When first beginning your weight loss journey, you may find that no matter how many miles you jog or how many weights you lift, the results are poor. That is because fitness and exercise is only 20% of the battle. To really lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to work on your nutrition (commonly referred to as a food lifestyle change). Having a proper diet will not only help you to lose weight, but it is good for your overall health and will prevent disease and health issues down the road.

Why Diet is So Important

The key to losing weight is having a caloric deficit; meaning you burn more calories than you consume. In order to lose one pound, you will need to burn 3,500 more calories than you take in. Alternatively, the same method is true for gaining weight. You will need to consume 3500 more calories than you burn. While some crash diets may have contradicting ideas on weight loss, this is the tried and true method.

The food you consume is incredibly important and does make up for most of either the weight loss or weight gain that you see with your body. A good way to lose weight and keep it off both with diet and exercise is to utilize what is referred to as the 80/20 ratio. (Keeping in mind that diet counts for 80% of your overall weight loss.)  In order to maintain this ratio, you will want to exercise enough to burn around 800 calories for the week, while you find a way to have a caloric deficit of 3,000 calories in a week.

With this method, you will safely and effectively lose 1 pound a week and be able to keep it off. Additionally, the type of nutrition that you are consuming will also play a role in how easily you are able to stick to a better food lifestyle. For instance, you can eat far more broccoli while still counting calories than you can other foods, like pasta.

Exercise is Still Important

While trying to lose weight, you should also keep in mind that exercise and fitness does still play a major role. Cardio will be your main source of burning calories throughout the week to help you reach those deficits. Lifting weights or doing other types of strength training will help you to build lean muscle that will enable you to increase your metabolism and burn fat while resting.

Having a balance between the two is the best practice, as with the 80/20 ratio they work extremely well together in order to allow you to lose the weight that you want and to keep it off. One reason that dieting is a more effective weight-loss tool than simply fitness is because of the amount of work that it takes to burn calories. It takes a lot of work and effort in order to burn 700 calories through fitness (and fitting that into your busy lifestyle isn’t always easy). When you cut calories through eating the right foods, you are able to have a deficit in an easier and more manageable way.

Losing weight is never an easy task to complete. Knowing the right path to walk in order to get to your weight loss goals is half the battle. Having a healthy diet is key, but exercise is also important.  As with all things in life, finding balance and moderation will help you to reach your goals.