Can you out-train a bad diet?

A few weeks ago I was reading the "Fat Loss Hierarchy" article written by Alwyn Cosgrove at t-nation.com, and he brings up a great point:

Can you out-train a bad diet? Especially if your primary goal is fat loss?

In fact, Cosgrove goes on to state that proper diet/nutrition is not only THE most important factor in fat loss, it should be the top two most important factors. It's THAT important.

Which brings me to where I am today...

Our company in Indianapolis, Custom Fitness/Custom Athletics, is running a bodyfat challenge for the month of June. The client who loses the greatest amount of body fat over 5 weeks is deemed the winner, and receives a very nice little prize. As part of the challenge, all the coaches are participating as well. My training has been going great, and I've been steadily losing body fat in the process.

But not like I feel like I should.

I've been training hard; cutting rest periods, using big, basic exercises, and I've even doing interval sessions (which totally suck, I might add). So why am I not garnering the body fat loss I think I should?

Diet.

Quite simply, I haven't had my diet as dialed in as I need to. Had I done better up to this point with cutting starchy carbs to pre-determined times, or doing better with regards to nutrient timing, I could be a lot farther along at this point. And it rings true that the leaner you get, the more dialed in your diet must become - not the opposite! How many times have you seen someone start to get lean, and then they go back to their old ways thinking they've "made it" or something?

Here's the moral of the story - no matter what your goals are, you must emphasize proper diet and nutrition to maximize recovery and/or body fat loss. If you have no clue how to eat properly, when to eat certain foods, or just need a nutrition overhaul, check out John Berardi's Precision Nutrition or Mike Roussell's Naked Nutrition Guide.

I should have an article going up at T-nation later this week with regards to my current training, and when the contest is over I'll be sure to let everyone know how much body fat I lost.

I just hope the calories I take in while vacationing in Vegas this weekened won't count.... ;)

Stay strong
MR