Sorry…You Can’t Out Exercise a Bad Diet

By Kelly Turner on March 12th, 2010

There was an article published on TIME magazine’s website entitled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin” that got my Under Armour in a bunch.  The article claimed that exercise was pointless when trying to lose weight because exercise increases your appetite, causing you to over eat, and thus, not lose weight.

While I agree that over eating will definitely keep you from losing weight, even if you exercise, my issue with the article was that it blamed exercise directly, not the exerciser who made the decision to eat.  Muffins, I believe was the author’s example.  Exercising makes you hungry, so you eat a high calorie, high fat muffin.  Exercise doesn’t let you choose a healthy, low calorie snack.  Exercise steals your free will.

It got me upset because I could almost hear exercise loathers around the world latch onto the excuse and shout, “I don’t have to exercise!  It won’t work!”

Sorry to burst your sedentary bubble, but everyone has to exercise.  EVERYONE.  Exercise is prevents diseases like cancer, increases bone density, prevents injury, evens out muscle and flexibility imbalances, relieves stress, improves sleep and gives you kick ass muscles to keep you looking firm and toned.

I do agree, however, that exercise alone will not get the weight off.  There are no freebies when it comes to weight loss. You have to have some self control.  Exercise does not give you license to eat whatever you want, and cutting calories does not mean you don’t have to work out.  Despite the calories in, calories out relationship between the two, they are not opposites, they work together.  Exercise is not mean to to undo the food you eat, calories are fuel to get you through your workout.

You cannot out exercise a bad diet.

Most people overestimate how many calories they burn (you can’t trust machines unless you entered in your height, age, weight gender, and it read your heart rate the entire time- and even then, it’s iffy) and underestimate how many calories they eat.

A good 30 minute cardio session will burn around 250 calories.

There are 250 calories in a granola bar. Or a small light smoothie at Jamba Juice.  And those are healthier options than most people pick.  Eat one of those because you think you deserve it after a workout, and bam, calorie burn gone.  You can have these, just not in addition to your everyday food because “you worked out hard.”

Does this mean there is no point in exercising?

No.

This means you have to watch your diet, too.

This means working out does not entitle you to extra snacks if your goal is weight loss.

This means you should focus on the health benefits of exercise instead of how many calories you burn.

This means “I’ll burn it off tomorrow” isn’t an excuse.