The Training-Diet Relationship – What Is In Control?

In any training phase, whether it is a phase of adding muscle or reducing body fat, the relationship between diet and training is key to success. Like any relationship, it will fail if both sides do not work synergistically together, changes on one side must be made with consideration and respect to the other and also to the relationship as a whole.

To add mass we plan our workouts based on the specific training variables that we believe to be best suited for our goals and from what we know about how our body responds to those specific variables. In this scenario, the diet will almost always follow the training. You decide upon the training first, using both experience and research, and will then plan your diet around this routine. If you are 100% confident in the training approach then any changes will be made to the diet – if you are not adding weight then you may increase the calories, not adding enough lean mass with respect to body fat and you may change the macronutrient contents of the diet.

Although the training will typically “wear the trousers” in the relationship during a mass gaining phase, the training and diet still have to work synergistically together to produce results. You may as part of the periodization of this phase increase training frequency, perhaps even venture into completing two weights sessions per day and as a result you make changes to the diet to suit the increased activity. Failure to make changes to the diet to balance those made to the training will inevitably upset the relationship between the two and this will be reflected by the results.

When the primary goal is to focus on fat loss, the diet steps closer to centre stage and dietary changes will need to be synergistically supported by changes to the training program in order to optimise both for an individual’s goals. When planning the transition from a mass gaining phase to a fat burning phase, creating the caloric deficit invariably starts with dietary adjustments or dietary and exercise adjustments combined, either way the diet starts to take more control.

When it comes to your training, you are now allowing the training to follow the diet to a much greater degree. It is a bit like a couple on a shopping trip - enter the food courts and the man will no doubt happily lead the way (N.B. this is by no means always the case!), but finish your meal and start the tour of the shoe shops and see who’s leading who now (N.B this is ALWAYS the case!). You are no-longer designing a training program to focus solely on adding muscle knowing that you will give your body adequate fuel to make those heavy lifts and see you through every workout. You are designing a training program to compliment the dietary interventions that will allow you to best maintain your muscle mass whilst burning body fat. At some point on this journey it is likely that you will decide to introduce some cardio into the regime. So do you incorporate some HIIT or some LISS cardio? This choice throws up a perfect example of diet following training or training following diet. Advocates of HIIT training will look to evidence that HIIT will causes rises in metabolic rate and hence cause increases in calorie expenditure noticeable even 24 hours after the session, something not provided by LISS. Although LISS cardio and in particular fasted LISS cardio will cause a greater percentage of calories to be burnt from fat, the increased calorie expenditure as a result of the session, during and after its completion combined, will be far less and hence less fat loss, right? Well, yes, if the only activity you are doing is cardio and no dietary interventions are made. HIIT cardio does offer metabolic benefits that LIIS can’t but intense weight training also offers those same metabolic benefits. What’s more, when it comes to energy substrate HIIT relies on glycogen rather than fat for fuel, increasing the need for more carbohydrates in the diet. I do not want to sound like an advocate of LISS and that HIIT has no place, that is certainly not the case and I actually have most of my clients doing HIIT - arguments for and against different forms of cardio are well beyond the scope of this article. But these two methods highlight an example of control in the training-diet relationship. You see, adding HIIT as your first form of cardio is a case of training dictating the diet, adjustments may need to be made to the diet to accommodate these HIIT sessions. LISS is used to compliment the diet you have put in place by further increasing the caloric deficit applied by the diet.

Adjustments may be made to your weight training too to compliment the dietary strategy, for example, sessions may become shorter in duration as the amount of glycogen available to fuel them is reduced. Focus may be more on achieving maximal pump with shorter rest periods being introduced combined with a slight reduction in the maximal loads used. Here the training is dictated by the diet and is adapted to compliment it and again ensure that the diet training relationship can flourish. If you are hiring someone to take control of either your diet or your training, but not both, it is important to keep them well informed of any changes that are made in the area they are not in control of - communication is vital in any relationship! Keeping the diet and training working together, whichever is in control, is essential in any training phase.