The following is taken verbatim from a great site, the article can be found here.
For a bodybuilder trying to gain muscle, proper nutrition involves eating sufficient quantities of the important nutrients on a daily basis to ensure there are no deficiencies within the body of any nutrient or energy so that the body is fully equipped to grow your muscles.
The important nutrients are:
The important nutrients are:
Macro nutrients:
Water
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat (inc. essential fats)
Micro nutrients:
Quite simply, almost all vitamins and minerals (best covered by a mega vitamin - mineral tablet supplement).
Doesn't sound too complicated, right? Only four types of macro nutrients and a whole host of micro nutrients that you can cover by taking a mega vitamin and mineral table? A walk in the park! A piece of cake! STOP RIGHT THERE! Getting basic understanding of nutrition is actually very simple but becoming a master nutritionist will take you years. And stop mentioning pieces of cake because as you'll see you will not want to eat too many pieces of cake as a bodybuilder!
Definition of 'good' nutrition for a bodybuilder
A bodybuilder's definition of good nutrition is completely different to what a normal sedentary person would define. For the average mortal, with no desire to increase their muscle mass, protein intake is a minor, almost insignificant aspect of their nutrition. In fact, dieticians only recommend about thirty (30) grams of protein intake per day for the normal individual. A bodybuilder who only eats thirty grams of protein a day is going to seriously struggle to put on a decent amount of muscle. They might even lose muscle if they train particularly intensely or often.
You, as a bodybuilder, need far more protein than a non-weight trainer. In fact, it's recommended that you eat at least 100 grams of high quality protein (read: from animal or dairy sources) per day and even better, at least one gram per pound of bodyweight (less if you're particularly over-weight). For a two hundred pounds bodybuilder this means that ideally they'll be eating around two hundred grams of protein a day - no mean feat. It'd take seven decent sized chicken breasts to provide you with this much protein.
At the same time, you need to eat more carbohydrates and slightly more fat than the average non-bodybuilder. As you can imagine, if you don't have much of an appetite this can be a real struggle, as you're already trying to get down all that extra protein you need.
Hopefully you can see that although it's relatively simple to understand how much protein, carbs, fat and energy you need as a bodybuilder it's a far more difficult thing to actually eat what is required. Lifestyle and work commitments may mean that you have little time to buy and prepare quality food; you may have a small appetite; you might have a terrible sweet tooth, you might be vegetarian or even vegan; and you might hate the taste of anything other than burgers and fries. In all these instances it will take tremendous effort and dedication to get your correct nutrition each and every day, day after day. This is where the real challenge is. I can and will tell you what nutrition you need but the real task for you is to get it. With passion, discipline and will power you can and will take in all the nutrients and energy you need to grow as quickly as possible.
Daily Nutritional Requirements for the average bodybuilder in a mass building phase
Protein: 1 gram per pound of bodyweight
Carbohydrates: Approx 3 grams per pound of bodyweight
Fat: Approx 40 - 80 grams per day
So for a 200 pound (and relatively lean i.e. <15% body fat) bodybuilder:
200 gram proteins (800 calories)
600 grams carbs (1800 calories)
60 grams fat (450 calories)
Total calories: 3050 calories per day (50% more than the recommended daily amount for the average 160 pound non weight trainer).
This would be a good (ok, very good!) mass building nutritional intake for the average bodybuilder. The trick is actually eating this day in, day out.
Diet
It can be tricky for us bodybuilders to eat the right foods day in day out. Many of us like our treats or junk food and so this makes it even harder to stick with the 'good' foods. Unless you have an iron-clad willpower, a diet consisting of chicken and rice and steak and potatoes can quickly get boring and before you know it you are 'cheating' on your diet - eating food that isn't particularly nutritious or is high in sugar or fat. It's then easy to let your discipline slip altogether and before you know it you're eating crap, feeling crap and looking crap. Crap.
To combat this, you really need to focus on making your bodybuilding diet as interesting, tasty, satisfying and fulfilling as you can. This is where your culinary skills come into play. If you aren't a keen cook you will need to become one if you're serious about getting big.
Staple foods
The most commonly eaten food for bodybuilders are:
• Meat (Chicken, Beef, Fish, Turkey)
• Dairy (low fat cheeses, skimmed milk, low fat yoghurts)
• Grains (Wheat, oats, rice, pasta)
• Vegetables (all sorts, eg. onion, potato, asparagus, peas, lentils, carrots, lettuce)
• Fruits (eg. tomato, bananas, oranges, apples, melon)
• Oils (olive oil, vegetable oil)
Now while there is quite a wide choice of food listed here it can quickly get boring if you eat the same few different meals day in, day out. What you need to do is mix it up!!
Making your food delicious!
To keep to a good mass building bodybuilding diet you need to keep mixing your diet up so that you do not get bored of eating the same foods. The keys to this are:
• Cooking methods - eg. grill, bake, boil, stir-fry
• Spices
• Herbs
• Sauces
• Food combinations - constantly change your veg choices for your meals
• Eat out - find restaurants that will cook what you want, how you want
• Low fat alternatives - you needn't skip dessert if you can find low fat alternatives
• Dressings
As you can see there are lots of ways to keep your food interesting! Please consider buying some cookery books or research online to find ways of making your plain chicken and plain boiled rice meals WAY more exciting (failing that, ring your mom! :) ).
Conclusion
Your diet is CRITICAL to your bodybuilding success. Without adequate attention to what you eat and how much protein / carbs / fat and calories you're eating you'll never grow as quickly as you want. Supplementation is of course very important but without a solid diet to work from your supplements will be wasted. Good luck, train hard and eat big!
