How many carbohydrates do you need in every meal? Should you consume more on training days than rest days? How many grams of protein are necessary? These actually aren’t the questions you should be asking.

100 grams per day? 200? 300? And is it possible too have too much?

Stepping on stage is reserved for a special breed of lifter, but the lessons you learn from competing apply to all training goals. Here are the things my rookie bodybuilding season taught me.

You don’t have to turn BYOB into BYOF (bring your own food, often in a cooler).

This is a practical example of exactly what I ate during the sixth week before hitting the contest stage. Why is this important to you? Because it pushes right up to that life sucks and I hate dieting threshold.

Familiarity and comfort aren’t always bad things — I drive the same route home every day. But in your diet and training? Be ready for change.

I started 2015 with a plan. Like most plans, it had to change throughout the year. I learned a lot and have even more to accomplish.

By adjusting macronutrient ratios and splitting workouts into twice a day, you can overcome the lack of energy from low-calorie contest prep. You won’t even have to do cardio.

Hey Chubby, put down that Egg McMuffin and cook yourself a healthy, muscle building alternative.

Use these six calorie-nutrient rich foods to fill out that frame.

How to add strategy to your cheat meals.

Seven things to consider when going to that dark and lonely place called dieting.

Looking to take your diet from haphazard and crappy to functional and goal-promoting? Kristin steers you in the right direction.

If you want to lose fat and do so by diet and increasing your conditioning, is it no wonder you got weaker?

It is back to cleaning up that diet of yours.

Some nutrition and training gems from Justin that you may have forgotten.

I developed three wardrobes: medium, large, and too damn big.

When it comes to dieting, why is it that everyone automatically thinks they have to suffer and deprive themselves from everything in life?

Bodybuilding preparation is based in tradition, not science. This leads to physiological problems when trying to get ripped.

Dieting has become an out-of-control, multi-billion dollar industry that thrives on people’s confusion and dependence.

Sales suck, workload is high and it’s hot and humid outside. Stress? What do you think?