Which is more important: Diet or Exercise?

The answer is both!

If you have health, fitness, weight loss, muscle growth, or aesthetic goals, you gotta hit both.

First, let’s clarify “diet.”

When I say it takes “diet and exercise,” I’m using the following definition: “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”

THAT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN “a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.”

That is a completely different definition.

When many people hear “diet and exercise,” they immediately jump to the second definition about restriction, which is an unnecessary leap.

That’s why you’ll often see me write “food and movement” or “nutrition and movement” to avoid confusion.

Now that we’re clear, it's not diet OR exercise. You need both.

I often hear things like: “I just want to lose my belly fat” or “I want to tone my arms.”

There is not ONE exercise or group of exercises or type of exercises that is going to do it, not by itself.

Ya gotta do BOTH. You train and do the specific exercises or type of training AND you adjust your food intake to support those goals.

Doing a billion and one pushups is not going to build your arm muscles (that’s what “tone” is!) if you’re not eating adequate protein to facilitate muscle synthesis aka growth, and if you’re not eating enough in general, you won’t even have the energy and strength to push through that many reps 😜

Doing cardio and strength training and core exercises is not going to reveal those sexy abdominal muscles if you’re again, not eating adequate protein or if you’re in a caloric surplus. Ya gotta do BOTH — the nutrition and the exercise.

But what about weight loss programs that severely restrict calories and cause you to lose weight, no exercise required? Sounds way easier and simpler, right?

Sure but…what about your heart health? It’s recommended that you get 20-30 minutes of moderate intensity a day, or 150 minutes a week.

And what about bone health? Strength training and impact activities like simply walking help preserve bone density, which is so important as we age, especially for women. Also, severe calorie restriction can make your bones weaker. Hard pass.

And what about balance? People lose muscle tone as they age which affects not only your aesthetics but also your mobility and stability, which increases the risk of falls. If your stability sucks and you fall over and your bones are brittle because you don’t do anything except restrict calories then guess what? That’s a new hip for you.

Keep the hips you have. Move your body AND feed your body for movement. Ya gotta do BOTH.

Not sure how? Hire a trainer and/or nutrition coach (they are NOT the same!) to help game plan for your goals.



It's also important to note that it's not ONLY your nutrition and your movement that matter! Hydration, sleep, and stress management are all key factors that have a major impact on how you feel, how you perform, and how well you're able to meet your goals. You can read more about those basics here.

There are also factors that are out of our individual control -- things like genetics, socioeconomic factors, access to affordable healthcare including mental healthcare, food accessibility, access or transportation to outdoor spaces, environmental pollution, access to clean water, and many others.

Many of the things that influence our overall health, fitness, and well-being are actually out of our hands, which is why it's so important to do what we can about the aspects we can control, like nutrition AND movement.