Dreaming of a ripped and muscular physique? You know what matters the most – a good training routine. Wait! What? Don’t you think you have been missing upon something even more important? Well, yes. Just like a regular physical workout, healthy nutrition is of utmost importance when it comes to bodybuilding.
What Do You Mean By Bodybuilding?
Bodybuilding is revolved around building your body’s muscles through weight lifting and, most importantly, nutrition.
Whether it is for recreational purposes, competitive or self-love, bodybuilding is often connected to a lifestyle. It involves both the time you spend in and outside the gym.
To maximize your results from the gym and daily workout struggle, you must focus on your diet, as eating the wrong foods and improper nutrition intake can be detrimental to your bodybuilding goals.
All aspiring bodybuilders need to live by certain diet fundamentals to get the muscle-building off to a roaring start. You just don’t need to overthink & keep it simple. You can exaggerate and drive yourself insane trying to measure calories and calculate every nutrient ratio at every meal, every day of the week and still end up with little to show for your efforts. That is why you are better off focusing on the fundamentals.
Here are some basic nutrition guidelines about how you can plan your meals during bodybuilding.
Before you decide your diet plan and get into a fixed nutritional intake, you need to determine your body type. This is important because your body type determines the right amount of calories and nutrients that you need in your diet. The general rules of diet for bodybuilding are the same for all. You just have to tweak the nutrients and calorie intake slightly to suit your body type.
A few simple steps to follow for good nutrition and to build your body faster and in a healthy manner are:
Eat At Least Six Meals In A Day:
In order to build a healthy body, you need to maintain a calorie surplus in the body throughout. This equilibrium can be maintained when you eat more frequently.
When you are building your body, you need to maintain a calorie surplus in the body. It is easier to maintain this state when you eat more frequently. So, it is advisable to consume at least six small meals each day, which means you need to eat every 2 or 3 hours. While planning your meals, you need to consider your macronutrient ratio in order to get a healthy calorie intake.
Let us have a look at the macros that are the most critical bodybuilding food sources:
Protein: These are the primary & vital sources of nourishment for your muscles. They are recommended for mandatory intake after exercise to help your body recover faster. You must ideally intake 2g of protein per kg of your body weight for a muscle-building program.
One of the easiest ways to make sure that your body is getting the required daily intake is to include a protein shake like MuscleXP Original Raw Whey Protein With Digestive Enzymes.
It is an unflavored whey protein supplement for muscle building, having fast-absorbing pure and raw whey protein concentrate (80%). Each serving of this sugar-free protein delivers 24 g of protein that helps gain lean muscle mass while building an athletic body. It has a full range of essential amino acids, so with each serving, you get 5.45 g of BCAAs and 4.2 g of L-Glutamic acid to help boost energy levels, reduce muscle loss and maximize post-workout recovery. This Original Raw Whey Protein is a clean protein source that delivers 0 g sugar without any flavor, additives or banned substances to make it an excellent and safe protein supplement for lean muscle gains. It is infused with minimally processed high-quality protein, a unique amino acid profile and digestive enzymes. This nutrient profile can help fuel your workout, maintain energy stores in muscles and maximize post-workout recovery. Digestive enzymes such as Alpha-amylase, protease, lipase, cellulase and lactase help in better digestion and absorption of protein. It can be consumed in a variety of flavours & ways such as protein shakes, whip up pancakes, smoothies, protein bars etc.
Carbohydrates: There is a lot of misconception regarding carbs, making people skip them from their diet plans. The right kind of carbs are good for you. To increase & maintain mass consistently, you need to feed your body the right amount of carbs, depending on your body type. On an average, you require 3-4 g of carbs per kg of your body weight when you are on a bulking up process.
Fats: Fats are macronutrients. It is vital to have healthy fats like Omega-3 fatty acids in your diet for building muscle as they help the muscles recover faster and enhance overall metabolic performance.
We recommend you to try MuscleXP Omega Advanced Fish Oil Double Strength Omega-3 Fatty Acids Enteric Coated Softgels. It is India’s first enteric-coated fish oil capsules. This means that the capsules can now reach the small intestine before being released in the stomach itself. The enteric coating helps prevent acid reflux and lets it work up to its full potential as the capsules do not break down in the stomach’s acidic environment. It also helps in improving your memory, overall health and accelerates the muscle-building process without any long term side-effects. Muscle XP Fish oil is safe for regular consumption.
Wisely Select Complex Carbs in Your Diet
You must know that refined sugar or rice are the primary examples of simple carbs, often known as bad carbs. These and other related carbs must be avoided entirely. Alternatively, you should choose complex carbs for bodybuilding as they are processed slowly, ensuring stable blood sugar levels and a constant supply of energy for the body. Whole grains, oatmeal or unpolished rice are some of the best options for you.
Carbs help fuel your training and allow you to push yourself harder and longer. They set off a hormonal mechanism that drives amino acids from protein into muscle tissue to help repair and recover during the workout. Since you already know that most of your carbs should be complex, they can come from sources such as potatoes, whole-wheat bread and pasta, and oatmeal.
Maintain Balance Between Protein & Carbs Levels
An excellent muscle-building meal should contain protein and carbs in a predetermined ratio of 3:1. This, of course, depends upon your body type and needs. Ensuring high-quality carbs in your diet is essential in building a good nutrition plan for bodybuilding.
Consume Fats & Micronutrients
Some of the necessary healthy fats like Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are potent antioxidants that help increase your recovery rate after a workout. To assimilate and use up the body to build food that you consume through this nutrition diet plan, micronutrients like vitamins and minerals are a must-have.
For a healthy diet plan, you can incorporate MuscleXP Daily Vital Multivitamin (With 25 Vitamins & Minerals, 5 Super Antioxidants. It is a powerful everyday nutritional formula formulated with a potent mix of vital ingredients, including 25 essential vitamins and minerals, Ginseng and four other super antioxidants, amino acids and other health blends. It helps fulfil nutritional gaps and boost energy levels to help perform your heavy-duty workouts and other daily activities. It helps achieve everyday primary nutrients as it is packed with 25 Vitamins and Minerals and three excellent health blends to help meet the daily complicated nutritional challenges. The presence of muscle 3 supportive amino acids help athletes, bodybuilders, and other fitness lovers to enhance protein synthesis in the body, boost stamina and maximize sports performance. It helps provide nourishment to your muscles to support faster recovery. This daily multivitamin has super antioxidants that work together to help boost immune functions. It can help reduce the damage caused by free radicals and oxidative stress. Every single dose of this nutrient-rich formula can help keep you energetic throughout the busy day, even after an intense workout. It is a perfect choice for those looking for a multivitamin packed with valuable muscle supportive nutrients.
Ensure To Keep A Quick Post Workout Meal
Your nutrient intake should not be delayed beyond 30 minutes after training. You should ideally consume 20-30 grams of fast-digesting protein. This is where whey-based powders that can easily be mixed with water in a shaker bottle reign supreme. Also, you should eat at least 50-60 grams of fast-digesting carbs such as fat-free cookies, muffins, fruit, or other carb-rich drinks.
This fast-digesting combo of whey and simple carbs almost instantly reverses muscle breakdown that results from intense bodybuilding training. It can also shift your body’s hormonal state from one in which muscle is under attack to one that supports the muscle rebuilding process.
Remember To Eat Big Before Training
Conventionally, it is recommended that you should not train on a full stomach. But truth be told, consuming a more extensive meal an hour or so pre-workout allows you to train harder and supplies the body with adequate pre-workout carbs and proteins that prevent muscle breakdown.
Such a meal may cause the beginner to feel bloated, but with time your body will accommodate by secreting the digestive juices needed to deal with the massive influx of food. This way, you will defend your muscles from going catabolic and experience an energy boost, which should allow you to train harder and longer.
Focus On Right Supplementation
Adding the required dietary supplements to your diet guarantees that there are no nutritional gaps in your diet. For bodybuilding, whey proteins, glutamine and creatine powder are highly recommended. You can even choose supplements that ensure that you get the proper nutrition to support intense training sessions that are very crucial for muscle gain.
Take Regular Intervals
Every bodybuilding enthusiast has experienced a couple of workouts in a row due to a busy schedule. But, to your great surprise, you don’t shrink but instead, seem to grow. Why? Recovery.
The days that you miss out on training, along with adequate nutrition, allow the body to overcompensate and recover more fully from recent training sessions.
The same is true with eating. So you can have a “cheat day” every 10-14 days and eat, in addition to what you usually do, a few things not on the typical bodybuilding menu, such as ice cream, cake, pizza, etc. But remember not to overdo it.
When it comes to bodybuilding, you already know some of the best practices that you must follow. All it requires is motivation and hard work to achieve your goals. So, remain focussed and do what is best in the interest of your body. You will surely achieve what you want.
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