Why You *Can* Out-Train a Bad Diet – But You Can't Out-Diet Bad Training

'You can't out-train a bad diet.'

'It's 80% nutrition.'

'Gains are made in the kitchen.'

These phrases are so ubiquitous in gym circles that they've been swallowed wholesale as absolute truth. And, at the risk of rendering the title of this piece clickbait, they're still worth listening to. But they're also worth investigating.

Let's start with the big one: you can't out-train a bad diet.

Generally, this is used in reference to body composition and, more specifically, fat loss.

We've spent the last decade being bombarded with the message that fat loss is simply a mathematical equation: calories in versus calories out. Consume less energy than you expend and your body will use stored fat to make up the difference.

This is true. And yes, eating less is almost always the most efficient lever to pull. But that doesn't mean you can't simply move more to balance the equation in the direction of fat loss.

Anyone who's ever worked an extremely physical job – spending 12 to 16 hours a day on their feet doing manual labour – will tell you it's actually very difficult to eat enough calories to gain weight. Most people who start that kind of job, if they simply stick to their habitual eating patterns, will find themselves losing weight without making any conscious effort to change their diet whatsoever.

So, to say you can't out-train a bad diet is technically untrue.

Is it unlikely? Yes. Is it even a bit of a reach to describe an active lifestyle as 'out-training' a bad diet? Probably. It's more like outliving a bad diet.

But the fact remains: if we're bracketing off energy levels, muscle gain and general health, and talking solely about activity versus diet for fat loss, you most certainly can out-train a bad diet.

You just probably won't. Which is precisely why you should also focus on your diet.

But here's where I think giving primacy of importance to nutrition starts to unravel.

When it comes to building muscle, improving body composition in general, and especially getting stronger or performing better, you cannot out-diet poor effort in the gym.

It's easy to become so obsessed with perfect nutrition that we lose sight of just how important the training side of the equation really is.

This is why I don't like the whole 'it's 80% nutrition' thing. It doesn't really make any sense to me. Sure, people try to explain and justify it, but when it's pressure-tested, it falls apart.

Training and nutrition are multipliers. They're not additions. Their importance can't be divided into neat percentages, and I don't think you should even try.

But if you are going to create a hierarchy, when it comes to building muscle, hard training definitely outpaces diligent nutrition.

Here's the thought experiment I always use to explain why.

Take two identical twins.

They have identical genetics, they've lived exactly the same life up until this point, they look the same, eat the same, perform the same and have the same training history. At present, they're neither gaining nor losing weight. Treat them as identical blank slates.

Now we take one twin and send him to the world's best nutritionist. We give him the perfect diet – whatever that looks like. It's nutritious, perfectly calorie-controlled and perfectly balanced for him. He follows it with absolute precision.

He doesn't train. He simply continues living his normal life.

The other twin?

We send him to one of the greatest trainers in the world.

He follows the best, most progressive programme conceivable, trains with ferocious intensity, never misses a session and executes everything exactly as prescribed.

Diet-wise, though, he simply keeps eating exactly as he always has.

Now fast-forward six weeks. Or eight. Even 12.

Which twin will have undergone the most visible physical transformation?

The one who ate perfectly? Or the one who trained like a mad dog and simply let the chips fall where they may nutritionally?

It's going to be the training twin.

And if you think otherwise, I honestly don't think you've spent that much time in gyms or training with real people.

That's not to say nutrition isn't important.

It absolutely is. (And it's far more important than simply how it impacts your body fat levels.)

But when it comes to building muscle and strength, your training is the primary driver of progress. It really is that simple.

Do you need enough protein to optimise muscle growth and recovery? Absolutely.

Do you need enough carbohydrates – and calories in general – to fuel high-quality training? Of course.

Do you need dietary fat to support hormone production and create the best environment for muscle growth? Without question.

But you could do every single one of those things perfectly and, if you're not going to the gym – or you're turning up and training with all the intensity of a wilting lettuce – you simply won't see meaningful changes.

So while it's unlikely you'll ever out-train a bad diet when it comes to losing fat – even though, technically, you could – you absolutely cannot out-diet a lack of effort, a lack of intensity or a lack of progressive programming in the gym.

It's just not possible.

The takeaway isn't to ignore your nutrition and simply train harder. In fact, reducing nutrition to simply a tool for fat loss wildly overlooks the impact of what you eat on how you feel, perform and show up in the world.

The point is that these things aren't an either/or. Prioritising – or deifying – either at the expense of the other is a fool's game.

If you haven't made much progress recently, yes, nutrition could absolutely be part of the problem, particularly if fat loss is the goal.

But it could also be that you need to train harder.

Train with progression in mind, push closer to your limit and stop treating your workouts as though they're only 20% of the equation.

They're not.

They're 100% of the equation. And so is nutrition. They're completely inseparable.

Eat well. Train hard. Don't worry too much about the maths.

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