Ask any bodybuilder and they’ll tell you the hardest part of their profession isn’t lifting weights, but staying committed to a strict diet regimen. Most have the same diet plan that goes something like this: oatmeal and eggs for breakfast; chicken, some veggies, and rice for lunch; a protein shake after the gym; and some sort of lean protein and vegetables for dinner.
Seriously, watch just about any “What I Eat in a Day” video on YouTube and you’re bound to see some sort of variation of those meals in every competitor’s plan.
It’s tough eating the same things day in and day out, minus the one day a week you get to cheat. But could you imagine eating the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
Sounds unbearable, but that’s exactly what the “Buff Dudes,” a pair of bodybuilding brothers on YouTube, did for a week. Hudson and Brandon White embarked on a sadistic mission to consume nothing but chicken and broccoli for all their meals to see what effect it’d have on their strength and physiques. You can watch the video here.
Chicken and broccoli are, without a doubt, bodybuilding staples, but we don’t think even the fiercest competitors would eat just those two things for an extended period of time.
About three days into the experiment, the brothers felt the effects in the gym due to the diet’s lack of carbs. Without the coveted fuel source, they were at their weakest and their workouts suffered as a result.
They did notice, though, that it made them leaner and meaner. And both have had experience with this kind of diet in the past, having gone on a similar eating plan when they were called on to do fitness magazine photo shoots.
But they also note that it was hard to keep it up, especially since their family was eating much tastier foods while they struggled to choke down their chicken and broccoli.
Both also lost “scary” amounts of weight in just a week — with Brandon dropping eight pounds in just seven days.
The verdict? Such a diet is good if you’re looking to get ripped for a photo shoot, but the health consequences far outweigh the aesthetic benefits.
