“80% Nutrition, 20% Training.” … “You Can’t Out Train a Bad Diet.” … “Abs are Made in the Kitchen.”
We’re sure many of you have heard these before.
It’s clear to most that nutrition needs to be a major focus when trying to lose weight. And it’s not difficult to see why – calories burned through physical activity can be easily off-set by calories consumed. You can’t outrun a herd of cheeseburgers as they say.
As important as it is, exercise alone won’t construct a healthy body.
For example:
You hit gym and have an awesome workout. Maybe you’ve attended a spin class, ran sprints on the treadmill or did 100 burpees with your trainer. You burned a lot of calories and are feeling good. You’ve done your meal prep for the week, sticking to your clean diet. Then later in the day while ordering a cold brew you can’t help but throw in an birthday cake iced donut.
One donut can’t hurt, right?
I mean, I crushed my workout, I’ve been eating clean. One little donut won’t hurt.
Well, if that one “little” donut becomes a few time a week indulgence, it just might.
At the end of the day, energy balance is the most important aspect to weight loss or weight gain. If you’re trying to lose weight by eating “clean” and training 6 days a week, but consuming more energy than you expend, your efforts will be in vain. It generally doesn’t take long to realize that investing all your energy in the gym simply won’t resolve a lifestyle of over consumption. Excessive amounts of exercise is not the answer to sustainable fat loss; rather, we must address both sides of the equation, emphasizing the latter.
Eating a health promoting diet is extremely important, but is not the sole answer to weight-loss. Guru’s in our world like to push their ideologies and all this does is make you fear foods and as a result creates a bad relationship with these foods. Cutting out gluten, sugar, dairy, carbs etc. does not make you lose weight and for most is totally unnecessary. Any one specific food or nutrient does not make you fat; consuming more calories than you burn does. The reality is that detox teas, juice cleanses, restrictive diets etc. can do more harm than good, and they certainly are not the answer to sustainable results.
So what is the answer, you ask?
Real, whole foods, at appropriate times, and in appropriate amounts. Going back to the basics here is best, and following these principles consistently is key. No fads. No diet pills. No confusing protocols. Just good ol’ fashioned nourishing food – this will help your body thrive.
The answer is not in spending hours at the gym; without the foundation of nutrition, this will not get you the results you are hoping for. But in today’s information overloaded world, we understand full-well that this is not so simple for most. Establishing sustainable, health promoting dietary habits will take consistent attention and effort, but the long-term payoff will be beyond your wildest dreams.
The key is working to establish habits that you can continue to practice day-in and day-out throughout your life. This is what we specialize in here at 
MacroNutrition. We will assist you in distancing yourself from deprivation and help you to stop making restrictive rules for yourself around food and a diet mentality.
And in order to stop restriction, you must first stop labeling food as “good” or “bad”. You must give yourself permission to eat foods that satisfy you, and allow all foods to become legalized in your mind. As you walk away from deprivation, you will find yourself also walking away from the obsession with that food. If you do this, your are taking a major leap towards gaining health so you can live with energy and vitality.