Welcome to The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast! Join your hosts Jack Radford-Smith, Lauren Stevens, and Damien Cox who are qualified dietitians, exercise scientists, and competitive bodybuilders. Each week we share evidence-based strategies to help you optimise your nutrition, training, performance, and body composition, while giving you a real look into the bodybuilding lifestyle on and off the stage. Expect practical tips on fat loss, muscle building, contest prep, gut health, and longevity, alongside honest discussions about our own journeys and interviews with leading experts in the health and fitness industry. Whether you’re a physique athlete, gym enthusiast, or simply someone wanting to improve your health, fitness, and nutrition knowledge, this podcast will educate, inspire, and guide you toward your goals. Learn more about our coaching and services at https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com We hope you enjoy!
Training hard but still feeling sore, fatigued or stuck in the gym? The answer may not be another recovery supplement, massage gun or cold plunge. In this episode, we help you identify where your recovery may actually be breaking down. We explain how training volume, intensity and execution can create more fatigue than your current sleep, nutrition and lifestyle can support, along with the signs that it may be time to adjust your program or take a deload. We also unpack the foundations that deserve attention first, including sleep, adequate fuelling, protein intake, stress management and hydration. We put popular recovery tools into context, including why feeling less sore does not always mean you have recovered faster and how immediate cold-water immersion may work against hypertrophy adaptations. Before spending more money on recovery, this episode will help you work out which lever is most likely limiting your progress and what deserves your attention first. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode and leave us a five-star rating or review. It really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, you’ll learn how to bring your nutrition and training together to support more effective muscle growth. We cover whether a calorie surplus is necessary, how quickly body weight should increase, and why gaining faster does not always mean building more muscle. We also discuss the psychological side of a gaining phase, including accepting controlled changes in body composition while strength, recovery and training performance improve. On the training side, we explore mechanical tension, proximity to failure, progressive overload, execution and volume. Find out how to identify whether you are doing too much or too little, when additional volume may be beneficial, and why simply adding more sets is rarely the first solution. We also share practical strategies for reviewing training footage, selecting exercises with a strong stimulus-to-fatigue ratio, protecting shoulder health and creating a program that supports long-term progression. As always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review. It helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we break down what it actually means to fuel properly for training, recovery and physique progress. Fuelling is often reduced to a pre-workout meal or simply hitting your daily calories, but an athlete can technically meet their intake target and still fail to support the periods where performance, recovery and normal physiological function matter most. We cover the difference between under-fuelling, low energy availability and RED-S, including how each concept applies to lifters, physique athletes and anyone with a high training or activity load. We get into the warning signs that your intake may no longer be matching your output, from declining performance and slower recovery through to poorer sleep, low mood, frequent illness, hormonal disruption, reduced libido and recurring injuries. We also explain why the scale remaining stable does not necessarily mean you are adequately fuelled, and why eating more than 3,000 calories per day may still not be enough for a highly active athlete. We finish on the practical side, including how to distribute carbohydrates and protein more effectively across the day, fuel early-morning and double training sessions, manage low appetite, and use higher days, refeeds or diet breaks where appropriate. We also discuss why reducing unnecessary exercise expenditure can sometimes be just as important as increasing food, and how to assess whether your current intake genuinely supports the phase you are in. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources EA Instagram Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaOpNuwTAQ4/?hl=en Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/? hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we break down why fibre deserves far more attention than being treated as something that just helps with digestion. Fibre is the nutrient lifters most consistently neglect, and one of the best evidenced dietary factors for long term health, yet the typical high protein physique diet is almost engineered to leave people well short of what they need. We cover what fibre actually is and why the different types matter, from soluble and viscous fibres through to fermentable fibres and their role in the gut microbiome. We get into the mortality and disease evidence, the short chain fatty acid mechanism that explains why fibre affects far more than digestion, the beta-glucan and cholesterol story, and why fibre is such a useful appetite and satiety tool during a fat loss phase. We also cover the honest limitations, including why ramping up too quickly backfires, how to time fibre around training, and the FODMAP consideration for people with sensitive guts. We finish on the practical side, including which food sources actually deliver meaningful fibre and which ones only feel like they do, the highest leverage swaps to close the gap, and how to build fibre into your diet without rebuilding it from scratch. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of the Bodybuilding Dietitians podcast, we delve into the often-overlooked topic of dietary fat and its role in health, performance, body composition, and bodybuilding nutrition. While protein and carbohydrates tend to receive most of the attention in the fitness space, dietary fat plays an important role in hormone production, brain health, cardiovascular health, cell function, and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. We discuss why fat should not simply be viewed as the macro to push as low as possible, especially for physique athletes and lifters aiming to optimise both performance and long-term health. We explore practical fat intake ranges, the differences between saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, omega-3, omega-6, and trans fats, and how to think about fat quality across the whole diet. We also unpack saturated fat, cholesterol, APOB, lipoprotein(a), fibre intake, omega-3 supplementation, and using bloodwork to guide more individualised decisions. The conversation also covers practical swaps for improving fat quality, including how to incorporate more olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, oily fish, and other nutrient-dense fat sources without becoming overly restrictive or dogmatic. As always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. Whether you’re a physique athlete, gym enthusiast, or someone who wants to level up their nutrition and training knowledge, this podcast will educate and guide you forward. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we work through three of the most persistent fitness myths we see in practice and online. We start with detox diets and elimination diets, covering what the body actually does physiologically to manage detoxification, where clinical elimination protocols like low FODMAP have a legitimate role, and why the casual use of juice cleanses, skinny teas, and food group restriction tends to create more problems than it solves, including nutrient gaps, food fear, and a rebound dynamic that undoes whatever short-term progress you see on the scale. We then move into waist trainers and spot fat reduction, unpacking why external compression changes how your waist looks without changing your anatomy, why spot reduction is not how fat loss works regardless of what it feels like when you are doing crunches, and what you should actually be focusing on if a smaller waist or leaner midsection is your goal. We close on the carnivore diet and other major food group elimination approaches, looking at why some people do feel better initially when they cut out fibre, what is actually driving that response, and the longer-term cardiovascular and bowel health risks that the short-term wins tend to mask. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we work through everything lifters need to know about carbohydrates. We start with what carbohydrates actually do beyond just providing energy, including the glycogen story, why resistance training depletes far less glycogen than most people assume, and the other roles carbs play in supporting training quality, recovery, and adherence. We cover how to set your daily carbohydrate intake based on training volume rather than a fixed number, the low carb question handled honestly including where it works and where it costs you, and how to time carbs around training in a way that actually reflects the evidence. We also get into the glycaemic index versus glycaemic load distinction, why GI matters far less than most people think once food is eaten in a real meal context, and how to select carbohydrate sources that support performance, satiety, and gut health across different phases. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we run through another Instagram Q&A and welcome Talia to the show for her first appearance. We start with how to decide between cutting and bulking, covering why body fat percentage tends to be the more useful dial, where recomping and maintenance phases fit in, and how to make the call based on your current composition. From there we get into meal frequency through a cut and contest prep, including how to structure eating around training performance, protein distribution, hunger management, and why total calorie intake matters more than meal frequency for metabolic rate. We finish on staying on track while travelling, from eyeballing versus tracking and how precise you really need to be, through to practical strategies for eating out and matching your approach to the phase you are in. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en Talia O'Brien - https://www.instagram.com/dietitiantali/ ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we kick off our macronutrient series with a full deep dive on protein. We start with why protein matters for you beyond muscle, from connective tissue and hormones to satiety and the thermic effect of food. From there we get into how much you actually need, working through targets for your phase across a deficit, maintenance, or surplus, why the 1.6 grams per kilo figure is a lean mass ceiling rather than a hard limit for you, and how to adjust based on your body composition, age, and training. We bust the myth that you can only use 20 to 25 grams of protein per meal and explain how to distribute your intake across three or more feedings a day to get the most from it. We also cover protein quality, why collagen falls short if your goal is muscle, and practical tips to help you hit your target, from fixing a low-protein breakfast to smart snacking. As always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we break down how to actually hold onto muscle when you are in a calorie deficit. We cover why perception of muscle loss is often inaccurate and why objective tracking matters before a deficit even begins. From there we get into how starting body fat percentage should influence your rate of loss, the research behind protein targets and why the commonly cited ceiling may undersell what leaner athletes actually need, and how carbohydrate distribution and peri-workout fuelling support training performance and indirectly protect lean mass. We also cover training volume management when recovery capacity is already reduced, and why sleep and stress are genuine muscle retention tools rather than optional considerations. We wrap up as always with what we learned this week. Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we unpack why putting in effort and following a strategy doesn't always lead to the results you expect. We start by looking at the growing role of AI chatbots in nutrition advice, where they fall short compared to real coaching, and why confident answers aren't always accurate ones. From there, we get into the practical side of fat loss stalls, including the difference between eating well and actually being in a deficit, how weekends can erase a week's worth of progress, and why individual variability means your calorie target might need adjusting regardless of what a calculator says. On the muscle gain side, we cover training execution, the importance of fuelling performance, and why nutrition supports but doesn't drive hypertrophy on its own. We also touch on setting realistic expectations, choosing the right metrics, and knowing which lever to pull when progress stalls. As always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we share practical strategies that make fat loss more sustainable. We talk through keeping food choices consistent day to day, why that doesn't have to mean boring eating, and how it helps reduce food noise and improve scale accuracy. We cover daily movement as an underrated expenditure lever, how fibre and food volume can shift hunger management, and the difference between true physiological hunger and appetite. We also explore why highly palatable foods and flavour enhancers can sometimes work against you in a deficit, eating window strategies including the risks of extreme backloading, and where time-restricted feeding fits depending on training timing. The episode wraps up, as always, with what we learned this week. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we cover the four nutrient deficiencies we see most commonly across our clients and in clinical practice. We discuss vitamin D, iron, magnesium, and omega-3, including how prevalent they are, why they matter specifically for active individuals, how to test for them properly, and what adequate intake actually looks like beyond standard reference ranges. We also cover how to address each through food first and where supplementation makes sense, including which forms and doses are worth using. As always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. Whether you are a physique athlete, a recreational lifter, or someone looking to optimise their health and performance through nutrition, this episode is for you. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we take a different approach and walk through what a typical day of eating actually looks like for each of us. We share our current training phase, calorie and macro targets, and how we structure meals around our schedules. We cover topics including fuelling early morning sessions, biasing macros throughout the day to allow flexibility at dinner, adjusting calories between training and rest days, and how autoregulation fits into a sustainable approach to building or maintaining. Whether you are tracking closely or operating with more flexibility, this episode reinforces that evidence-based nutrition can look very different from person to person. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians podcast, we do a full breakdown on fat loss, covering everything from whether you are actually ready to diet through to what to do when progress stalls. We talk through dieting readiness, rate of loss, how aggressive you can afford to be depending on body composition and experience, and why protein targets in a deficit likely need to sit higher than what gets thrown around on social media. The conversation also covers cardio and NEAT as expenditure tools, why daily movement often drops more than people realise during a diet, and what metabolic adaptation actually looks like in practice versus the narrative that gets built online. We also discuss training in a deficit, performance red flags to watch for, and why progress photos, gym performance, and measurements deserve attention alongside the scale. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en Refalo et al. paper: https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/fulltext/9900/effect_of_dietary_protein_on_fat_free_mass_in.179.aspx ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians podcast, we unpack the role of cheat meals in both bulking and cutting phases, from unstructured high calorie days to strategic diet breaks and refeeds. We discuss why context matters, how the term "cheat meal" can shape your relationship with food, and what the research says about diet breaks for hunger, satisfaction, and adherence during prolonged deficits. The conversation also covers the "superfood" label, we share a few foods we genuinely prioritise and why, including things like extra virgin olive oil, potatoes, dark chocolate, and berries. The episode wraps up as always with what we learned this week! ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we answer three listener questions, starting with how to reduce visceral fat more effectively, including realistic rates of loss, why visceral fat is more metabolically active than subcutaneous fat, and levers beyond a calorie deficit such as aerobic fitness, anti-inflammatory nutrition, sleep, stress, and alcohol. We then break down pre-workout supplements that actually have research support, including clinical dosing, timing, and why most off-the-shelf pre-workouts are generally underdosed. Finally, we discuss post-prep recovery priorities, the order in which the body restores function after a competition diet, realistic rate of gain in the first four to eight weeks, restoring energy availability, and specific considerations for female athletes around menstrual cycle recovery. The episode wraps up as always with what we learned this week! ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of the Bodybuilding Dietitians podcast, we tackle the question of whether a calorie surplus is truly necessary for muscle gain or whether maintenance can be just as productive. We discuss Eric Helms' 2023 study comparing maintenance to moderate and larger surpluses, how training age shifts the equation, and why training performance is the real driver of muscle growth rather than scale weight alone. We also cover whether high-dose antioxidants like vitamin C and vitamin E can blunt hypertrophy signalling when consumed close to training, what dosages the research actually used, and practical tips for timing supplements. The conversation also takes a lighter turn with yogurt bowl recipes, Ninja Creami tips, and as always, we wrap up with what we learned this week. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we unpack how to structure your nutrition without rigid tracking, including the key differences between auto-regulation and intuitive eating, and practical tools like hunger awareness, portion anchoring, and body weight trend monitoring. We also discuss what deserves your attention most during prep versus the off season, covering everything from calorie deficits and training stimulus to sleep, progressive overload, and diet quality. Finally, we dive into whether increasing creatine from 5g to 10g per day offers additional cognitive benefits, what the current research actually shows, and who might benefit most. The episode wraps up as always with what we learned this week. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
In this episode of The Bodybuilding Dietitians Podcast, we work through listener questions across three topics: early morning training nutrition, the interference effect from combining resistance training with other sports, and our current favourite exercises for hypertrophy across every major muscle group. On fuelling, we cover practical strategies for pre-dawn sessions including hydration, carbohydrate timing, caffeine, and how to structure the night before to set yourself up. We then discuss the realities of balancing lifting with team sports or cardio, how to prioritise when goals compete, and what Damien learned firsthand from juggling football and bodybuilding prep. We wrap up with a full run-through of our go-to movements for lats, back thickness, quads, glutes, hamstrings, chest, abs, delts, biceps, and triceps, including why stimulus-to-fatigue ratio and enjoyment matter more than defaulting to the traditional barbell lifts. ⸻ Links & Resources Coaching Services – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/enquirenow Website – https://www.thebodybuildingdietitians.com/ Instagram The Bodybuilding Dietitians – https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingdietitians/?hl=en Team TBD – https://www.instagram.com/_teamtbd_/?hl=en Jack Radford-Smith – https://www.instagram.com/jack.radfordsmith/?hl=en Damien Cox – https://www.instagram.com/dietitian_damiencox/?hl=en Lauren Stevens – https://www.instagram.com/thephysiquedietitian_/?hl=en ⸻ Enjoying the podcast? Make sure to subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a five-star rating or review, it really helps us grow and reach more listeners.
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