Cardio, Weights or Diet: What Matters Most for Fat Loss?

Nikkiey: Like I just said, you cannot out-train a bad diet, and it's 1000% true. Fat loss is ultimately about being in a calorie deficit, but the quality of your food matters just as much as the quantity does.

Yo, you guys, what's going on? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 228.

Today, I just want to get real, raw and honest with you guys. I was inspired by something I saw on Instagram the other day. It's a narrative that still floats around the fitness space, and it's the concept of fat loss that consists of doing things backwards. It says cardio, weights, and nutrition is the way that 97% of society thinks it should be in order to get to your goals.

What we're going to do in this episode is I'm going to flip that. Because you've probably been told that cardio is the holy grail of fat loss. I remember that was exactly my mindset when I first started my journey, too. It was like, in order to lose fat, I need to run X amount of miles or whatever, do tons of cardio, spend my time sweating on the treadmill, barreling down, grinding away on the elliptical, and I'm going to lose fat faster. And I'm sure that is what you guys feel, too.

I know that because recently I've been talking to a lot of WarriorBabes inside of our community, and they've been sharing that that is where their head was at before they joined our program. They thought they had to do it this way in order to achieve the fat loss goals they wanted and to lose the weight. I just want to get real honest with you guys on this episode, and I'm going to flip it, because that is completely backwards. I want to talk about why nutrition is literally the foundation of everything.

I talk about nutrition being the king and exercise being the queen. The thing is, nutrition is the foundation. Weights are the accelerator. And cardio is, think about it, the cherry on top. Trust me, if you are somebody who feels like you've been grinding away, you've been running miles, you've been killing it on the elliptical, you're doing it on the bike, you're swimming, I don't know, and you're feeling frustrated because you're not seeing the results you thought you would see after grinding away on those things, then this episode is going to be an absolute freaking game changer for you.

And I know you're not the only one. I know there's a friend or a coworker who could be truly inspired by this episode too, and maybe have light bulbs go off in their brain and recognize that this is what they're doing, and it's not the way they need to achieve their results. I ask that you share this episode with somebody.

Okay. So first, I just want to start with a myth that most of us grew up believing. Like I said, this was where I was at the beginning of my journey too, so I can resonate with a lot of you women who feel this way. I thought that if I wanted to lose fat, the first thing I needed to do was cardio. I needed to run. I needed to spin. I needed to sweat like crazy. I needed to burn. I mean, how many of you guys are still obsessed with your Apple Watch and how many calories you're burning on a daily basis while you're doing your exercise? And then maybe you'll add some weights here and there. And then lastly, if you're feeling ambitious about your efforts, maybe you'll look at your nutrition.

I know when I first started my journey, the only thing I cared about was cardio. I even signed up for two half marathons in my first year of really committing to this process because I thought that was the way. And then I was like, okay, maybe here and there I'll add some weights. I shared with you guys in the very first episode of this whole podcast series, episode number one, how I walked into the gym and walked straight up to the cardio equipment. If you feel that same way, you're not alone. But if you want any type of results, building more muscle, being more toned, or changing your body composition, this is not the way. We need to flip it.

Okay. The last thing I said there was if you're feeling ambitious about nutrition. I remember that was the last thing on my mind. And boy, as I'm sharing with you guys, how that has flipped so much in the last 10 years, recognizing how important nutrition is and sharing that with the WarriorBabes. Obviously I talk a lot about it on these episodes too. But does that sound familiar to you guys? If you want to lose fat, you've got to do cardio. This is what we all grew up believing. These are the myths we grew up believing. And then maybe you'll do some weights, and then maybe you'll look at your nutrition. This approach is everywhere, and it's what's keeping so many people spinning their wheels. Literally.

I think about all the women who are on their hamster wheel, doing the same thing over and over and over again, and they're getting nowhere. The truth is that this hierarchy is completely backwards. If you're solely relying on cardio to burn calories, you're setting yourself up for pure frustration and pure burnout. Here's why. Cardio burns calories while you're doing it, but it doesn't create long-term changes in your metabolism. And if your nutrition isn't dialed in, all that effort on the treadmill won't matter, because you can't out-train a bad diet.

This is where I want to get real with you guys. If you want to see sustainable fat loss and actually feel good in your body, then you need to flip this script. The real fat loss hierarchy looks like this: nutrition, number one; weights, number two; and cardio, number three. I'm going to break down each of these with you guys.

This is what I saw on Instagram, and I was like, oh my God, this is beautifully said. Everyone thinks it's cardio, weights, nutrition. 97% of society thinks it's that way. And it is the exact opposite. That's behind the results I've achieved over the last 10 years, and the results of almost 20,000 women inside of WarriorBabe, the ones who have committed to the process and done the work. Which is not 20,000. It's probably half, or maybe even less than half, because not everyone commits to this. Not everyone understands this. Not everybody is willing to break the stories or the narratives or the concepts or whatever limiting beliefs they hold. Whatever is going on in their own brain, they're not willing to accept something different.

I understand that, because you have been ingrained one way for so long and you have all of these narratives in your brain that this is the way. But I hope just one of you guys hears me today and makes the shift. Trust me now, believe me later.

When I say nutrition is king, nutrition is the foundation of everything. Like I just said, you cannot out-train a bad diet, and it's 1000% true. Fat loss is ultimately about being in a calorie deficit, but the quality of your food matters just as much as the quantity does. What you eat directly impacts your hormones. It directly impacts your energy levels. It directly impacts your recovery. That's why nutrition needs to come first.

Eating enough protein fuels your muscle growth. It fuels the cellular processes in your body, which helps you burn fat more efficiently. And when you're focusing on whole, nutrient-dense foods, they actually keep you full and prevent you from having those cravings that will derail your progress. Abiding by these things is the foundation, and it's what's going to get you to the goals you want.

Then you mix in weights. Food is fuel, so it's going to fuel your workouts and it's going to fuel your recovery. And then cardio is more so, and I'm not dissing cardio entirely, I'm going to get to that in a minute, but think about it: your heart is a muscle too and it needs it. But it's a tool and a resource for your results. It's not the number one driving factor.

Okay. So if your nutrition isn't aligned to your goals, no amount of cardio and no amount of weightlifting will get you where you want to be. If you focus on hitting your macros, if you focus on getting enough protein, if you focus on prioritizing whole foods over processed junk, then that is more in alignment with your goals, and that's what's going to help catapult you to the results you want. This isn't about restriction either. It's about fueling your body the right way.

When you give your body whole, nutrient-dense foods, you're giving it quality and you're giving it quantity. Both of those things matter. You're eating enough protein, which I've talked about in so many episodes. That is an epidemic with women in the fitness industry. They don't eat enough protein. And all of this impacts your hormones, your energy levels, and your recovery. Again, this is the foundation. This is the king. I know I'm repeating myself, but I really want to drill this home, and sometimes when I repeat myself in different words, it lands.

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The second thing is weights. If nutrition is the foundation, if nutrition is the king, then strength training is the accelerator. Strength training is the queen. This gets you closer to your goals. Building muscle is the most effective way to boost your metabolism.

Think about it like this. Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest, which means you're basically incinerating and torching body fat 24/7, not just during your workouts. Like I said, when you're doing cardio, the only time you're burning the calories is when you're doing it. It doesn't create long-term changes in your actual metabolism. Weights are the most effective way to boost your metabolism because the muscle tissue is constantly burning calories.

It doesn't sleep. So it's requiring you to keep up with your nutrition. It's requiring you to eat enough throughout the day. Nutrition is the gas for your body, and the constant influx of nutrition is feeding all of these cellular processes and your muscle tissue. This is something I mentioned in another episode: it's not tangible, you don't see these things happening. But I just want to get it into your brain that when you feed your body the right way, internally all of this is going down.

And that's why I like to say with WarriorBabe too, side note, a lot of women come to us with destroyed metabolisms or just slow metabolisms, or whatever way you want to understand that. Your metabolism is just not working with you. It's working against you. And what I like to say is we need to heal the inside first, because if we can heal the inside first, the exterior results are going to follow. And we do it with this hierarchy: nutrition, weights, cardio. I just want to drill this into your brains.

When you strength train, you're not just burning calories during the workout. You're also creating a ripple effect that helps you burn fat even faster after you've left the gym. Some of you have heard that when you're sitting on the couch, you're burning calories. I have a lot of muscle mass, right? So me sitting here talking to you guys, I'm burning calories. And that's one of the biggest reasons why weight training trumps cardio when it comes to fat loss.

Then the last thing, which is cardio. Here's the thing. Again, as I mentioned, cardio is not bad. It's just that cardio has its place. It's great for heart health. It's great for endurance. And it's a tool for adding a little extra calorie burn. But it's not the star of the show, and it doesn't deserve to be the star of the show. Think about cardio as the cherry on top of the dessert, but it's not the whole dessert.

And if you do too much cardio... I remember the beginning of my journey, because I was training for a bodybuilding competition and I signed up for two half marathons at the same time. Luckily, I'm a really good student, and I just listened to what my coach was telling me. Because guys, hear me out. My coach was a professional in the space. Who am I to go to him and say, oh, this isn't working? It would only have not worked because I wouldn't follow what he was telling me to do, because I thought I knew what I should be doing. Which I didn't do.

I'm saying that for those of you who don't follow programs because you think there's another success route. If there was another success route, you would have already gotten there. So be a good student. Be a good learner. Listen to the people who literally do this for their job. They have so much more knowledge. They have so much more understanding. They have so much more experience.

When I started my journey, of course I was afraid of losing, or of course I was afraid of eating more food. I feel like that is a big fear factor for a lot of women and men, anyone in general: eating more food than what you're eating now. My coach told me when I first started out, because of all the energy expenditure I was putting out training for a bodybuilding competition and then doing two half marathons pretty close together, he was like, "Nikkiey, you need to eat food. You need to have this amount of calories this week. Plus, you need to have a cheat meal three days a week." And I'm like, that is literally four times the amount of food I'm eating right now. I'm going to blow up.

Understandable, because I was naive to the process. I didn't understand these things. I didn't have the knowledge to back up my reasoning. But I trusted him. That's why I was a really good student. I was like, okay, cool, I'll eat that. And that helped me get the results I wanted.

I'm saying all this because if you do too much cardio, it can actually work against you. If you're not fueling your body the right way, meaning if you don't have the foundation of your nutrition down and you're doing tons and tons of cardio, again, you can't outwork a bad diet. It will work against you. It will do that by increasing your cortisol levels, because your body is basically under stress at this point. You're not giving your body enough fuel to keep up with all the cellular processes going on inside of your body. Cortisol is your stress hormone, and potentially that's going to lead to muscle loss, especially if your nutrition isn't supporting your activity levels.

Meaning if you're killing yourself with cardio, if you're training five, six, seven days a week, you're doing Orangetheory, you're doing all these boot camps, you're working out three hours a day, and you don't have your nutrition dialed in, what happens? Your body gets stressed out. Again, it's not tangible. You can't see this, but you will see it in terms of not getting the results you want. Six months of doing this and you don't see results. It's because you're losing muscle mass. You're doing everything that's counterproductive to the process of building more muscle and being more toned, because you don't have your nutrition dialed in and it's not supporting all of this energy expenditure you're putting out.

So my advice: use cardio as a supplement, not as a crutch. Incorporate it in a way that supports your goals, whether it's going for 10K steps a day, doing a spin class, or doing some HIIT. We even have people inside of our program, WarriorBabe, who do Orangetheory, but they do it once or twice a week, because it's a supplement. They enjoy those classes, and we want you guys to keep doing the classes you enjoy, because that's how you make it a lifestyle. But it cannot be the star of the show, as I said earlier. Don't let it replace the essentials, which are nutrition and weights.

Okay, so you guys know I like to put it into practical, tangible takeaways that you can go and put into practice. If you're somebody in that 97% of society doing the opposite, which is cardio, weights, and nutrition: first and foremost, dial in your nutrition. And guys, it's only as hard as you make it. It's literally up to you. It is your choice.

Every single time you pick up a food item, ask: does this support my goals or does this not support my goals? Doesn't support my goals? Cool. You have the power to toss it out the door. You have the power to put it back where it was and pick something else up. Dial in your nutrition. Start by paying attention to how much food you are eating on a daily basis and track that for a week. Then figure out where you're lacking in what you need to be eating, which is probably mostly good protein. Then stack in learning how to track your macros, getting more protein, and eliminating unnecessary processed foods. Just start paying attention to what you're eating.

Then prioritize strength training. You can do this all at once or one at a time. Aim for three to five sessions per week. Four sessions per week. And do not tell me you don't have enough time to do that, because you do. You just need to make the time. Focus on progressive overload. I've talked about what that is in episodes before. You can literally search through the episodes and find one with progressive overload in the title. Challenge your muscles with heavier weights over time. That's basically what it is.

And then add cardio strategically. Use it to enhance your cardiovascular system and your endurance. Just don't overdo it. If you're doing a couple of sessions a week, that's plenty for most people. If you're doing 10K steps a day, that is plenty.

And it's not about doing everything perfectly. Okay? It's about nailing it in and being consistent with your efforts and what you're focusing on. If you're only going to choose one of those three things, the first thing is nutrition. Focus on the consistency of your efforts. Then stack it with going to the gym. Focus on the consistency of your efforts. Then stack it with, okay, I'm going to focus on getting 10K steps a day. Guys, literally, no joke, that is all it takes. You don't need anything other than doing those things. It's as simple as that. It's only as hard as you make it. If you focus on nutrition, weights, and cardio in that order, you're going to see results that actually last. Point blank. End of story.

The key takeaway here, other than the hierarchy that will get you to results that actually last: fat loss isn't about working harder. It's about working smarter. Nutrition is the foundation that fuels your body. Weights build the muscle that boosts your metabolism. And cardio is just the icing on the cake. It's the cherry on top. So if you've been spending hours on the treadmill, if you've been feeling stuck, it's time to shift your approach. Focus on the things that matter, and watch your body. If you do that, you guys, so many things are going to transform for you.

So if this episode resonated with you, do something about it after this. What are you going to change? If you're doing any of those things backwards, focus on nutrition first. That's it. And please share this with somebody who needs to hear the truth about fat loss. Because it's not doing cardio excessively every single day, and working out for three hours a day, and being in the gym, and, and, and, all of which requires all of this energy output. If you want to do it smarter, it's nutrition, weights, cardio. Okay?

I hope this resonates with you guys. Please share it with someone who could hear this too, and hopefully some light bulbs have gone off. I love you guys. I appreciate you guys. And I'll see you in the next episode.

Hey, really quick. Before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all the difference in helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.