Bones To Pick
 

People often know me for my online rants under my pseudonym Grim83. They view me as angry, or distraught, which I am. But I also do it to get the big points across in a way that you will remember. So bear with me now as I unleash my wrath on a few subjects.Nutrition I’m [...]

More...

Grim brought up an issue that drives me ape shit..."Building muscle is 80% diet."

Here is my version..."Building muscle is 80% progression, and 20% eating big."

I even believe that rest is overrated. I've slept for crap the last 10 years. It's hard to sleep sometimes with kids.

i agree, i've always slept like crap, but i have no problem adding muscle

I'm sure lack of sleep isn't optimal.

But like you, I really don't believe that diet is 80%. It might be that much if you are looking to place in a modern natural bodybuilding show where it's all about being ripped.

I think cutting possibly is 80% diet but not bulking.

well i mean of course to get in that extremely ripped condition it takes a well thought out diet, but just to get beach season lean not so much

I totally am living proof of this. If nutrition was 80% gains I would be in trouble. True you must eat food and view it as fuel for your workouts and recovery, the body is a machine,in terms of cars, you can be a powerlifter/strongman built like a tank or truck, or bodybuilder Ferrari, or olympic lifter racing car, but either way you look at it, it all comes down to : WHAT is all that “fuel” needed for if you don’t know how to “drive” to begin with.

I agree with you on the sleep. All through college I rarely got more than 6 hours of sleep(If that) and I still made my best gains. I do feel much better with more rest though.

As long as you are in a caloric surplus I gotta agree on the diet as well. To me periodization is probably the most important aspect. Whether it be cycling training frequency,volume,intensity,etc.

Now I will say when it comes to cutting, diet becomes a major factor. Not so much what you eat, but the macronutrients you are consuming.

For Bodybuilding for aesthetic reasons and/or competition reasons, I can accept tha diet is playing a big role.
But for adding muscles, strength, power and for functional reasons etc, I think the major role plays training, I and agree with MaB.

Training without dieting, can bring results.
But dieting without training is worthless.
If you know what I mean.

I know exactly what you mean.

And I hope I'm not sounding like a madman by downplaying diet and rest. I don't want the younger guys to take this advice and go crazy with it. But like MattB said...he made gains on less then perfect sleep. I did as well. I get 8 hours of sleep maybe 10% of days. And it's not for lack of trying. The body can still produce great gains on less then desirable sleep.

Regarding diet...good training with a horrible diet is always better then poor training and a perfect diet. I'm talking for muscle and strength gains. I'm not advocating a poor diet. But in college, I had to eat what was available. I didn't have a choice.

I ate pizza, cheesecake and lots of milk. And of course mac and cheese with tuna. Far from optimal, but I gained most of my mass on this diet.

The king will always be...more weight on the bar. Over the long haul, this factor is more important then any. The "diet is 80%" business, to me, always seemed like an off shoot of the supplement industry's mumbo jumbo. If they can get you paranoid, then your wallet will open.