Weight Lifting Diet

Developing a Muscle Food Plan That Works For YOU...

Your weight lifting diet plays an extremely important role with your muscle building goals.

Many bodybuilders and weightlifters may go so far as to say that your weight training diet is responsible for up to 80% of your muscle building progress.

That's how important many believe your bodybuilding diet is!

Now, because we are all very unique individuals with different requirements, I'm not sure I would say that 80% of your progress is going to come from your weight lifting diet.

Your weight training program, intensity of training and amount of rest are also very important to your progress. 

But, your bodybuilding diet is definitely a top priority when it comes to building muscle now.  Make no mistake about that.
 

How Many Calories Do I Need?

To add muscle to your body you need to consume calories in excess of what your body uses for energy on a daily basis.

"But how much more do I need to eat", I hear you asking :)

Well, that's the million dollar question.

The most important piece of advice I can give you about setting up a muscle building diet is that you need to find what works best for you.

This means finding a good starting point for your bodybuilding nutrition plan and tweaking it from there.
 

Weight Lifting Diet - Basic Starting Point

Experience has taught me not to put a lot of stock into using nutrition calculators to determine a hard set number of calories that should be eaten.

The amount of calories required to build or even maintain muscle can vary widely between individuals; because we are all so unique.

However we do need a starting point and since there is no magic formula that will tell us how much one should eat, a widely used formula or calculator can be used to begin with.

Many weightlifters and bodybuilders use a simple calculation to arrive at a very rough caloric estimate starting point for their weight lifting diet.

1. To maintain your current weight:

Your bodyweight (lbs) X 15

2. To add body weight:

Your bodyweight (lbs) X 15 + (250 to 500 calories)

3. To lose body weight:

Your bodyweight (lbs) X 15 - (250 to 500 calories)

Again, since your weight lifting diet is a very individual thing, it's best to try an above formula and monitor your progress over a two to three week period.

For a simple formula to find your maintenance calories (other formulas are below), let's say you are 165 lbs and want to gain weight:
 

165 X 15 + (say 375 calories) = 2850 calories per day

Try, as closely as you can, to consume 2850 calories of quality food per day in your bodybuilding diet for two to three weeks and keep track of your weight during this time to see if you are gaining, losing or maintaining weight.

If you are gaining weight (that does not appear to be too much fat), then keep going with 2850 calories.

If you seem to be staying at the same weight of 165 lbs, try bumping up your calories by 250 a day to a new total of 3100 calories and track your weight again for another couple of weeks.

Through trial and error, you will find what calorie intake works best for your weight lifting diet.

I have also found that using a food journal during this tracking period will give you a detailed view of exactly what you are eating.

This will help you stay focused on your building muscle goals.

You will also need to be aware of how much protein, carbohydrates and fat you are consuming in your weight lifting diet; which is very important to know when muscle building (we'll get into this in more detail a little later).

Weight Lifting Diet - Advanced Calculation
Option A - Harris Benedict Equation

Step 1 - Determine your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

Your BMR is the amount of energy your body uses if you were to lie in bed all day.

Basically it is the amount of calories your body uses to do nothing at all but survive.

You must eat above this caloric requirement in order to pack on some beef.
 

Here is the formula to determine your Basal Metabolic Rate:

OR Use the following calculator:

BMR Calculator

If you entered 19 years, 5'-10" and 165 lbs, after you press "Calculate" you should see:

Your BMR is: 1859 kcal/day for Men
                      1615 kcal/day for Women

Use the appropriate value from one of the calculations above, in Step 2 below.  (Do not go onto the 3rd point of the calculator on the other page that opened that says, "Apply your BMI to activity level!!!", since we are going to use a different formula below.)
 

Step 2 - Factor in your daily activity level

Once you start performing your daily activities (here's a brief explanation of my daily activity level) you are going to burn up calories over and above your BMR that you just calculated above.

So let's apply some activity factors to get a more accurate look at your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

From the statements below, choose the activity level factor that best describes your daily activities:
 

• An inactive individual with very little to no exercise -> 1.2 factor
   

• A slightly active person who performs light exercise or sports 1 to 3 days per week -> 1.375 factor
   

• A moderately active individual who performs exercise or sports 3 to 5 days per week -> 1.55 factor
   

• A hard training person who carries out hard exercise or sports 6 to 7 days per week -> 1.725 factor
   

• An extra active, very hard training individual who performs exercise or sports and works a physically demanding job or trains twice a day -> 1.9 factor
   

Now let's say you're a moderately active individual who works out 4 times per week; your activity level factor would be -> 1.55.

i.e. for a male in the example above would be:

1859 X 1.55 = 2881 calories/day

Therefore, according to the Harris Benedict Formula, a 19 year old, 5'-10", 165 lb male, would require 2881 calories/day to maintain his current weight.

^^ Remember, to build muscle you need to eat above your maintenance calories.

Part II - Bulking and Cutting Diet >>

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