So here you are, working out three, four, five, maybe even six days a week. You’re booking bags at Throwdown, huffing and puffing through cardio kickboxing, squeezing in a fighter’s on your lunch break, setting the alarm for Saturday morning boot camp. But the scale isn’t budging, and more tellingly, your pants aren’t getting any looser. What the heck? Why isn’t all this exercise paying off?

Unless you’re being just as diligent with what goes in your mouth, you’re undoing all that hard work every time you sit down to eat. It’s hard to hear, but it’s absolutely true. You can’t out-train a crappy diet. You just can’t. In fact, you’d be better off just keeping your diet on point and skipping workouts completely if your only goal is to drop weight (but don’t do that – there are too many benefits of exercise beyond plain aesthetics).

Science backs us up on this. A University of Texas study found that after 12 weeks of consistent, high-intensity training, participants saw a 1% loss in fat. They lost one pound of fat and gained two pounds of lean muscle (yay!) compared to the placebo group. But that means that at the end of those 12 weeks, they actually weighed more. Oof.

There are more studies that confirm the same idea. Nutrition isn’t a minor piece to the weight loss/muscle gain/fitness puzzle. It’s the main piece. Exercise is important to be strong, to sleep better and to have more energy. It’s important for your heart and your lungs and your overall lifestyle. But exercise without proper nutrition means you aren’t firing on all cylinders. It leads to an imbalance – and a frustrating one at that. You can be a fitness nut and still be seriously unhealthy if you’re downing crappy food all the time.

Pairing adequate nutrition with consistent exercise is downright magical. That’s when fat loss becomes significant and steady and inspiring. So think about what’s really important to you, and take steps to get there. Yes, it involves some sacrifices. Yes, it can be difficult. But planning and prep work go a long way, and the 80/20 balance can make what seems impossible (passing on the empty calories and filling up instead on the foods that really nourish your body) totally doable.