What's A Diet?
The word diet typically sends shivers through people's spine as it is often associated with starvation and with being food deprived. However, a diet is merely the food choices that one makes on a daily basis. For a bodybuilding diet we need to make sure that we select foods that help us to repair and grow from the workouts that we perform while at the same time fostering either a fat burning or a muscle gaining environment.
What Makes Up A Great Bodybuilding Diet?
A great bodybuilding diet, in my opinion, is a balanced diet consisting of 40% carbs, 40% proteins, and 20% Good Fats. This sort of diet seems to work best for the purposes of losing body fat while gaining some muscle. Depending on whether you want to mainly gain muscle and bulk up or mainly lose body fat, you will adjust your calories upwards or downwards accordingly.
Carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy, and on a bodybuilding diet they should come mainly from complex slow releasing sources such as oatmeal, grits, brown rice, sweat potatoes in combination with fibrous sources such as green beans and broccoli.
Proteins, the building blocks for all tissues in the body, should come from chicken, turkey, tuna, and lean red meats.
Fats, which are used by the body to manufacture hormones, lubricate the joints, brain function and other essential items, should mainly come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated sources. Canned extra virgin olive oil and flax seed oil should be the main sources of these.
What Bodybuilding Diet Should You Choose?
The bodybuilding diet that you have to choose depends on your level of experience and on your bodybuilding goals.
- Beginning Bodybuilders: If you are a bodybuilder who is just starting out and has never embarked on a bodybuilding diet, then the beginner's program for easing into a bodybuilding diet is the one to follow.
- Lose Fat First: If you are a male bodybuilder above 10% body fat or a female over 12%, or if your goal is simply to go down and see your abdominal definition, then you need to select a bodybuilding diet that emphasizes fat loss.
- Gain Muscle Exclusively: If you are a male bodybuilder below 10% body fat or a female under 12% who wishes to add significant amounts of muscle, then you need a bulk up/weight gain diet.
Bodybuilding Diets
- Beginner's Bodybuilding Diet: This diet program helps a beginning bodybuilder ease into a bodybuilding diet by incorporating small changes into his/her current dietary program.
- Sample Fat Burning Bodybuilding Diet: This sample basic bodybuilding diet is the next step following a beginner's diet and is designed to make you lose fat while gaining some muscle. Great for both mean and women.
- Bulking Up/Exclusive Muscle Gain Diet: In order for a bulk up diet to be effective, it needs to be executed properly. Otherwise, you end up gaining way too much body fat, which at the end of the day, you will need to lose anyways. In this article you will learn how to design a bulk up/weight gain diet correctly so that you can maximize your muscle gains and minimize your fat gains.
- Sample Competition Bodybuilding Diet For Men: Shows a sample bodybuilding diet that can be used to get the low body fat percentages required for competition. Only recommended for advanced male bodybuilders.
- Sample Competition Bodybuilding/Figure Diet For Women: Sample bodybuilding diet that can be used by women to get the low body fat percentages required for figure competition. Only recommended for advanced athletes.
Note On Competition Bodybuilding Diets
Because of the individual nature of a person's metabolism, a bodybuilder looking to compete and look his/her best may need the diet to be adjusted to fit their individual metabolism. People with higher metabolisms that are leaner can get away with more carbohydrates and less cardiovascular exercise while less leaner people with a more normal, or even slow metabolism, can benefit from the diets as is. I recommend that if bodybuilding competition is your goal, you hire a bodybuilding coach that can help you with this process of figuring out what works best with your metabolism instead of following someone else’s pre-contest plan.
Conclusion
The better you follow your bodybuilding diet, the better your bodybuilding gains will be. Stay focused, be consistent, and you'll achieve the body of your dreams in record time!
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