FREE WEEKLY FITNESS TIPS NEWSLETTER

Bodybuilding / Health / Fitness weekly e-mail tips,
stay informed and stay motivated, join today!

Sign up free by sending an e-mail to
nobsbb@aol.com

How Many Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat for Bodybuilding

How many carbohydrates,protein and fats to take during bodybuilding?

There’s no way to tell someone exactly how many grams of protein, carbodydrates, and fats that need when they’re bodybuilding. Everyone has a different base metabolism rate. Base metabolism rate refers to how your body burns calories. A slower rate means that fat lodges in the body. Someone with a sluggish metabolism rate cannot eat as many carbs as someone with a higher metabolism rate. Still, some general guidelines on quantity of carbs, protein and fats can be offered. Look to consume about 3,000 total calories a day in order to maintain your weight. Consume about 500 calories if you’re in a bulking up stage of your workouts. Carbohydrate consumption and, for that matter, protein intake can be lower on non-workout days.

How much protein does the body builder need? A good general rule is take in between one and one and a half grams of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re working with kilograms, this means consuming 1.2 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Make sure to eat complete proteins. If you are a vegetarian, make sure you eat eggs and fish, and that you eat your legumes with rice so as to get a complete protein. If you do eat meat, do not over-do your consumption of red meat.

As for carbohydrates, generally take in about twice the number of grams of carbs than you do of protein. Just as with protein, be careful about your sources of carbs.  Simple carbohydrates loaded with sugars will have to go. Certainly avoid plowing your system with pastries, cakes, and chocolate.  No need to be a saint when it comes to sweets, but you can’t make them a little gift to yourself each day.   But also avoid such foods as white bread. The idea is to get complex carbohydrates into your body. If you crave bread, make sure you’re eating whole wheat or multi-grain bread. Fruits are an excellent source of carbrohydrates.
Fats have gotten a terrible reputation in recent years. Food manufacturers and restaurants brag about how little fat their foods contain. But fats are essential to the health and functioning of the body. Fats provide energy. Eliminate them and you will find yourself too weak to do a serious workout. While bodybuilders need to keep their body fat low so as to achieve definition- think 6 pack abs- they need fat in their diet. Now, you do want to avoid trans fats. Stick with polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats. Even if you’ve munched on them for years as effortlessly as you take in air,  you must say goodbye to such things as potato chips and cheese doodles.

If weight loss is a big concern, do not forget to control your intake of carbohydrates. Losing weight requires more than avoiding tons of fatty food. Carbs are easily converted to weight increasing sugars in the body. The current obsession with fat free foods leads too easily to a simple-minded view about what taking off weight and keeping it