Here’s How To Avoid The Minefield Of Bodybuilders Nutrition
At the start here I want to find the difference between the types of diet that we are talking about here.
Bodybuilders have different goals the people who are doing weight training. Almost everyone doing weights at the gym wants to look better, they want to look more toned and defined, have bigger muscles, and feel stronger and happier.
But that’s very different to doing bodybuilding seriously. The goal with genuine bodybuilding is to cut as much fat as possible while bulking up your muscles and toning them as much as possible for an incredible end result, albeit, a result that often at the expense of good fitness and healthiness.
But the truth is you don’t have to sacrifice your health to get the best possible body. Of course, there’s a lot more to bodybuilding than diet, and you really should look at the basics again even if you are experience.
Also, supplements can really be beneficial as well as long as their good quality. SARMs also can really help you without the aggression of anabolic steroids.
So let’s quickly take a look at the difference between bodybuilders and athletes bodies, how even if you just generally doing weight training that this can help you, and the big mistakes that people make when pairing up nutrition with bodybuilding.
What’s The Difference Between A Bodybuilder’s Diet And An Athletes Diet?
A bodybuilders diet is usually just about the calories and the protein. That’s what you will be told. When you are bulking you cram in calories and protein. That’s not the truth.
An athletes diet is far more refined and balanced. Also, at times it’s quite restricted, so that excess fat isn’t put on.
In essence, it’s really no different for somebody doing weight training either, but the same principles apply.
Should You Be Bulking And Cutting Or Doing Something Different?
Bodybuilders took an awful lot about bulking and cutting. You will talk about bulking cycles where you may be take SARMs and eat lots of calories, and cutting cycles where you are wanting to maintain muscle mass while cutting fat.
That clear and sharp definition is comforting, but it’s in reality far more nuanced than that when you break it down to what you have to achieve with your diet and exercise.
In order to get the best deal, you need to be looking at intermittent fasting and higher calorie intakes at the same time, not breaking them down into separate events that last for weeks on end.
I guess you’ll be thinking the same as most people, that the body will hold on to fat if you are in a calorie deficit. If you start to fast, it thinks you are going to starve because that’s what happened naturally before we had our modern supply chains, and it starts to retain the fat for the future.
Am I Doing This Forever?
But the thing is, you’re not going to be doing for days and weeks on end. That’s where people get it wrong and breaking things down into bulking and cutting.
You’ll need rest between working out, and you should have days where you only do cardio, and one day a week you shouldn’t do any exercise at all to give yourself a total break.
On those resting days, the days when you are doing cardio or nothing at all, is when you should be fasting. Fasting after a calorie burn tells your body to use its fat stores in the short term, you start to train your body to be more rigourous in getting rid of fat rather than storing it.
Studies have shown clearly that fasting on the days you are not working out actually leads to more weight loss than sustained periods of fasting. Even better than that, weight loss during this time is also paired up with increased fat oxidation, which is perfect.
Then, when you are building energy to work out, and fuelling the body with protein after the workout, on those days, you should be eating more.
So don’t think if it is a bulking and cutting cycle, think of it as bulking and cutting days. On the days you hit the gym carbs before for energy, protein afterwards for recovery and muscle growth.
On days you do cardio, stretching, or nothing, cut things back by about 20% in terms of calorific intake, but keep your diet broadly similar in macronutrient balance and individual food scope.