Do you exercise so you can eat or eat so you exercise?

Over the past decade, we as a society have been obsessed with dieting. We're always looking for the quick way to loss weight, look thin, be fit; an entire industry has developed earning billions of dollars a year. It seems like every month we're learning about a new diet, pill or piece of exercise equipment to help us in our efforts to gain the body we always wanted. Now experts; nutritionists, exercise physiologists, doctors, trainers have all been preaching the formula for years now, but no one seems to listen. Watch what you eat (portions here) and how much physical activity do you do.

A good friend of mine once told me, "I exercise so I can eat."

This, to me, sums it all up. Are you eating so therefore you exercise? or do you exercise so you can eat? That's the simple question. Do you stuff yourself throughout the day, so  you feel obligated to go to the gym and get some cardio in? Do you guilt yourself into getting off the couch and moving your body? That's what you need to ask yourself. Do you eat more than you need to sustain your activity level? Well do you?

Or are you in the other group? You exercise so you can eat. Michael Phelps, this was a guy who, if you looked at what he ate, didn't give you the image of the best diet. Pizza all the time. But hey, when you swim as much and as hard as he does, burning up all those calories, you can do that. So get up and exercise...burn those calories off. The more you burn, the more you can eat. Remember moderation, eat whatever you want, just remember these simple equations:

• Calories in > calories burned = weight gain
• Calories in = calories burned = weight maintained
• Calories in < calories burned = weight loss