By: Trevor Fullbright
Trevor Fullbright is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and online coach with 13+ years in the fitness industry. A former 350-pounder turned lean 215, he combines personal experience with evidence-based methods as Head of Digital Content at RP Strength, creating expert resources on training, nutrition, and behavior change.
When it comes to nutrition, people love to argue over details.
Should you close to bed? Is rice better than potatoes? Do you need to slam a protein shake right after training or wait an hour?
Here’s the truth: most of that stuff barely matters.
Roughly 90% of your diet results, whether you’re trying to lose fat or build muscle, come down to just three things: calories, macros (especially protein), and meal timing. The remaining 10% comes from food quality, supplements, and hydration.
Once you understand that hierarchy, you can stop spinning your wheels and finally focus on what truly drives progress.
Adherence Comes First
Before diving into the percentages, there’s one rule that overrides them all: adherence.
The best diet isn’t the perfect one on paper. It’s the one you can actually follow.
A plan that’s 75% optimal but followed 100% of the time will always beat a perfect plan followed inconsistently.
You can think of adherence as the foundation that supports every other part of your diet. If you can’t stick to your calorie target, hit your protein goal, or keep a regular meal schedule, the rest doesn’t matter.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s consistency. Build a plan you can live with and stick to it.
The 90% That Really Matters
1. Calories (≈50% of Your Results)
Calories are the foundation of every nutrition goal.
If you want to lose fat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn.
If you want to gain muscle, you must eat more.
Simple, but not very sexy.
People often chase magic foods or supplements, but nothing overrides calorie balance.
Even the “cleanest” foods can lead to fat gain if you’re in a calorie surplus, and yes, you can lose weight eating “junk” food if your calories are low enough, though that’s not ideal for health or performance.
What matters most is your weekly average intake.
A few high-calorie or low-calorie days don’t matter much if your average across the week aligns with your goal. The body responds to consistent energy patterns, not individual meals.
If you only focus on one thing, make it this one. Dial in your calories and you’ve already done half the work.
2. Macros and Protein (≈30% of Your Results)
Calories decide if you gain or lose weight.
Protein decides what kind of weight you gain or lose.
If your protein intake is too low while dieting, you’ll lose muscle along with fat.
If it’s high enough, you’ll preserve lean mass and lose mostly fat.
During a muscle gain phase, protein ensures your calorie surplus builds muscle instead of just adding body fat.
A simple, science-backed target: about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.
The rest of your calories can come from carbs and fats in whatever ratio fits your preference and training style. Carbs can help fuel training performance and recovery, and fat is important for hormonal health, but as long as you aren’t falling into extremes, the exact mix doesn’t matter nearly as much as hitting your total calories and protein.
Between calories and protein, you’ve now covered about 80% of your total diet results. Everything else is just fine-tuning.
3. Meal Timing (≈10% of Your Results)
Meal timing isn’t the be-all, end-all, but it can help you squeeze out a bit more performance, recovery, and consistency.
Here’s the general structure:
- Eat 4 to 5 meals per day.
This keeps you fueled, helps control hunger, and provides steady protein feedings for muscle repair.
- Space meals evenly through the day.
Eating roughly every 3 to 5 hours helps regulate appetite and stabilize energy.
- Distribute protein evenly.
If your daily target is 160 grams and you eat four times, aim for about 40 grams per meal. This keeps muscle protein synthesis elevated throughout the day.
You don’t need to stress about exact timing down to the minute. The goal is consistency. Eating at similar times day to day also supports better digestion, sleep, and metabolic health.
The Remaining 10%: The Finishing Touches
Once the big three are set, you can move on to the smaller but still meaningful pieces of the puzzle.
4. Food Composition (≈5%)
This is the quality of what you eat.
Whole, minimally processed foods make it easier to stay full, hit your nutrient targets, and feel good overall.
Focusing on lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats improves both health and adherence. These foods help you stay satisfied, which means fewer cravings and better long-term consistency.
That said, perfection isn’t required. The occasional burger or dessert won’t undo your progress as long as you stay within your calorie and protein goals. Think of it as the 80/20 principle: eat mostly nutritious foods but leave room for things you enjoy.
5. Supplements and Hydration (≈5%)
Supplements are the smallest piece of the puzzle, the polish, not the foundation.
They can fill small gaps but can’t make up for poor eating habits or inconsistency.
And don’t overlook hydration. Even mild dehydration can reduce performance, focus, and recovery. Most people do best with around 2 to 4 liters of water daily, depending on body size, training load, and climate.
Together, food composition, hydration, and supplements make up the final 10%. They help refine and optimize but they don’t define your results.
Putting It All Together
If you imagine diet priorities as a pyramid, it looks like this:
When you understand this hierarchy, dieting gets simple.
You don’t need to chase perfection. You just need to execute the basics consistently.
Do those things, and you’re already covering 90% of what matters for fat loss, muscle gain, and performance.
Bottom line:
Focus on calories, protein, and consistency. Stick to the plan.
Let the details fall into place, and if you need help doing that, RP has you covered.
Make It Easier With the RP Diet Coach App
If all of this sounds great but you don’t want to track everything manually, the RP Diet Coach App can do the heavy lifting for you. It sets your calorie and macro targets, helps you hit your protein goals, and adjusts your plan week to week based on real progress so you can stay consistent without second-guessing.
Think of it as your personal coach in your pocket, guiding you through the 90/10 priorities automatically.
All you have to do is show up and follow the plan.
Find Trevor on…
Instagram: @Trevorxgage