Let’s Start Out With Nutrition Basics

Proper nutrition is one of the key elements in putting on massive muscular body size. Some people think that it may be the most important element.

The diet of a bodybuilder and the diet of the average person are vastly different. For example, the average person derives most of his or her caloric intake from processed foods. “There is a problem with the average diet in that two-thirds of the food Americans eat is processed, and processing almost always depletes nutrient content. Government surveys continually find vast numbers of Americans deficient in many nutrients critical to health. Sugar and highly processed refined carbohydrates comprise an estimated 60 percent of our total dietary intake. These are the “empty calorie” foods, poor in nutrition, high in fat, that force the body to borrow from nutrient reserves to digest the junk.”

If you try and build a big and muscular body on junk food you will almost instantly flop. The diet of the average person just won’t cut it when it comes to making your muscles massive. Processed food will make your stomach massive instead of your muscles. The difference a proper diet makes is seen in the contrast between a bloated belly as opposed to bulging muscles. The two are opposites. Each comes about through different dietary approaches.

The bodybuilder’s dietary approach could well be called “nasty nutrition.” The bodybuilder doesn’t eat all of the junk food that the average person does. To successfully control the shape of the physique you have to eat nutritious foods. That means very little junk food. Of course junk foods taste great, but they have the unfortunate ability to pack fat onto the body – exactly what you don’t want if you are trying to make your muscles more massive. Instead of processed foods and tons of refined sugar and fats, a bodybuilder eats high-quality proteins, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, and nutritious supplements. That probably doesn’t sound too tasty, but that is what builds bigger muscles.

Frequency

The average person eats 2 or 3 large meals a day. However, this approach won’t work if you want to pack muscle size onto your body. The best manner in which to provide the body with the material needed for larger is to eat several small meals throughout the day. It is interesting to see how this dieting approach, though customary for bodybuilders for quite some time, is now gaining support in the nutritional and medical communities. The “feast and fast” approach of the average person has been found to not be as effective nutritionally as the several smaller but more frequent dining periods. The idea is to provide the body with a low, consistent flow of nutrients rather than stuffing it with so much food and then leaving it empty afterwards. One of the basic fundamentals of dieting for super-size is to eat several smaller meals on a frequent basis. The body will have an easier time digesting the smaller meals and the frequency will keep insulin and nitrogen levels in a positive state.