Think a morning workout is a free pass to eat whatever the heck you want all day, every day?
Trust us – we’ve been there too. But even if it balances out on the calorie counter, emerging science shows that using exercise to “cancel out” a bad diet is not only ineffective weight management, it actually puts you at risk of many serious health conditions.
1. Experts reckon that weight loss is 90 per cent diet.
It’s a common adage of health and fitness experts that, if you want to maintain a healthy weight, it’s 90 per cent diet and 10 per cent exercise. We guess that’s why so many people lose weight on our I Quit Sugar: 8-Week Program, despite our very gentle movement plan (it’s really about all those gorgeous veggies!).
2. Exercise doesn’t burn as many calories as you’d think.
Taking the stairs isn’t going to void the soft drink you had with lunch. In fact, a single can of Coke could take up to an hour of moderate exercise to burn off. Yikes!
Yep, it’s much easier to take in empty calories than it is to burn them off. We prefer to do away with junk food and calorie counting altogether. Real foods like veggies, proteins and fats will let you know when you’re satisfied and help you find your natural weight.
3. TOFI (thin outside, fat inside) is a thing.
Even if you feel slim, there’s still the chance that you’re harbouring dangerous visceral fat (the kind the wraps around your organs, particularly in the abdominal cavity). This phenomenon is called TOFI – thin outside, fat inside. It’s thought to affect 13 per cent of people with healthy body mass indexes.
Sugar appears to be a main driving factor for this dangerous belly fat. More than 3,000 scientific articles with hundreds of thousands of participants have linked excess sugar consumption to metabolic syndrome (abdominal obesity being a major symptom).
4. You’re not fuelling your body in the best way possible.
If you’re an athlete or just trying to get fit, carb-loading on a crappy McDonald’s meal is not going to get you in the best shape. If you’re serious about your long term health and performance, there are far better (and tastier!) ways to get your body the fuel it needs for the next workout.
5. It’s not just weight gain you have to worry about.
Even if you go to CrossFit three times a week or ride to work every day, sugar is still STRONGLY linked to more serious health conditions than a few extra kilos.
According to the most up-to-date and rigorous science, excess sugar consumption is associated with fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease and premature ageing. Can you outrun that?
We originally published this post in June 2016. We updated it in April 2017.
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