A lot of people think that if they work out or train that they can eat anything that they want. This may be the case for teenagers or those who have a fast metabolism in their favour. For the majority of us, if we want to reach our goals, clean food and nutrition is key. There is belief that an exercise programme will make up for the way a person eats and their exercise will offset their excess calories. Unfortunately, the body doesn’t work in the way that we will get a six pack and low body fat by just eating what we want.

It is quite common for people not to realise the extent or the amount of calories that they consume on a daily basis. It is also quite common for a lot of people to have no idea of the amount of calories in the foods that they are eating and yet they justify this for 30 minutes exercise. It is extremely easy to consume a high amount of calories in a short period of time, often in one sitting (just look at fast foods and take aways!), yet it will take a lot more time in the gym than 30 minutes to compensate for the high calorie meal. In a nut shell – people underestimate on the amount of calories consumed and overestimate on the number of calories burned through exercise.

For those of you who are serious about their training will spend on average 6-8 hours working out per week. This will unlikely cover the amount of calories consumed through an unhealthy diet. While there is further science to the amount of ‘good’ calories versus ’empty calories’ and looking into macronutrients required per individual, the trick to reaching your goals is through a healthy and well balanced diet complemented by adequate exercise.

The hard and fast of this is – a poor diet can never be out trained! Our fitness courses will look into specific training for specific goals along with looking into nutrition to support these types of training.

At FHQ we hope you enjoyed this short fitness blog. We appreciate any feedback on this article or any of our other articles.

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