Dave Draper's Bodybuilding Advice for Gaining Muscle Weight

Do this: make a total of the food you eat in one average day and using a simple food conversion chart, calculate the calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat values. You want to know the ratio between protein, carbs and fat and the total calories ingested. With this basic information you can intelligently decide where you are lacking, or excessive, in your daily food balance. And you can balance the arrangement accordingly. Smart stuff. You can also determine how many calories you want to increase your food intake and of what food groups it should be comprised – protein, carbs or fats -- fish, vegetables and fruit or nuts and creamed corn.

This is a bit heady for a kid with a skateboard and a pierced ear. I can dig it. I’ve always taken the shoot-from-the-hit approach, myself; that is, I...

• Increase the protein intake from all sources.
  
  
• Reduce -- Big Time -- the sugar and junk food and don’t eat fried stuff (pimples, thick skin, agitating, useless and probably toxic).
  
  
• Eat lots of fruit and loads of salad.
  
  
• Eat some good bread and grain and nuts.
  
  
• Take a daily vitamin and mineral supplement -- Super Spectrim vitamin and mineral is A-1
  
  
• Eat some more protein for breakfast, before/after workout and before bed. This works wonders. Bomber Blend before and after a workout, for breakfast and an evening growth meal -- zoom.
  
  
• Weigh the growing body on the same scale at the same time daily -- an impartial gauge helps regulate progress. Don’t fret -- it goes up and down as it goes up.
  
  
• Drink water regularly till you float...and eat a little more protein.

I could go on and on, but I’d go alone. Your bodybuilding training needs close attention and we can talk about that next week. Knock out some squats and deadlifts before we meet again, and carry a pair of heavy dumbbells around the gym till you drop. Get in the mood.

Are you ready for this conversation? Hey, dude, long time, no see. You’re looking -- I dunno -- bigger, fuller, healthier. I can see it in your shoulders... thicker, more power. You been hittin’ the juice? Just kiddin’! Make a bicep. Golly. You’re also calmer, cooler and more sensational.

Listen to me, guys. By summer you’ll have your wings and you can fly with us. We’re authentic bombers. We do lots of loopty loops. You ever do loopty loops?

Go with God’s strength... Dave

About Dave Draper
Dave Draper is a bodybuilding author and fitness expert with over four decades of practical experience. He holds the prestigious bodybuilding titles of Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe, in addition to being part of the Bodybuilding Hall of Fame. Dave writes a weekly e-mail newsletter which can be found at www.davedraper.com and is also a frequent contributor to Muscle and Fitness, as well as many other publications in the fitness industry. Dave has also authored a book on bodybuilding called Brother Iron, Sister Steel, and a book on weight loss called Your Body Revival: Weight Loss Straight Talk. He has also designed his own protein powder supplement called The Bomber Blend (which is a blend of fast released whey protein with slower released casein protein), as well as his own exercise home equipment line.