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If it's all CICO - why can't you outrun a bad diet?

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  • Ws2016
    Ws2016 Posts: 432 Member
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    parfia wrote: »
    This is purely for debate purposes - if weight loss is purely calories in and calories out, why can't you 'outrun a bad diet' - surely if you run enough to burn off the calories of a bad dietary intake, you can for all intents and purposes outrun a bad diet?

    If a person is in a caloric deficit surely they will lose irrespective of what their food intake is.

    begin.....

    Bad diet = adding more calories than you burb

  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
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    parfia wrote: »
    cityruss wrote: »
    It's another one of these oft-trotted out health and fitness phrases that doesn't really hold any value.
    parfia wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    If you are looking for debate, you may want to post this in the debate section.

    I've never really understood that saying personally, but to answer your question I think you'd have to first define what is meant by a bad diet. Are we talking about a diet that creates a caloric excess, or a diet that is nutritionally deficient?

    I meant a diet that is nutritionally bad - if I eat 2,000 calories worth of cheeseburger a day (I don't!) and burn 3,000 calories in a day with exercise - surely that's outrunning a bad diet?

    That's outrunning the calorie element of your dietary intake.

    As running doesn't provide any dietary nutrients, you aren't outrunning the nutritional aspect.

    But if a calorie is a calorie - why does it matter where it comes from?

    Because a calorie is a measurement of energy, and nothing more. From an energy standpoint it doesn't matter where that measurement of energy comes from.

    Energy and nutrients are a completely different thing, as is weight loss and 'good' nutrition.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Also, one of the main reasons for the saying is that increasing exercise increases hunger too. If your hunger/satiety system is leading you to obesity when you're sedentary and eating as much as you please, you'll probably still be in obesity if you're active and eating as much as you please, because you'll eat more to compensate.

    It's also true that diet is a much more powerful means to control weight than exercise, because in most cases, particularly among the very heavy, the effort involved in eating 500 fewer calories is a lot less than the effort involved in burning 500 more calories.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    cityruss wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    Put your headphones on and start your running app. Run until it says "you have burned 1000 calories", for me between 7 and 8 miles. Now go straight to McDonalds and eat a big mac & fries. Tell me which one takes longer to do, there you will find the answer.

    Do you get a different answer if you eat really, really, really slowly?

    Or get lost on the way?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    rsclause wrote: »
    Put your headphones on and start your running app. Run until it says "you have burned 1000 calories", for me between 7 and 8 miles. Now go straight to McDonalds and eat a big mac & fries. Tell me which one takes longer to do, there you will find the answer.

    if that is your first meal of the day eh...you will be fine..

    bad diet does not refer to nutrition.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,523 Member
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    This statement is made because people use exercise as the counter measure for eating in excess. Many believe all one has to do is exercise to lose weight. And that's just not true unless there's a calorie deficit.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • AlisonH729
    AlisonH729 Posts: 558 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    Bad diet does not refer to nutrition.

    Exactly. In this case 'bad' just means excessive, unregulated, not calculated....
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    parfia wrote: »
    This is purely for debate purposes - if weight loss is purely calories in and calories out, why can't you 'outrun a bad diet' - surely if you run enough to burn off the calories of a bad dietary intake, you can for all intents and purposes outrun a bad diet?

    If a person is in a caloric deficit surely they will lose irrespective of what their food intake is.

    begin.....

    First you have to define what a bad diet is. IMO, it is a diet that puts the dieter in an unintentional surplus with inadequate nutrients. You can break it down further. A diet with inadequate nutrients, even in a deficit is, IMO a bad diet. A surplus (for bulking purposes) with adequate nutrients), IMO is a good diet. See how this can get confusing? So when someone says, you can't out run or out train a bad diet, I would say, it depends...
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    cityruss wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    Put your headphones on and start your running app. Run until it says "you have burned 1000 calories", for me between 7 and 8 miles. Now go straight to McDonalds and eat a big mac & fries. Tell me which one takes longer to do, there you will find the answer.

    Do you get a different answer if you eat really, really, really slowly?

    LOL, this goes back to my moment that I had first run to that 1000 calorie mark and later at lunch went to McDonald's to get a chicken wrap and maybe fries. The sign said 450 calories.....as a meal 1300 calories. I gave up fries and sweet tea that day and very rarely even go to McDonald's anymore. If I had to work that hard to burn it I wasn't going to refuel that quickly. I actually prefer fresh produce over calorie dense junk now. I never saw that one coming.
  • moe0303
    moe0303 Posts: 934 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    The statement is said because it's easy to eat 1000 calories of calorie dense food. It's not easy to burn 1000 calories "outrunning" your diet. It's a saying, not a scientific certainty. There really is nothing to debate.

    +1
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    Machka9 wrote: »
    parfia wrote: »
    This is purely for debate purposes - if weight loss is purely calories in and calories out, why can't you 'outrun a bad diet' - surely if you run enough to burn off the calories of a bad dietary intake, you can for all intents and purposes outrun a bad diet?

    begin.....

    Happily ... you can! :)

    I remained very slender for years because I was cycling 10,000 km/year + walking lots + cross country skiing and snowshoeing + lifting weights + generally being as active as I could.

    Most of the year, I had trouble eating enough to maintain my weight, so during the winter when my cycling slowed a little, I would eat quite a lot and deliberately gain some weight. Come spring, I'd start losing and by autumn, I was usually underweight.

    For me, 5000 calories in a 24 hour period was all I could manage ... couldn't stuff more in. And on days when I was cycling 24 hours (yes, I'm an ultra-distance cyclists ... 24 hour time trials, randonneuring, and all that), I needed every one of those 5000 calories.

    I remember wandering through grocery stores looking for the smallest but highest calorie foods because I just got so sick of eating. I chuckle to think of it now, but I recall standing there looking at the calorie count for various things when another customer spoke up and said, "They're all so high in calories", and she sighed. I shook my head and said, "Not high enough". She walked away quickly. :lol:

    Anyway, yes ... if you exercise and burn more than you consume, you can for all intents and purposes outrun a bad diet. However, you do have to exercise a lot ... and you can't go completely crazy with the eating.


    You would be what we like to call a special snowflake. Few people move at your level, but many eat at that level, hence the obesity issue.
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
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    If you are in a deficit you will lose, if you are in a surplus you will gain no matter what you eat!!
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    ^^^^^its simple math!
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    parfia wrote: »
    @richln But if that pizza is all you have in a day and you burn that over the day - surely you would still lose ?

    probably. If your energy intake didn't meet your energy use something gets depleted to make up the difference.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    parfia wrote: »
    cityruss wrote: »
    It's another one of these oft-trotted out health and fitness phrases that doesn't really hold any value.
    parfia wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    If you are looking for debate, you may want to post this in the debate section.

    I've never really understood that saying personally, but to answer your question I think you'd have to first define what is meant by a bad diet. Are we talking about a diet that creates a caloric excess, or a diet that is nutritionally deficient?

    I meant a diet that is nutritionally bad - if I eat 2,000 calories worth of cheeseburger a day (I don't!) and burn 3,000 calories in a day with exercise - surely that's outrunning a bad diet?

    That's outrunning the calorie element of your dietary intake.

    As running doesn't provide any dietary nutrients, you aren't outrunning the nutritional aspect.

    But if a calorie is a calorie - why does it matter where it comes from?

    The effect of the said calorie on the body may not be identical for all calories from all sources.

    When you ask a Question starting "If..... " you should consider the case where the presumption is incorrect. "If water flows uphill under the influence of gravity alone,what can you say about the system involved".
  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,114 Member
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    Yes, in this instance, "bad diet" refers to excess calories.