45 million Americans every year start a diet and make a resolution to lose weight, but most of them lose their resolve by February.
That’s because losing weight is really hard, and diet is more important than exercise. So when you’re still finishing off the holiday desserts, it’s not a great time to try to lose weight.
Here are four key reasons why diet is more important than exercise.
Your Body Needs Nutrients
Your body needs nutrients to properly function and stay healthy, but most processed foods completely lack all, or almost all, nutrients. So if your diet consists of processed foods and sugary treats, it can’t get the nutrients you need.
So especially if you’re an emotional eater, or if you have a habit of eating when you don’t well or for energy, it’s a recipe for disaster.
You Need to Feel Full
Just like processed foods don’t have good nutrients, they often don’t fill you up either. And you don’t want to follow a diet that leaves you feeling starving and miserable all the time.
It’s actually incredibly easy to eat healthy foods and feel full. They just need to be healthy foods that digest slowly, have plenty of nutrients, and plenty of fiber. The right foods will help you fill up without the loaded calories.
Processed Foods are Designed to Be Addictive
There’s a reason you can’t eat only one potato chip or only one fry. Processed foods are specially designed to react in your mouth in such a way that they’re addictive – you literally can’t stop.
This is great for the corporations because it means you’ll keep coming back and buying more of their product. But it’s not great for your waistline. Processed foods want you to fill up on empty calories. You won’t feel full after eating a bag of potato chips – you’ll only want more.
Calories Add Up
When you’re trying to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. So if you’re consuming a ton of calories, you need to be exercising even more than that to make up for it.
You have to walk for 23 minutes to burn off a single can of soda, and weight lift for an hour and 20 minutes just to burn off four double stuffed Oreos.
Highly processed foods like fast food, chips, and snacks all tend to be high in calories. Fresh fruit and produce are much lower.
Sometimes cutting out processed foods and switching to a healthy diet is all you need to break through a weight loss plateau, because it’s easier to have a calorie deficit.
Diet Is More Important than Exercise
For losing weight and for staying healthy, diet is more important than exercise. You need to fuel your body, feel full, and eat foods that aren’t designed to make you keep eating no matter what.
That’s why it’s important to pay attention to what you eat and eat what’s good for your body.
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