More on Why Nutrition is Key to Overall Fitness and Fat Loss

Note: This is from an article I originally wrote for Magnolia Magazine.





Alwyn Cosgrove, a highly respected Fat loss expert, author and gym owner, talks about the hierarchy of fat loss in an well known article he wrote.


In it he lists, in order of importance:



Number 1. Correct Nutrition


Number 2. See number one.



He then continues the list with various training approaches he feels are most successful for fat loss.



Alwyn is also known for saying (paraphrased) “You can’t out train a crappy diet” as well as “You can’t out-cardio McDonalds!”


 The reason I am making such a fuss out of all this is because a very common mistake I see people make is the notion that if they are exercising regularly they can eat whatever they want and as much as they want.


This is one of the reasons you will often see people who spend hours at the gym working out without much progress to show for their efforts.


While it’s true that they often have a faulty training strategy, that is but a small part of the overall problem as far as fat loss goes.



 Let me use another example to illustrate:



If a person does a steady bout of exercise for 30 minutes at 80 percent of their work capacity (technically referred to as VO2 Max) they could possibly burn up to 480 calories depending on a variety of personal variables.



While that sounds like a lot of calories to burn in only 30 minutes, 80 percent of VO2 Max is a VERY intense bout of exercise for the average person! 



In fact it would take most people many months of dedicated training before someone could even consider sustaining that level of exercise for a solid 30 minutes.



Now let’s say that after that 30 minutes of killing themselves, they stop off at McDonalds for lunch and have one Big Mac (without any fries or soft drink), they would be consuming around 520 calories.


Most people could probably gobble up a Big Mac in about 5 minutes (or less) without much difficulty. So in about 5 minutes they would have eaten more calories than they burned from 30 minutes of positively grueling exercise!



Of course it’s true that if they were going to eat that Big Mac anyway, burning those 480 calories is better than if they didn’t exercise. Most likely though, the Big Mac would just be one piece of their caloric puzzle in a day filled with foods that are likely to put them in a caloric surplus.


Caloric surplus means stored body fat. Stored body fat is definitely not what most people want.



So it’s important to support your exercise program with a sound approach to eating.





Scott Fishkind


http:www.time4youfitness.com