What’s more important… Diet or Exercise???
This is a question that comes up a lot among people who are new to bodybuilding. Now if you really stop and think about it, I think the answer becomes quite obvious… BOTH are important.
However, one is MORE IMPORTANT than the other and the answer may surprise you.
Just watch the video clip below to find out the answer…
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14 Comments
Ben Voiles
Assuming a person eats “reasonable” diet then exercise is much more important.
The reason there is so much emphasis on diet is because of the supplement industry. Notice almost every spokesperson for supplement companies are heavy drug users. If you go to almost any prison in the USA. You will probably see hundreds of guys that look better than most of us, at least their upper bodies.
Most of them eat what we would consider a fair diet, at best, with no supplements. Yet, many of them will have huge muscles with great definition.
If you could take 1000 men that were in fairly good shape but had never worked out and put half of them on weight training while continueing their regular diet and then put the ohter half on a “perfect” diet but no training. After a year, most of the first group would show great changes in appearence and would be much stronger. The changes in the second group would be hard to even measure.
Bali
Exercise certainly is more important than diet but do you feel that its the factor that leaves people’s physiques the same year after year? I mean the one body part frequency per week thing can only work for so long for beginners but once a person gets more advanced he’s gonna need rest time in the vicinity of 20+ plus days before he’s able to progress above his previous workout performance.
Do you think most weight training enthusiasts(not the gym recreation members) are usually falling into the trap of overtraining and thus hindering them from making further gains?
If your diet isn’t top notch you can give yourself a few more days rest to compensate for it but eating a quality diet with a boatload of protein will not compensate for a lack of recuperation time.
Steven
They say you can’t out train a bad diet, but I disagree. (Oh, I do eat very well) Its all about training intensity. If a guy or girl has a pristine diet, but just goes through the motions in the gym they will never have a great body. However, I can take that same person and feed them fast food (assuming they are getting enough protein, carbs and fats) and push them hard in the gym and they will get results. I don’t recommend that approach however. I would say its 65-35% training to diet.
Personal Trainer Mumbai
Strength and power can be gained by regular exercise. Diet is fuel for exercise.
Both are complimentary to each other. Just as we need proper form and technique in exercise, we need proper nutritional diet.
Both are important, depending upon goal of an individual. 🙂
leehayward
Ben Voiles,
Well said, thanks for posting your comment.
leehayward
Bali,
Actually, I think most people fail to achieve long term results because their training goes stale. They follow the same type of training over and over again and the body adapts and plateaus.
Now yes, there are some guys who are “overtraining” and that’s limiting their progress. But more people are stuck in a rut because they have adapted to their current routine and don’t change things.
leehayward
I totally agree, I’ve seen some guys make crazy gains eating a high calorie “junk food” diet. Now I DON’T recommend this personally for health reasons, but the reality is that it can help you build muscular mass and strength when combined with hardcore training.
Steven
leehayward,
pearson942
Length or girth????
Devlin
I’ve heard many ratios – diet:80% training:20%, diet:60% training:40%.
Let me give you my two cents’ worth.
I decided a while back to turn up the notch on my training. Now I have been training for a while and considered myself quite knowledgeable. Nevertheless I did research and found and hired a personal trainer/ strength and conditioning coach.
The progress I have made over the past few months is unprecedented. Granted – I am in a fat blitzing, conditioning phase but I am holding onto my muscle and increasing my strength.
Anyways – I think you can not give a ratio to diet versus training.
I have an analogy.
Let’s say I have a 71 Chev Elcamino. 308 cubic inch V8. I take off the carb and put on Holley 4-Barrel Carb, upgrade to a turbo box, put on a decent set of branches and freeflow exhaust system – heck I even set up a NOS kit.
Sounds good right? Well – that car ain’t going nowhere unless it gets fuel. And the cleaner and the higher the octane of the fuel, the faster I’m gonna go right?
The mods – the physical stuff – is like what I do at the gym. The workouts. The squats, deadlifts, presses and rows etc.
The fuel is my food.
What I have learned over the past few months is that yes, with a cutting edge, brilliant workout routine that is constantly evolving I am able to blast my body into reacting. That’s a given. But the cleaner I eat, the better my results. Literally, without losing any strength or fitness, I can see a % change in bodyfat based on my diet in as little as 10-14days.
Similarly, if I ate 100% perfectly and did any old time-wasting stuff in the gym I’d have a flat stomach but I certainly wouldn’t be muscular or athletic.
In my view it is all part of a matrix of success: diet, training, motivation, innovation.
That’s my two cents’ worth. lol.
Jim
Well done. Well orgranized thought.
Left to my own devices, I’m an eager eater. If it wasn’t for working out, I’d probably be dead or morbidly obese.
You are right. Doing a good workout routine makes my diet better.
After a couple of years without a hitch, I recently hurt my shoulder and haven’t been able to workout going into my second week.
I also trashed my diet for one week.
Because of my reduced capacity, I’ve started doing my warm-ups every day just to test where my shoulder movement is.
When I get the chance, I’m will start working out again using your general workout, which I think is top drawer.
Jim
leehayward
The purpose of this video is for beginners (and those who are coaching beginners) as to what they should focus on FIRST.
Once some one gets in the habit of regular workouts, they’ll automatically start looking for ways to improve their workouts through better nutrition, supplementation, etc.
Just think back to how you got started when you first began working out. I’m willing to bet most of you reading this just went to the gym (or started working out at home) with no clue about how much protein, carbs, fat, and calories you should eat.
Then after you’ve been working out for a while, you started looking for ways to speed up your gains in the gym through better nutrition.
David ROCK Nelson
I say eating(or diet) is more important, because no matter how hard you train, if you don’t take in enough carbs(carbohydrates), protein to repair & build muscle & veggies, etc. you won’t have the energy to rebuild & be in good health & strength, nor the extra amounts of nutrition to promote muscle weight gain. It’s all about the eating & the occasional all-Natural protein drink helps & is great right after-workout. Protein drinks, whether whey, which comes from milk or soy(both are natural), they help but I see good results from just eating more protein & carbs, like snacking between meals on a can of tuna fish on top of rice & drink a cup of “Java”(Coffee), my fave drink. When in a hurry without time to sit down for a meal, I’ll pour big glass of milk in a stryrofoam cup & grab a banana, to eat while waiting for my bus in morning- or I’ll shake in a scoop of “ON” Weight Gain Protein powder & some dry oatmeal, shake that in a jar for an on-the-go protein meal-in-a-glass. When I started natural bodybuilding from 1971-75 in the weight-room after school at “Maine South” High School in Park Ridge, IL, as an after workout protein/gain weight drink I successfully used “Bob Hoffman’s Quick GAIN Weight”(the best-tasting protein powder I ever tried, it tasted like malted milk & had lecithin & carob in it) or “Joe Weider’s CRASH Weight GAIN # 7” & “BIG” Weight GAIN Formula, both which I gained 1-2 pounds of solid, lasting muscle for each $1. cannister I bought at the health store in Park Ridge(IL)! I wish the protein & gain weight powders/supplements were more simple like they made them then, in the 70s-80s, they tasted better, too, in my opinion. BOb Hoffman had the best-tasting protein gain-weight powders & tablets, which you could carry with you & chew between meals, they tasted like malted-milk! In addition to good eating, one must work-out with resistence training(weight training or anything that puts tension, resistence on the muscles, like push-ups, pull-ups, knee bends, cable exercisers, etc) atleast 2-3 times a week, 2-3 sets per exercise(more advanced guys & gals can do more) but the main thing is challenging yourself, rather than comparing yourself to the other guy. I love being & remaining all-Natural & making slower but “Honest”, REAL muscle gains, as my Mom & Dad taught me not to cheat in anything, but strive honestly & winning honestly & if I don’t win, atleast I played the game fair & square. That’s how Abe Lincoln, “Honest ABE” would have done it, if he was a body-builder. So, yes, good intense work-outs
but not too long; it’s the intensity, not the duration of workout that gets your muscles pumped, which is why I like the Mike Mentzer “high intensity”, shorter workout approach. It’s better to do 2-3 sets per exercise with less rest between sets & get out of there(the gym) in 30 min. to 1 hour, than hang around talking for 5 minutes between every set, letting the muscles cool down too long, then bragging how one spent 2 hours at the gym! I can get a better workout by “getting down to business”, getting a good muscle pump doing 2 to 5 exercises for 2 to 3 sets each(5 to 20 reps per set, however many it takes on my 2nd & 3rd sets before I can’t do anymore) & getting out of the gym in 45 minutes to an hour, than alot of guys who spend too much time talking to buddies between sets, resting 5 minutes between every set, then “bragging” how they spent “2 hours at the gym”! Yet, it wasn’t a
“quality” work-out, I get good “quality” workout by resting 2-3 minutes between sets or super-sets, I get a good pump & see results, when I eat good & drink enough milk(I drink about 4 glases plus milk a day & I’m 54). -Until next time, ROCK! David ROCK Nelson, former Marine Corporal(1976-80), former Chicago “Golden gloves” Boxer(I competed during 3 decades: 76, then 1988 thru 91, at age 34, my last bout), former Bible college “Varsity” wrestler(1980-85) & now a “Monster” movie maker, actor, comic & all-natural bodybuilder. SEE my TV appearances on Youtube, talking about my “monster”/Sci-Fi filmmaking with previews of my movies & become my “Fiend”(Friend) on Facebook. Do search for: David ROCK Nelson
josian
hi lee:
i agree with you, what is the point of having a big muscular body if
a person do not exercises or diet correctly?
the body has 75% of water and people need both
exercise and diet to have a big muscular physique!
i love every video that you make lee and i respect you a lot!
you are a truly great bodybuilder and one of my favorite bodybuilders!
thank you!
your friend,
josian.