80% Diet + 20% Exercise = 0% Evidence

“Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.”

“Abs are made in the kitchen.”

“You cannot out-train a bad diet.”

These are three common statements regarding the disproportional impact of nutrition on body composition that are bandied around so frequently many people accept them as fact. While they make great sound bites and appear logical under brief examination, what do any of them look like when applied to your lifestyle?

What changes do you make to your routine to ensure that it adheres to the 80% rule?

What is the recipe to make abs?

What makes a diet good or bad in the first place? [This might help].

I am certainly being a touch disingenuous by taking each of these statements so literally. All they are trying to do is highlight the importance of nutrition to getting results and convey the fact that many people eat too much food for the amount of exercise they do. Both of which are important messages that often ring true.

We know that the energy balance hypothesis states that we need to create an energy deficit to lose body fat, whereby energy expenditure exceeds energy intake. Neither diet or exercise is more important in…