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Nutrition vs exercise. Is one more important than the other?
Yes and no. They are both important for helping you reach your goals, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. But, nutrition has a bigger impact.
Maybe you've heard of the 80/20 rule when it comes to reaching your health and fitness goals. The rule says that 80% of your results will come from nutrition, and 20% from exercise. Let me explain.
Let's say your goal is to lose one pound a week. The key to weight loss is a negative energy balance, which means you burn more calories than you consume. To lose one pound per week, you need a 3,500 calorie deficit. If you rely on exercise alone, you would have to burn 500 calories every day for one week, and most people WILL NOT burn that many calories during a workout, or workout seven days a week! To put this into perspective, according to Women's Health Magazine, you would have to run 7-10 miles a day to burn that many calories! That's a lot of activity! This is why you cannot "out exercise" or "burn off" unhealthy eating habits.
However, let's say you reduce your calorie intake by 430 calories per day (That's just one Starbucks Grande Vanilla Frappuccino!), and burn 200 calories three times per week through exercise (That's about a 30 minute walk), you will have a 3600 calorie deficit, or one pound of weight loss!! As you can see, this is where the 80/20 rule begins to make sense, and shows that your nutrition has a bigger impact than just exercise alone. These are small changes that are very manageable, and make a big difference over time!
Making positive changes in your eating habits is the first step in reaching your goals, but exercise is still very important for many reasons! As you eat less, the body tends to go into starvation mode and resists weight loss by slowing your metabolism, which can lead to a plateau. You can speed up your metabolism again by working out. Exercise should include cardio and strength training. Lean muscle mass speeds up metabolism!
There is another 80/20 rule, or the Pareto principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle that says 80% of your results will come from 20% of your habits. I like this principle because, simply put, it means that small changes lead to big results! When you make small changes in your eating habits, and consistently add moderate exercise, it's easier to maintain a healthy weight, helps alleviate burnout, and creates healthy habits that are sustainable!
The bottom line: what you eat has a bigger impact on helping you reach your goals, but exercise
is also important for achieving and maintaining a healthier you!
~It's all about a Balanced approach to health and fitness~