For men, building visible muscle takes more than just showing up at a gym, and while many lifters grow muscles smoothly, the truth is often more difficult than most beginners expect.

The fitness instructor, Ali Gilbert, aka Queen of Men's Health, shared an Instagram post on March 5, revealing the 5 hard truths about muscle building that every man must know.

Here's a look at what she had to say:

Truth Number 1

According to Gilbert, “Most men carry far more body fat than they think. DEXA, Inbody, calipers, etc. doesn’t matter as much as what the mirror says."

She suggested, "If your waist is soft, your body fat is higher than you’re telling yourself."

A study published by Dwight W Lewis in the NIH USA supports Gilbert’s claim. The research found misperception among men with body fat of 25% or greater. They classified themselves either as “about right weight” or “underweight”.

Truth number 2

Truth number 2 says, “losing body fat is a pretty quick process as long as you don't deviate and change things multiple times”.

According to Gilbert, most of the men:

• Change their macros weekly
• Program hop
• Panic after 10 days.

Even in an Arnold's Pump Club article, Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “People will start a fitness plan, and then a few weeks later, they read an article or see a social media post about another trend and switch their plan…. They are not focusing and following through.”

Truth Number 3

The next truth revealed by Gilbert is, “Building muscle is a glacially paced process.

The physiques most men admire were built over thousands of workouts and years of tissue accumulation.

Most men quit early because they expected a 10 year result in 10 months”.

A study by Federica Conti, published in SportRxiv, analysed data from 522,994 fitness app users. The research found that only 18.1 percent of beginners remained consistent over 6 months. So consultancy is a matter among men.

Truth Number 4

Gilbert says, “Carbs are not the enemy”. According to Gilbert, many men turn to:

• Keto
• Fasting
• Low carb forever.

So, she said, these techniques can not give a permanent result.

Gilbert says, “But the goal is a metabolism that can use carbohydrates like octane, not avoid them forever”.

So, she is suggesting being metabolically flexible, which can not be done by avoiding carbs. The New York Times best-selling American fitness author, Mark Sisson, also echoed similar observations, stating, “How you become metabolically flexible is by withholding carbohydrates.”

Truth Number 5

The final truth revealed by Gilbert is: “You don't need new exercises every month”.

Gilbert believes one can run the same movements for a year if they can manipulate:

• Reps
• Sets
• Tempo
• Rest periods
• Load

On June 19, 2024, Muscle Mind Media shared a short clip of Dorian Yates where the legend admitted that changing exercises is not beneficial.

He said, “If your squats work for you, you need to be doing squats like you're going to change it to one-legged cable, your body doesn't know which exercise it's doing, it just knows how hard it's working and if it's working”.

Gilbert's "truths" appear to be truths indeed. So, are you thinking about sticking to them?

Follow Bodybuilding Bros for more

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Souvik Roy