Although I generally don’t like to be the bearer of bad news, as in the end, it all comes down to your dedication and willpower, there is a misconception that you can overcome a bad diet with exercise. This fitness myth is popular mainly because it sounds nice, but as much as it might seem possible in theory, the practical side of things is something entirely different.
The chocolate you see in the picture is added because I didn’t have a smaller one, like a Snickers bar. The chocolate in the picture has 558 calories, and the recommended dose of 20g, i.e., three squares, has 112 calories, which is far more than a percentage of people who can open it and eat only three squares. To burn, for example, a 50g Snickers bar with 240 calories, you would have to swim for about 20 minutes, run for 30, cycle for 40, or walk for 70! Now multiply that by almost 2.5 for the presented chocolate or almost 10 for a large pizza!
Therefore, it is highly unlikely, and almost entirely unrealistic to expect that a person who is not willing to at least slightly adjust their diet, cut out a certain amount of sweets, snacks, fast food, soda, etc. for a certain period of time to achieve the desired results, will “train harder” and have enough willpower to run several additional kilometers every day to burn all those “extra” calories.
The reality of the whole story is that the idea we started with simply isn’t feasible, and if, in some obscure case, it turns out to be feasible, it certainly isn’t sustainable because you would literally have to train at the level of professional triathletes/endurance athletes, which implies several hours of strenuous training every day for weeks and months on end until you reach your goal. There is a greater chance that you will end up in a hospital due to exhaustion than pulling it off, so why even try something that is almost certainly doomed to failure and you giving up after the first two weeks, if even that long. On the other hand, let’s be realistic, everyone can regulate their diet in a way that is adequate and suitable to their goals.
Eliminate some of the calories you intake through fast carbohydrates, sugars, and saturated fats, control your portions, replace juices with water, and try to eat only when you are truly hungry, not out of boredom, habit, or because everyone around you is eating. With such an approach, you won’t have to starve yourself, after a month your body won’t even ask for some things anymore, you won’t even remember how much unnecessary stuff you used to consume, and you’ll feel better. Most importantly, maybe those couple of months will be the foundation for the rest of your life, a more moderate, balanced, healthier, and sustainable life where you can occasionally treat yourself to a chocolate like this one, but as part of a broader picture, not a daily necessity without which you think you can’t live. And there-in lies the key to long-term success.
Original release date: May 13, 2022.