What Does The 80/20 Rule Mean With Diet & Exercise?
Weight loss, toning, fat loss and body composition changes come 80% from your diet and 20% from exercise
And that’s honestly being generous. I’d argue it’s more 90/10!
We have all heard that abs are made in the kitchen, But what does this mean?
Well in a nutshell it means that if you want to see weight, fat loss or toning … you gotta start prioritizing your nutrition!
Let me break this down with some numbers
Let’s say you’d like to lose 20lbs in 90 days
That’s an average of about 1-2lbs per week
1lb of fat = 3500 calories
But, Let’s say you are working your butt off at your local boot camp gym and they claim their workouts burn 500 calories
And you are following more of an 80/20 rule where (just for this example) 100% of your energy is going towards Just exercise
So according to the math, In order to trim off 1 lb per week just by exercise alone and without tracking nutrition
you’d have to complete this workout that burns 500 calories,
7 TIMES EVERY SINGLE WEEK FOR 12 WEEKS
And that would only get you to 12lbs lost
And that means being perfect, intense and never missing a workout for 90 days straight
This is what often leads to frustration, stress and burnout
No wonder why so many people sign up for the gym, see some early success but then quickly lose steam and rebound
So how do we fix this
By prioritizing your nutrition
This means that if you abide by the 80/20 rule then 16lbs will come from your nutrition
and 4 lbs will come from exercise during that time
This would allow you to enjoy your exercise without putting so much pressure on killing yourself in the gym just to “burn calories”
And help you to find an easier way to reach your goals by combining proper nutrition with fitness
Leading to a more impactful and efficient routine overall
So if you’re leaving your workouts a sweaty mess like me in this picture
That’s awesome
But just make sure you remember that, often times how hard you crush a workout means very little
If you’re not also prioritizing your nutrition more so than exercise.
Comment down below with a fitness GIF if you’ve enjoyed this post
And also if you have any questions!
Coach Derek
Workin my butt off at an LA Fitness!
