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)
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 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:
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.
Part II -
Bulking and Cutting Diet >>
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Weight Lifting Diet, to Building Muscle Now
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