Nutrition

A key component of the formula for bodybuilding success is nutrition. Nutrition is what gives us the raw materials for recuperation, energy, and growth. Without a good diet, your dreams of achieveing your ideal body will never be reached.

We'll now discuss the characteristics of a good nutrition program and we'll go over nutrition basics.

Characteristics of a good nutrition program

1) It should favor smaller and frequent feeding throughout the day instead of larger and infrequent ones. Why? Becuase when u feed your body several times a day your metabolism increases. Therefore, you burn more fat. Frequent feedings are of particular importance since after 3 or 4 hours of no food your body switches to a catabolic state ( a state where u lose muscle and gain fat). The body thinks Its starving and starts feeding itself on lean muscle tissue and it prepares to store calories as fat. Therefore, in order for your program to work, you will eat between 4 to 6 meals (depending on gender and goals) a day spread out at 2-1/2 to 3 hour intervals.

2) Every meal should have protein, carbohydrates, and fat in the correct ratio. Having a meal that is not balanced (for example is all carb) won't yield the desired results. Every micronutrient has to be present in order for the body to absorb them and use them properly. Without boring you on the effect of food on the body's biochemistry, lets just say that if you only eat carbs in one meal without anything else, your energy levels will crash in about 30 min and your body will be storing any carbs that were not used into fat. Conversely, if you only eat protein, you will lack energy and your body will not be able to turn protein into muscle because it is difficult for the body to absorb protein without the presence of carbs. In addition, the ratio for each particular macronutrient have to be correct in order to get the results you want. The ratio of your diet will look like the following:

40% carbohydrate
45% protein
15% fat

Note that for every serving of carbohydrates, you will get a serving of protein. You can use Bill Phillips' method of creating meals which is to count a portion of carbs as the amount of food the size of your clenched fist and a portion of protein as the amount of food the size of your open palms.

3) The calories should be cycled. I strongly believe in caloric cycling as this will not allow the metabolism to get used to a certain caloric level; something that leads to stagnant results.

Therefore, bodybuilding in search of just muscle mass should follow 5 days of high calories (lean body mass x 15) with two days of lower caloric intake (lean body mass x 12). Bodybuilders in search of losing bodyfat while building muscle at the same time should follow 5 days of lower caloric intake with 2 days of higher calories.(Note: if you build muscle and lose fat at the same time you will not gain muscle as fast as you would if you just concentrated on muscle mass. However, you get to get both goals accomplished at once).

People who are intrested in bodysculpting should alternate between two weeks of lower calories (around 2000 for men and 1200 for women) and two weeks of higher calories (2500-3000 for men and 1500-1750 for women). These caloric intakes assume a normal activity level that only includes bodysculpting training. Those involved in activities like marathon running or heavy physical labor jobs need to adjust your calorie intake upwards accordingly mainly in the form of carbs in order to support your higher levels of activity.

More to come!!