A Must Have Item For Your Home Gym!

Nutritional Guidelines, NOT Dieting

I was going to entitle this page dieting, but a diet is something you do in the short term to lose weight.

The nutritional guidelines I'm listing below are part of a LIFESTYLE CHANGE.

If you want to build muscle, you need to lift weights and fuel your body with nutritious foods. Add rest to the equation, and you’re good to go!

The nutritional guidelines listed below were taken from a post in a forum; I just tweaked it a bit. When I find out who the author is, I’ll give them credit.

Nutritional Guidelines:

Eat every 2-3 hours. This will result in 6-7 meals per day. Eating many small meals will give your metabolism a boost, and keep you from getting hungry.

Keep each meal roughly the same size.

Eat lean protein, starchy or fibrous carbs and healthy fats at every meal.

Eat as close to nature as possible. No processed food, no sugar, no white flour, or as Arnold Schwarzenegger calls it, WHITE DEATH!

Consume between 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, evenly split across your meals. You can use supplemental whey protein to meet this goal, but consuming real food protein sources is best because of the thermal effect of food. The thermal effect of food is the energy the body uses to digest, absorb and process food nutrients.

Get between .3 to .4 grams of fat per pound of body weight, evenly split across your meals, except post workout. Fat slows down the digestion of the carbs and protein you should be consuming after a workout.

If you're falling short on calories in a given day, fill in with complex carbs to reach your desired calorie level.

Eat starchy carbs and some protein, preworkout. By eating a carb 10 minutes before exercise, you'll provide fuel for a stronger workout. By eating a small protein source, you'll start to digest it into amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Those amino acids will be available to be used by the muscles during and after exercise.

You need a fast digesting protein/carb source post workout. Have a whey protein shake with a banana or sports drink (Gatorade). You can switch out of the muscle breakdown mode by eating a carb/protein combo. Carbs stimulate the release of insulin, a hormone that helps build muscle.

If you're looking to lose weight, restrict you carbs the rest of the day. Let the Protein Power website will show you the way.

Make your last meal of the day protein and fat only. A good choice would be cottage cheese and a spoonful of natural peanut butter.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES! 

Supplement with a multi-vitamin and EFA's

Proteins:

Chicken, turkey, eggs, buffalo, ground beef, steak, pork, canned tuna, salmon, cottage cheese, protein powder, etc.

Starchy carbs:

Oats, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, beans, legumes, Ezekiel/sprouted bread, whole wheat pasta, and whole grain bread in moderation. If your trying to lose weight, an even better choice for pasta is Dreamfields, which is high in fiber and has fewer digestible carbs.

Fibrous Carbs:

ANY vegetable, especially dark green ones such as green leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli. Cauliflower, brussel sprouts, artichokes, kale, green beans, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, etc. Rutabagas cut into cubes make a great white potato substitute.

Healthy fats:

Seeds, sunflower, and flax. Extra virgin olive oil, avocado, salmon and other fatty fish, nuts and nut butters (natural peanut butter is GREAT, but high in calories), walnuts, and almonds.

Fruits:

Blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and apples.

The number one nutrient for bodybuilders in the above list of foods is PROTEIN.

You need to consume 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, EVERY DAY, even on non workout days.

Now this can be hard to do with all of the commitments we have every day, so this is where supplements come in.

Protein powder is a relatively inexpensive way to meet these daily requirements.

You can make a shake (see this review for the BEST blender bottle), or even add the protein powder to recipes.

I’ll be adding more recipes in the future, but here’s a recipe for one of the best tasting homemade protein bars:

Nutty Fudge Protein Bars

6-7 tablespoons of real butter

4 ounces cream cheese

1 tablespoon of peanut butter

1 ounce unsweetened baker's chocolate

¼ cup Splenda

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 ounce chopped walnuts

2 and 1/3 cups of vanilla ice cream whey protein powder

In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter, cream cheese, peanut butter and chocolate and mix well.

Add Splenda and vanilla, mix well again.

Now add protein powder and walnuts, continue to mix.

It will be difficult and messy to mix. Knead it all together, squeezing so that the powder dissolves well into the mixture.

Place the mixture into a 9 inch square baking pan, flatten and refrigerate.

When cooled and hardened, cut into 8 bars.

Each bar has approximately 3.2 grams carbs and 21 grams of protein.

If you don't want to make your own protein bar, this one made by Supreme Protein is absolutely the best one I've tried.