 100 calories of broccoli, and yet the calorie in calorie out theory sort of relies on that assumption.
Different foods have different nutrients, which all have different physiological effects on the body. Sugar send the insulin levels in the body soaring, which leads to sugar crashes and cravings instead of helping you feel full like some fiber and healthy would do.
You could make some huge changes to your body just by the simple fact of dropping refined sugar from your diet. Keep in mind that foods like processed breads are the same as sugar to the body, which is why white bread will never fill you up the way that some whole grain wheat bread will.
Something like spinach on the other hand will lead to the body’s release of glucagon, which actually encourages the body to release fat to be burned as energy. It’s a complex process of what really goes on in there, but all you need to really know are the simple and true facts about what kind of food is good for you and what isn’t.
This isn’t to say that working out doesn’t have its purpose, because of course it does.
Exercise helps to burn up your fat-storing enzymes, as well as boost your metabolism so you just naturally burn more calories from fat throughout the day even when you’re sitting at your desk. Exercise also helps to build muscle which requires more energy from calories than fat does, and besides all the other healthy things it does for your body exercise also can boost your mood which can change the way you approach food as well.