Bodybuilding is now making its way into sports. It is mostly dependent on your muscle mass and nutrition.
Many people become bodybuilders just as a health goal and not to take part in a competition. It slowly becomes part of a healthy lifestyle. One has to do regular physical workouts to build muscles, but another crucial part of bodybuilding is dieting, which is of utmost importance to reaching your goal.
Basics of building muscles
Some people might not be aware of the fact that bodybuilding is a different sport than weight lifting, as it is a sport about strength, while bodybuilding is mostly about physical appearance.
That is why bodybuilders work on the appearance of each muscle and focus on well balanced and lean muscles. In short, a muscular self.
The cutting phase in bodybuilding takes around 12 to 26 weeks, and it is all about cutting extra fat from the body. Bodybuilding without diet control may not have that good of an influence on your body.
Benefits of bodybuilding
Bodybuilding has a number of positive health effects. Like:
- Help to reduce fat percentage
- Resistance training helps one to increase the size of muscles.
- Improves body strength
- Builds immunity
- Lowers the risk of cancer
- Improves heart health
How much food do bodybuilders eat?
For competitive bodybuilders it important to gain muscles in the bulking phase and cutting down the fat in cutting phase. Hence, diet should also support the goal, consuming more calories in the bulking phase and lower in the cutting phase.
Calories: the best way to analyze the calories intake is to weigh yourself thrice a week and count your calorie intake in a calorie tracker. Your daily caloric intake is what’s known as your maintenance caloric intake if your weight doesn’t change. You are neither gaining or losing weight at this point; rather, you are maintaining it.
In the bulking phase, one needs to increase the calorie uptake by 15%.
Example: if you were maintaining weight at 2000 kcals you will gain it at 2300.
When you transition from the bulking phase to cutting phase you would rather reduce those 15% calories from your diet. This simply means that instead of having 2300 kcals you would take 1700 kcals. It’s advised not to lose or gain more than 0.5-1% of your body weight per week throughout either phase. This prevents you from gaining too much body fat during the bulking phase or losing too much muscle during the cutting phase.
What should your macronutrient ratio look like?
You may wonder if this is the amount of calories you should be taking from which nutrient it should come from. In a just the calories which should come from each of the macronutrients look like this.
- Carbohydrate: 50 to 60%
- Protein: 30 to 35 %
- Fats: 15 to 20%
Even when the above mentioned values look right, fast food for bodybuilders specifically at night not be a very good idea as it may contain high energy but mostly doesn’t have balanced proteins pr healthy carbs.
So, what food bodybuilders eat?
Let us now talk about bodybuilding food because along with exercise it is important to keep in mind what you should be eating as well as the right nutrient food helps you to make your muscles stronger and to grow bigger.
Which food is good for bodybuilding?
Meat , poultry, fish and meat: chicken breast. Pork, lean fishes, fatty fishes, ground beef etc.
Grains: Oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn, crackers, bread, cereal, and rice.
Oils and fats: flaxseed oil, avocado oil, and olive oil.
These are the examples of 3 body building food groups. Other than this one can also take fruits like oranges, apples, bananas, grapes, pears, peaches, and melons.
Starchy vegetables like: potato, sweet potato, peas, corn. Vegetables like tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, broccoli, spinach, and other lush salad greens. Nuts and oil seeds like almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seed, chia seed, flax seed. These foods are some of the most powerful food for bodybuilders. For a diet for veg bodybuilder dairy can be considered as a great protein source like milk, cottage cheese, curd etc.
These are some of the bodybuilder food name.
What not to eat when bodybuilding?
We now know what kind of foods a bodybuilder should eat. Now let us talk about foods bodybuilders should avoid.
Such things include:
Alcohol: If consumed in excess, alcohol is detrimental to bodybuilding and, more specifically, fat loss.
Added sugar: These are calorie-dense yet lacking in nutrition.
Fried foods: these foods usually promote inflammation in the body which can be a cause of a number of deadly diseases like cancer, stroke etc.
Supplement for bodybuilders
Without supplement bodybuilding diet can be difficult as it takes a lot of energy to think of and prepare the foods which have enough of all the nutrients to support your bodybuilding goals. So let us see what kind of supplement someone can consider to take if they are building muscles. 3 of the proven best supplements are given below which their benefits:
Whey protein | Creatine | Caffeine |
Easy and convenient to use. High protein | Provides energy to workout more. Best one is creatine monohydrate | Reduces fatigue Helps you to workout more Great for pre workout |
FAQs.
You may have some questions about food for bodybuilding like how many meals for bodybuilding in this section we will answer all those.
What food for bodybuilding?
Ans. Some of the bodybuilding foods may include:
Meat , poultry, fish and meat: chicken breast. Pork, lean fishes, fatty fishes, ground beef etc.
Grains: Oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn, crackers, bread, cereal, and rice.
Oils and fats: flaxseed oil, avocado oil, and olive oil.
How many times do bodybuilders eat a day?
Ans. A bodybuilder should take at least 2 to 6 meals evenly distributed in calories. Small portion size helps one to have a better metabolism.
Can you do without protein bodybuilding?
Ans. Protein is an essential part of any bodybuilder’s diet. It helps one to build muscles and almost everything in our body is made up of protein as a precursor. Hence, it is mandatory to eat sufficient protein when building muscles.
Why bodybuilders don’t eat spicy food?
Ans. Spicy foods might cause nausea, vomiting, and weight loss. Spicy foods will prevent your body from gaining mass, which is the fundamental goal of bodybuilding. Hence, avoid spicy foods.
Why bodybuilders don’t eat sugar?
Ans. The sugar that you get from fruit is considered good as fruits also contain fibers, vitamins and minerals. While refined sugar only contains empty calories, it is not considered to be great for bodybuilding.
How much eggs to eat for bodybuilding?
Ans. The amount of eggs that you eat completely depends upon what other sources of protein you are eating in your diet. Bodybuilders usually need higher protein than moderately or lightly active people. When you eat eggs go for more egg whites rather than whole eggs as eating 1 or 2 egg yolks might be good for your health, but more than that may increase your cholesterol levels in the long run. A bodybuilder can even eat up to 11 egg whites per day for protein.
How much chicken to eat for bodybuilding?
Ans. The same rule as for eggs applies to chicken as well. The protein requirement greatly depends upon your overall activity for the day. In general, for a heavily active individual, the protein requirement is 2g per kg of body weight.
How much protein to eat for bodybuilding?
Ans. A bodybuilder needs 30 to 35% of calories to come from protein. Bodybuilders are usually considered heavily active individuals, and for a heavily active individual, the protein requirement is 2 g per kg of body weight.
How much rice to eat for bodybuilding?
Ans. Rice is a great source of carbohydrates and, according to the guidelines, one should get 55 to 60% of calories from carbohydrates. Make sure you are not exceeding it more than that.
What is protein food for bodybuilding?
Ans. One can go for whey protein, chicken, meat, fish, dairy, lentils, moong, legumes, etc. for protein.
What are some healthy fast food for bodybuilders?
Ans. Highly processed food for snacking is not recommended for a bodybuilding diet. But you can have things like trail mix, makhana, fruits, peanut butter, hummus, etc as healthy snack options.
Is wheat for bodybuilding good?
Ans. Yes. Wheat is an amazing source of carb and in limited amounts can be taken for bodybuilding.