The moral of the story here is, everybody does things differently. There is no right and wrong in that regard. Anybody can do whatever they want and swear by it.
The thing is, when you're young, you can get away with so much. You don't feel the damage, even when it's severe. Hell, you can get shitfaced every night, sleep for 3 hours, have a plate of french fries a cigarette and a coke and do it again the next night and still look good. That's the joy of youth. But in the long run, you're hurting yourself.
Hey, I'm an old guy. No getting around it. And I know that being old doesn't give me any right to tell anybody to do it MY way or the way they USED to do it. But it does give me some perspective.
I've seen guys look buffed at 30 and dead at 31. I've seen guys ready for the pro stage and washed up at 35. And needing a new kidney at 40. I've seen guys swear that what they were doing "wasn't so bad' only to be proven wrong in a way that doesn;t allow for second chances.
Me? I'm no mass monster. Just a healthy fit old dude who still gets hit on by hot women in their 20's. And not ONE of them has ever said, "Gee, if only you were thirty pounds more, you'd be really hot." Not once.
Take it for what it's worth.