It Came from the '90s: Roger Stewart's WILD and CRAZY Diet!

A.K.A: The Wildest and Craziest Muscle-Building, Fat-Burning Diet the World has Ever Seen!
That's Right—EVER!

Off and on, over the course of the past decade or so, I have thought repeatedly about writing what you are now staring at on your computer (or phone) screen.  But for some reason, I could just never bring myself to do it.  Maybe if I would have decided to write it as a sort of "museum piece," an essay from my favorite decade of bodybuilding (that I personally trained during) where I looked at Stewart's dietary principles from a more critical angle, well, perhaps then I would have written this several years ago.  For the longest time, my "It Came from the '90s" essays were the most popular posts on this blog, only recently overtaken by all of my "Classic Bodybuilding" articles.  But the thing is this: I actually agree with most of what Stewart says here, and I agreed with it the first time I read this bit of (what others would call) insanity.*  So, for the sake of my own sanity, since I knew I would receive more than my fair share of emails telling me how crazy I am for thinking this is good advice, I spared myself that headache, and put this on the back burner.  But I suppose that, now that I have been on this Earth of ours for 5 decades, I just don't care anymore—or at least not that much—about what people think.  And, besides, if you are a younger bodybuilder that is struggling with the "typical" dietary advice out there—and, yes, even the advice I give—then this sort of diet might be, just might be, exactly what you need.

Roger Stewart, as seen in the pages of IronMan magazine, early to mid '90s.

Before we get to the diet, the first thing you may be asking yourself is WHO was/is Roger Stewart?  In the early to mid '90s, Stewart was a regular bodybuilding model for, primarily, MuscleMag International, and he would occasionally appear in the pages of IronMan, as well.  You never saw him—not that I can remember, at least—in the pages of the Weider publications, or in Muscular Development.  I may be wrong about MD, as I'm just going off the top of my head, so someone can correct me in the the comments section below if you find evidence otherwise.  Anyway, Stewart was a top amateur bodybuilder who never became a pro because he simply lacked the upper body size to do so.  What he did have were some of the best legs in all of bodybuilding at the time, along with a flowing mane of gorgeous blonde hair, and a good "look" for the magazines that he appeared in.  Eventually, he became one of the "gladiators" on American Gladiators, and used the name "Viper."  (If any of you are young, and don't know about American Gladiators, a recent Netflix "documentary"—I put documentary in quotes because I'm sure its sensationalized more than a little—will give you the "info" you need, if you haven't seen it already.)

Now, back to Stewart's diet.  When I first read about the way he ate, I didn't think it was that crazy at all, since I knew that I couldn't eat a "typical" bodybuilding diet and expect to gain much, if any muscle.  Keep in mind this was in 1993, and we had just emerged—or were beginning to; it would take another few years to completely do so—from the "dark ages" of extremely high carbohydrate, moderate protein, and very low fat diet recommendations.  I was 20 years old at the time, and when I tried to eat that way—which I did for quite some time—I stayed very lean, but it was impossible for me to gain any muscle.  I then noticed that if I started adding a lot of fat to my meals—covering my meals of chicken and rice or chicken and baked potatoes with mounds of butter, cheese, and/or sour cream—I started gaining more muscle, and actually looked better; leaner, harder, more vascular.

Enter Roger Stewart.  Before reading this* article I figured Stewart ate the typical diet of chicken breasts, grilled fish, rice, baked potatoes, fresh salads, egg whites, and oatmeal—all the stuff that made up the very typical diet that 90% of bodybuilders ate at the time.  (Or, at least, claimed to have eaten.  I have a good feeling now, hindsight being what it is, that many of the top bodybuilders did eat a bit different from the norm, but very few of them actually came out and said it.)  But Stewart said guess again.  His diet was just flat out different.  "I have a very unusual metabolism, and in order to gain muscle size, I have to follow a pretty bizarre diet," he told Zulak.  "What works for other people, doesn't work for me.  I get fat on complex carbs like potatoes, rice, and yams and I get lean from simple carbs, fats, and proteins."  And this wasn't just an off-season diet for Stewart.  He added this: "I actually get bigger, harder, and more cut from it, but it has to be done in a certain sequence.  When I won the Southern States contest a couple of years ago, I ate mostly ice milk, cake, and red meat every day the last month before the show, and I've never looked better."

Call me crazy, but I think there is something to this.  I think there are individuals who respond very well to a high-fat, moderate protein diet with simple sugars thrown in for good measure.  And this actually isn't anything new, and wasn't back then, either, even though I didn't know it at the time.  Not long after this article came out, I remember reading about Sergio Oliva's diet in the late '60s or early '70s.  He would fast during the day—believe it or not, he did hard labor in a steel foundry during his Mr. Olympia run—and then feast in the evening on primarily crab legs and glass after glass of Coca Cola.  When he made a comeback in the '80s, he followed the dietary advice, and regimens, of the other bodybuilders—high carbs, moderate protein, and low fat—but realized afterwards that it was a mistake.  He came on the stage "flat" and not near as "swole" as he had been a little over a decade before.  He said it was then that he realized he should have stuck with his intuition, and should've subsisted on fat, simple sugars, and protein.

Here is what a typical day of eating looked like for Stewart.  "I'll get up and have six scoops of that Cybergenics Cyberblast (C.S.'s note: this was the '90s, and I could do an "It Came from the '90s" piece on Cybergenics alone—also, I'm pretty sure Stewart was a spokesman for the company, so keep that in mind) and a bowl of oatmeal.  That's by breakfast.  Then throughout the day I'll have snacks—apples, for instance.  I eat a lot of apples.  I'll cook up some red meat and have about two and a half pounds of filet mignon every day.  I'll have pure whipping cream or ice cream, about a gallon or so every day.  If it's the ice cream, I'll let it melt to almost cream and drink it.  The important thing is that I have to eat the cream before I eat the meat.  Do you understand?  First I have the cream, and then about 20 minutes later, I'll have the filet mignon.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I may have a little chocolate syrup on the ice cream."

That last part makes sense.  The simple carbs stimulate your appetite for protein and fat.  It's a lesson that any "hardgainers" should take note of.  One thing you don't want to do—if you're trying your best to get big and strong, but still look as if you may get sand kicked in your face each time you head to the beach—is limit your carbohydrate intake.  Carbs make you big.  And if you're the average American housewife, that's the reason your gigantic ass probably requires its own zip code, but it's also the reason that the young hardgainer could do with more carbs, and, yes, more simple carbs.

Stewart continued: "But another thing is, I cannot drink any liquids while I eat the ice cream.  And I have to have my meat 20 minutes later, and then I can drink my water five to ten minutes after I finish my meat.  I've experimented with both ways, drinking my water while I ate my cream and meat, and not drinking until I've eaten them, and it's amazing the difference in results I get.  If I drink the water, it bloats me, but if I don't I get muscular."

This last part is probably the most confusing for the reader, but it shows the importance of not just the kind of nutrients consumed, but the timing in which they should be consumed.  And here's what I hate to tell you: it takes experimentation to find out how you should combine, and time, your macronutrient and water intake.  If you have been eating a certain way for an extended period of time, then the chances are, if you're honest with yourself or if you'll look through your food journals, you know this.  Now, if you're new to these ideas, then don't go out and just change everything all at once.  Whether you're eating a high-fat, low-carb diet, or a "typical" bodybuilding-style diet of high-carb and low-fat, or if you're following a Zone-style diet; only change one thing at first, and see how your body responds.  Let's say, for instance, that (as I previously did) you are following a high-carb, low-fat diet, and you look decent but just "flat," then try adding some kind of fat to your carbs at first—butter, oil, sour cream, cheese, whatever—but don't change anything else.  If you're a high-fat, low-carb eater, but it also has you looking a little "flat," then do the same thing by adding some simple carbs about twenty minutes before a couple of your meals throughout the day—don't, however, go crazy with this—the way that Stewart did.

Stewart's daily diet didn't get any less wild after his cream-and-meat meals.  He continued, "After I finish my meat and drink my water, I have some fruit.  I find I have to have fruit after that.  I have to have melon.  I'll eat honeydew melon, cantaloupe, or strawberries, but I find the melons work best for me.  Then I'll have my water... about a gallon per day."

Zulak asked him if he ever ate any complex carbs such as pasta, rice, or potatoes.  Stewart added, "Kind of here and there, but not much.  My body will tell me when I need those things... It may be once every three days, or every day for three days, and then none for five days.  But I eat the cream, red meat, and fruit every day."

Finally, Zulak asked him if he ate this way year round.  "I go through phases and cycles.  I may do this for two-and-a-half months, and then I have to switch to something different, maybe fish and french fries."  Stewart then went on to discuss genetics, and how he believes that his diet is not for endomorphs—the average fat American I already mentioned—but he believes that it can work well for ectomorphs or mesoporphs with ectomorphic tendencies.  "My whole family is small," Roger said, "and if I didn't eat the fats and sugars I do, I'd be small too.  I remember eating donuts and getting ripped.  I know it sounds sick but that's the truth.  I'm just telling you the way I actually do it.  It may not look good in an article, and I don't use my nutritional practices on my one-on-one clients, but this is what works best for me."

In the article, Stewart went on to explain different ways that he times his meals, and some of the other crazy combinations of fats and simple carbs that he eats, in order to get in competition shape, but since I doubt most of my readers are competitive bodybuilders—and even if you are, you shouldn't take Stewart's pre-contest advice wholesale—so we'll just leave his advice where it stands here.

The main takeaway from this essay is that you should be willing to experiment with macronutrient percentages, and the timing of those macronutrients, along with your fluid intake, and not just go along with what the herd tells you to do.  If you notice that you look a certain way—as in better—after a cheat day, then look at the foods you ate during that time, and determine whether or not it should be a mainstay of your diet.  Or not.  But, as mentioned earlier, don't change everything all at once.  Make one change at a time, and see how it works for you.

The other takeaway, I suppose, is that you need to learn to use your intuition, or your gut instinct, to determine what you should, or should not, eat.  In this way, it's similar to another thing that came from the '90s: "instinctive training." So maybe we need to bring back that and instinctive eating.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below, or if you want something more personal, then send me an email.  In the meantime, I'm gonna head to my fridge—and dig out a tub of Ben & Jerry's.

*All of the quotes from Roger Stewart in this essay come from the article "Roger Stewart's Wild & Crazy Diet" by Greg Zulak, published in the September, 1993 issue of MuscleMag International.