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Workout Harder or Eat Less?

1 min read • December 5, 2020

When the goal is weight loss, I’ve seen many people doing hours of cardio and eating 1 or 2 meals a day in an attempt to get the weight off. Unfortunately, that individual either remains the same weight or initially loses weight, but then gains it all back when they return to a normal eating routine and stop performing hours of cardio.

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people making. I have had numerous clients tell me that they are not sure why they can’t lose weight eating only 1000 calories per day and walking an hour on the stairmaster. Those same clients are shocked and apprehensive when I tell them that they need to increase the amount of food they’re consuming and occasionally decrease the amount of cardio they are performing.

Here’s why….

When you consume too little calories, your body goes into a starvation mode. Your metabolism slows down, which means that your body burns calories at a much slower rate than it would if you had a healthy metabolic rate. Because your metabolism slows, which happens in order to conserve energy, your body will hold onto your current fat stores, preventing weight loss. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the amount of calories your body burns throughout the day. 60-75% of these calories come from your metabolic rate, therefore, the faster your metabolism, the more calories you will burn on a daily basis!

In order to improve and increase your metabolism, slowly increasing the amount of calories you consume and switching a few days of cardio for weight training typically produces amazing results! Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body-meaning that the more muscle you have, the faster your resting metabolism will be and the more calories your body will burn throughout the day! However, in order for you to gain muscle mass; the key is increasing your calorie and protein intake! While eating more can seem like a scary task for some people, consulting with a dietitian and following a structured plan can help lead you out of your weight plateau and to a healthier metabolism.

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