With regards to living a long and healthy life, there are a couple of necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they’re one thing all together, nothing might be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It’s equally possible for being very physically fit with less than savory eating habits.

There is a clever little line in the Jimmy Buffet song “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is lamenting: “I treat my body sort of a temple You treat yours like a tent”

I can’t help but imagine this line whenever I consider all folks around the world who are going on these garbage in, garbage out diet plans hoping to accomplish the weight loss success of victims endorsing these products.

For being completely honest, it can be done to shed pounds through diet alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to become physically fit and possess a couple of extra pounds hanging around. To a large degree we’re what we eat. If we consume a higher fat low substance diet our bodies will lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we aren’t providing our bodies using the tools it needs to create muscle it doesn’t matter what number of weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, one of the best results are achieved if they work together as opposed to separately. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories and use your diet in order to properly provide your body the nutrients and fuel it needs to build muscle. I’ve heard often in my life that a pound of muscle weighs lower than a pound of fat. While this isn’t true at all, a pound is really a pound regardless; a pound of muscle occupies less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I’d much rather mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone doesn’t build muscle and there is something you’ll do well to remember in your efforts.

You should also realize that as you’re building muscle you could be shedding inches while not showing quite a lot of progress for the scale. It is very important that you retain this in mind for the fat loss process. Don’t measure your progress by the scales alone or you may achieve misleading results. The issue is that far too many individuals do just this and obtain frustrated and give up if they have been making progress. Do not allow yourself becoming a victim of the scales. Look within the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.

By incorporating fitness into your diet routine you are enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have consumed during the day. Which means if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can also make up for it by burning a couple of more calories than normal in the evening. This is not something that ought to happen often but an occasional occurrence isn’t making or break your diet.

You must also look at dieting and fitness being a ball and glove kind of relationship. When you can play ball without the glove, it seems to work so a lot better when you have both. Diet and fitness when combined can create fantastic weight loss results if you take them both seriously. The thing to recollect is that neither works as well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to complete the work. You have to make this a priority within your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

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