Correct Bodybuilding Nutrition

Correct bodybuilding nutrition has many people debating, and throwing theories around the world over. A lot of research has been done on the proper nutrition for building muscle and a lot of theories that were thrown around have been both approved and dissaproved. The subject of nutrition should be heavily concentrated on by the beginner, as getting the correct bodybuilding nutrition is the key to any successful bodybuilding program. Below is listed some of the most important bodybuilding nutrition areas you would need to focus on to build muscle and gain weight successfully.

Firstly we’re going to talk about water intake. This is very important for building muscle as well as your bodies overall health. It helps your body get rid of waste, which is very useful as this will prepare the bodies cells for the intake of fresh nutrients. This will therefore allow your cells to replenish and make way for additional cell growth. Getting shut of all these toxins in the body is instrumental to this process and without it no cellular growth will occur and your bodybuilding efforts will be shot down before they have even started.

Food, the bodies fuel. Food is the numero uno for building muscle and it’s the foundation to any diet. The correct amount of each of the nutrients carbs, fats, and protein, will amount to a successful weight training program. An improper ratio of these nutrients will amount to fat retention, energy loss, and unsuccessful muscle building efforts. Please consult a specificlly designed program that is put together by professionals. An ideal one would be No Nonsense Muscle Building by Vince DelMonte.

Another important nutritional addition to a successful bodybuilding program is the nutritional bar. This is absolutely ideal for bodybuilders who need the quick fix of protein when they’re on the go. These bars are high in protein and low in carbs, and an important thing that must be considered when choosing the right bar would be the ratio of fats to carbs. Complex carbs are most preferable, with a high amount of protein, and some fats. A nutritional bar with nuts would be absolutely ideal. As certain nuts have a healthy supply of fats, and fats are ideal for gaining weight and building muscle.

Finally, wer’re going to talk about supplements. These shouldn’t be heavily relied upon at all. You should concentrate fully on getting all the nutrients you need from whole foods first of all. The only supplements you really need and should be taking are multi-vitamins, EFA’s (Essential fatty acids), and a whey protein powder. These are the building blocks of any successful supplement implementation program and they are all you need to build muscle.

Using all of the above to great effect and in conjunction with one another you will have your basis for a successful bodybuilding program.

Now that you have a basic idea of what correct bodybuilding nutrition is, you now have to get an ideal bodybuilding program to implement a bodybuilding diet to. A good bodybuilding program to follow is Vince DelMonte’s No Nonsense Muscle Building, in it he guides you all the way through building a correct bodybuilding diet and a successful bodybuilding training regime.

Good Fats and Bad Fats

I bet you have read a lot of rubbish about you needing to cut out as much as can, well this is partially true.

Whatever you may read always remeber that there are good fats and there are bad fats. Fat is mainly present in the form triglycerides in foods. Triglycerides consist of three fatty acids and glycerol. The fatty acids can be saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.

The saturated fats are considered to be the bad fats, and unsaturated fats are known as the good ones.

Saturated fats tend to form a waxy form inside the body which then clogs up the arteries. If you have ever used a Goerge Foreman to grill bacon or sausage then you will know what I mean. Saturated fast are known to also increase the cholesterol levels. It is found in most dairy products, as well as some veggie oils.

Polyunsaturated fats tend to lower the bodies cholesterol levels. This source of fat is usually found in plant sources.

Monounsaturated fat tend to lower the bad cholesterol in the body (LDL). It can be found in both animal and plant sources.

Although margarines sound quite good with them containing monounsaturated fats, the way they make them is not. Because the supermarket chains and big food companies want the margarine easier to spread and also to last longer, they tend to add hydrogenated fats. During this process of making man made fats they create Trans Fats, which are as bad if not worse than saturated fats. The trans fats appear in many processed foods. Always check the labels of foods to see if they contain any man made fats. If they are try to find something else to eat instead. You never know how much of the trans fats you will be taking in as they do not tend to state the actual amount conatined on the foods labels. There’s been quite a big clamp down recently on man made fats in foods but you can still find them in some products.

Try to stick to a small amount of saturated fats in your daily diet, and it would be best if you could get it out of your diet all together but weheres the fun in that, a lot of great tasting foods have staurated fats in them. If you want to limit this in your weight and muscle gain diet just treat yourself at the end of every week or a couple of times through the week.

Remember to always read those labels!

Grocery Shopping Deception : Be Careful

I was at the grocery store today picking up some ingredients for a black bean & brown rice with seasoned venison strips dish I was planning to make, when an interesting thing happened.

I had gone straight to the grocery store after training a couple clients at the gym. Well, as I was grabbing some frozen veggies, a friendly lady (who must have seen that I was a fitness coach from my shirt), asked me my advice on a couple frozen prepared box meals she was picking out (by the way, those prepared frozen meals are usually highly processed crap loaded with sodium and other chemicals).

Now I will say that this woman was VERY overweight, and she mentioned that she has “tried everything” to get rid of all of the excess body fat and always failed.

Keep in mind I hear about 50 people a day tell me they’ve “tried everything” to get in shape. The problem that they don’t realize is that they’re trying all of the wrong things…they’re trying all of the gimmicks and fads that are out there instead of just adopting a TRUE healthy active lifestyle.

Back to the woman in the store…

So we started chatting about her struggles with getting in shape, and I began scanning her grocery cart. If I can remember, these were some of the contents she thought were healthy:

• Slim fast shakes (far from healthy…they’re actually loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and a bunch of other chemicals)
• Fat Free Rice Cakes (ok…despite so many people believing these pieces of crap are healthy…they really are nothing but pure refined starch with zero fiber, which basically breaks down immediately into sugar in your body, spiking insulin and promoting fat storage…doesn’t sound so good anymore, huh)
• Protein bars “Scientifically Slim Body Engineered” or some BS statement like that (I took a gander at the ingredient list of these so called “healthy” protein bars and sure enough… hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and enough sugar alcohols to give you diarrhea for a week!)
• Canned fruit in syrup (I guess she could do worse here…but still, why not just eat fresh whole fruit which still contains the skins, fiber, active enzymes, etc, instead of resorting to processed, canned fruit that’s been cooked and loaded with syrup)
• Reduced Sugar Dessert Cakes (ok, so these are loaded with artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, preservatives, and a chemical ingredient list about 15 lines long)

Do you see what’s going on here? This is the same scenario that I see all the time.

Most people are fooled by what the FRONT OF THE BOX says, leading them to believe what they are buying is healthy. On all of these items, the FRONT of the packages had all kinds of great sounding things like “fat free”, “reduced sugar”, “high protein”, “low cholesterol”, “low carb”, etc.

However, the TRUTH is on the BACK OF THE BOX! Ah yes, the ingredient list and nutrition info is where the real truth is. However, I’ve realized that most of the general public doesn’t know how to fully understand the ingredient list and nutrition info, so they rely on the advertising claims on the front of the package to guide them.

BIG MISTAKE!

If you notice, this woman thought she was doing great with her grocery shopping and buying all kinds of healthy stuff for her and her family.

In reality, EVERYTHING she was buying was highly processed and full of chemicals and industrially refined ingredients. No wonder “nothing has worked” for her to get in shape and lose the body fat… she actually hasn’t been doing anything right. She’s been mislead by all of the confusing marketing and labeling and conflicting nutrition info in the mass media.