Fitness and Diet

It is possible to lose weight solely through diet. It is also possible to be physically fit while eating unhealthy foods. Dieting alone will not build muscle. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories, and your diet to provide your body with the nutrients and fuel it requires. While building muscle, you may be losing inches while not making much progress on the scales.

If you only use the scales to track your progress, the results will be misleading. By incorporating fitness into your diet routine, you are also allowing your body to burn off excess calories.

There are two essential ingredients for living a long and healthy life: diet and fitness. While some people believe they are the same thing, nothing could be further from the truth. It is entirely possible to have a perfectly healthy diet while engaging in poor fitness habits. It is also possible to be physically fit while eating unhealthy foods.

When Jimmy Buffet's 'lady' is lamenting, there's a clever little line in the song "Fruitcakes": "I treat my body like a temple, you treat yours like a tent."

I can't help but think of this line when I consider all of the people around the world who are following these garbage in, garbage out diet plans in the hopes of achieving the weight loss success of those endorsing these products.

To be completely honest, it is possible to lose weight solely through diet. It's difficult, but it's doable. It is also possible to be physically fit while carrying a few extra pounds. We are, to a large extent, what we eat. If we eat a high fat, low substance diet, our bodies will lack the fuel needed to burn the fat. At the same time, it doesn't matter how many weights we lift if we aren't giving our bodies the tools they need to build muscle.

When it comes to diet and fitness, working together rather than separately yields the best results. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories, and your diet to provide your body with the nutrients and fuel it requires to build muscle. I've often heard that a pound of muscle weighs less than a pound of fat. While this is not true, a pound is still a pound; a pound of muscle takes up less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I'd rather have muscle than fat in my body. Dieting alone will not build muscle, and this is something you should keep in mind as you work.

You should also be aware that while building muscle, you may be losing inches while not making much progress on the scale. It is critical that you remember this throughout the weight loss process. If you only use the scales to track your progress, the results will be misleading. The problem is that far too many people do exactly this, becoming frustrated and giving up even when they are making progress. Allow yourself not to be a victim of the scales. Examine yourself in the mirror, put on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Success is measured by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs, not by how many pounds you lost this week on the scale.

By incorporating fitness into your diet routine, you are also allowing your body to burn off any excess calories consumed during the day. This means that if you want to have a small 'cheat' during the day, you can compensate by burning a few extra calories in the evening. This isn't something you should do on a regular basis, but it won't make or break your diet.

Dieting and fitness should also be viewed as a ball and glove type of relationship. While you can play ball without a glove, it appears to work much better with both. When diet and exercise are combined, those who take them both seriously can achieve fantastic weight loss results. The important thing to remember is that neither works well on its own, and neither will work unless you are willing to put in the effort. To achieve the best results, you must make this a priority in your life.