Have you ever found yourself saying “I need to train more, so I can eat anything I like”? Believe me, we have all been there at some point. But thinking your training will offset the extra calories you take in, will probably make you fail if you don’t provide yourself with the nutrition you need.
You probably heard the saying ”You can’t outtrain a bad diet”. Actually it comes down to a simple bioenergetic equation and it’s up to you how you want to manipulate the variables to achieve the desired outcome. Essentially, altering the equation in any format will achieve the same outcome, however, you need to decide which is the most effective use of your time and which is more realistic. You can read more about this on the blog “Is exercise or nutrition more important for fat loss”.
Simply put, here’s the reason why you can’t “out train a bad diet” and why flogging yourself won’t lead to the body composition goals you’re looking for. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Body composition is directly correlated with energy consumed vs energy expended (in vs out)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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60 minutes of vigorous exercise only equates for around 20% of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Assuming you’re working at around 80-90% max effort. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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So, by going HAM and flogging yourself, you may only get an extra 5-10% effort on top of your current capacity for the 60 minutes.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(An extra 10% on top of your current TDEE still only puts your energy expenditure from training at 22-25% of your total daily expenditure). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Unfortunately our energy expenditure doesn’t correlate that well with effort and intensity like we think it does (damn evolution really ruined us on that one) . Thanks Charles Darwin for inventing evolution😒 😂⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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So, when you look at the numbers, going FASTER and HARDER during your workouts, runs a big risk for not much return, considering most people’s perception of intensity only relates to SPEED. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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And what we know about speed is that it increases risk of injury due to a lower neuromuscular connection and ability to alter motor patterns, leading to higher injury and lower performance. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Conclusion:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
– Body composition is largely dependent on other variables like nutrition intake, BMR and NEAT⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
– There are other ways we can manipulate intensity / effort in a much safer and rewarding way.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Train smarter, not harder.
