Weight Lifting Diet

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

Many body builders 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 example, 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.

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.

Gain Weight - Bulking Up

By adding extra calories to your maintenance calories in your weight lifting diet, you are now undertaking a bulking diet.

"Bulking up" is a term frequently used by the weight training community.

By adding in an extra 250-500 calories per day, you will be feeding your body with the extra calories it needs for building muscle.

I like to take the average of the two ((250+500)/2 = 375 calories) and add this to maintenance calories:

2881 + 375 = 3256

Approximately 3250 calories per day would be a good bulk diet starting point for the individual above.

Eat your calculated amount every day and monitor your gains for a couple of weeks. 

If all looks good, continue on with the same calories in your weight lifting diet.

If you are gaining too much fat, cut the calories back some and re-monitor.  Again, trial and error is the best approach to learn what your body needs.
 

Lose Weight - Cutting Diet

I think that is probably safe to assume that bodybuilders who are interested in losing weight are mostly interested in losing fat.

I don't think many are interested in losing muscle; I know for sure I haven't met any.

With that being said, I believe it is important to lose fat slowly in order to preserve as much muscle as possible.

By reducing the calories you eat by 250-500 calories per day below your maintenance level, you will force your body to become a little more dependant on using your fat stores as energy.

I would opt for a 250 caloric reduction per day to minimize muscle loss.
 

Let's use the maintenance calories from the individual above as an example:

2881 - 250 = 2631
 

Therefore, 2630 calories per day would be a good starting point for a cutting diet for our example trainee above.

Trial and error will rule here as well.  Try this caloric decrease for two weeks and track your progress.  Losing weight fast?  Too fast?  Then add a hundred calories in a re-track.  Keep tweaking until you find what works for you.
 

Weight Lifting Diet - Advanced Calculation
Option B - Katch McArdle Equation
 

The Katch McArdle Formula is a non-gender based formula that is considered by many to be the most accurate calculation for a weight lifting diet.

This equation takes into consideration one's LBM (lean body mass).

If you know your body fat percentage (if not, take your best guess at it), this is the best formula to use.

Using our test subject above who is 165 lbs., let's also assume he is 17% body fat.
 

Step 1 - Find out your LBM (lean body mass)

LBM = 165 - (165 x 17%) = 136.95 lbs
 

Step 2 - Determine your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

BMR = 370 + (9.82 x 136.95) = 1714.8 calories per day
 

Step 3 - Determine your activity level factor

Revisit how to determine your activity level factor, then return back here.
 

Again, we will use the activity factor of 1.55 as previously determined in the example above.

Maintenance calories = 1714.8 x 1.55 = 2657.94 daily calories
 

Again, as stated in Option A above, add or subtract (bulk diet or cut diet) 250 to 500 calories to your maintenance calories in order to arrive at your optimal daily caloric starting point.

Monitor and tweak as necessary from there.
 

Food for Building Muscle

Since we have figured out how much food we should be eating, it is now time to look at the variety of foods that builds muscle in your diet.

Weight lifting diets shouldn't have to taste bad :)

Heck, I'm just going to send you over to the food for building muscle page since I want to devote an entire page to this important and yummy topic.
 

Other Weight Lifting Diet Considerations

Other factors that may affect your weight lifting diet setup:

• Body type diet

• Food allergies and food preferences

• Building muscle goals
   

Always remember:

• You should also always consult your physician about any diet or training program before undertaking either.

• Any of these weight lifting diet formulas should only be used as a general starting point.

• You need to find what works best for you by trial and error.
   

If you found this weight lifting diet page helpful, please pay it forward to a friend.

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