Abs are made in the kitchen.
It’s 80% Diet, 20% Training.
First of all, what does that even mean? How do you quantify the importance of something like diet or training? If my diet is perfect, does that mean I’ll reach 80% of my genetic potential? If I train my ass off, am I only 1/5 of the way there? How do we know what the perfect diet is anyway?
Nutrition is inherently more interesting than training. When I create a diet for someone, there are so many variables that need to be tailored to each individual. Food choices, nutrient timing, and the overall eating strategy to put people in a position to succeed are just some things I need to consider when crafting a meal plan. It’s a puzzle that’s different for each person.
Training, on the other hand, is a more straightforward topic. While advocates of different diets will debate about nutrition all day, most can agree that consistent resistance training with good form and progressive overload will yield results. We can dive deeper into exercise selection and more advanced topics but the basic concept holds true: resistance training creates inflammation, the body adapts, and muscles grow.
A 200lb male and a 130lb female could follow the same 8 week training program and both see great results.
A 200lb male and a 130lb female could follow the same 8 week diet program and see radically different results.
With all that being said, resistance training is still WAY more important than diet.
There is nothing that can replace the stimulus from resistance exercise, whether it’s from weights, cables, bands, or machines. You could eat 500 grams of protein every day, but if you don’t train you won’t build muscle. Diet by itself can get you leaner, but without resistance training you cannot make significant changes to your physique. What’s the point in being lean if there’s no muscle to show.
I’d like to believe that we are past the stigma of weight training making a person “bulky”, which historically was a fear amongst women. With social media, we now see that women train their ass off with intense workouts utilizing heavy weights at times. The results speak for themselves. These women have millions of followers and the body to show for it.
So why is diet always placed on a level above training? I have a few theories.
An individual who has been training for years can go on a two month diet and lose a considerable amount of body fat. You see transformation pictures like this all the time. This is where a lot of the diet>training theories come from. People will tout the physique changes they made by dieting for 8 weeks while ignoring the fact that they’ve been in the gym for 5 years. All things considered, it takes a long time to build muscle and a short time to lose fat.
Another theory is that people become very complacent with their training. They do the same routine over and over again. It works for a little while but eventually the body adapts. If you’ve been going to the same gym then you probably see the same group of people working out. Next time take notice; most of them have looked exactly the same for years.
I feel that people look at training the way they look at any other part of their daily routine. As long as you make it to the gym, you can check off that box and move on. It’s looked at as a task, like doing laundry or washing your car. But are you really getting the most out of each workout or are you just going through the motions? When was the last time you changed your routine? Remember the steps to muscle growth: train, adapt, and grow. But if you’re not pushing yourself, there is no reason for your body to grow.
On the internet you can find videos of guys in third world countries, particularly countries in Africa, training with homemade dumbbells and barbells outdoors. Clearly they don’t have access to proper nutrition but their physiques are still incredibly impressive.
On the Joe Rogan podcast, Yoel Romero detailed his experience growing up in Cuba and coming up through their Olympic wrestling system. He said the athletes would eat based on their performance; the best wrestlers got three meals per day, the second tier got two, and so on. This obviously isn’t ideal for one’s physique development but if you look at pictures of Yoel at a young age, he was clearly in amazing shape.
Genetics play an important role as well, but if you have crap genetics then organic berries and grass fed bison isn’t going to help anyway.
Before everyone digitally jumps down my throat now is probably a good time to say, yes diet is important. Diet is very important actually. I wouldn’t counsel people on diet for a living if I thought it wasn’t important. It is a critical component to reach your full potential, whether your goal is aesthetics or performance. But the disrespect for training is getting out of hand.
Generally speaking we all enjoy working out more than dieting. Next time you want to bring your physique to the next level, take a look at your current training program before throwing all the bread and pasta in the garbage. Plan out a new routine in advance; you’re more likely to follow that than to do it on the fly.
Need help? I’m glad you asked. You can email me at Sean@mindsetsandreps.com for information on customized training programs.