woodswise
TID Board Of Directors
- Apr 29, 2012
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To Be a Bodybuilder, Eat Like A Bodybuilder, by Woodswise. September 21, 2013.
It took me years to learn how to eat like a bodybuilder.
I had been lifting recreationally for more than 15 years, but was not making the progress I wanted. The muscle gains were slow because I wasn't eating enough. Then when I started eating enough, I got fat and in the end gained only a small amount of muscle. For my bulk, I ate a normal diet, only a lot more than normal and used bulking as an excuse to eat more of the goodies (dessert, sweets, etc.). I read a few places how you needed to eat more protein, so I added more meats and eggs, but no one actually sat me down and told me how to eat or helped me structure a diet. Finally, tired of not seeing the gains i wanted, and especially tired of the permabulk, I decided to make drastic changes to everything, including diet.
Protein is the foundation of the bodybuilding diet, whether bulking or cutting.
After quite a bit of reading online, I found a common thread that made sense to me: Eat 1 to 1.5 and possible as much as 2g protein per lb of lean bodyweight each day. When bulking, eat an excess of Kcals -- 500 to 1000 Kcals above maintenance. When cutting, eat in a defecit of Kcals -- 250 to 500 Kcals below maintenance. When bulking most of the macros to make up the Kcals will be the protein and carbs, with little fat (100g or less).
When cutting you can diet on protein and carbs or on protein and fat (ketogenic diet). You can eat less protein during a cut, than on a bulk.
Fat and carbs should not be mixed in large quantities, because it is easier to get fat while eating like that. To stay lean, if you are going to eat a diet heavy on carbs, keep the fats low. If you are going to eat a diet heavy on fats, keep the carbs low.
Measuring / Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
To know how much to eat, you need to know how much your body is burning each day. The amount of energy your body burns at rest, is called your basal metabolic rate. It is not easy to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Experts with the right tools might put you in a sealed room and measure how much CO2 your body gives off during a period of time, then calculate how much energy it took your body to generate that much CO2 as a byproduct of its energy consumption. This could take a significant amount of time and money to accomplish.
There are many online metabolic calculators that will help you determine your BMR and how many Kcals you burn up during daily activities. Most of them focus on your bodyweight and composition, with the idea being that the leaner you are, the more muscle you have that is burning energy, and therefore the higher your BMR. I have found these calculators to be universally crap.
There are a few formulas that come close to getting it right. But ultimately, you will need to determine it by trial and error yourself.
Here is one I like: BMR = 500 + (10 x LBM)
To get your body's actual caloric expenditure, multiply by a factor between 1.2 to 1.9, depending on how active you are. 1.2 = sedate; 1.5 = moderately active. 1.9 = works hard all day long (i.e. hard physical work).
To calculate your LBM start by measuring your percentage bodyfat. You can do this with calipers, or you can go to a university with an immersion machine that measures bodyfat vs lean bodymass. To do this with calipers, measure the following three places: side of belly, near waist, where the fat is fairly thick; back of your triceps muscle, wing of your shoulderblade. You will need help with these. Take the average (add the three together and divide by 3 to get the average). The calipers should come with a chart. Use the chart to determine your percentage bodyfat. Use this percentage, and multiply it by your bodyweight, to determine how much fat is on your body. then subtract that from your bodyweight, to determine your lean bodymass (LBM).
The key to the whole thing (Getting Your Diet Right & Calculatiing Your BMR) is measuring your food and calculating your macros.
Now that you know roughly your total daily caloric expenditure, you need to synchronize your diet with your caloric expenditure, to eat like a bodybuilder.
The best way to do this, is to create a food journal, where you log the foods and qantities you eat each day. I like Fitday.com. This and other sites like Livestrong.com allow you to keep a journal where you can log your food and calculate your daily Kcals consumed, and how much protein, carbs and fat you are eating.
You should buy a scale and use a measuring cup or the scale for everything you eat. do that for a month and you will learn a lot about the foods you eat and your diet. Eventually you won't need to log and weigh every meal, and will be able to stay on diet with only occasional weighing and logging to be sure you are staying on track.
. . . there is more to come!
It took me years to learn how to eat like a bodybuilder.
I had been lifting recreationally for more than 15 years, but was not making the progress I wanted. The muscle gains were slow because I wasn't eating enough. Then when I started eating enough, I got fat and in the end gained only a small amount of muscle. For my bulk, I ate a normal diet, only a lot more than normal and used bulking as an excuse to eat more of the goodies (dessert, sweets, etc.). I read a few places how you needed to eat more protein, so I added more meats and eggs, but no one actually sat me down and told me how to eat or helped me structure a diet. Finally, tired of not seeing the gains i wanted, and especially tired of the permabulk, I decided to make drastic changes to everything, including diet.
Protein is the foundation of the bodybuilding diet, whether bulking or cutting.
After quite a bit of reading online, I found a common thread that made sense to me: Eat 1 to 1.5 and possible as much as 2g protein per lb of lean bodyweight each day. When bulking, eat an excess of Kcals -- 500 to 1000 Kcals above maintenance. When cutting, eat in a defecit of Kcals -- 250 to 500 Kcals below maintenance. When bulking most of the macros to make up the Kcals will be the protein and carbs, with little fat (100g or less).
When cutting you can diet on protein and carbs or on protein and fat (ketogenic diet). You can eat less protein during a cut, than on a bulk.
Fat and carbs should not be mixed in large quantities, because it is easier to get fat while eating like that. To stay lean, if you are going to eat a diet heavy on carbs, keep the fats low. If you are going to eat a diet heavy on fats, keep the carbs low.
Measuring / Calculating Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
To know how much to eat, you need to know how much your body is burning each day. The amount of energy your body burns at rest, is called your basal metabolic rate. It is not easy to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Experts with the right tools might put you in a sealed room and measure how much CO2 your body gives off during a period of time, then calculate how much energy it took your body to generate that much CO2 as a byproduct of its energy consumption. This could take a significant amount of time and money to accomplish.
There are many online metabolic calculators that will help you determine your BMR and how many Kcals you burn up during daily activities. Most of them focus on your bodyweight and composition, with the idea being that the leaner you are, the more muscle you have that is burning energy, and therefore the higher your BMR. I have found these calculators to be universally crap.
There are a few formulas that come close to getting it right. But ultimately, you will need to determine it by trial and error yourself.
Here is one I like: BMR = 500 + (10 x LBM)
To get your body's actual caloric expenditure, multiply by a factor between 1.2 to 1.9, depending on how active you are. 1.2 = sedate; 1.5 = moderately active. 1.9 = works hard all day long (i.e. hard physical work).
To calculate your LBM start by measuring your percentage bodyfat. You can do this with calipers, or you can go to a university with an immersion machine that measures bodyfat vs lean bodymass. To do this with calipers, measure the following three places: side of belly, near waist, where the fat is fairly thick; back of your triceps muscle, wing of your shoulderblade. You will need help with these. Take the average (add the three together and divide by 3 to get the average). The calipers should come with a chart. Use the chart to determine your percentage bodyfat. Use this percentage, and multiply it by your bodyweight, to determine how much fat is on your body. then subtract that from your bodyweight, to determine your lean bodymass (LBM).
The key to the whole thing (Getting Your Diet Right & Calculatiing Your BMR) is measuring your food and calculating your macros.
Now that you know roughly your total daily caloric expenditure, you need to synchronize your diet with your caloric expenditure, to eat like a bodybuilder.
The best way to do this, is to create a food journal, where you log the foods and qantities you eat each day. I like Fitday.com. This and other sites like Livestrong.com allow you to keep a journal where you can log your food and calculate your daily Kcals consumed, and how much protein, carbs and fat you are eating.
You should buy a scale and use a measuring cup or the scale for everything you eat. do that for a month and you will learn a lot about the foods you eat and your diet. Eventually you won't need to log and weigh every meal, and will be able to stay on diet with only occasional weighing and logging to be sure you are staying on track.
. . . there is more to come!
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