Diet and Nutrition Guide - Part 1
Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats
Diet
and Nutrition Guide - Feeding Your Muscles For Growth
We've now gone thru the bodybuilding supplements
and weight lifting and training guide - now last, but not
least, your diet and nutrition - what you need to feed your
muscles for growth - something that many people overlook
daily, tend to rely on supplements to get the job done for
them, and wondering "hmm... why the heck am I not seeing
any results?!?"
You can't just rely on supplements and
such to get your daily required nutrition, the best supplement
to fuel muscle growth, is food itself. But of course, there
are countless foods you can eat, and there are certain foods
that you eat, which will set you back, and there are certain
foods that you eat will benefit you greatly.
Everyone knows or heard of proteins, carbohydrates,
and dietary fats, but it gets allot of involved than that.
Now, I'm NOT claiming to be a nutrition
expert, far from it, but, from my many years of bodybuilding,
I've picked up a few things here and there, which has helped
me plan my diet and nutrition greatly, which lead to some
nice gains, despite my genetic limitations. ;-) So just
keep in mind, that I'm no guru in this respect, and I'll
do my best to pass along some of the useful information
I've picked up.
In this diet and nutrition guide,
we'll cover briefly cover:
- Macro nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, and
fats (but carbs are not essential), and micro nutrients
such as vitamins and minerals.
- My daily diet and planning (40-40-20 diet)
- What foods are good to eat and meal planning
- Some quick & easy recipes to cook nutritious meals
in just 10 to 15 minutes
- Cooking and snacking ideas to make life easier on you
- Nutritional value of these meals
- The glycemic index, carbohydrates, and insulin
- and whatever else might cross my mind while I'm writing
this guide.
About Me and My Diet & Nutrition
(40-40-20 Diet)
As you will know from previous parts,
I weight around 155ish more or less - more on a good day,
less on a not so good day, and had reached a high of 156.5lbs
during this 6 week period - so I'm not big by any means.
I have a relatively fast metabolism, being a ecto-meso body
type; however, more etomorph than mesomorph.
It's a common misconception that different
body types should follow very different workouts. ie. ectomorphs
should follow a strength / size program with heavy weights,
low reps, longer rest, while endomorphs should follow a
higher rep, lower weight program. Like I said before in
the weight
lifting guides, higher reps and lower weights does not
equal more tone and definition, but rather, it's the diet
and nutrition that matters!
I was on a bulking diet averaging about
2700 calories per day, and on a 40-40-20 diet - 40% protein,
40% carbohydrates, and 20% fat. This works out to roughly
270g of protein, 270g of carbohydrates, and 60g of fat in
my daily diet, coming from 5 to 6 meals and snacks, and
supplements. I also tried to eat something every 2 to 3
hours.
You should aim to get 1 to 1.5g of protein
per pound of body weight, for me, I was getting 270g / 155lbs
= 1.74g of protein per pound of body weight - a bit in the
higher end.
40-40-20 Diet & Figuring Out Your
Nutrition Requirements
To figure out how much calories you need,
here's a general guideline:
For weight loss:
Your body weight X 10 to 12 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
For maintaining:
Your body weight X 13 to 15 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
For bulking up:
Your body weight X 16 to 18 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
This will give you a rough idea of how
much calories you should take in each day, but it's by no
means carved in stone. For me, I weigh 155, so:
155 X 16 = 2480 cals/day
155 X 18 = 2790 cals/day
For my bulking diet at my body weight,
I should aim for 2480 to 2790 calories per day, and I elected
to go for the higher end at about 2700 calories per day
on average. You will see two sample daily diet and nutrition
schedule in the next part, with meal and nutritional breakdowns
of everything involved.
Once you figure out what your daily range
of caloric intake should be, it's quite easy to figure how
much protein, carbohydrate, and fat you should be consuming.
With a 40-40-20 diet, its 40% protein and carbs, and 20%
fat. So here's how you figure out how much of each macro
nutrient you need daily. We'll continue to use my numbers
as example.
Calculating your Protein, Carbs,
and Fats intake
So, for me, let's just pick a even number
of 2700 calories per day - obviously it won't always workout
exactly this way, but round numbers are easy to deal with.
;-) To do the following calculation, you will need to know
the calorie values of 1g of protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
Here they are:
- 1g protein = 4 calories
- 1g carbohydrates = 4 calories
- 1g fat = 9 calories
The above just shows how much calories
you will get from consuming 1gram of each, and notice that
1g of fat gives more than double the calories of proteins
and carbs.
Calculate your daily protein and
carbohydrate caloric intake:
- Your daily calories X 40% = calories coming from proteins
- Your daily calories X 40% = calories coming from carbohydrates
For me, these numbers would be:
- 2700 X 40% = 1080 calories from proteins
- 2700 X 40% = 1080 calories from carbs
Calculate your daily fat caloric
intake:
- Your daily calories X 20% = calories coming from fats
My daily calories from fat would be:
- 2700 X 20% = 540 calories
So, now that we know I need 1080 calories
from of protein, 1080 calories from carbohydrates, and 540
calories from fats. All we need to do now, is figure out
how much protein, carbs, and fat I need.
Calculate your daily protein,
carbohydrate, and fat intake:
- Protein: 1080 calories / 4 calories per gram of protein
= 270g protein
- Carbs: 1080 cals / 4 cals per gram of carbohydrate =
270g carbs
- Fat: 540 calories / 9 calories per gram of fat =
60g fat
So, I should aim to take in 270g of protein,
270g of carbohydrates, and 60g of fats.
>>
Continue to part 2 - Macronutrients and daily nutrition
planning
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