A Balanced Body Building Diet

Many factors will go into your choice of a body building diet, but by far the most important of them is the amount of nutrition your diet will provide. Your body building diet will provide the fuel for your workouts, your recovery, and your new muscle growth. If you are not getting the proper nutrients in the proper amounts, your bodybuilding efforts will never achieve the body you want.

There is no "one-diet-fits-all" for bodybuilders. But there are some body building diet rules which apply to almost everyone. The first of these is that you will get much better results is you eat small servings of nutritious food several time daily instead of limiting yourself to two or three major chowdowns. Why?

By eating frequently throughout the day, you will stoke your metabolic rate and burn more fat, even when you are not working out. If you take more than three or four hours between meals, you body switches to a muscle-depleting, fat-storing condition called a catabolic state.

What should you be eating? That old tried-and-true formula, balanced meals. Carbs, proteins and fats, in a 40/40/20 proportion, will give your body building diet all the essential nutrients working together so that your body can maximize the amount of nutrition it absorbs from each meal. For more info see http://www.bigbodybuildingtips.com/Body_Building_Diet/ on Body Building Diet.

You should consume complex carbohydrates like whole grains, vegetables, and beans, except for those times you eat immediately after a workout, when your body needs the simple carbohydrates found in fruit to replace the glycogen that you burned. Simple carbs post-workout will speed your recuperation time. Complex carbs are also great sources of fiber, another important component in a good body building diet.

Consume enough protein each day, spread out over your meals, to amount to between one and one-and-a-half grams for each pound of your lean body mass. Have your lean body mass calculated for you before you begin your body building program, and have it re-checked periodically as you add new muscle. White meat chicken and turkey without skin, red meats rated 90% or more lean, fish, and eggs or egg substitutes are all good sources of protein.

Avoid both animal fats and hydrogenated vegetable fats, as they are saturated and will clog your arteries. Unhydrogenated vegetable, nut, and fish oils are good choices for your body building diet; fish oil, flaxseed oil, and virgin olive oil may also provide you with antioxidant benefits.

The final essential for your body building diet is water; you should drink it throughout the day even if you don't feel thirsty, and try to consume one-half to two-thirds of an ounce for every pound you weigh.