Beginners Guide for Adapting to a Bodybuilding Diet
Many of those new to bodybuilding will make drastic changes to their diet when starting their quest to increase muscle size. Others will incorporate small changes to their diet over time, and some will not change their diet at all. So which is the best way to go? Here are my top beginners’ tips for adapting yourself into a bodybuilding diet.
Do I really need to change my diet?
Yes is the short answer! If you drink sugar filled soft drinks, eat junk foods such as pizza and burgers, and snack out on chocolates and sweets, then you will be doing absolutely nothing to help your muscle growth or post-workout recovery.
A body builder’s diet with adding muscle mass in mind will typically consist of high protein, moderate carbohydrates, and low fat intake. That means eating lean meats, fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains. It also means cutting out the junk.
How should I switch to a bodybuilding diet?
My advice would not be to completely change your diet overnight. Not only would this be very difficult to put into practice, but your body will not know what has hit it. Unless you already eat a bodybuilding style diet, you need to adapt your ways and eating habits over time. This is the best way to avoid getting fed up in the first few months.
I recommend you start by making one major change to your diet every week or two. It will be so much easier to take small steps in order to reach the final goal of a better and leaner body with more muscle mass.
Where to start
Making changes slowly to your body building diet will ensure that the body gets accustomed to the changes, and every few weeks you can introduce more improvements.
With each successful change, plus a degree of dedication and determination, you will be well on the way to your perfect body. Don’t make excuses for yourself. If you say to yourself that you don’t like wholemeal bread or wholemeal pasta then you will never eat it. After years of only eating white bread, I made a decision to switch to wholemeal brown bread.
Now I never touch white bread because it tastes so bland when compared to brown. Remember, your taste buds will adapt until the new food you eat becomes the normal.
My Top 5 Tips
One thing you can start doing straight away is drinking more water and cutting out all the sodas and sugar filled drinks. This will drastically reduce your refined sugar consumption and you will feel the benefits straight away. If you like tea and coffee then just have 1 or 2 a day and drink a glass of water instead whenever you can. If you must drink sodas then drink diet sodas instead.
The next step is to eliminate the sweets, chocolates, and any other sugary snacks. These can be replaced with fruit, low fat sugar-free yoghurt, certain nuts, and protein bars.
Reduce fat intake by steaming, boiling, or grilling the food that would otherwise have been fried.
Substitute your unhealthy food dressings with low-fat or non-fat dressings, or have no food dressings at all if you prefer.
Substitute high fat meats with lower fat choices such as chicken and turkey breast.
Getting out of the fast food habit
Cutting out the junk food can be the most difficult step of all for many people. There is a Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, or Burger King in just about every major town and city. They all have tempting offers of super-sized meals that will only leave you bloated, feeling tired, and they will of course cause you to quickly pile on the fat.
If you really don’t want to quit these fast food places altogether, my tip is just to limit your visits to once a month as a treat. Remember that you can always choose to replace those fast-food meals with a healthy option somewhere else (a baked potato with cottage cheese for example).
Eventually, you’ll find you don’t really want to go to fast-food places any more as you start to feel the benefits of your healthier diet.
As you get used to your new diet you’ll want to keep an eye on your caloric intake as well as splitting your meals into smaller portions of 5 or 6 feedings a day. This is perhaps the most challenging step of any bodybuilding diet regime, and requires much determination and planning to succeed.
The good news though is that this is when the most unbelievable results will show up. Above all you need to remember that in order to build muscle mass and obtain your perfect body, you will need to cut fast food and other types of junk foods and sweets.
Discipline is one of the prime necessities for sculpting your body. That is why many body building diet experts will recommend that you begin to consume mainly low fat meat, fish, nuts, grain and milk. These high protein foods will aid in muscle growth and also increase your metabolism and fat burning capabilities.
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Tagged with: bodybuilding diet • bodybuilding nutrition • carbohydrates • fast-food • muscle growth • muscle mass • protein
Filed under: Beginners Muscle Building • Muscle Building Nutrition
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