80/20 Rule for Body Composition
80% of your body composition (lean mass + fat) is the result of diet while 20% is from exercise. Diet enables you to change your weight, to build muscle mass or to burn fat, while exercise is a tool to manipulate further change, to demand the growth of muscle or to accelerate fat loss.
This does not mean exercise is minimized or excluded, however, and should always be paired with diet. Exercise provides numerous mental and physical health benefits and should always be part of your lifestyle.
Your Weight
Your body weight does not consist of just muscle and fat, but also water, blood, organs, waste, tissue, and bones. Your scale tells you your weight, but it doesn’t tell you how much of it is lean muscle and how much of it is fat. If you gain or lose a few pounds over the course of the day, it is likely just fluctuations of water weight. It is best to measure progress week-by-week, first thing in the morning. Please be aware that you can expect to naturally and realistically burn up to 2 lbs of fat per week (the obese can burn more) or build 0.5 lbs of muscle per week.
