“Diet is 75/80/90% of Recomposition” is 100% Bullshit in Theory and Practice

Jamie Chaos

May 19, 2021

Due to the fact that I am exhausted with the pseudointellectualism parading as exercise science in general, it’s rare I even address modern “scientific” idiocy of the current crop of vaguely muscular halfwits masquerading as expert coaches. As I saw my edification of the world regarding somatotypes mostly come to naught (and how’s that for an ancient callback to the OG readers?), I’ve no real hopes in divesting people of the belief that you can really quantify any part of the relationship between diet and exercise, because the entire idea of doing so is dumber than the idea that a violent revolution benefits anyone in the modern world. Just like the chicken-or-the-egg or the argument is an example of an infinite regress, so too is the relationship between diet and lifestyle (of which exercise is only a part).

Fuck everyone’s dumbass pie charts and their fabricated percentages twice. I think in the last year I’ve had my absolute fill of pseudointellectualism out of halfwits who slept through or didn’t take AP Bio, and everyone below that level of high school achievement should just keep their dumb fucking mouth shut about all things science.

If you’re already going “what the fuck is he babbling about?”, the TLDR is:

Diet and exercise aren’t two pieces of a pie chart- they’re more like a picture of Ouroboros labeled “Diet and Lifestyle,” because exercise is only one piece of the puzzle.

To begin, I’ve always chafed at the various metrics of basal metabolic rates, because in my experience they have no application to me whatsoever, because I’ve always been an active person. Rather than drive to the convenience store or the gym, I walk when it’s possible, and live where it’s possible as a general rule. On any given day I walk 2.5 miles just getting to the gym, in addition to at least one trip to the bodega, which is another mile roundtrip. I like to play first person shooters standing rather than sitting, and I have a tendency that borders on compulsion to run stairs rather than walk them. That said, none of that shit is exercise- it is just basic human activity, and if you consider that shit exercise you should consider taking up rad new habits like heroin and reality television, because you’re in the wrong subculture- and as such I have never thought to track it (and unless my phone randomly announced my steps to me after an update, it never even would have occurred to me that I am quite the walker.

Beyond that, most people are so lazy they’ll procrastinate on going to the bathroom, which is so ludicrously slothful I’d think Baptists would make it a capital offense. I’ve been too drunk to change the channel on the tv, but never too lazy… and I’m definitely in the minority there as well. The list goes on, but I’m no Luddite, and I don’t live on a farm, so my life’s easier than I have any right to expect and I don’t mind doing the easy shit myself. That entire mentality begets higher caloric expenditure, but none of it constitutes any kind of appreciable exercise- it is simply the biometric cost of living life.

Then there are the requirements of one’s job, which for most people involves a shitload of sitting, after which you claim to be too tired to do more than sit, after which you lay down. Perhaps one of the reasons my writing is so active is due to the fact that I type while standing, just like I try to do many of the things I do- why walk when you can run, sit when you could stand, or lay down when you could be sitting? And don’t even get me started on the people who lay around in bed- if you are a person who hangs out in bed when you’re not fucking or sleeping, you have chosen to get zero decent sleep and have a shitty metabolism for life. Congratulations- you are the first wave of the fatties Wall-E portended. There is genuinely no hope for you to have a decent physique or a decent bench.

If you’d not already gathered as much, my activity levels demand higher levels of calories and increase my utilization of calories- and it isn’t as though you absorb all of the nutrition from the food you eat (nutrient absoption rates vary wildly from person to person due to lifestyle and biological individuality. Extra activity ensures a higher rate of protein synthesis, whether it’s aerobic or anaerobic, so you can absorb more of the nutrients you eat and put those nutrients to better use. And that is on top of the increased protein synthesis I am getting from my five or six lifting sessions a week, the long-term effects of a lifetime of eating a high protein diet, and the cumulative effect of a lifetime of heavy, intense, explosive exercise. Nevertheless, it creates exactly the type of infinite regress scenario by which I need more calories because I simply exist as I do.

All of this is likely very upsetting for some of you to hear. Tough shit.

And while we’re at it, the effects of diet and lifting on your body are CUMULATIVE. Yes, life is a cumulative test, as it happens, and your physical performance and appearance are a reflection of the life you live and have lived. As such, you’ll need to remember that if you spent all of your formative years picking your nose and eating Cheetos while sitting on the couch like a massive dehydrated slug, your physique is going to revert to that every time you look askance at a cookie for a few years, whereas thirty years of being lean means that provided I lift a couple of times a week and walk a bunch, I’ll have a visible six pack on my deathbed, even if I finish every day eating a large pizza for the rest of my life… and not just because I eat meatlover’s pizza on thin crust, either, though that certainly helps matters considerably (high protein meals have a thermic effect of around 30%, meaning just the fact that you ate the protein means you’re only going to absorb 70% of the calories you’ve eaten, as opposed to 80-90% of the calories from carbs and 100% of those from fat).

Being lean isn’t something you do by tricking your body with bullshit math, and efforts to do so will be both short-lived and wholly unenlightening. Instead, being lean is about learning your body and eating to facilitate your lifestyle, whatever that may be. Food isn’t the enemy- your lazy-ass brain is. So fix your brain, because if you do so it will at some point let you know that pie is a bad look for breakfast unless you’re planning on being a circus fat man or woman (or an as-yet unlabeled third gender), and the mirror is a pretty good indicator of whether you’re a fatass or not, so ditch the scale too.

Postscript:

Frankly, it disgusts me to even post Pubmed support of what is obvious to any hard training human being with a goddamned brain, but as everyone seems to think science leads the way in sports science (when in reality it’s easily 20 years behind any decently built 40-something’s broknowledge) I feel compelled to “prove” my suppositions with recent scientific findings. I’ve happily been my own test subject for the last 29 years and will remain so until the moment of my death, at which point I’ll be working on flexing metaphysical muscles, I suppose.

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Jamie Chaos

I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

13 responses to ““Diet is 75/80/90% of Recomposition” is 100% Bullshit in Theory and Practice”

Jon

May 19, 2021

Wow, simply one of the best and most honest articles I have read about life-long efforts and subsequent results.
I agree 100%.
I have been playing guitar for 17 years, I have left them untouched for months and came back to my top form in a few weeks because all of the hours I have spent crafting technique with a metronome.
The more I do it, the easier and faster it is to maintain and to get better.
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  May 20, 2021
  
  And it is a constantly raising bar, which makes the pursuit all that much more fun- as our skill gets higher, our standards make that “average” and we keep going for better.
  
  I am so psyched this resonated with you guys- I get intensely uncomfortable writing about myself, but it is definitely a useful tool for teaching. Perhaps finding historical greats whose examples serve the same purpose as my own make me less self-critical of myself. I’ve no idea- I am higher than a Jewish holy day due to dealing with incessantly passive-aggressive neighbors (resolving a conflict with them apparently means pretending the shit didn’t happen, which doesn’t work for me) and you’ve got me navel-gazing, haha.
Brandon Hewitt

May 19, 2021

This feels like some classic CnP type of shit and a little reality check. Was much, much more active when I was younger and I suspect it might be why I didn’t struggle to be lean. Good shit.
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  May 20, 2021
  
  Hell yeah! I thought it might scratch an itch for the old school. I’m really trying to mix it up between the old and new school shit- if nothing else, it gives my brain a break from researching endlessly, haha.
Jon

May 20, 2021

I have stumbled upon this: https://plagueofstrength.com/dangers-of-daddy-got-it-mentality-or/
Very good one, I feel like shit for having shut down my own voice of reason…also, like every Spring, allergies and a low-energy state lurks me…while winter is my time (I am energetic and need less sleep), spring kills me.
I am curious, have you got any info regarding this?
I dug the recent winter-time post.
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  May 20, 2021
  
  I would guess it’s allergies, but I think everyone has their own rhythm. Hell, 25% of the people on the planet have their heart located on the right side of their chest, so it doesn’t surprise me that a person could have different seasonal affections. My allergies lay me out a couple of times a year, so that is understandable.
Scareymark

May 23, 2021

I have never driven due to the fact I derived no pleasure from it other than realising I dislike people in cars very slightly less than I like sharing public transport with the public. Due to this I have practically walked everywhere I have ever needed to go, within reason. Reason being on average 5 miles, or anywhere up to 20 miles. On the regular. This has definitely kept me on the lean side of life no matter what dietary atrocities I have sometimes undertaken. I’m no youngster, 57yo, 210lbs at 5ft 9. Eat between 4k and 5k cals every day and my abs are fairly visible all year round. I have Crohns disease and people would rather attribute that heinous disease to this fact rather than just realise I move more than they do and my training revolves around compound movements in the main rather than the myriad smaller more comfortable movements. Common sense is not so common. Absolutely loving the content here as always!
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  May 24, 2021
  
  Hahaha- I’m not that noble. I’m just too broke for a car. I generally walked the short distance trips even when I had one, but without one I definitely stay lean without trying even a little.
  
  And I’m psyched you’re enjoying the new content so much! But don’t forget that machines are indeed your friend- Finishing your workouts with rep work on machines will never, ever fail to improve your physique.
Viva Steve!

May 23, 2021

There are many theories and end of the day you do what you can to weigh up the info and actually do something with it. Since last December I have been on a “do everything every day” experiment which arose out of a daily squat stint. Essentially I do a few singles on sq/be/press behind neck/dl, a set of curls, a set of calves every day. then some serious cardio. One day its row/bike next it is run. Sometimes its intervals, some times its go long. This recipe seems to be highly productive. Diet is mostly plant based but with a bit of fish to avoid some deficiencies. Now and again there is a bit of dairy and meat, but little. This I consider a fat loss phase and I highly recommend it if you have that goal.
Ryan Bixter

May 25, 2021

I’m loving this shit, Jamie! Thanks so much for putting this stuff out! There’s quite literally nowhere else on the net that comes even close!
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  May 26, 2021
  
  Fuck yeah man! I think I am now really hitting my groove of blending the old shit with the new nerd shit, haha.
John

June 15, 2021

I’m definitely more rigorous with my diet when training hard and start slipping up when I’m skipping workouts and such. Have to be to recover/make the most of every session
1. Jamie Chaos
  
  June 17, 2021
  
  Most of my clients tell me they immediately have to double their calories to train like I recommend, which doesn’t surprise me- people eat all of the wrong shit when they do eat, but they generally don’t eat much if they’re coming to me for training advice.