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)
Did you
know?... It takes 3500 calories to add 1 pound of bodyweight. If you
ate 500 calories above your maintenance calories per day for 1 week, you could
gain 1 lb. Vice-versa for losing weight; reduce calories by 500 below your
maintenance level to lose 1 lb per week.
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.
For Men: 66 + (6.23 X your weight
lbs) + (12.7 X your height in inches ) - (6.8 x your age in yrs)
Women: 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in
pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in
inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
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.
Your daily maintenance calorie
intake would be:
BMR X daily activity level
factor
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:
"Bulking" style weight
lifting diet formula
Bulking up calories =
maintenance calories + 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:
"Cutting" style weight
lifting diet formula
Cutting diet calories =
maintenance calories - calories
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 = Body weight - (Body
weight x body fat %)
LBM = 165 - (165 x 17%) = 136.95
lbs
Step 2 - Determine your BMR
(Basal Metabolic Rate)
BMR (for men AND women) =
370 + (9.82 x LBM in lbs.)
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 =
BMR x Activity Level Factor
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:
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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Weight Lifting Diet, to Building Muscle Now
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