In Part 1 of The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet 2-Part Series, we covered the basics, including macronutrients, the percentages of each that will make up your diet, and the importance of water. Finally, we covered the idea of multiple meals. In Part 2, that information is put to work, and we create your Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet. Let’s jump right in!
Step 5: Building The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet
To build The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet, you will have to calculate the number of daily calories you need to gain quality muscle mass. To gain muscle, you have to consume more calories than the amount needed to maintain your current weight. Since metabolisms, activity levels, and fat to muscle ratios all differ among different bodybuilders, the amount of calories burned will differ as well.
Determine Your Maintenance Calorie Level
To solve this, we advise using an app or if you prefer an old-fashioned notebook to record all the food and liquid you consume in one week. Then, referring to your diet journal, add up the total number of calories you consume per day. Take your totals for the week and divide those numbers by 7. This will give you a daily caloric average. That will be the number of calories required to maintain your current bodyweight. By the way, we also advise tracking your calories by macronutrient. Doing so will tell you if you’re ingesting enough protein, enough or too many carbs, and enough or too much fat.
How Many Calories You Should Add For Muscle Growth
No doubt the New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet is geared for gains. Therefore, to gain muscle, add 500 calories per day. Make sure you adjust this to the percentages presented in Step 2. If you find you are gaining fat around the waist, cut 250 calories a day and monitor this for a week. You can adjust up or down as needed based on changes to your waistline. Following this approach, you should gain up to 2 pounds of muscle in a month. Again, adjust calories based on results.
The sample 6-meal-a-day bodybuilding diet plan presented here is well-suited to the needs of a bodybuilder eating approximately 3,500 calories per day.
The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet Sample Meal Plan |
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Meal 1: BreakfastBeverages can include water, low-fat milk, and coffee or tea. If several hours separate when you get up and when you eat breakfast, start your day with a small (4 oz) protein shake. Have this shake within 10 minutes of waking up. |
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| 5 | Ounces oatmeal (150 grams) |
| 2 | Slices wheat toast |
| 1 | Banana |
| 4 | Egg whites |
| 1 | Yolk |
| 1 | Multivitamin/mineral pack |
Meal 2: Mid Morning Snack |
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| 1 | Apple |
| 1 | Whey protein shake (mixed with nonfat milk or water) |
Meal 3: LunchBeverages should be water. You can add a sugar-free flavor pack, or have carbonated water as preferred. |
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| 5 | Ounces (150 grams) skinless chicken breast |
| 7 | Ounces (200 grams) baked potato or 3.5 ounces (100 grams) rice |
| 3.5 | Ounces (100 grams) mixed vegetables |
| 1 | Vitamin B-Complex with C |
Meal 4: Mid Afternoon Snack |
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| 1 | Whey protein shake (mixed with water or nonfat milk) |
Meal 5: DinnerBeverages should be the same as lunch. |
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| 7 | Ounces (200 grams) extra-lean beef |
| 10.5 | Ounces (300 grams) baked potato |
| 3.5 | Ounces (100 grams) mixed vegetables |
Meal 6: Evening Snack |
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| 5 | Ounces (150 grams) oatmeal |
| 4 | Egg whites |
| 1 | Egg yolk |
Step 6: Timing Is Everything
The timing of these meals is important. After all, this is a bodybuilding diet geared toward gains. It makes sense to space these apart and eat when you’re hungry, or every 3-4 hours. On training days, your post-workout shake will count as a meal. This shake helps jump-start recovery, therefore I advocate having this shake within 15 minutes of training.
Your first meal of the day should be pretty soon after you wake up. If you don’t typically eat for a few hours, as noted earlier, have a small protein shake. Why? Because you just woke up after 7-10 hours of sleep, your body is in a catabolic state, and it’s time to “break the fast”. A small protein shake will do that until you sit down to breakfast.
Step 7: The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet and Supplements
What about supplements? What is their role in the New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet? Here are the cornerstone supplements that should be in the arsenal of every bodybuilder.
Learn To Look Past The Hype!
Supplements are an important aspect of the New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet. Yet, there is a lot of hype within the industry. A major key to understanding supplements and making smart choices is to ignore the hype. You should never buy a product because of what the ads say. Look past that, and look at the ingredient panel.
For example, what ingredients are in it, what is the dosages of each, are there studies backing the claims, and is each ingredient clearly listed on the label with the dosing of that ingredient. There should be no proprietary (“prop”) blends, there should be 100% label transparency. Also, you can do a search on the product, any ingredients you aren’t sure of, and the company.
Protein Powder
Protein powder is a supplement that can’t not work. Why, you ask? Simple, it’s a protein food. You’re simply using a convenient source of protein. A powder lets you consume quick and easy protein calories, which helps you reach the daily protein goals. That’s critical in this or any bodybuilding diet regardless of goals. That’s all a protein powder is, yet its benefits are huge. The best protein powders contain premium protein sources such as whey, the highest quality protein.
Pre-Workout
Like protein powder, a good, balanced pre-workout can’t not work. The reason is they are designed to give you energy, and they do that with caffeine and, depending on the brand, any number of additional stimulants. Pre-workouts also promote the pump, elevate focus, and improve endurance. Some will even enhance training motivation and help you achieve a good mind-muscle connection. It needs to be noted that there are stim-free, pump-based pre-workouts, and low-stim versions also. Whichever way you go, any serious lifter doesn’t train without any advantage they can get.
Creatine
What Does Creatine Do?
Creatine occurs naturally in foods such as meat. It’s also part of the ATP energy system, which is the cellular energy system that propels your muscles. Taken in supplement form, you’ll get a more concentrated amount. Can you get it from food? Sure but you’d have to eat quite a bit of red meat to get the same standard 5 gram dose. Not to mention, many lifters do a loading phase consisting of 5 grams 4-5 a day for up to 7 days, then go down to a single 5 gram dose per day.
Benefits
Creatine has been heavily tested over the years and is known for such benefits as promoting muscle growth, strength, and endurance. It will also hydrate muscle cells and create cell volume, or water-based pumps. Since it pulls water into the muscle cells, be sure to drink plenty of water while using it. There’s a lot of choices, but the original creatine monohydrate still works the best. Look for a micronized version for better absorption.
Glycerol
This is an exciting newer supplement that does two things: hyper-hydrates your muscles,resulting in massive water-based pumps, and extends endurance. In the case of some users, this benefit can be dramatic. Add this to your pre-workout and you should see a very impressive difference!.
EAAs/BCAAs
EAAs stands for Essential Amino Acids. There are 9, and they are not made by the body (there are also an additional 11 non-essential amino acids that the body makes). The EAAs must come from diet and supplements. BCAAs stand for Branched-Chain Amino Acids and have a unique branched structure. There are 3 BCAAs and they are essential amino acids. Their names are: L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, and L-Valine.
Do You Really Need To Supplement EAAs/BCAAs?
As a supplement, these are controversial, many lifters say you don’t need to take them. Why? Because you get them in food and protein powder. So why use them? For a targeted workout effect. Consumed protein doesn’t just stay in your system indefinitely, that’s why you eat multiple servings a day. When you consume protein, it breaks down in the liver into amino acids. From there, the liver uses these amino’s for countless bodily functions.
That said, the main reason you’re using a BCAA or BCAA/EAA powder is for protein synthesis stimulation, as well as repair and growth. BCAAs bypass the liver and go straight to your muscles, building new muscle and promoting recovery. Sure, you can time a protein meal near your workouts, but you will have to factor in digestion time, BCAA content, as well as the fact most lifters don’t like to train on a full stomach.
Leucine And Protein Synthesis
As a supplement, BCAAs came into their own when Leucine and its impact on protein synthesis, a trigger of muscle growth, was first recognized. To us, protein synthesis stimulation is a critical piece of any bodybuilding diet. The use of BCAAs evolved to include consumption during workouts.That’s important because if you understand training, you know it is catabolic. If you recognize the importance of recovery, the idea of getting a head-start on that process by drinking a EAA/BCAA during your workout is huge.
Multiple Vitamins
This is a supplement that everyone should be using. Yet it typically gets overlooked. Why? It’s not flashy enough. Still, think of it as a natural health insurance plan. You could be lacking in key vitamins and minerals,unless you track every nutrient that’s in every food you consume. Sound tedious? That’s the only way to ensure you are reaching adequate levels of every vitamin and mineral consistently.? These micronutrients impact such things as recovery, muscle contraction, and protein metabolism. If you want optimal results, you should have optimal health.
The New Bodybuilding Diet – How To Use These Products
Protein Powder
Take your protein powder 1-3 times a day in between meals when access to a meal is hard or not possible at all. One serving should be post-workout, and one should be first thing in the morning. You can mix it with cold water, nonfat milk, or even add it to your yogurt or oatmeal. You can also bake with it.
EAAs/BCAAs
Mix this with your pre-workout or as part of an intra-workout that includes creatine. Feel free to add a scoop to one of your protein powder servings as well, especially if your protein powder is not high in BCAAs.
Creatine
Add creatine to your pre-workout or take it as part of your intra-workout. Take one serving on off-days mid-morning on an empty stomach. Are you loading? Follow your loading plan by taking your settings in evenly divided dosages. If your pre-workout contains 4-5 grams of creatine, count that as a dose.
Glycerol
Use this on your training days. Add it to your pre-workout.
Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Formula
Take this every day with breakfast. If your product requires twice a day servings, take your second dose with dinner.
Pre-Workout
Take your pre-workout as directed, only on training days.
Summary
Follow The New Ultimate Bodybuilding Diet consistently and you should be able to add as much as 2 pounds of muscle in a month, with similar gains going forward. Remember, the key here is consistency. That’s true for both your diet, your recovery, and your training. Consistency leads to steady progress and the achievement of your goals. Don’t forget to stop by illpumpyouup.com for your supplement and informational needs!