Diet For Bodybuilding

The late “Iron Guru,” Vince Gironda once said that 80% of building muscle is nutrition. While I don’t agree with that exact percentage, I will say that what you eat is just as important as how you train, if not more so, when you are trying to gain muscle fast.

Sadly, this crucially important point is overlooked by the large majority of skinny guys who spend their lives in the gym but never seem to get anywhere.

Many of those that get it often complain that they can’t eat enough or that they aren’t hungry. Other skinny guys come to the gym and tell me that they are eating a ton and wonder why they can’t gain weight. When we sit down and add it up it turns out that they are only eating slightly more than 2500 calories a day. And that just ain’t gonna cut it.

Here a few quick muscle building nutrition tips that will help you get down more calories, easily and quickly:

Eat foods that digest rapidly and cause very little gas or bloating. In other words limit your intake of vegetables and other fibrous foods for a short time while in a mass gain phase.

Eat a lot of white rice and other high glycemic index carbs. You know how you are hungry an hour after eating Chinese food? That’s from the white rice. And that’s a good thing when you are trying to eat more. White rice is absorbed rapidly and actually makes you hungry. So load up on it often.

Have a tablespoon or two of olive oil at every meal. A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. If you have ten per day you quickly add an extra 1200 calories to your diet. Start slowly with a teaspoon per meal and work your way up.

Alternate solid food meals with shakes. It’s impossible and impractical to sit down and eat real food six times per day. So have a solid food meal and then a few hours later have a shake. Repeat this process throughout the day until you have had at least three solid meals and 2-3 shakes.

Always carry raw, organic nuts with you. These are calorie dense, easy to consume rapidly and usually digest without issue.

My Diet Secrets

One of the questions I get asked most is about plant based nutrition. These days, pretty much everyone has heard about the dangers associated with eating too much meat and dairy. But most people are confused about how to get jacked while eliminating these dangerous and fattening foods from their diets. To help eliminate some of the confusion I am going to share my personal diet with you today.

Breakfast. I always start with a shake. This consists of hemp, rice or pea protein or some combination of the three. I mix 40 grams of protein in 8oz of organic coconut milk and 8-12 oz water with frozen berries, a banana, a tbsp of cacao nibs, and 3 tbsp of maca powder, which is tremendous for virility and testosterone production. This tastes absolutely incredible.

Snack. Usually a few tangerines and some pistachios/cashews or two apples with almond butter. Fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods is one my favorite things and I could easily eat an entire container in one sitting.

Lunch. Usually some kind of beans and organic brown rice or quinoa. I sauté black beans with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic and mix that in with the rice. I top it with salsa and some fresh avocado. That is my Mexican style rice and beans. Sometimes I just mix the beans and rice or quinoa with marinara sauce. I always cook enough for two days.

I will sometimes have a salad with that or eat some raw veggies or mix some spinach into the whole thing.

Occasionally I will have a couple almond butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I avoid wheat so I get some brown rice bread for the times I eat these.

Snack. Similar to above. When I’m not near food I always carry Raw Organic Food Bars with me and a variety of nuts. If I am home and have had fruit for my first snack I try to make this snack raw veggies and hummus.

Somewhere along the line I also drink another shake. This is usually after my workout. It is similar to the shake above except that I don’t include the coconut milk or the cacao but I do use the maca powder. I blend a banana, almond milk, water, frozen spinach (you don’t taste the spinach at all so this is nowhere near as gross as it sounds) with Vega and some extra protein.

Dinner. Usually some kind of stew consisting of a wide variety of vegetables and some kind of legumes. For example, the other day I got home and all that we had was brocollini, squash, onions, spinach and garlic. I threw it all in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, pepper and yellow peas, which have 10 grams of protein per ¼ cup. I let that cook for 2 hours and then mixed in some quinoa. It was delicious. Other times we’ll mix brown rice in with a variety of other veggies and lentils. If I was trying to get lean I would skip the brown rice.

I also eat soy and wheat free veggie burgers a few nights per week and always have a huge spinach salad mixed with peppers, tomatoes, olives, onions, apples, pecans or walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, avocado, broccoli, carrots, and whatever else is around. I top that with olive oil and vinegar.

So there you have it. Hopefully this sheds some light on how you can get big and lean on a plant based diet. You could obviously add or subtract calories depending on your goal. It’s really quite easy, and a whole lot healthier. By Jason Ferrugia

I suggest you check out my other guide on: Muscle Fitness and Exercise Routines