Your diet plays an important role in optimizing your gym results. Therefore, when you are in the bulking phase, it is important to eat a diverse range of nutrient-rich foods from different food groups. But what we carefully need to exclude from the list are alcohol, excess sugars, and deep-fried foods.

The phase of bulking can last months or years and requires eating a high-calorie, protein-rich diet (such as peanut butter, beans, and legumes), and intense weightlifting to build as much muscle as possible. After this comes the cutting phase, aimed at losing as much fat as possible while retaining the muscle mass gained. So, if you are new to bodybuilding and wondering what your meal plan should look like, you’re at the right place.

Calculate the Calorie Requirement

A very simple way to do this without any complicated calorie calculators is to keep checking your weight. Weigh yourself three times a week and check if you are putting on any weight. If you are not gaining weight, then the calories you are consuming are just enough to maintain your weight, and you need more.

Take 15% more calories than your maintenance intake to start bulking. When you are in the cutting phase, eat 15% fewer calories than your maintenance intake to lose fat. One important thing to note during these phases is to eat a protein-rich diet so that the weight you put on is more muscle than fat. Let’s understand this macronutrient ratio in detail in the next section.

Macronutrient Ratio for Bodybuilding

Knowing the number of calories any food or macronutrient contains can help you determine the portions that you need to consume. The main macros are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, with calories as follows:

• • 1 gram of protein/carbs = 4 calories
• • 1 gram of fat = 9 calories

Whether you’re bulking or cutting, the ratio of your macros will remain the same:

• • 30–35% protein-derived calories
• • 55–60% carb-derived calories
• • 15–20% fat-derived calories

You can get help from a trained fitness expert or dietician to get a customized diet chart as per the above recommendations.

Foods to Eat for Muscle Gains

If you are determined enough to grow your muscles, here is a list of foods that you can pick from:

•  Animal-Based: Ground beef, sirloin steak, venison, chicken breast, pork tenderloin, salmon, cod, and tilapia

• Dairy: cottage cheese, yogurt, low-fat milk, and cheese

• Grains: cereal, bread, crackers, quinoa, popcorn, oatmeal, and rice

• Fruits: apples, bananas, oranges, pears, peaches, grapes, watermelon, and berries

• Starchy vegetables: corn, green peas, sweet potatoes, cassava, and green lima beans.

• Vegetables: leafy greens, broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, and mushrooms

• Seeds and nuts: walnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, peanuts.

• Beans and legumes: lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans, and pinto beans

• Oils: Flaxseed oil, olive oil, and avocado oil.

Moreover, you can take healthy fitness supplements to meet your increasing protein requirement. You can take creatine to build stamina and energy levels and protein powder to speed up muscle recovery.

Foods to Avoid When Bodybuilding

Here is a quick list of foods that you need to avoid when trying to build lean muscles:

• Foods with High Fat: Fatty meats, heavy sauces or creams, buttery and oily foods.

• High-fiber Foods: Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and beans. This is important because you don’t want to fill yourself up with water and fiber that do not add much to your muscle mass.

• Carbonated Beverages: Diet soda or sparkling water.

In a Nutshell

Bodybuilding phases involve bulking up with protein-rich, low-fat foods and then cutting excess body fat. These phases require statistically increasing and then decreasing your calorie intake over several months by eating healthy animal-based and dairy-based foods, grains, vegetables, etc. Moreover, you need to steer clear of empty calories from sugary foods and unhealthy fats from deep-fried foods. Take help from a fitness expert to get a personalized diet plan.