This is not a new topic, but it is worth highlighting it again. It has become increasingly known that it is important to consider and use our nutrition as a tool for a healthy lifestyle which usually means managing our weight. Where does this 80/20 rule even come from?
Because it is hard to burn off fat strictly through exercise, recent fitness guides have shifted to reducing calorie intake as the main channel for weight lost while still including regular exercise. Science tells us that it takes burning off 3,500 calories to lose a single pound. That’s a lot of running when you consider it would take running 7 to 10 miles to burn those calories and not eat more than a calorie normal day. Gees, when I do that much exercise, I know I’m going to want to eat more than usual!
Typical fitness guides are now advocating burning around 250 calories through exercise three times per week and reducing food intake by 560 calories five time a weeks which is 3,550 calories, or just over a pound loss in a week. This exercise regimen allows someone to exercise without feeling the need to eat more than usual to compensate for the effort exerted. If you do the math, roughly 80% of the calories lost are from nutrition and 20% are from exercise.
The critical piece that is often missed is that the nutrition should be of excellent value to ensure the body is fueled and not starved. Without balanced macro-nutrients we shoot ourselves in the foot. If we don’t have great proteins, carbs, and fat we can trigger the body to lose lean muscle instead of fat which is a bad thing. We want to lose fat while building lean muscles. This is why the ISAGENIX product line is recommended to ensure weight loss in the healthiest manner. Once in maintenance mode, the caloric intake can return to a more normal level allowing a continued healthy and balanced lifestyle.
Living Healthful 