Bodybuilding veteran Lee Priest is breaking down how he approached dieting throughout his career. On February 18, 2025, he compared carnivore diets with a balanced food plan for getting shredded, revealing which one he favors most.
Lee Priest remains extremely popular as a bodybuilding competitor. He left the sport on top before settling into retirement. He won three shows in a row, including first-place honors at the 2006 NOC New York, PDI Night of Champions, and 2013 NABBA Mr. Universe competition.
Of late, Priest attracted major attention in the sport after renewing his IFBB Pro card for the 2025 bodybuilding season. He’s yet to reveal why he made this move, with many speculating that he might return to a future Masters Olympia contest.
It’s also important to note that he might have followed through on the renewal as part of the IFBB Pro League’s new ruling on inactive competitors. In his latest endeavor, he reflected on how he dieted down for contests, revealing his thoughts on carnivore diets versus a balanced approach to eating.
Lee Priest Compares Carnivore vs. ‘Balanced’ Diets When Preparing for Bodybuilding Shows
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In a recent YouTube video, Priest compared a regular balanced diet with a carnivore-based food regimen. He explained that when he used to eat fish throughout his bodybuilding career, it helped him get shredded.
“Fish I’ve seen. When people say carnivore, people when they say carnivore, people I’ve know ate fish and rice. I did it for one of my contests. I ate like fish for like four or five meals a day with rice. You do get shredded. Fish will get you more shredded but you feel like crap though.”
While he’s never been on ‘extreme’ carnivore diets or a ketogenic plan, he prefers a balance of protein, carbs, and fats for optimal performance and body composition.
“I’ve never been extreme on carnivore diets or all protein or keto. To me, like I said, I prefer to have the balance of protein, carbs, and the fats. Some people add the fats like avocado, good oils. The only fats I got was from steak and chicken.”
He shared that he didn’t add fats to his diet and always favored balance above all else.
“I never added fats to my diet, I just ate the fat in the meat that I was eating,” he shared. “If you are like really carb-sensitive and any carbs you have makes you blow up or whatever then okay, but if you don’t have a problem with carbs, fats whatever, I just think a balanced diet overall is better than going to one extreme to another.”
He also ate fruit on his diet even though many people around him thought they were too rich in sugar.
“I used to eat fruit a lot when I was dieting. When I went to America, I couldn’t tell you the people said you’re eating the fruit? There’s sugar in it. Yeah, but it’s natural sugar. I’m training hard and I’m doing cardio. If I feel like an apple or something or some pineapple or some peaches, I’d sometimes just have for dessert a cup of rice with peaches on it.”
“Funny, the people who are overweight are like I can’t eat fruit because of the sugars. Like I said, if you starting to be active, the amount, apples, how many apples would you have to eat to become obese? You’d have to eat a lot.”
Lee Priest continues to help fans of bodybuilding and athletes shape their physiques. He recently broke down his top two movements for building back thickness and muscle. Given his experience on and off the stage, his insights into lifting hold immense value.
With time on his hands in retirement, Lee Priest is always up for serving the bodybuilding community. He preferred a balanced approach to dieting throughout his career, though does believe there is considerable merit to carnivore-based food plans.
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