Ok, now I open up one of the most debatable subjects on the face of the planet, so bear with me. There are MANY different styles to the way bodybuilders eat. If you ask 10 different bodybuilders for a good diet, you're most likely going to get 10 very different answers. The one truth that they will ALL give you, is that you have to play with it, and modify your diet FOR YOU. No one has the composition that you have, so along with your unique composition you need a unique diet tailored just for you.
Here's rule number one. Record EVERYTHING you eat. Thats right, write it down, use one of the many computer programs they have that make it easy to track your diet, scribble it on your hand, WHATEVER... The point is, you can always look and see what is working, what isn't, what made you gain fat, what made you bloated, what gave you the most energy, what made you look vascular, etc... It's an invaluable tool that costs you near to nothing, so take advantage of it. After you track what you eat for a few days, I guarantee you'll either say "THATS ALL I'M EATING?", or "DAMN, I'M EATING WAY TOO MUCH!".
Speaking of which... One of the biggest problems beginners have is either overeating, or undereating. Either can hurt your progress. This is why you need to track what you're doing, and see what works, and adjust accordingly.
I try to track everything I can, including weight, and bodyfat percentage. When you do measure these, ACCEPT THEM TOGETHER! Weight by itself is useless. If you're 5'10" and 190lbs, 30% bodyfat, you're overfat. If you're 5'10", 220 lbs, and 8% bodyfat, you've got bikers hiding behind their mothers when you walk by. See what I mean? Weight is useless by itself, so don't pay too much attention to the scale alone.
Alright, now I'll move on to some basic diet concepts. Remember, there are LOTS of variations, and more and more of the synergy of the body is being discovered every day, so this is by no means the "Holy Word" of bodybuilder dieting.
Many bodybuilding diets consist of 40-45% carbohydrate, 40-45% protein, and 10-15% fat. If you're already confused, probe around in the nutrition database for some of your favorite foods, and look at their protein, carb and fat contents. There are lots of books with this info too.
Basically, meats, cheese, eggs, fish, and beans are the highest in protein. Protein is integral to any bodybuilding diet, as this is what rebuilds muscle tissue. It's tough to get all the protein you need as a bodybuilder, especially if you're really busy, so meal replacement powders and protein drinks are definitely something to look into. Many bodybuilders stick to Turkey, Chicken, low fat cottage cheese, and some lean beef for protein. There's no debating the importance of protein, no matter which school of thought your customizing your diet from.
Potatoes, rice, and vegetables are all high in complex carbohydrates. Sugar and fruit are loaded with simple carbohydrates. These are used by the body for energy. Be warned, eaten to excess, carbs will turn to fat just as fast as fat will, and SIMPLE carbs may turn to fat FASTER than fat! Imagine that!
The amount and type of carbs bodybuilders take in varies greatly. Some people can get ripped eating starchy carbs (rice, potatoes), other people just can't, and have to stick with vegetables like lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, etc. to get cut up. Some diets almost eliminate carbs altogether, convincing the body to use fat as energy (see any book by Barry Sears, or the Anabolic Diet, the Atkins Diet, etc.). I have seen good results with these diets too.
Personally, I would start around 40-45% carbs, mostly complex, and try to stay away from sugar. Eat fruit in moderation, and a lot of vegetables and grains. Natural grains are always better than processed (take whole wheat bread over white, brown rice over white, etc.).
Fat is another touchy issue, but it needs to be dealt with. 10-15% of your total daily calories from fat is a good place to start. This isn't a whole lot, and you can usually get it just from the meat and other foods you eat every day. Personally, I found when I increased my fat intake over this, to about 20-25%, I put on lean muscle mass faster without gaining any fat. Try 10-15% first though, lots of people have had good results with that, and you don't want to gain any fat. Some bodybuilders try to take in next to no fat at all, and then eat around 2 tablespoons of peanut butter everyday to get the fat. I've never seen any particular reason for taking in fat this way, except that maybe the body can deal with it better all at one time.
Now you have an idea of how to distribute all your calories to start, but you have NO IDEA about how many calories you should be taking in. This varies quite a bit too, depending who you ask, and what method you use to calculate your figures, but once again, you need to tailor this to your own needs, just use these methods
as a starting point.
The first thing you need to do is weigh yourself as accurately as possible, and get your bodyfat percentage taken. You can usually get this done at your gym for a nominal fee, if not for free. After you get this, subtract your bodyfat (in pounds, so divide your weight by a hundred, and multiply by your fat percentage to get it) from your weight to find your lean body mass. Convert this weight to kilograms by dividing by 2.2, then multiply it by 24 to get your basal metabolic rate. Now multiply this by a factor depending
on your activity level:
| Very Active | BMR x 1.5 - 2.0 |
| Moderately Active | BMR x 1.45 |
| Not Too Active | BMR x 1.35 |
If you're lifting consistently, you should be somewhere in the very active area. Now, if your trying to gain weight, cycle with a couple hundred extra calories for a few days, and then come down, and if your trying to lose weight, create a caloric deficit for a few days, and then come back up. The best cycle I've seen is like 3 days low and 1 day high if you're trying to lose fat. Invert it to gain weight!
You should try to eat every 2-3 hours, and have 5-6 small meals during the day. This keeps your body from ever going hungry, and keeps your metabolism up. It also keeps you from overeating because of being overhungry. Also, try to stick to whole natural foods as much as possible, avoid overprocessed foods.
That should round out your basic diet knowledge! Now go and read everything and anything you can about nutrition, as what I've given you here is only the tip of the iceberg. You'll also probably read 10 things that contradict what I say here in the first book you read, so remember, don't take anything you read as God's "Nutritional Word"! Read it all, and try it all, and see WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU!
Here's a sample of a good, well rounded bodybuilder diet for one day.
| 8:00 am | Meal replacement drink 1 bowl (2 cups) of oatmeal 1 cup skim milk 8 oz. OJ |
| 10:00 am | 1 cup fat free sugar free yogurt 1/4 cup grape nuts cereal |
| 12:00 pm | Turkey + cheese (1 slice) on whole wheat bread, w/ mustard, lettuce, and tomato. Small salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers) w/ light dressing |
| 3:00 pm | Banana |
| 5:00 pm | 4 oz. broiled chicken breast 1 baked yam 1 cup steamed summer squash |
| 7:00 pm | 1/2 cup 2% fat cottage cheese 1/2 cup pineapple |
Thats around 2000 calories total.
I hope this document helped you somewhat, and I wish you luck on your quest for the perfect diet! Remember, absorb ALL the information you can find, and take it for what it's worth. No one diet is the end all of diets. Incorporate a good diet into your lifestyle, don't see it as a temporary thing. Don't beat yourself for treating yourself once in a while, but don't go overboard. Most importantly, stay positive, and motivated! You'll see results, I promise!
Good luck, and stay fit!
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