Why You Can’t Out-Exercise a Poor Diet

If you are an exercise fanatic but still give in to high-fat foods, sweets, and the other cravings that you may have, your exercise may not give you the results that you’d expect to be getting.

We have found three reasons why you can’t out-exercise a poor diet:

1. You won’t have enough energy to complete a successful workout.

If you have a poor diet, you won’t have enough energy to push through successful workouts. Those sugary foods might give you a burst of energy for a little while, but they will leave you even more tired in a few hours:

Jennifer McDaniel is the founder of McDaniel Nutrition Therapy in St. Louis, and she says that consuming carbs before your workout and eating a combination of carbohydrates and protein after is the most effective way to give you energy.

“They’re the preferred energy for the exerciser’s muscles and mind,” says McDaniel. She also says that most of the time, you won’t even have the motivation to start exercising in the first place if you have a poor diet.

2. You might not be a professional athlete.

Unless you are a professional athlete, your caloric intake and the amount of calories you are actually burning isn’t the best ratio.

Sara Haas, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says that, “Eating a calorically dense, high-carbohydrate meal or snack makes sense for a competitive cyclist about to endure a 100-mile road race, but it doesn’t make sense for someone who is about to take a two-mile jog around the block.”

You should calculate how many calories you’re burning compared to the ones you are actually consuming.

3. You won’t see the exact results you want.

You can exercise all you want, but if you are not eating healthy and getting all of your essential nutrients, it will be difficult to tone your target areas.

Consuming lots of empty calories just go straight to your target areas. “It’s dependent on your specific body type, but generally women tend to gain weight in the hips and thighs, while men pack it around their midsection,” says Haas.

In order to become truly toned, you will have to build muscle and burn calories at the same time. It will be much easier to do this if you don’t consume these excess empty calories in the first place.