Body Building Diet With Good Muscle Building Foods
Correct body building diet is essential for successful body building. Supplements alone won’t do much unless you change your diet. You need to eat for muscle-gain, not weight-gain on this kind of diet.
Eat Good Muscle Building Foods in Your Body Building Diet
When you’re engaged in body building training, in order to maximize weight gain and lean muscle mass development, your daily muscle building diet should be about 2500 calories per 100lbs body weight (rough estimate).
So if you weigh 180lbs, your body building diet should be around 4,500 calories per day. Sounds like a lot but if you eat the right muscle building foods and train properly, you’ll maximize your muscle gain.
Your body building diet should include significantly more protein than the average / sedentary person for you to gain lean muscle mass. Protein is possibly the most important aspect of body building nutrition. Proteins are responsible for the growth and repair of muscle tissue.
Following a correct body building diet you should eat at least 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight, and 2-4 grams of carbs for every pound you weigh, depending on your metabolism.
Aim for around 20-25 calories per pound of bodyweight per day on a muscle building diet. So if you weigh 200lbs, your body building diet should give you 4,000 – 5,000 calories per day. Sounds like a lot but if you eat the right muscle building foods, it really isn’t that bad.
A typical body building diet should include healthy muscle building foods from all of these food groups:
Protein : Lean meats, chicken, turkey, tuna and other fish, eggs, milk, nuts, whey protein.
Carbohydrates : Wholewheat pasta, brown rice, potatoes, fresh vegetables and fruit, wholemeal bread or oatmeal bread. No sugary foods or white flour products!
Fats and essential fatty acids : Oily fish, flaxseed oil, olive oil, avocado, cottage cheese, nuts.
These body building foods provide your body with correct amounts of complex carbohydrates, proteins, and essential fatty acids. Eat five or six small meals a day, selecting body building foods from all these food groups. And drink plenty of water throughout the day.
What to Avoid on a Body Building Diet
On a body building diet you should mostly avoid processed foods and junk foods and any white flour products such as white breads.
Also avoid foods with a high sugar content like most fruit juices and keep you muscle building diet clear of fried foods and foods high in saturated fats. Be sensible and check the nutrition facts on food labels before you buy. This tip may help you reduce your bodyfat: Avoid eating carbohydrates after 6:00pm or four to five hours before going to bed.
If your diet currently contains lots of junk foods, crisps, chocolate etc. it’s best to move to the healthier body building diet in small steps. At first try swapping a packet of crisps for a piece of fruit. Then a chocolate bar to a tuna sandwich (wholemeal bread).
When you’ve managed to reduce the fatty, sugary, white flour foods in your new muscle building diet, you can afford to treat youself to a bad meal every four or five days. Just don’t get back into any bad habits.
Abs and Your Muscle Building Diet
A word about abdominals and your body building diet. To get a good set of six pack abs you need a very low body fat percentage. Anything over ten percent and your abs definition would fade under the layer of fat on top of them.
Abs aren’t just all about crunches and more crunches. You must watch your body building diet closely if you want a good set of six pack abs.
Eating Before and After Body Building
Pre workout meal
Because you don’t normally eat for about an hour before exercising, eat wholefoods and low carbohydrate foods that digest slowly before your body building workout so that you don’t feel hungry during your workout.
Avoiding lots of carbohydrate here will force your body burn off more fat as your glucose levels in your muscles will be depleted. Emphasize this fat burning effect by doing 20-30 minutes of low intensity aerobic exercise immediately after your workout.
Post workout meal
After your body building workout your body is very depleted and looking for nutrients for the healing and repair process that gets you stronger for your next workout. Eat even if you don’t feel like it. You can consume up to 30% of your body building diet’s total daily caloric intake without storing any fat.
Eat plenty of simple carbohydrates, faster digesting the sugar is better here. Eat some proteins as well but avoid eating any fats here. Drink water with and after your meal.