Nothing replaces diet: an inconvenient truth

Almost every problem involving your bodybuilding results is a diet issue, not a training issue. Because there's no point in bodybuilding without a diet . Not if your goal is to change your body.

Choose any well-designed workout.

It doesn't matter if it's a weight training workout to gain mass, a workout to gain pure strength, or a workout plan focused on definition.

You can gain or lose fat on any of these programs. Your results will depend almost entirely on your diet. And you'll understand why in this text.

Think of training as a vehicle and diet as the steering wheel that controls the car.

Training to gain muscle mass won't get you anywhere if you don't target growth by following a hypertrophy diet.

A fat-loss workout will fail you if combined with an incompatible eating plan, unless you were completely sedentary before starting the workout. Even then, you'll hit a wall if you don't take control of your diet.

What if you don't diet or don't have basic nutrition knowledge?

So, it's like you're driving a car and no one is in charge.

Really? Dieting is ALWAYS the hardest part.

Working out, even brutal workouts that make you nauseous, can be satisfying and even release endorphins later.

Now, not eating something you really want or being forced to eat something because of your eating plan doesn't create the same satisfying effect.

In fact, it's quite the opposite. In general, we hate it, and it goes against all our survival instincts.

So most people ignore the white elephant sitting in the room – the diet.

Or at least, they try everything first. They prefer to try every type of workout, supplement, and advanced method, while the basics (diet) remain on the back burner.

And they still have no results.

Once the individual finally understands that they need a meal plan, the “magic” begins to happen.

Just by consistently changing a few foods, a few hundred calories less or more… abracadabra, the body starts to change and the results start to appear!

And all this without changing your training – assuming that “training” is training as little as humanly possible.

Now, you can and should change your workouts if you have a specific goal in mind.

But if you're training intensely and being consistent and your body still isn't changing, then there's no point in trying to hide the problem. The problem is your diet.

Most people prefer not to hear this because eating is emotional, habitual, social, and psychological, as well as physiological.

Getting your nutrition plan right is difficult, and it takes time to master this aspect of the equation for a good physique. You'll have to step outside your comfort zone, perhaps study the subject, or hire someone.

In any case, the effort is worth it. In fact, it's probably the most important aspect when the goal is body change.