Let experts teach you about bodybuilding diets. Learn about the ideal ingredients of a muscle gain diet, the absolute best bodybuilding food, and how to formulate a female bodybuilding diet.
So you want to know about the best diet for bodybuilding. It’s vital that you learn about this because true muscle gain depends intimately upon what you eat.
To gain muscle mass, you must focus intently upon what you eat. A bodybuilding diet is the most important part of your muscle gain program. Let’s learn about bodybuilding food and how to plan your own effective diet for bodybuilding.
What you’ll read about in this report:
- An Overview of Bodybuilding Diets
- Your Ultimate Diet For Bodybuilding
- How Is a Female Bodybuilding Diet Unique?
- Ideal Elements of a Muscle Gain Diet
- What’s the Absolutely BEST Bodybuilding Food?
Your Ultimate Diet For Bodybuilding
You’re tasked with planning a meal plan to gain muscle. What should go into the perfect diet for bodybuilding?
Here are a few types of bodybuilding food items you might include:
- Egg Whites: Most bodybuilders make egg whites an essential part of their diet for bodybuilding. Eggs have 60 times more protein than fat and are excellent to build muscle mass.
- Chicken: Lean meat like chicken and turkey helps pack on solid muscle. That’s why a diet for bodybuilding should include plenty of it. Chicken is also low in fat.
- Fish: Another frequent inclusion in any diet for bodybuilding, fish is a rich source of omega 3 and essential fatty acids which can help build muscle. Salmon, sardines and tuna are cold water fish that are rich in protein.
- Legumes: Tasty, nutritious and a great source of fiber and protein, beans and legumes modulate insulin response that helps muscle gain and therefore is a useful inclusion in any diet for bodybuilding.
- Lean Red Meat: Ground beef and red meat have protein, minerals and vitamins that help with building muscle.
- Selected Carbs: Food containing carbohydrates with a low glycemic index burn slowly and provide fuel for muscle growth. Oatmeal and sweet potatoes are excellent choices to have on a diet for bodybuilding.
- Hydration: Drinking enough water is an important part of bodybuilding diets.
- Supplements: A muscle gain diet often includes protein supplements like whey protein. This makes up for any shortfall in dietary protein. A protein shake is both delicious and nutritive. Make it a part of your diet for bodybuilding every morning.
What’s the Absolutely BEST Bodybuilding Food?
Bodybuilding depends on a foundation of eating right. When you eat bodybuilding food, your system will respond appropriately. While there are many types of bodybuilding food that are popular and tasty, only a few are absolutely essential to include in your diet for bodybuilding.
Among the best bodybuilding food items are:
- Egg whites
- Lean cuts of red meat steak
- Chicken breast
- Sweet potato
- Asparagus
But there’s one bodybuilding food that’s head and shoulders above the rest – and that is filleted salmon.
What makes salmon so special?
Well, in addition to having a lot of protein, salmon is also rich in fat. With many people adopting bodybuilding diets that are low fat, bodybuilders are often fat deficient. Including fresh salmon in your muscle gain diet can get healthy fats back into your body.
For the best bodybuilding food, Atlantic salmon is quite inexpensive. It should be orange and non-smelly when fresh. Remove all bones and bake it in a preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes. A serving has 12 grams of fat and provides around 200 calories.
How Is a Female Bodybuilding Diet Unique?
A female bodybuilding diet is distinctively different from other typical muscle gain diets in that most women are afraid of bulking up so much that they look like a man or like a bodybuilder. That’s why a female bodybuilding diet is directed towards building muscle to stay lean and healthy.
So what’s in a good female bodybuilding diet plan?
Dieting is important to achieve fitness goals, but a female bodybuilding diet isn’t just about providing enough nutrients but should also do it in a way that keeps you lean, trim and strong.
Metabolism regulators that help burn off calories play an important role in any female bodybuilding diet. Food choices like nuts, dry fruits, cereals and protein bars are good inclusions.
However, macronutrients are also essential for a female bodybuilding diet and foods rich in protein will help grow and repair muscle during workouts, while carbohydrates provide energy necessary for exercise. Some good sources of fat such as avocado, nuts, coconut oil and grass fed butter also are to be a part of your muscle gain diet.
Other unique components of a female bodybuilding diet are:
- milk for calcium and
- green vegetables like kale and broccoli for folate and other B vitamins
Some women may require added protein, vitamin and fish oil supplements for a balanced female bodybuilding diet.
Ideal Elements of a Muscle Gain Diet
A clean muscle gain diet will build muscle, burn fat and promote health. Most effective muscle gain diets are made up of nearly similar elements. Planning meals based on this formula will ensure you get enough of each component and will enjoy better muscle growth.
An excellent muscle gain diet is to eat 4 to 6 egg whites along with a banana and 1 serving of wheat-based cereal. For lunch, the optimal muscle gain diet will include 6 to 9 ounces of lean red meat, 2 cups of pasta and some broccoli.
For dinner, try this:
- chicken breast
- 1 sweet potato
- a cup of peas and carrot
A muscle gain diet also needs pre-workout supplementation to provide extra calories and protein before exercise. A cup of cottage cheese with 4 slices of toast and jam work nicely.
After training, your muscle gain diet should provide a top up of protein and calories, which is available when you drink a whey shake with 1 cup of rice. A turkey sandwich with whole-grain bread is another option.
Bodybuilding Diets: An Overview
As you’ve seen, bodybuilding diets are unique for different people and depends upon their dieting goal. Some bodybuilding diets are ideal for muscle gain. Others are optimized for women. And a few help burn fat without losing muscle mass.
You can take this information and tailor your own bodybuilding diets that suit your unique needs.
Remember, what works best isn’t a particular food or routine, but the habit of systematically following your own eating plan, formulating a bodybuilding diet that includes all essential ingredients for muscle gain.
Body fat calculators are helpful in keeping track of your calorie intake and recording your progress towards weight and muscle gaining goals. Meal plans that are drawn from lists of allowed bodybuilding food will avoid the boredom of routine, while delivering all nutrients necessary for muscle building.
All bodybuilding diets will work – if you follow them correctly. If you’re having trouble designing your ideal bodybuilding diets, use the models available in programs like
- Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Strength Club or
- Shaun Hadsall’s 14 Day Rapid Fat Loss Plan
Your best diet for bodybuilding is the one you stick with for the long run. With the right muscle gain diet, your ideal body is just around the corner.
Recommended reading:
- What should I eat to be a bodybuilder?
- What foods to eat to gain muscle?
- What foods are energy foods?
- How much do you need to eat to build muscle?