Is it REALLY 75% DIET and 25% exercise??

S

StepEdith

Cathlete
I know I've read this over and over on this forum and VF and other forums like Runners World but alas I so want it to be the other way around :-rollen

I love to workout a lot especially cardio and I know clean diet is good but golly does it have to count soooooooo much??? WHY?
 
This is probably more in Maribeth's area, but my feelings are that it is easier to consume calories then to burn them. I mean, How many extra calories can you eat in a day? I know I can easily add 1000 cals on to my diet eating dessert, fried foods and salty greasy snacks, not to mention cream sauces, and ice cream, of course. But how many calories can you 'save' in a day and feel well? Not 1000. I believe this is easily explained. It enhances the survival to be able to eat extra and store calories. Alas, if it weren't this way I believe our species would have been extinct a long time ago.

The one encouraging thing I can tell you is that I believe that when you exercise and 'burn' calories it makes it easier to eat the right foods - the ones that fuel your body. Not everything, not all the time and it takes a while. But I believe the exercising helps.

-joy
 
IMHO, this "75% diet and 25% exercise" nostrum is ridiculous. How can even you make those measurements, let alone apportion their importance in developing and maintaining a healthy body composition and performance capacity. My "diet" is about as dirty it can be - chips or Cheez-Its or cheese doodles every night, M&M crunchies each weekday afternoon, grazing on DH's french fries when we go out, smoked cheese and veggie quesadillas at Chile's . . . the list goes on, and I'm a size zero in a skirt. I seldom bring that up, but I think it warrants noting here.

Sorry I can't be of more help. All I can suggest to you is: let go of it. IMHO, it's a myth.

annette q. aquajock
 
Thanks. I've been exercising for a long long time and eating well for quite some time too but I really would like to have more of the things I like to eat!!!

Oh well guess I can't. Cheat days don't work for me
 
OH ANNETTE THANKYOU so much. I can't say how much this means to me.

Please tell me more. Do you eat the things you love in great moderation only when physically hungry or how do you do this. I want to know more for real.

Love
Edith
 
I would think it's more accurate to say "calories in, calories out." You can eat as much crap as you like as long as you burn it off, either through genetics or exercise.

- Jennifer
 
With all due respect, Aquajock, and I do respect you a lot, I think what this "saying" is getting at is that if you eat a lot of crap, it's hard to work it off. In other words, you can lose a lot of weight with diet and little or no exercise, but if you eat piles of crap, it isn't possible to exercise it all off.

People who are beginners at fitness cannot hope to walk a couple of miles, or do a Kathy Smith tape and then eat a Big Mac and fries and expect it evens out.

With a mostly clean diet and occasional treats, and some exercise, success is more likely than with a lot of junk food and twice as much exercise.
 
hummm, thank GOD I'm not a starter at fitness, but what I wonder about is maybe Annette is saying that she doesn't eat a larger volume of food but she eats what she likes when she does eat. I don't hear her saying she's eating a clean diet and tons and piles of crap on top of it.

Annette? Am I hearing you right? ;-)
 
A-jock is absolutely right. It is simply a matter of calories out vs calories in. If you take in less than you expend, you will lose weight, regardless of whether the deficit is created by eating less or exercising more.

I don't care what any source says--you can't negate the first law of thermodynamics. If you create a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. And, while diet alone can result in WEIGHT loss, exercise is the only thing that will improve lean mass and the way your body uses food--ANY food.

Like Aquajock, I indulge in junk food on a regular basis--something sugary sweet each and every day, sometimes more than one something! But if the calories in don't exceed the calories out, and I get adequate nutrients, there is no negative change in my body comp.
Maribeth
 
>I would think it's more accurate
>to say "calories in, calories
>out." You can eat as
>much crap as you like
>as long as you burn
>it off, either through genetics
>or exercise.
>
>- Jennifer


Jennifer this is exactly what I am wondering about. Thanks for your reply. It does make sense. I am sure you can't eat a clean diet and the extras on top of it, no way. BUT, maybe more of the things I like could be included as part of my daily intake. I'm so burned out on clean, clean, clean eating.

Edith
 
I don't post much but this is really significant for me--

If you OBSESS about percentages and calories and being good or bad on your diet you will drive yourself crazy and you will eat more. This is important especially for those of us prone to serious eating disorder stuff. I know that for mself I feel hopeless when I am trying to "diet" and I mess up, and when I feel hopeless or bad, I want to eat junk. The number one thing is to take care of yourself, and if you are exercising as much as feels good to you and trying to exercise your best will power about what you eat, but being gentle with yourself if you goof, then it all starts to come together. Some people find that cutting out sugar and wheat as much as possible (preferably all together) makes a huge difference.

I probably sound preachy, but I am a recovering anorexic/bulimic and I have found that the only way to deal with it is to let all the numbers and percentages and diets go and just use common sense. I also am a cardio junkie and am finding that increasing the strength training portion of my routine and decreasing the cardio makes me feel better all around. I used to try and work off everything I ate (especially when I ate too much) with tons of cardio. The problem is, they call that exercise bulimia, and you just get run down, not healthy.

OK, I will get off my soap-box now!! By the way, thanks to everybody for all the great ideas and information I have gotten reading this forum! I have worked out since I was 13 (about 12 years) but I really didn't know much about how to work out in a way that was actually GOOD for my body. You guys are great!

Ariel :)
 
Maribeth and Aquajock,

I'm really glad you're saying this. I think too few people want to admit to themselves that weight management is this simple. They spend hours and hours looking for that perfect combination of foods and supplements that will magically allow them to lose weight, rather than just paying attention to the calories they consume and expend. True, if you eat foods that aren't calorically dense, you can eat more of them, but I think the whole "clean eating" thing has gone way too far and become a sort of quasi-religous thing to some people. I suppose it's easier to read about all sorts of different diets and nutritional theories than it is to simply exercise and count calories.

If you don't mind, I'd also like to ask your opinion about the "don't eat less than 1200 calories or your body will go into starvation mode" thing that people always repeat. Is there any scientific basis to this? Wouldn't a minimum caloric intake depend on how big/active a person was? People put forth this idea as if it's a matter of law, but I think we all know people who have lost weight on severely calorie-restricted diets. It's not a long-term solution, and might affect muscle growth, but it's not like you can eat 1,000 calories and not lose weight.

Thanks,
- Jennifer
 
BUT.....here is the caveat...

You are an ectomorph, right?? I'm not sure, but I think aquajock is too. I'm not...I'm a meso/endo combo. I CAN'T, CAN'T, CAN'T eat what I want, when I want. I know -- I have been lately, and I've put on weight. :-(

Hollie
 
Well, it so happens that I have not had one single bite of wheat since I was 17 and I am now 44 I have Celiac's Disease so that forced me into a no wheat way of living.

I cut out sugar entirely about 15 months ago and really don't want it back.

I do like things like corn chips and wheat free bread from the health food store and wheat free pretzels and there are really lots of wheat free alternatives now days for people that don't eat it. I have been leaving those things out for the most part for a really long time but it's starting to seem unrealistic to me these days.

Eating only lean grilled meats, vegetables, fruits, and dairy foods along with only whole grains is getting pretty darn old and restrictive.

> Some people find that
>cutting out sugar and wheat
>as much as possible (preferably
>all together) makes a huge
>difference.
>
>I probably sound preachy, but I
>am a recovering anorexic/bulimic and
>I have found that the
>only way to deal with
>it is to let all
>the numbers and percentages and
>diets go and just use
>common sense. I also
>am a cardio junkie and
>am finding that increasing the
>strength training portion of my
>routine and decreasing the cardio
>makes me feel better all
>around. I used to
>try and work off everything
>I ate (especially when I
>ate too much) with tons
>of cardio. The problem
>is, they call that exercise
>bulimia, and you just get
>run down, not healthy.
>
>OK, I will get off my
>soap-box now!! By the
>way, thanks to everybody for
>all the great ideas and
>information I have gotten reading
>this forum! I have
>worked out since I was
>13 (about 12 years) but
>I really didn't know much
>about how to work out
>in a way that was
>actually GOOD for my body.
> You guys are great!
>
>
>Ariel :)
 
Hi, StepEdith and all!

I really liked what Arain had to say on this subject, and it echoes what I've felt for a long time. It also plays on something I've experienced increasingly over my exercising life, which has evolved over the past 10 years or so.

QUIT COUNTING EVERY CALORIE AND FAT GRAM AND CARB GRAM AND WHAT HAVE YOU!

QUIT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY CALORIES YOU'VE BURNED, OR HOW MUCH FAT YOU'VE OXIDIZED, IN EACH WORKOUT!

If you get into that obsessive numbers game - a game, I might add, that you can NEVER win, because you'll NEVER know the true calorie / fat gram / carb gram count of a given piece of food, nor will you EVER know the true calorie cost of a given activity - you'll get into the game at the expense of your self.
Certainly it helps to get a general idea of the calorie count of foods and the relative contributions of the substrates, but this deconstruction of each and every mouthful and 3-knee repeater does no good.

As far as another person suggesting I'm an ectomorph, well . . . I confess I don't know what that means, and I don't care. What I do know is that, over the past 6 years in general and the past 2+ years in particular, as I've gotten more consistent and skilled at cardio AND strength training modes, shooting for consistent frequency and duration AND shooting for consistently increased intensity, I've muscled up, my resting heart rate has gone down, and my body tells me WHAT it needs for fuel - AND for exercise - rather than my tongue or fear of getting fat.

When you continually look for physical answers outside of yourselves, be they through structured eating programs OR exercise "rotations", those answers are always going to be of limited value, and perhaps counterproductive. Look inside yourselves, and find your peak exercise capabilities and your exercise preferences, and you'll do just fine.

Sorry about how heated my rhetoric has been. But I care about you guys, and I think mine are suggestions worth listening to.

Annette Q. Aquajock
 
{{{{{{{Annette}}}}}}}}}} thanks so much.

I read a book a few years ago called Breaking Out of Food Jail by Jean Antenello. It was about not couting every calorie and fat gram and eating enuff to stay alive and healthy. So many women don't as we all know.

I agree that the whole food thing has become a religion today and that's not where I want to be.

I know we have had some discussions here about "Intutive Eating" but I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them then because I was so sold on the clean eating religion at the time. ;-)
 
Hey, Jennifer,
The 1200 calories, like most other information, is a generalization. The starvation mode level will vary from person to person, and is more complex than total daily caloric intake. For example, say someone stays at or above the 1200 calories per day, but eats all the calories at one time or doesn't eat at regular intervals. The starvation mode will kick in to a degree anyway. It is a function of blood sugar levels and what the body perceives at any given time.

A closer actual number of minimum daily calories can be derived via measuring resting metabolic rate. RMR is the number below which you don't want to drop, but again, how the body will react is a matter of blood sugar levels at any given time.
Maribeth
 
Hi, I don't post often, but would like to add my comments on this. I too used to eat anything I wanted, including junk food, and never gained an ounce and always looked good until I was around age 35. At that point something happened to my body and I started losing my muscle tone big time. I only gained 2 pounds, but gained like 2 inches in my waist and 1-2 inches in the hips and thighs. It was terrible for me as I had never had to worry about this before. I have since tried "cleaning up my diet" to lose the extra weight and inches, but nothing worked (probably because I still cheated). A while back I started counting calories and still saw no improvement in my weight. One and a half weeks ago I joined EDiets. They provide a weekly menu plan for me to follow (which, by the way is still the same in calories that I was counting on my own). In one week, I've lost 1 1/2 pounds, 1/2 inch off my waist, 1 inch off my hips, and 1/2 inch off each thigh.

My point to the story, for me better food choices have helped me to start losing. I also want to say that I have been exercising for years with The Firm and Cathe and neither the weight nor inches were coming off until I joined Ediets and cleaned up my eating habits. It started happening in just one week. I just hope it continues as I'm finally starting to feel good about myself again.

Kelley
 
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