Never Fear Failure Bodybuilding’s main objective is to provide you with the most up to date content in the body building industry and also provide you with the information needed to realize your full potential as a bodybuilder or fitness athlete. A proper meal plan with a good training regimen will ensure that you build an incredible physique! In this article we are going to help you construct a meal plan that suites your training and goals. We will do this in 6 steps that will help you get an idea of what it takes to change your body.
Step 1: Macro-Nutrients And Their Importance
You can keep track of your calorie counts of foods by understanding macro-nutrient values: protein, carbohydrate and fat grams. These three macro-nutrient categories will be what you are going to build your diet around.
• First Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are a bodybuilders primary energy source and are important when fueling you with energy to workout. If you are in a carbohydrate deficit being you aren’t eating enough carb’s to fuel your body with energy than your body is forced to look for another fuel source, most of the time your body will use your body-fat stores as energy but if you aren’t eating enough protein than your muscle can be used as fuel as well.
• Second Protein – Protein is the key source in building muscle. Protein allows the creation, maintenance and repair of muscle tissue that has broken down during a workout. Your body needs to be in a positive nitrogen balance in order to utilize protein for the functions listed above. To ensure a positive nitrogen balance you must supply your body with enough quality protein from food on a regular basis. You should ingest protein five or six times a day in servings spaced two and a half to three hours apart from one another. A bodybuilder needs a daily intake of 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body-weight which you may or may not have heard before. This is crucial in order to build muscle you need to be eating more grams of protein than your body-weight. For example a 200lb bodybuilder should consume a total of 250 grams of protein daily, split up among five or six meals in order to build muscle.
• Third Fat – Fat has always gotten a negative reputation in diets. However fats are another viable source of energy, whether it’s stored or consumed as part of your diet. The body will tap into fat stores to fuel your activities throughout the day. Bodybuilding is as an anaerobic activity, consisting of short high-intensity bursts of exercise to which the body is able to supply its energy needs with little or no oxygen available.
Aside from fat being valued as a source of energy, it keeps skin tissue healthy, aids in the cushioning of internal organs, helps to lubricate joints and plays an important role in the absorption of certain vitamins. So what ever you have heard about fats in diets remember that your body can’t function without it.
Steps 2: Water Is Essential
Water is truly the beverage of choice for bodybuilders. Water helps the body to regulate energy production, metabolism fat, and even keep the metabolism process working optimally. Without water your body would not be able to use protein synthesize which is key in the repair and building of muscle fibers. The reason bodybuilders and athletes need to drink a lot of water throughout the day is due to high protein diets promote dehydrations, so make sure you drink water!
If you want to calculate your specific daily water requirement, you must multiply your bodyweight by 0.7, the product will be the number of fluid ounces you should drink each day. A 200-pound bodybuilder, for example, would require 140 fluid ounces (200 x 0.7 = 140). A pint of water consists of 16 ounces; a gallon, 128 ounces. Make sure to avoid consuming alcohol because its high in calories and its promotes dehydration. Natural fruit juices are fine and always make sure to check the label on the back for calories. Three cups of coffee or tea per day are fine as well.
Step 3: Making Multiple Meals
For bodybuilders and fitness athletes at all levels constructing the classic three meal a-day eating schedule is not the best way to go. To optimize muscle growth it is better to create a system that feeds the body the right combination of nutrients every two and a half to three hours. The body can efficiently absorb only a limited number of calories and nutrients at one serving, so ultilizing more frequent smaller meals will ensure that little is wasted. Other benefits of eating more frequently consist of, maintaining a stable blood sugar level which leads to more consistent energy levels, better glycogen storage and superior fat metabolism.
It is key that you keep up with your meals throughout the day. If you want to be a successful bodybuilder or just want to build your physique than you need to meet the nutrient demands your muscles need. If this demand is not satisfied, you’ll end up in a catabolic state and a negative nitrogen balance, that’s why it’s so essential to consume the right kinds of food atleast five or six times per day. If you follow these steps in this article it will ensure that your body is guaranteed maintenance of a positive nitrogen balance which again is the condition in which muscle tissue repairs itself after intense training (as described in step 1).
Step 4: Constructing Your Diet
To construct a bodybuilding diet, your must calculate the number of calories you need each day to gain quality bodyweight. In order to build muscle, you must take in more calories than the amount required to sustain your current weight. Since everyone has individual metabolic rates, physical-activity levels and bodyfat/muscle ratios, we all burn calories at varying rates. It would be inaccurate to make a blanket statement saying a 150-pound person burns the same number of calories. This isn’t true. Below is a sample meal plan so you can get an idea of what your diet will be built like.
The Sample Meal Plan
Meal 1: Breakfast
5 Ounces oatmeal (150 grams)
2 Slices wheat toast
1 Banana
4 Egg whites
1 Yolk
1 Multivitamin/mineral pack
Meal 2: Midmorning snack
1 Orange
1 whey protein shake (mixed with nonfat milk or juice)
Meal 3: Lunch
5 Ounces (150 grams) skinless chicken breast
7 Ounces (200 grams) baked potato or 3.5 ounces (100 grams) rice
3.5 Ounces (100 grams) mixed vegetables
1 Gram vitamin C
Meal 4: Midafternoon snack
1 Whey protein shake (mixed with juice or nonfat milk)
Meal 5: Dinner
7 Ounces (200 grams) extra-lean beef
10.5 Ounces (300 grams) baked potato
3.5 Ounces (100 grams) mixed vegetables
1 Gram vitamin C
Meal 6: Evening snack
5 Ounces (150 grams) oatmeal
4 Egg whites
1 Egg yolk
Increasing your daily caloric intake by 400 calories should help you add one to two pounds of quality body-weight per month once you have gotten use to your meal plan. Surpassing the 400-calorie mark is not a good idea as most of the gains in size will come from fat, not muscle. After one month, if you have gained less than one pound, then and only then add an extra 300 calories per day to the diet.
Step 6: Timing Is Essential
Timing out when you are going to eat each of your six meals in this nutrition plan will help determine muscle growth. The postworkout meal is the single most important variable because following an intense training session, the body undertakes special metabolic processes were the absorption and utilization of carbs and proteins are very important! If you fail to eat (even if it’s just a protein shake) within about 45 minutes of training, you will more than liekly enter a catabolic state (a condition that inhibits growth and retards recovery) for a brief period of time before you eat again.
The pre-workout meal is equally as important because it helps your body meet the energy demands it needs before training. You should eat your pre-workout meal approximately 60-90 minutes before you train. The goal is to ingest only enough carbs and protein to help prevent your body from breaking down hard-earned muscle tissue while you workout. Remember it’s all about keeping your body in a positive nitrogen balance.
The first meal of the day! Your body makes great demands for energy and nutrients in the morning hours so you should adjust your calorie intake accordingly. When you wake up in the morning, your body depends a fresh intake of fuel to generate a metabolic response. Remember food is fuel.
Step 7: Supplementation
With a good meal plan there is no need to go crazy on supplements. However certain supplements such as (multivitamin/mineral packs, extra vitamin C and E, protein shakes and meal replacement powders (MRP5)) can benefit your diet.
Multivitamin/mineral packs can help against dietary deficiency. Look for one that includes one gram of vitamin C, 50 milligrams of vitamin B complex and 400 international units of vitamin E. Vitamin C aids recuperation and helps keep infections at bay, so you should also take an additional gram of Vitamin C at meals three and five.
We all know that preparing six meals a day can be time-consuming, so protein shakes and MRPs are valuable in a busy schedule. Also, they are often superior to protein-source foods because they provide a better balance of essential amino acids and are easier to digest. Drinking even a few small shakes throughout the day, for instance, can help potentiate protein utilization from your protein food sources. We suggest that you use a shake that has casein and whey protein as basic ingredients.
Follow these six steps faithfully and you should be able to add one to two pounds of muscle per month. Remember, the key to the role of diet in muscle growth is consistency of application. In your diet and in your training, consistency will yield steady progress and excellent results for the evolution of your physique.
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