Muscle Building Diet

According to Vince Gironda, the Iron Guru and trainer of champion bodybuilders, 80% of your muscle building success is due to a proper muscle building diet. While that may seem like a high percentage, we do know that at least as a percentage of time, your diet is actually a bigger factor in your muscle gaining success than the actual time spent in the gym.

If you spend roughly 4 hours a day in preparing and eating all your meals and spent the rest of your day either recovering or working out, 17% of your time goes to nutrition while a 2 hour workout is only 8% of your time in a day.

Studies have also shown that the simple act of eating more calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight is anabolic! That means that simply overeating actually builds muscle! Apparently, the body has a tendency to build muscle along with fat. Which makes sense since the heavier you become, the more muscle it takes to move your body. Of course, eating excess calories without working out isn’t the aesthetic we’re aiming for, is it? Regardless, the lesson is clear: nutrition is immensely important in building muscle.

While there are complex formulas to hep you determine the theoretical ideal number of grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you should have every day, let’s keep things as simple as possible first. If that works, great! Then you won’t have to worry about the nitty gritty details of developing a muscle building nutrition plan. You can keep following the simple recommendation until it stops working for you or you’ve reached your goal

The Simple Muscle Building Diet

1. Multiply your bodweight by 19. The result is the number of calories you need per day.
2. Eat between 0.6 and 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. You may have read in bodybuilding magazines that you need to eat between 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. This simply untrue. This recommendation comes from supplement companies trying to get you to consume more of their product. Only go above the recommended 0.6 to 0.8 grams recommendation if you’re a male with a bodyfat percentage above 15%.
3. Get between 20-30% of your calories from fat.
4. Get 2 to 4 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight. The carbs should consist of natural, organic, whole foods. This means avoiding most packaged or boxed foods. Whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, especially potatoes, are all great.
5. Eat a big breakfast every morning.
6. Eat every three hours.
7. Take a fast-acting protein and carbohydrate drink 15-30 minutes before and after training.

That’s it. 7 Simple Rules for a Muscle Building Diet.

For most of you, this diet should work. If they don’t, here are some great muscle building books with comprehensive information about how to formulate a muscle building diet individualized for your unique needs:

If you’ve followed the Simple Muscle Building Diet with success but have recently found that your body isn’t responding like it once did, OR you want to take your muscle building diet to a whole new level, read the next article: Bodybuilding Diets.