Have you ever thought about just how much workout time you would need to eliminate one pound?

On paper, the answer would be up to 14 hours of continuous exercise, which would correspond to burning about 7,000 calories.

That said, in reality the truth is not so punishing, because working out helps us in more ways than just burning calories. It helps us speed up our metabolism, as well as providing us with a number of other general health benefits.

Still, this is meant to put into perspective that if you want to lose weight, working out won’t be enough. It’s very important that you adopt the right diet to coincide with that workout.

According to recent research papers, the best solution for weight loss starts with you knowing your body and how your own metabolism works before deciding what type of diet and workout routine you have to go on.

This is because some people have faster metabolisms than others, which means some will burn more calories during a workout than others.

Doctors who understand this decide whether you should focus more on changing what you eat or how much exercise you get by analyzing how your body responds to each one.

Here’s one good example of how you can balance out what you eat with working out, even if you have a busy schedule:

If you only have 20 minutes per day that you can devote to a workout, you should adopt a lower-calorie diet and use your 20 minutes for an intense physical workout. Intensity is key due to the short time span.

The food you eat is meant to ensure your body fills its energetic and nutritional needs, while your workouts are meant to activate/ speed up your metabolism to favor the burning of calories and define your physical shape.

A survey of more than 600 people at the Pennington Center for Biomedical Research in the United States found that people who did not change their diet, but did include exercise in their daily routine did not manage a significant loss of weight. So it really is important to both eat better and work out if you really want to lose weight.

If you don’t have a lot of time to manage this or do a lot of working out, our app will help. We’ll give you a daily goal of how many calories (max) should be consumed based on your age, weight and daily routine.