People always tell would-be bodybuilders that they need to eat more or have a good diet to build muscle. That’s true, but what they don’t usually tell you is what to eat to gain muscle, and how much of each nutrient.
For a healthy balanced diet for anybody, a mixture of protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fats are needed. For a healthy and successful bodybuilder, precisely the same nutrients are needed — only more of them.
Protein
Protein is the most important nutrient for muscle building, and a person looking to build muscle mass should not only eat the best sources of protein must also look to eat around 1 g per pound of body weight per day of them.
Excellent sources of protein are: eggs, milk, fish, beef, cheese and chicken.
Carbohydrates
Not every bodybuilder is a huge fan of carbohydrates because they believe they make them fat. But, using carbohydrates in the correct way will be beneficial to you and will not make you fat.
The biggest mistake people make with carbohydrates is eating them too frequently throughout the day. Carbohydrates should be eaten primarily before training and after training when energy replenishment is needed the most. The chances of carbohydrates being quickly absorbed by the body and used for wasteful fat storage during such times are very small.
Used in such a way, carbohydrates not only work to fuel your training sessions, but also support rapid repair of your muscles post workout.
Fats
Not all fats are bad. Fats generally get labelled as bad because they contain a high amount of calories per gram — 9 calories per gram to be exact. Little wonder then, foods containing a high amount of fat will contain a lot of calories and cause people to become fat. It’s not the fats themselves which make people fat, but the calories they contain.
Saturated and dietary fats are not only needed for anyone to remain in good health, but for the bodybuilder in particular, as they support the production of testosterone, without which, you stand as much chance of building muscle as a woman. (No offence meant, if you are a woman, by the way!)
A typical bodybuilding nutrient ratio would consist of maybe 50% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 10% fats, or something similar.