Fitness Myths: I can exercise away my bad eating habits

Short answer: No you can't.

You might be able to slow down the process or keep it at bay for a bit longer but eventually bad eating habits are going to trump exercise every time.

src

I hear it a lot and one of my earliest memories was of a college buddy named Larry who was in the gym every day, lifting like crazy and running laps but was out eating horrible food such as pan pizza and tacos followed by a dozen beers. All the while, Larry, who exercised a LOT more than the average college student, was quite pudgy. He could run like a mofo, but he looked exactly like what you expect someone who ate that way would look like.

src

People joke about "the pizza cleanse" and what not but no one really takes it seriously or if they do, they are going against all science information that the world has available to it at the moment.

Most health professionals will agree that our bodies end up being the result of "80% what you put into it, and 20% what exercise you do." No matter how much you exercise if you are eating many more calories than you actually will use, your body will end up storing the excess as unwanted fat. There is no way around this.

For example, I have been running a 5k or so 5 or 6 times a week. I also drank beer almost every day. The amount of calories that I am burning in that 5k is about as much as I put into my system when I have my 6 beers (totally empty calories) at night. I am not going to make any weight-loss gains using this strategy and realize that I need to change it. I did change it by adjusting the TYPE of beer that I drank and now my 5k surpasses the caloric intake from the brewskis. It's simple.

Ideally I should eat far more vegetables and lean meats than I do, but I am a normie and am not going to dive that far into the process. I do realize that I could jump start the process by additional adjustments to my diet.

src

So the next time someone tells you that they exercise in order to maintain an irresponsible diet lifestyle, tell them they are full of crap and are eventually going to lose... but be nice about it. This is a race that can not be won and unfortunately we have to play by the rules.

By the way "Larry" is horribly unhealthy now and massive. His bad eating habits continued and once "life happened" the exercise regimen went out the window. Sad but true.