The title is bait. They don’t balance. They’re not on opposing sides.
Exercise is not punishment for eating.
What you eat fuels you, affects your hormone balance and contributes to the maintenance and eventual regeneration of most cells. (Not all cells regenerate, and almost all body functions are controlled by hormones.)
I know a growing number of people who changed their diets (just to “healthier”—nothing extreme) and were shocked at how much more energy they had.
Yup. And it seems that until you do it, you don’t believe it, but the sugar, the highly-processed carbs, the alcohol, the fried and deep-fried—as a regular diet, they all have tangible negative effects on your body, in addition to the long-term ramifications.
Exercise stresses bones and muscles, which is a good thing! It helps them to become and stay strong. It maintains or improves cardiovascular health. It sometimes increases flexibility and/or balance (which are both important). It has profound impact on our brains, in terms of mood, of mental health, and of mental acuity. (We have better moods, better mental health, learn better, work better when we exercise regularly.)
So diet does things that exercise doesn’t, and exercise does things that diet doesn’t. Both are important.
Exercise can’t counteract all of the things that happen in our bodies when we eat a lot of junk.
Eat well. Exercise daily. You need them both.
Those of us who are athletes often think we can just exercise ourselves to health. As you know I was recently diagnosed with a fatty liver and my gastroenterologist, after looking at my Ironman jacket, very emphatically stated “you cannot fix this even if you run 3 Ironman races (140.6 miles). You have to fix your diet. Low sugar, low fat, fruits, veggies, whole grain and protein. That hit home …