Recently there was a program on TV that said that if you want to lose weight, then it is 80% nutrition, 20% exercise.  I agree to this, not that I would put a figure on it, but you definitely can not out-train poor nutrition.

People will talk about how you can train through poor nutrition, for example, saying ‘I’ll go for a run tomorrow so I’ll allow myself this latte with a slice of cake.’

If you think like this, you are on the losing side of the battle against disease, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, inflammation, leptin resistance, hepatic insulin resistance and dyslipidemia.

Like I have previously spoken, a calorie is NOT a calorie, all nutrients are metabolised differently and affect your body’s response differently.  Fructose, for example, by-passes your gastro-intestinal tract and is only metabolised by your liver causing a huge toxic load on the liver.   It also does not suppress the hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone, so you will end up eating more and more as you are not satisfied.  Fructose also does not stimulate insulin, therefore without stimulation of insulin, leptin will not be released and therefore the brain doesn’t realise you have eaten anything, so you don’t feel satiety.

The old well known scales of Calories In vs Calories Out is not science fact.

Even if we took calories at face value, if you eat just one biscuit, you would have to run for about 20 minutes to burn it off (imagine how far you would have to run if you ate 5).  You can’t beat poor nutrition.  If you eat 1/2 a pizza, thats about 500 calories, you would have to run for about 45 minutes at a 10min/mile pace,  you reckon you can keep that up?

So why is exercise important other than for a fitness related point of view?

Number 1: Exercise improves skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity – insulin works better the more muscle we have.  The more muscle we have the greater our metabolic rate is as well.

Number 2: Exercise releases endorphins which helps to reduce stress levels.  The lower our stress levels the lower our appetite tends to be.

Number 3: Exercise makes the process of getting energy from food run faster.  You burn off the nasty enzymes that are the by-products of the energy yielding process called Krebs cycle, before they turn into fat. This is what we all know as the theory of exercise increasing our metabolic rate.

Number 4: Exercise detoxifies fructose (a chronically toxic substance, a poison to the body), improving hepatic insulin sensitivity.

So it is extremely important that we view exercise and nutrition together.  If you want results you can’t ignore either one of these, they play a hugely important role in getting you where you want to be.