BodyBuilding 101

It’s a good idea to plan ahead and pre-cook your meals. Keep vegetables cut up in the refrigerator so you don’t have to work too hard at meal time.

There’s really no need to measure carefully for the portions suggested. This isn’t an exact science! Eyeball your portions and consider the following chart:

Meal 1
Breakfast burrito (3 egg whites, 1 whole egg scrambled, 1 cup onion/green pepper mix, salsa)
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup berries

Meal 2
Protein shake
1 cup raw veggies

Meal 3
Salmon burger on whole wheat bun (canned salmon, 1 egg white, onions cooked in a non-stick fry pan)
1 large potato cut into strips, brushed with olive oil, and baked in oven until crispy
1 garden salad drizzled with olive oil and red wine vinegar

Meal 4
Protein shake
1 cup yogurt

Meal 5
8 ounces chicken breast, cut into chunks, fried in olive oil and seasoned with oregano, garlic salt, and basil
1 cup cooked tomatoes
2 cups pasta
1 cup broccoli/cauliflower mix

Meal 6
Protein shake
1 cup melon
1 cup yogurt

Meal 1
3 packs instant oatmeal
1 banana
1 cup of yogurt
1 cup of cottage cheese

Meal 2
Protein shake
1 large baked potato

Meal 3
8 ounces chicken breast
2 cups pasta
1 apple
1 cup yogurt

Meal 4
1 can of tuna
1 – 2 cups broccoli

Meal 5
Protein shake
1 cup brown rice

Meal 6
8 ounces broiled fish
1 cup veggies
2 cups rice

Meal 1
Vegetable omelet (3 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 cup veggies)  You can also add some chicken or lean beef if you want.

Meal 2
One cup yogurt or a protein shake

Meal 3
6 oz Chicken
Small raw vegetable salad
1 bagel

Meal 4
1 piece fruit
3-4 oz Chicken

Meal 5
6 oz fish
1 – Cup grilled veggies
1 – Cup brown rice

Choosing the right way to eat to build muscle can be a little overwhelming. But once you start eating the way you need to, it will become second nature to you. A good diet is well-rounded and contains some of each of the food groups.

Here’s a list of good foods for you to eat in each of the categories you need to concentrate on:

Proteins
White meat chicken or turkey
Canned tuna
Canned salmon
Fresh Fish
Shellfish
Eggs
Tofu
Soy
Red meat like steak or roast

Complex Carbohydrates
Oatmeal
Potatoes
Yams, Sweet potatoes, Acorn squash
Rice
Legumes
Corn

Vegetables
All water based types.
Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach
Asparagus
Bok Choy, Leeks
Tomatoes
Celery
Onions
Green Beans
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Radish
Zucchini Squash
Mushrooms
Carrots
Peas

Fruit
1 Apple
1 Orange
1/2 Grapefruit
3 Small Apricots
1 Banana
1/4 Melon
1-Cup Berries, Grapes
1 mango, small papaya

Dairy
1 yogurt
1-Cup low fat cottage cheese
1-Cup non-fat milk (I use vanilla soy milk instead!)
1/2 Cup non or low fat cheese

Wheat Products
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 bagel
2-Cups pasta
Whole wheat tortillas

Snack Foods
Rice cakes
Non-wheat cereals
Plain popcorn
Raw Vegetables
Nuts
Dried Fruit

A good diet is essential to an effective bodybuilding program. You can workout with the intensity of a professional, but if your diet stinks, you won’t be doing yourself any good. Consider the following general tips for your nutritional needs.

• Drink skim milk or soy milk
• Cut sugar from your diet. Use artificial sweeteners instead.
• No regular soda! Diet is better for you anyway and doesn’t contain sugar
• Pizza and hamburgers are a big no-no. Not only are they high in bad fat content, they are highly caloric and can cause you to overeat
• Eat lots of fish to increase your levels of Omega 3 fatty acids
• Chicken breasts are good for you as well
• Allow yourself one cheat day a week where you can indulge in something you’ve been craving. Just don’t overdo it on your cheat days or you can undo all you’ve accomplished.
• Limit the amount of fruit you eat. While fruit is healthy, it can have a detrimental effect on your workout.
• Protein and complex carbohydrates are very important
• Instead of eating three large meals a day, eat six smaller ones
  Don’t skip meals
• Vegetables are always a good choice at mealtime
• When eating out, choose foods wisely. Avoid most fast food restaurants or opt for healthy choices – remember no burgers!

The body is very adaptable to change. At first, you may have problems getting used to your new diet. But once you get used to eating right, you’ll find yourself not even craving the foods you used to eat.
In case you’re a little confused over what and how to eat, consider the following sample meal plans.

Probably one of the best things you can do to help your bodybuilding workout progress the way you want it to is to drink plenty of water. Water is good for you anyway, but for bodybuilders, it can be especially important. Water is part of every single metabolic process that the body undertakes.

Most experts recommend everyone drink six to eight glasses of water daily to stay healthy. For bodybuilders, you’ll need much more. Soda, coffee, and tea don’t count either. The caffeine can increase fluid loss, so you’re not getting the hydration you need. Bodybuilders need at least a half gallon to a gallon per day depending on the intensity of your workouts.

Water flushes out toxins and other metabolic waste products from the body. Water is especially important when following a “high protein” diet, as it helps remove excess nitrogen, urea (a toxic substance), and ketones. If you’re eating big to gain weight, then you need even more water to help your kidneys do their work.

Without enough water, the kidneys can’t function properly. When this happens, some of the load is transferred to the liver. The liver metabolizes stored fat for energy. If the liver is doing some of the kidneys’ work, it burns less fat. In addition, water can actually reduce feelings of hunger.

Contrary to popular belief, drinking water can actually help you shed excess water weight. When water is in short supply, the body, thinking there’s a shortage, begins hoarding it. This water is stored in extra cellular spaces. In other words, your skin starts looking soft and puffy.

If you’re going to be using supplements in your bodybuilding program, and you should, water can help them work.
Supplements like creatine work in part because it pulls water in muscle cells, creating an anabolic environment needed for muscle growth.

For this to work properly, you need plenty of water. Plus, if you’re training hard, then you need a basic mega-vitamin. Many vitamins are water soluble, and water unlocks the power of those vitamins.

When you start on a bodybuilding program, you will want to pay close attention to the foods you are feeding your body. That includes alcohol as well. Many people like a drink or two or even three to help them unwind and relax. But when you are a bodybuilder, alcohol can have a detrimental effect on your progress.

Alcohol contains nothing but empty calories. It has no nutritional value but it does contain high caloric content. In fact, just one shot of vodka contains 100 calories! Not only will drinking increase your caloric intake, it slows down your metabolism hindering your body’s ability to process foods.

Alcohol consumption also hurts muscle growth. Not only will having a hangover lower your workout intensity, but drinking actually lowers protein synthesis by twenty percent. There are several reasons why it does this.

For one, it dehydrates your muscle cells. As many know, hydrated and even over hydrated muscles allows for a much higher anabolic environment. Because your cells aren’t holding as much water, it becomes much harder to build muscle.

The second reason why alcohol can severely hurt muscle growth is because it blocks the absorption of many important nutrients that are key to muscle contraction, relaxation and growth including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and potassium.

Not only that, but alcohol lowers the amount of testosterone in your body and actually increases estrogen. Having higher levels of testosterone can help with your workouts by making you more aggressive, so when those levels are down, you will not be as intense in your lifting and weight training.

Yes, even when you are building the perfect body, you’ll still need some fats in your diet. Fats are the main source of energy in the body. Fat combines with glucose for energy in order to spare the breakdown of protein. That way, protein can do what it is supposed to do – build muscle.

The key to fat intake is to stay away from bad fats and only eat the good fat. Saturated fat is bad. These are the fats that contribute to heart disease and high cholesterol. Because of the chemical composition of saturated fat, your body cannot break it down very well.

Saturated fats are commonly found in animal products such as meat, seafood, whole milk dairy products like milk and cheese, as well as egg yolks. Saturated fats elevate blood cholesterol by increasing both the good HDL and the bad LDL. Elevated levels of LDL can clog arteries and cause heart disease. They are also more readily stored as body fat, so they should be limited.

Trans fats should also be avoided. This type of fat is often used in commercially processed food because they are preserved longer. Trans fats cause an over activity in the immune system and are linked to stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. You should truly strive to eliminate all trans fats from your diet.

Unsaturated fats are easier for your body to break down. Some of them can act as antioxidants that can actually help in losing stored fatty tissue in the body. These fats are found naturally in foods like nuts and avocados. These fats have a great effect on the cardio system as they work to lower the bad LDL cholesterol in the body.

The easiest way to tell the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats is to look at them. At room temperature, saturated fats are hard and solid. Unsaturated fats are in liquid form as in oils.

So basically, you should stay away from fats like animal lard and use oils such as olive oil or canola oil. Pay close attention to the fat content of any processed foods you are eating and keep it to a minimum or else your body will store that fat as, well, fat.
Probably the best type of fat to have in your diet would be Omega 3 Fatty Acids. These fats are most often found in fish and can have some significant health advantages. They can reduce inflammation, help prevent cancer growth, and improve brain function.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids can actually help combat conditions such as depression, fatigue, joint pain, and even Type 2 diabetes. Because they reduce inflammation in the body, they are good for the bodybuilder because they help promote muscle recovery which can be important in the bodybuilding process.

Fats are actually an important part of any diet. They play an important role in protecting the body’s vital organs. Fats keep the body insulated, maintain healthy hair and skin as well as providing a sense of fullness after meals.

Obtaining sufficient fat in its healthy form is one of the keys to good health and well being and a great body! However, you must be careful not to overdo on the fats, so consider the following suggestions for keeping your fat intake at a healthy level:

• Snack on peanuts instead of chips or candy. About a ½ cup is a good amount.
• Use olive oil in salad dressings and when cooking
• When baking, instead of topping with chocolate or candies, consider using nuts and seeds instead
• Try making sandwiches with avocado and tuna instead of higher fat lunchmeats
• Eat fish at least three times a week to increase your Omega 3 intake
• Limit or even eliminate fast food as well as sources of trans fats like commercially processed cookies and cakes

Another important nutrient every bodybuilder needs is plenty of protein. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Glucose molecules make up carbohydrates just like amino acids make up proteins.

Protein is involved in growing, repairing, and replacing tissues. That is made possible because proteins are the basis for body structures.

For bodybuilders, nitrogen balance is an important concept to keep in mind when talking about proteins. Nitrogen balance is the difference between the amount of nitrogen taken in and the amount excreted or lost. If you lose more nitrogen than you consume, your body will break down muscle tissue to get it. On the other hand, if you consume more than you lose, you will be in an anabolic, or muscle building, state.

Protein intake exceeds output, and protein is retained in tissue as new muscle is added. Obviously, this is something that you want. Watch out, if your protein output exceeds intake you would have a negative nitrogen balance. This is not good because the opposite is now happening.

Your body is degrading muscle and other body proteins. You usually see this in people who are starving, burned, injured, or have a fever. This puts your body in what is called a catabolic state.

An anabolic state is when your body has a positive nitrogen balance. The term catabolic refers to the state of the body in which body compounds are broken down for energy purposes. In bodybuilding contexts, catabolic means muscle loss. Ultimately, your body won’t grow when it is in a catabolic state.

The general rule is to consume daily the same amount of grams in protein as your body weight. A 200 pound bodybuilder, therefore, would need to eat 200 grams of protein every day to put the body in an anabolic state. When calculating the amount of protein you are eating, concentrate on the complete sources of protein like meat, fish, and eggs. While there are proteins in other foods, you need to focus on the complete sources rather than those that are incomplete.

If you are dieting while bodybuilding, your protein intake should increase to 1 ½ times your bodyweight. Many diets have you cutting back on fat and carbohydrate intake. This forces the body to burn more protein for fuel which can put your muscle tissue at risk. To compensate, you’ll need to eat more protein to counteract this effect.

Here’s a quick guide to the protein content of some foods:

Some people don’t feel that loading up on protein is a good idea for anyone, but if you want to get ripped with your bodybuilding program, you’ll need the amino acids in protein to work in your body. Be aware of the amount of protein you are eating and make them work for you instead of against you.