# Diet for Bodybuilders



## thegrova (Oct 25, 2006)

Howdy All.  I have a diet plan and an idea of the total protein, carb and fat intake I need to gain lean muscle.  However I was wondering if anyone out there has any interesting / tasty meals that could be used in a moderately high protein high carb diet.  I am looking for suggestions to improve variety!


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## VeraBlue (Oct 25, 2006)

My son, who simply likes to lift with his friends, not actually bodybuild eats a high carb meal before he works out, and then eats a high protein meal when he gets homes.

There is almost always pasta in the frige here, so he usually eats that before he goes.  When he returns, it's either some chicken or the meatballs that were left behind earlier.


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## shpj4 (Oct 25, 2006)

If you belong to a gym you might ask the other men and women what they eat.

If you work out at home I would suggest that you contact friends and others and ask them what they eat.


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## SNPiccolo5 (Oct 25, 2006)

There's tons of info out there.  If you want something really in depth, go to www.discussfitness.com and look in the diet section (linke and helpful hints), especially the recipes section, although there are links all throughout the diet section to recipes.

Overall, it's important to consume lower fat, higher protein and carb meals before and after your workout.  You want some carbohydrates after, especially, to facilitate growth and recovery.  Hope this helps!

-Tim


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## MJohnstone (Oct 26, 2006)

I am into fitness and my husband is into body building...not Mr. Universe type body building but body building none the less. Since I do all the meal preperation I know he is eating 5 smaller meals daily and he is doing a 40-40-20 split meaning 40% carbs-40% protein and 20% fat.

Your best protein sources for tasty meals would be Boneless, skinless chicken breast or lean beef steak grilled in the oven on a BBQ or the handy George Foreman grill  .  Lots of great recipes online.

My husband also does not eat carbs after 5:00pm and consumes a protein shake within 20 minutes after his workout (lifts in the evenings) and will have a protein rich meal before bedtime. Hope this helps

Melissa


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## thegrova (Oct 26, 2006)

Howdy All.  Thanks for the feed back and comments.  In particular the link to directfitness.com.  I have previously seen a dietician and have been weight training for years - but seem to make little progress.  I have decided that I want compete and previously have found the issue of the diet the biggest challenge.  Not because I cannot eat regularly but because I quickly get tired of the lack of variety.   Which is why I am looking for recipe suggestions.


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## ncage1974 (Jan 19, 2007)

thegrova said:
			
		

> Howdy All.  Thanks for the feed back and comments.  In particular the link to directfitness.com.  I have previously seen a dietician and have been weight training for years - but seem to make little progress.  I have decided that I want compete and previously have found the issue of the diet the biggest challenge.  Not because I cannot eat regularly but because I quickly get tired of the lack of variety.   Which is why I am looking for recipe suggestions.



OK i have experience. I used to be an avid body builder. I got pretty big at one point. I am 6'2'' and i got to 280 pounds. I do have one picture of me when i was that big to bad i don't currently have it online though. Anyways i want you to understand something here. When you look at most of the muscles...almost all of those individuals are steroided out. They take massive amounts of testosterone, deca, dianabol, finaplex. THey even take more than the casual people on these drugs. Not only do that they do other things to keep them lean like clebuterol and lasix to make them look more cut. I guess what im telling you is don't expect to get that big. If you do you might be disappointed in the end. A lot with potential have to do with genetics. There are people out there that could live for years and years and do everything right (diet, program, whatever) and they would still be skiny. Im not saying they won't get stronger because they will but they will have limits. I have been graced with genetics to put one muscle pretty easily. I see few people in the gym that can get as big as me without taking anabolics. 

That said my lifting came to a screetching halt. I hurt my lower back pretty badly (smith machine & squats) if you really want to know what did it. My doctor had told me to either stop doing what i was doing  or risk becoming paralized. Well this was a no-brainer for me. So my once lifting passion has turned into passion for running. Unfortunatly the gentics for running and lifting are like opposites.

Anways onto diet (sorry i rant a lot sometimes). It depends. Don't look into one of those body building magazines and look at their diets and think if you start one of them you will get as big as the people in the magazines because you won't. Those people in the magazines sometimes eat anywhere in the 6000-10,000 calorie a day mark because they are taking heavy anabolics and they are gifted gentically at the same time. If you try to eat a diet like that all you will do is get fat. Here is what i would do. I would start to increase your calorie content a little at a time. Maybe 300-400 calories a day. You need to keep track of 2 things:
1) Body Fat
2) Strength

Make sure you keep your body fat in check. You can expect some increase it it but if you see large increases in body fat without a increase in strength that means you are at your limit and taking in more calories than your body needs so you need to cut back or do more cardio if you want. So what im saying here is the make slow increases in your daily calorie intake and maybe every couple of weeks evaluate whats happening. If you see your strength increasing and your body fat only increasing by a small amount your doing the right thing.

here is a really good site for real world goals in weightlifting:
Cyberpump! - The Home of High Intensity Training (HIT). Use what you learning here as a basis for goals and not the body building magazines (which are horrible). Read the Hardgainer FAQ & the HIT FAQ and you will be on your way to a better  body.

Ncage


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## thegrova (Feb 3, 2007)

Hi NCage - thanks for the comments.  I appreciate that many of the muscles that we see are not natural!  Here in New Zealand there are a small number of competitors (and I am planning on competing later this year).  

In the meantime the goal is to increase size, loose some fat and have some fun at the same time!  The diet is the challenge because I love food and will need to be strict regarding the daily meal plan!


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