By: MuscleSports.net
When you eat & what you eat are critically important in your bodybuilding journey....
We have been receiving lots of e-mails as of late(August-December) concerning the bodybuilders diet. Mainly the young bodybuilders diet. In the past you would simply go to the gym train your ass off and then go home and eat everything in sight. That philosophy worked great for you but over a period of time you began to see that your diet plays a larger role in your gym progress than you though in those early days of anything goes. Now your starting to realize that if your eating is not up to par tour workouts aren't either. Welcome to BODYBUILDING! Your eating is roughly 70% of the progress you make in the gym. With the other 30% percent being split at 25% training and 5% recreational activities. In this article we will be aiming to describe how you can time aspect of your eating to help maximize your workout recovery and improve muscle growth and workout performance.
This may sound strange, however you've got to eat more typically to lose fat than gain muscle. Throughout this article we will point out this paradox to drive the point - You have to eat to Loose bodyfat.
Typical Bodybuilding Givens - Well Some What?
When I think about carbohydrates, I think energy. Carbohydrates are the things that fuel our bodies so that we can sweat through even the toughest of workouts. If your not getting an adequate amount of carbohydrates, then your body goes into a state of muscle fuel catabolism. Your body starts using the amino acids that fuel them for energy and this can only mean one thing - Your eating ate the very same muscle Your trying to build! On the other hand if you are getting way to many carbohydrates then we have a BIGGER problem. Your building way more FAT than MUSCLE! The big problem is helping people figure out which carbs are making them fat or which one are staving them of energy. Remember this little tidbit if you don't remember anything else. All carbs are sugars and all carbs provide energy, but not all provide good energy! By good energy we mean sustained energy. The kind that get you through your workouts and help you recover for the next time. To help we are going to break carbs up into 3 categories Fast, Medium, and Slow.
Fast carbs: These are your simple sugars, or fast energy carbs. They're absorbed very quickly into the blood stream and provide a monetary spike in adrenalin and energy and dissipate just as quickly. Examples of these are: Simple sugars white brown, etcetera, also fruits are simple in their sugars but due contain some fiber so they are adequate after a workout to get a little energy bump.
Medium carbs: These carbs provide you with the sustained energy that drives your workouts to completion. Instead of a rush of energy up front they provide a slower steady leak of fuel to your body so you can complete the task at hand. Example of the are: Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, yams, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, wheat breads era...
Slow carbs: These are your fibrous carbohydrates that digest slowly through the intestines as they delivery not only energy, vitamins, minerals, and other photo-chemicals, but also help to clean the digestive tract which helps with nutrient absorption and eases digestive problems fro other foods. Examples of these are: Leafy vegetables like lettuce or cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, celery, and a whole lot more. Most slow carbs tend to be very nutrient dense foods that are very important to your physical well being.
I know you've read it about a thousand times that protein is very important to the bodybuilder. Lately you may have started reading the opposite, that you don't need as much protein as some may claim and other factor are just as important. We want you to think about one thing when you think about protein, without it you don't exist. Thats it!!! With out it YOU don't exist! We are not saying that other factors aren't important but if you take this one element away and you cease to be, We think it pretty damn important! It very important to your bodybuilding, powerlifting and fitness goals. Protein or better said amino acids primary goal in your body is growth and repair. The growth part can be tricky with various ailments but for most healthy persons its a perfect balance. For the bodybuilder, powerlifter and, athlete it plays and even greater role in keeping your body not only healthy but pushing forward towards new goals and challenges that await.
When we talk protein we must remember that not all proteins are equal. Our bodies as a whole tends to digest some protein sources better than others. This is know as Net Protein Utilization. Net Protein Utilization, or NPU, is the ratio of amino acid converted to proteins to the ratio of amino acids supplied. Net Protein Utilization is used to rank different protein sources and their bioavailability of use to the body. Biological Value better know as BV are numbers given to protein sources to show its in their availability within the body compared to that of the whole egg. At the time that system was introduced eggs were given the highest BV of 100 because they are the most bio-available natural protein. The list below show the BV of some protein sources:
Little Warning: For all you - Soy protein though structurally very sound it tends not to digest very well for most people.
I know some people look at the table and say nothing can be utilized at 104% or 154%, you only have a 100% of anything. We know and a better way to look at proteins would be the Net Protein Utilization which for Whey protein is about 96 and whey protein concentrate 94, this brings there utilization even with eggs which is at 96. We will discuss this in another article on protein very soon, but the chart is to serve as a barometer of good protein choices as all in the chart have very significant value to add to your eating plan.
When we think about fats as a whole here in the USA we think all fats are dangerous to our health. This is not always the case. Yes some fats are very hazardous to our health but others are not and help with many body function that facilitate muscle growth. For this article we only need to concentrate on 2 types of fats:
We here sometimes call WATER the forgotten nutrient. When you ask some one about their eating and how much of this or that they are ingesting you will most often hear everything but water. Without water very little in your body happen on a regular basis. Your gut and intestines don't get cleaned out so there is NO NUTRIENT ABSORPTION! Getting the picture now! Water is also your friend when dieting down for a show because high protein diets cause waste (UREA) buildup are drinking plenty of water keeps the waste flowing out of the body. Professional bodybuilders drink up to gallon or more water a day when dieting for a show. Water is also a natural appetite suppressant, so it help keep you on your diet.
Just as Water is forgotten in most cases so is the most fundamental supplement that you need to grow. Almost every one of the beginner or intermediate bodybuilder we have emailed and have had conversation with here know very little to nothing about vitamins just that they need to take one. So they go to the local pharma around the coner and grab something that say vitamins high potency. Let me tell all of you something, are you listening - 90% OF THAT SHIT IS GARBAGE AND WILL BE PISSED AWAY DOWN THE TOILET! When you buy a vitamin or mineral supplement it needs to be of high quality and you ain't getting that for 5 or even 10 bucks. We here have recommend 3 vitamin supplements for the last 3 years with very good success:
Beginner: JYM Sports Vita
Intermediate: CONTROLLED LABS Orange Triad
Advanced: ANIMAL PAK
Have you heard of these products? You've probably heard of Animal Pak, but if you've been training less than 2-3 years you don't need Animal Pak yet! What you need is for your body, your muscles, your cells to be loaded with the nutrients it needs to GROW. Thats all you need! Stop pissing away money when it is not necessary!
Supplements are what we do here, hell it in the name of the site! Supplements are exactly what their name says. They supplement your diet or eating plan. They are not a stand-in for a diet of wholesome nutritious foods. Some do try to use supplements as the mainstay in their eating, don't do that it only leads to disaster and wasted money. Supplements work fantastically when coupled with a eating plan that provides all the Macro nutrients needed to sustain your lifestyle without added stresses. Working out is a stress on your body that is not part of a daily activity. No where during your day are your trying to squat 400Lbs, or curl 125Lbs except during your workout. These activities induce stress to you body. This is where supplements help you to heal up and continue even with these added stresses. This is what supplements are for, to aide an active lifestyle. Bodybuilding is an active lifestyle.
We have developed an hierarchy of supplement importance over the years and here is how we define our top 10 supplements:
These are our most essential, others may disagree and thats fine but we are not going to pick categories over ingredient because the ingredient most time is supplying the category, such as Caffeine and Glucosamine pretty much supply the fatloss and joint health categories.
The anabolic window, the golden hour or what ever you want to call it is a time that you have to replenish depleted stores inside of the human body. We need to think about our body as a finely tuned vehicle that needs to refueled each and every time we workout. From the time of our previous workout till the workout at hand we are refueling for this workout. The thing we have to get every one to know is that 50% of that refueling start within 90 minutes of your previous workout. You have ~90 minutes after your workout to lay the foundation for recovery, muscle growth, reduced soreness and a whole latera of other things kick off in these 90 minutes. Right after a workout your muscles are in a state of for the better word GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME. This is when you need to up the supply of all nutrients essential to muscle growth and recovery. This is the time when you need to up the ante of all macro and micro nutrients in your post-workout nutrition. We always recommend at least 80-100 grams Carbs, 40-60 grams Protein, and 15-20 grams of good fats. For us this mixture has produced great size and strength gains for all who have stuck to it for any considerable amount of time. Never neglect this extremely import time it is literally your make or break moment for growth and recovery.
This is a really difficult subject for us to address in just one paragraph so we are not going to talk about the synthetic stuff just the natural insulin that is secreted by your pancreas in response to high blood sugar levels and how this help you in gaining muscle mass. When we talk about Insulin we like to call it the your 2nd Anabolic Window. This window begins with the insulin spike that you get from your post workout meal/shake and last for about 4.5 to 5 hours. Insulin is a highly anabolic protein right up there on the line with Growth Hormone. Outside the bodybuilding world Insulin is regulated to talks about diabetes mostly, but inside the bodybuilding world it is regarded as a growth producing giant. Just like the first Anabolic Window we have an insulin window that is open after each hard training session. Those 80-100 fast carbs we take in after training helps to trigger this spike in insulin, Insulin is the KEY ANABOLIC in the anabolic window. As your insulin spikes it begins sucking all the available glucose and other nutrients into your muscle cells. This is the reason that after you feed yourself within the Anabolic Window about 20 to 3o minutes later you're dead tired. Everything that has been passed through the gut and is readily available is now in your cells. That leaves very little energy for other external activities. Professional bodybuilders often sleep during this time to maximize the growth effects. Since most novice and armature bodybuilders can't do that, what they need to know is that you need to refrain from over eating to many carbs especially for at least 2 hours so that you don't start storing fat from the excess. Look at your self, your muscle are pump tight and vascularity is maxed out. Enjoy the effect of your natural insulin product and wait 2-3 and have another high protein meal.
Cheat days are kiind of a nessacry evil when dieting or on a constant clean eating diet. The phylosiphy behing cheat days is to relieve the montitny and mental stress associated with eat from the same foods over and over fro day or even weeks. Cheat days are not really whole days of just gorging your self fast food or sugary garbage its about having maybe a couple of meals you other wise woldn't have. It could be have some pizza or a cheese burger. It doesn't bust your your diet and still allows you to have a meal that you normally would not have. Cheat days are also good for you to carbo load with extra carbs to help with over compensation within the muscle cells.
Ketosis is a condition in which levels of ketones (ketone bodies) in the blood are elevated. Ketones are formed when glycogen stores in the liver have run out. We have lead many bodybuilders into and through this state as they have dieted for contests and events. When your body is in this state allot the water within your muscle and under your skin leaves the body. Your muscle strat to look drawn a kinda stringy because they are very depleted of nutrient as your body is now using protein as it main fuel. One point we want to make hear is that this not a state of loosing bodyfat. Lets say that again - THIS IS NOT FOR LOOSING BODYFAT! This is more of a pre-contest state that if done correct is a day before the show. Coming out of this state should be very gradual and control influx of clean carbs, not to fast or to much. To much and you may be riding the exercise bike all night before your show. To little and you come off looking flat at pre-judging, full at the night show and fantastic full and tight when it all over. This is the paradox of contest prep and you only figure it out by going through it. One little extra thing here, if you're just getting into this don't complicate matter with sodium depletion and loading. If you not at the Pro level or on the verge of going Pro leave this shit ALONE! It dangerious and very had to time just right!
There you go Bodybuilding Nutrition: Diet & Timing. You have a look at some of the most important aspect of it concerning you the aspiring bodybuilder. Use the knowledge and help yourself to all the article we have here to push yourself farther. Just remember keys contained here and you should be just fine.
Tags: Athlete Nutrition Supplements Muscle Builder Whole Foods
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