WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT - DIET or EXERCISE?
There is a forever-going battle between what is more important - nutrition or exercise. Some people are convinced the magic is in training, some believe nutrition is everything!
I asked my followers on Instagram for their opinion on the topic. About 97% of people answered Nutrition is more important. In this blog post, you will find out if that indeed, is true…
Ideally, you don’t want to prioritize one over other. Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand in improving your overall health, appearance and athletic performance. However, in some occasions, one might play a bigger role than the other.
This question can be asked in different contexts and the answer will always depend. P.s. (whispering) Everything in fitness & nutrition is about the context.
So first thing to do is to define For WHAT, your goal! Are you asking which -diet or exercise, is more important for weight-loss, for building muscle, for improving body composition, overall health or athletic performance?
There is no ONE answer that fits all and I want to show you why. Let’s see what role diet & exercise play in each of these contexts.
The importance of diet and exercise in WEIGHT-LOSS
First, let’s distinguish the difference between weight loss and fat loss!
Your bodyweight consists of various entities, such as your bones, skeletal muscle, organs, body water, bodyfat, blood and vessels, ligaments and food mass that is being digested. All these entities will affect how much your body weighs. You can lose weight in many different ways such as shaving your head (loss of hair weight), sweating & peeing (loss of water weight), bowel movement (loss of waste), losing muscle mass , losing fat mass, donating blood, etc. Yes, you can lose bodyweight but not lose a single gram of bodyfat! Fat-loss is a lot more direct towards decreasing the amount of bodyfat you carry. However, does not always mean you will be losing an equal amount of bodyweight.
In order to decrease the overall size and shape of your body, you will need to create a negative energy balance, meaning, you will need to use more energy than you consume through food and drinks. The unit of energy in nutrition is called a Calorie. To create an energy deficit, you will need to consume less Calories than you use in metabolic processes and your daily activities. It is important to note that exercise takes up a very small part of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You are probably burning a lot less calories in your workout than you think. Probably, even a lot less of what your smartwatch says. Most of the energy is used to fuel the basal metabolic processes. These involve vital functions to keep your body alive. You do not have a direct control over them. BMR or basal metabolic rate is measured at rest and takes up about 60-75% of your total energy expenditure. Only 15-30% of your TDEE is used for daily activity. These 15-30% include both - exercise activity such as a workout and a non-exercise activity such as having a shower or walking to the kitchen. Because the amount of Calories you burn through exercise is so low, you don’t want to fully rely on it to create a Calorie deficit. You have a lot better chances of losing weight by adjusting your nutritional intake to support a weight-loss goal. Not to mention, if you solely rely on exercise to lose weight and do not have control over your calorie intake, there is a very high likelihood you will eat all your “burned“ calories back. Have you heard a saying “You cannot out-train a bad diet“? Well, it couldn’t be more true.
So if you do have to prioritize one - nutrition or exercise, DIET will take place at the very TOP of your PRIORITY list when it comes to weight-loss.
But please do not close the book just yet…
Even though, it may seem like you have a golden answer right in front of you, it is not quite as simple. Many people who are actively losing weight with dieting but are not putting an effort into exercising and training, will soon realize that their weight-loss goal is not quite what they expected.
The importance of a diet and exercise in IMPROVING BODY COMPOSITION
Your body composition can be described as a proportion between your fat mass vs fat-free mass. Fat-free mass or lean body mass includes all components of your bodyweight except fat. If you remember from earlier on, these will be things like muscle, liquids, bone mass and organs. For individuals who are carrying more bodyfat, an improved body composition may mean decreasing body fat (losing fat), increasing muscle mass (building muscle) or decreasing fat mass and maintaining muscle mass. It allows an individual to look leaner and more shaped. This is what most people picture when they are thinking of their body goals. Ladies are picturing tiny waist and an hourglass figure while men are looking to create more of a triangle shape with an emphasis on their upper body. * This is generalized, of course.
To achieve this body, diet alone is not enough. Same as you cannot out-train a bad diet, you CAN also NOT SHAPE YOUR BODY BY DIET ALONE! In order to keep your muscle mass or build it, you will need a proper stimulus which you will receive from training. If this stimulus is not received, your body has no reason to build or keep the muscle mass.
What most dieters don’t realize is when you are on a calorie deficit, the weight you are losing is not only your body fat. You will also be losing your muscle mass. And if you are not stimulating your muscles through training, that muscle loss can be quite significant. This is an ugly surprise for many who reach their weight-loss goal and realize they simply look flat. Flat buttocks, saggy arms and chest. It is not what they expected or were looking to achieve. All of this can be avoided by combining training and diet in your weight-loss plan. BOTH at an EQUAL IMPORTANCE!
The importance of a diet and exercise in MUSCLE BUILDING (Hypertrophy)
If you have made this far in the article, you already know that to give your muscle a reason to grow, you will need to stimulate it with proper training. Dieting alone is not going to be the answer. As a matter of fact, you can eat all the right things in the world but if you are not giving the right amount of proper stimulus to your muscle, you still won’t see much gains happening. You might be able to build some muscle with a poor diet but you won’t be able to do it without training. This is a great reason to believe that when it comes to building muscle, TRAINING is going to raise to the TOP of your PRIORITY list. Sure, when you reach a certain level, building muscle gets more complicated and nutrition will play a massive role into your potential gains. But even then, training is going to be an absolutely essential part of reaching your goals and having a structured and sensible training program will be a Must.
The importance of a diet and exercise in IMPROVING ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
If you want to develop and improve a skill, any kind of skill, you will need to practice it. Training and practice is going to be a base for improving your performance and developing that certain skill. You don’t learn a handstand by eating broccoli. You won’t get better at a deadlift by eating chicken breast.
This does not mean that nutrition does not play a role in improving performance. It does, you would be surprised how much. Especially for professional athletes and people who are very serious about their goals. But if we had to prioritize one (diet or exercise) over another to develop our athletic abilities, it would without a doubt be TRAINING. You cannot develop a skill without practice!
SUMMARY
Nutrition and exercise are both important when it comes to changing your appearance, improving performance or overall health. But there are times and certain scenarios when one will rank higher in the priority list than the other. Priorities will change depending on many individual factors and your goals.
HERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF WHAT TO PRIORITIZE FOR A CERTAIN GOAL:
WEIGHTLOSS: Priority 1- Nutrition, 2- Exercise
IMPROVING BODY COMPOSITION: 1- Nutrition & Training
BUILDING MUSCLE: 1- Training, 2- Nutrition
PERFORMANCE: 1- Training, 2- Nutrition
GENERAL HEALTH: 1- Nutrition, 2-Exercise
My goal with this post is to create awareness that not everything is black and white. Hopefully, this will help someone to broaden their view and inspire someone to keep an open mind when it comes to fitness and nutrition-related topics. This is how we are going to roll on FNS blog space!
I am looking forward to sharing more information with you and help you navigate through fitness-related topics without getting lost. If you are still reading this it means you enjoyed it to some extent so I will appreciate you sharing this post with someone you think might benefit from it.
Thank you so much for reading and I am looking forward to seeing you again!
Your Coach,
Paula
