If you consume more protein than is needed, the extra protein is either burned for energy, which is not very efficient, or stored as fat, which is likely not desirable. Your nutritional choices around training are often influenced by convenience and practicality. Unless you are going into a meal, aim for on-the-go food such as Greek yogurt with fruit, peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwich, low-fat cheese, and crackers, chocolate milk, or a protein bar.

RELATED: Everything Triathletes Need to Know About Protein Powders. Since muscle protein rebuilding is ongoing for at least 24 hours, consuming adequate nutrition to support MPS long after the workout is recommended. RELATED: How Much Protein Does a Triathlete Need Each Day?

Here is a general guideline. Bridge the gap between meals that are more than four-five hours apart. Include g of protein in snacks. The breaking down and rebuilding of muscle tissue is energy-consuming, so falling short on calorie requirements will impair your recovery rate, ultimately jeopardizing health and metabolic function.

When fuel stores glycogen run low and the body is in an energy deficit, it turns to protein for fuel by breaking down muscle for energy.

Therefore, consuming adequate calories, particularly from carbohydrates, to meet energy expenditure is important to spare unnecessary muscle breakdown.

As an example, an intense strength session may deplete 30 percent of glycogen stores depending on the intensity and duration. High-quality protein is the most effective for the maintenance, repair, and synthesis of skeletal muscle protein. Low-fat dairy products, lean meats, eggs, and whey protein all contain essential amino acids, the most potent stimulators of MPS.

On a grading scale, whey protein is superior to soy, and soy is more effective than casein in promoting protein synthesis. RELATED: Why the Type of Protein You Consume Makes a Big Difference.

Notable exceptions are soy, pea, and hemp protein powders, as they contain all the essential amino acids, though still lower in leucine content than whey. As long as plant protein is consumed in higher doses from various sources, protein needs can be sufficiently met with plant proteins.

When taking this recovery route, the best strategy is mixing different plant proteins. Your diet can make or break your results at the gym. Limit or avoid alcohol, foods with added sugars, and deep-fried foods. As such, bodybuilders aspire to develop and maintain a well-balanced, lean, and muscular physique.

To do this, many bodybuilders start with an off-season followed by an in-season way of eating, referred to as a bulking and cutting phase. During the bulking phase, which can last months to years, bodybuilders eat a high calorie, protein-rich diet and lift weights intensely with the goal of building as much muscle as possible.

The following cutting phase focuses on losing as much fat as possible while maintaining muscle mass developed during the bulking phase. This involves specific changes in diet and exercise over 12—26 weeks.

The easiest way to determine how many calories you need is to weigh yourself at least 3 times a week and record what you eat using a calorie tracking app.

For example, if you eat 3, calories daily to maintain weight, you should eat around 3, calories daily 3, x 0. In this example, you would consume 2, calories per day instead of 3, Plan to revisit your calorie goals every month to account for changes in your weight.

Increase your calories as you gain weight in the bulking phase and decrease your calories as you lose weight in the cutting phase for continued progression.

This is the ratio between your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake. Protein and carbs contain 4 calories per gram g , and fat contains 9. A typical diet includes:.

Using the calorie example outlined in the previous section, your macronutrient ratio might look like the following:. Do what you can to prioritize the following foods:. Before going to the gym, you may want to avoid foods that can slow digestion or cause stomach upset during your workout.

This includes:. Many bodybuilders take dietary supplements to help support their overall fitness. Traditional bodybuilding diets typically contain limited food selections and little variety among and within food groups, leading to an inadequate intake of essential minerals and vitamins.

Bodybuilders frequently exercise to maintain and build muscles, performing resistance and aerobic training. Resistance training increases muscle strength and size. Muscle strength is linked with a lower risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, and kidney disease, as well as several other critical illnesses.

Aerobic exercise, which bodybuilders regularly implement to reduce body fat, improves heart health and significantly lowers your risk of developing or dying from heart disease — the leading cause of death in America.

Following a healthy eating pattern, including nutrient-dense foods from all food groups in appropriate amounts, can significantly lower your risk of chronic diseases.

For the most part, bodybuilding is a lifestyle associated with several health benefits, but there are some things to know before embarking on this journey. A low level of body fat, combined with low calorie intake, has been shown to decrease sleep quality , negatively affect mood, and weaken the immune system in the weeks leading up to a competition.

This strategy is particularly important for athletes who exercise first thing in the morning after an overnight fast; those who haven't consumed enough carbohydrate in the time period since their last training session; and those who are lifting weights right after speed work, endurance exercise, or any other type of training that requires a significant amount of carbohydrate for energy.

Like many aspects of nutrition, there is a caveat to the need for carbohydrate prior to resistance training. The body can adapt to sustained alterations in the intake of energy-yielding macronutrients carbohydrate, protein, fat , and thus individuals on a low-carbohydrate diet might not experience any negative effects or performance decrements once adapted to this diet, provided their diet contains enough protein to build and repair muscle and energy to help spare protein losses from protein breakdown in muscle as a source of energy.

However, there is a paucity of data on this topic, so at this time low-carbohydrate diets are not recommended for those engaging in a resistance-training program. In one study, six trained men were given either a carbohydrate supplement 1 g of carbohydrate per kg body mass before exercise and 0.

They performed a series of static contractions of the quadriceps at 50 percent maximum contraction with 40 seconds of rest between sets until muscle failure i.

Time to exhaustion and force output were significantly higher in the group receiving carbohydrate compared to the group consuming the placebo.

Carbohydrate loading is a technique endurance athletes have used for several decades to super-compensate glycogen stores and improve performance. In general, the athlete will taper their training program for a specified period of time - from a few days to weeks prior to an event - while consuming a higher-carbohydrate diet, generally between 8 and 10 grams of carbohydrate per kilgram body weight each day.

Few studies have looked at the effect of carbohydrate loading on resistance exercise performance. However, in one study, healthy young men were randomized to receive either a moderate-carbohydrate diet 4. Power performance didn't differ between groups, indicating a higher-carbohydrate diet did not enhance power-endurance performance over four sets of exercise.

However, it isn't clear if an even greater intake of carbohydrate, reaching 8 to 10 grams per kilogram body weight, would have led to a performance difference or if the diet used would have made a difference over the course of several sets. Bodybuilders might carbohydrate-load prior to competition to increase muscle size, a practice that makes sense physiologically particularly if they consume a lower-carbohydrate diet for a few days, followed by carbohydrate loading , yet only one study to date has examined this practice.

Thus it is possible that a difference might have been noted if they also increased total energy intake. Research shows that protein or essential amino acids EAAs consumed prior to resistance training will stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and prolonged supplementation can improve lean mass, body fat percentage, and muscle hypertrophy.

Protein can be taken pre- or postexercise to enhance acute muscle protein synthesis.

Here are the best of the bunch. There are several dietary supplements that can help increase muscle mass and strength. Here are the 6 best supplements to gain more muscle. Muscle soreness can be uncomfortable, and it's all too common. Here are 10 muscle recovery foods and drinks, as well as some nondietary tips for….

Discover which diet is best for managing your diabetes. Getting enough fiber is crucial to overall gut health. Let's look at some easy ways to get more into your diet:.

A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Nutrition Evidence Based What to Eat and Avoid If You're Trying to Build Muscle. Medically reviewed by Marie Lorraine Johnson MS, RD, CPT — By Gavin Van De Walle, MS, RD — Updated on January 27, Calorie needs Macronutrients What to eat What to avoid Supplements Sample menu Benefits Risks Takeaway Your diet can make or break your results at the gym.

First, determine how many calories you need in your overall diet. Next, determine your ratio of macronutrients. Bulking phase Cutting phase Calories 3, 2, Protein g Carbohydrates g Fat g Foods to eat to support your overall fitness.

Foods to limit or avoid to support your overall fitness. Dietary supplements to consider. Sample meal plan. Benefits of bodybuilding. Potential risks to consider. The bottom line. How we reviewed this article: Sources.

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations.

We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Get a series of five medals that mark your milestones for weightlifting and strength training. As you set more goals and make progress in your weightlifting and strength training challenges, your IRLAs give you the motivation to do more and more.

So, weight lifting is pretty great. Beginning weight lifters need to up the protein intake, and there are plenty of sources of protein to add to your weightlifting nutrition. As for how much spinach, meat, and other protein you should be looking for, consider the following rule of thumb:.

Though it may feel unpleasant at first, eating constantly throughout the day is a fundamental part of weight training nutrition. Instead of two or three meals, you should be eating six meals a day. But before you celebrate by taking a chocolate cake straight to the face, know that they need to be the right carbs.

And… you need a lot of them. These carbs are the fuel for your body, letting you push yourself in the gym. Also, complex carbs are going to be your friend. Potatoes, whole-wheat bread, pastas, oatmeal, that kind of thing. Natural simple carbs, like those in fruit and milk products, are less effective.

In last place are processed and refined carbs, like candy, sugar, and syrups. Plus, low carb diets are low in fun.

While you may not want to eat anything right before you go to the gym, eating an hour before is key to a strong workout. Consider a medium chicken breast and a medium baked potato. For other light snacks or meals, keep them between an hour or an hour and a half before going to the gym unless you like doing crunches on a full stomach.

This includes your main meals of the day. Carbs the complex, mysterious kinds are your friends here. Ones like nuts, beans, fruits, and sweet potatoes have a low glycemic index will help you.

Since they are slower to digest, you get a slower, more consistent burn of energy. Actually, you can take a break. The body needs 20 different amino acids to function and grow properly.

While all 20 are important, nine amino acids are considered essential. Essential means that they cannot be made by your body. Essential amino acids must be consumed via your diet. A complete protein is one that contains all nine essential amino acids.

Very few people in the U. have a hard time getting enough protein in their diet. This is because the typical western diet is rich in protein. Also, protein turnover in the body is pretty slow for sedentary individuals. For active people, especially those looking to add muscle mass, it is important to look closely at actual protein intake and make adjustments if necessary.

Here are some general guidelines from research and sports science and nutrition organizations:. For sedentary individuals, about 0. That means a pound person would eat about The American College of Sports Medicine and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics both recommend 1.

This translates to 95 to grams of protein daily for someone who weighs pounds. A recent study that analyzed 49 other studies determined that the ideal amount of protein per day for gaining muscle is 1.

For the pound client, this is grams of protein per day. Learn More: Bodybuilding Nutrition - What to Eat for Bulking. While focusing on protein intake, it can be easy to overlook the other macronutrients.

A balance is important, and carbohydrates are especially necessary for fueling the tough workouts that help build muscle. The body will struggle to absorb more than 35 grams in one sitting, so every meal and snack should include protein along with carbs and a little bit of fat.

If you are eating enough protein and carbs, you likely have adequate healthy fat in your diet. In general, try to skip trans and saturated fat. Unsaturated fat is considered the more healthy fat.

Help your clients fuel their muscle gains with the right muscle building foods. Choose high-quality protein-rich foods, those that also contain other nutrients. One egg has about six grams of protein along with healthy fats and B vitamins.

Choose chicken breast for a lean source of high quality protein, about 26 grams per three ounces. Lean beef. Beef is a good protein choice as long as you stick with lean cuts.

In addition to protein, it contains creatine, known to improve athletic performance and have other health benefits. Cottage cheese. Depending on the type, cottage cheese can have as much as 25 grams of protein per serving, plus calcium.