3. Select a nutrition program that is designed to support your goals. Your nutrition program has to be properly designed to support your bodybuilding goals. Choose from one of the programs below based on the particular goal that you are pursuing:
Goal 1 - Fat Loss with Moderate Muscle Gain: A nutrition program that emphasizes fat loss with moderate muscle gain.
Goal 2 – Exclusive Muscle Mass Gain: A bulk up program that emphasizes muscle gain while minimizing fat gains.
Goal 3 – Pre Contest Program: An example of my personal nutrition program for bodybuilding competition. Note: Because of the individual nature of bodybuilding competition, this diet may need to be adjusted to fit your individual metabolism. People with higher metabolisms that are leaner can get away with more carbohydrates and less cardiovascular exercise while less leaner people with a more normal or even slow metabolism can benefit from the diet as is. I recommend that if bodybuilding competition is your goal, you hire a bodybuilding coach that can help you with this process of figuring out what works best with your metabolism instead of following someone else’s pre-contest plan.
Just Starting Out -If you are just starting out and rather ease into a bodybuilding diet, instead of jumping in right away, then I suggest that you take a look at my instructions for Easing Into A Bodybuilding Diet.
4. Use bodybuilding supplements to help you attain your goals. As I have discussed in previous articles, the amount of supplementation that you will use will depend mainly on your goals, how serious you are about your bodybuilding program (for instance are you following your training and diet to the “T”?) and finally your budget. At the bare minimum, assuming that you are training and dieting correctly as well as getting enough rest, you will need a multiple vitamin/mineral formula, some chromium picolinate, vitamin C, and a source of essential fats such as fish oils, flax oil or extra virgin olive oil. Protein shakes are convenient too as for most of us it is hard to eat 6-8 real meals a day, however small they may be. For more information on the subject of supplementation, please take a look at the following articles:
- Bodybuilding Supplementation Basics - Learn the truth about the value of nutritional supplements and which ones are essential to make the best lean muscle mass gains and achieve the most fat loss out of your bodybuilding program.
- Creatine Monohydrate Basics - Learn all you need to know about Creatine Monohydrate and how it can help you gain lean muscle mass.
- Preserve Lean Muscle Mass With Glutamine - Learn how L-Glutamine can help you to preserve lean muscle mass during intense training periods.
- Testosterone Boosting Supplements - Learn how some supplements may help you increase your lean muscle mass by boosting your testosterone levels.
- The Myths and Dangers of Anabolic Steroids - Learn about the dangers of Anabolic Steroids, what they do, what they don't do, and why you are better off staying away from them.
Be sure to also check out my products review section in order to learn about some of the bodybuilding supplements in the market that I've found useful.
5. Do not neglect the important aspect of rest and recovery. You need 7 - 9 hours of sleep each night in order for your body to run efficiently. Deprive your body of sleep and you'll have lousy fat loss. As a bonus, you also get muscle loss, which in turn lowers your metabolism. You also get deprived hormonal production, which makes it difficult (nearly impossible really) to build muscle and as an added feature you’ll have to deal with lower energy levels, something not conductive to great workouts. The articles below further elaborate on this important subject.
- The Sleep Cycle - Learn what the four phases of the sleep cycle are and how much on the average you should be sleeping each night for maximum results.
- 8 Maladies Caused By Sleep Depravation - Learn what the top 8 maladies caused by sleep depravation are.
- 4 Guidelines To Ensuring A Good Night Sleep - Learn 4 guidelines that you can follow to ensure a good night sleep.
Not a day goes by when I get asked: “What do you take to look like that?!” As you can see, it’s not a matter of “what do you take”, but more a matter of what do you do on a daily basis to accomplish your bodybuilding goals. I wish I could tell you that bodybuilding is easy and all it requires is that you show up to the gym and lift some weights. Successful bodybuilding requires a permanent lifestyle change that needs to be executed day in and day out in order to accomplish your goals. There are no shortcuts to a great physique I’m afraid. I have even seen guys (and gals) who have taken steroids hoping that these drugs would give them the flawless physique that they are looking for in no time. Sadly, due to improper training and lack of dieting these subjects do not even come close to looking the way that they wanted to. So my point is that not even steroids are the magic bullet that some people think they are. And even if they trained hard and dieted right, the legal risks (as steroids are illegal without a medical prescription) and potential issues that come with lack of medical monitoring (combined with not knowing what to do with these drugs) are unacceptable. Determination and consistency in the execution of a proven bodybuilding plan are the only way in which you will reach the physical goals that you have set out to accomplish. Wishing you the very best in this New Year!
About The Author
Hugo Rivera, About.com's Bodybuilding Guide and ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer, is a nationally-known best-selling author of over 8 books on bodybuilding, weight loss and fitness, including "The Body Sculpting Bible for Men", "The Body Sculpting Bible for Women", "The Hardgainer's Bodybuilding Handbook", and his successful, self published e-book, "Body Re-Engineering". Hugo is also a national level NPC natural bodybuilding champion. Learn more about Hugo Rivera.
