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Summer is around the corner and another
bodybuilding season is gearing up.
Did you accomplish your
physique goals to make 2005 your
 “best
ever?” Will it be this year?
I saw many bodybuilders do just that as I have the
privilege to work with clients from coast to coast. Before I can
dig into their program, however, I usually get asked, “Indiana?
Where’s that? What’s in Indiana? What do you do in Indiana?”
After I assure them that we have running water and we do more than just
sit around and watch the corn grow, I start questioning them about their
individual body type. I ask for body comp stats, past contest
pictures, current pictures, and literally every piece of data I can pull
together to help me peak them perfectly. Why? Though there
are major consistencies in physiology and how I handle a client’s
nutrition, there is also a great deal of individuality. Now, I’m a
pretty middle-of-the-road guy; I don’t have a confederate flag and
shotgun in the back window of a pick-up truck, but you also won’t find
me marching in a gay-pride parade or chaining myself to a spotted owl’s
tree in front of a bulldozer. You also won’t find me spending too
much time at extreme ends of nutrition unless it’s absolutely necessary
for a client’s success. Most of the time it’s a rock-solid program
to build and maintain muscle and well-timed subtle changes along the way
to shed the body fat with precision. Each program for every
client, however, is always unique based on his or her body. Your
program should be just as precise. Not extreme, just precise.
When you decide its time to start dieting, where
do you begin? If you’re like me, it will be with protein.
How much protein do you need to build, or more appropriately, maintain
your muscle mass? For a bodybuilder, I would always start with a
base of at least one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass.
I like to add a little buffer because of additional cardio and to guard
against inadvertent catabolism due to the dieting process. I add
even more if a client is an ectomorph and loses weight easily. As
that person gets closer to a contest, if he or she is on track to be
ready ahead of schedule (my typical plan) then I add even more.
This is the high end of protein consumption as you follow my rationale
for adding more protein into the diet. For example, I have one
client who is a WNBF title-holder and is currently six weeks out from a
contest and meets every one of the criteria for adding protein. He
is currently carrying several pounds of muscle above last year’s contest
weight and is consuming more than two grams of protein per pound of lean
body mass! Keep in mind this is an ectomorph with a high
metabolism who is already in virtual contest shape battling to maintain
muscle. Not everyone would ever need or be able to even use that
much protein.
Protein intake should match
your requirements as a bodybuilder, but not necessarily at the expense
of other important nutrients.
The client I mentioned above is also consuming 250
grams of carbs per day. I haven’t raised his protein exponentially
at the cost of muscle-sparing, energy-building carbohydrates or fat.
These two nutrients are where most of us are a little confused.
Should I eat no carbs, low carbs, or moderate carbs, and what about fat?
Should I eat some red meat or maybe just flaxseed oil or maybe no fat at
all? I get email all the time with questions that begin with, “I
heard that……” and the email ends with, “…..is that true?” Here’s
where you need to really pay attention.
Your body type will give you a great starting
point on what type of dieting is best for you. In determining
whether you’ll be more effective with a higher or lower carbohydrate
diet you have to decide if you’re an ectomorph who has a very hard time
gaining weight, a mesomorph who can gain weight and has a decent
muscular frame, or an endomorph who gains weight very easily. You
can also characterize yourself in different degrees such as an extreme
ectomorph who has a very light muscular frame and can barely gain five
pounds in the off season. Or, maybe you’re a moderate endomorph
who has a lot of muscle, can gain weight easily, but also doesn’t have a
terrible time losing when you need to. Recall that carbohydrates
are the most muscle-sparing nutrient we eat. More so than even
protein, carbs will buffer against muscle loss. I always want my
clients to eat as much carbs as they can and still lose weight.
Now, that may be a gigantic difference for two clients of even the same
size due to body type, but I still want as much as possible.
An ectomorph is generally very efficient at
glucose metabolism. Ectomorphs don’t convert a lot of excess
glucose into body fat because they use it rapidly for energy. This
person needs more carbs more frequently to maintain muscle mass and
energy. Making up for it in protein and fat isn’t as effective as
walking the fine line of a higher amount of carb intake.
Slow metabolic endomorphs do much better with a
lower amount of carbs. If this person consumes too many carbs
throughout the day, then glucose metabolism (which is a slower process
for an endomorph) blocks ketogenic metabolism where body fat can be used
for energy. Remember that when you have carbs that are
available to be used as energy, they will be. If your body is slow
at using carbs, as indicated by a slower metabolic rate and carbs making
you look “soft,” then you have to eat a low enough amount so that your
body will turn to body fat for energy. I still like to keep carbs
as high as possible for this type of client but for the slowest of the
slow (metabolically) it sometimes requires brief spurts of no-carb
dieting.
An easy way of giving yourself a
solid starting point is to set your protein intake first.
Determine how many calories you think you need to
reach your goals. Next, add about 20-25% of your total calories
from fat. Then, fill in the rest with carbs. Track your
nutrition meticulously for two weeks and make notes on how you feel and
how your workouts are going. If progress is too slow or too rapid,
analyze your plan in light of your body type. Are you too high or
too low on protein? Adjust your carbs up or down as needed.
You can also adjust your fat. I never go below 15% on fat intake,
but I also don’t like to go too high. Once you get over 25% of
your total calories from fat, you could use those extra calories as
protein or carbs for a greater benefit than the additional fat can give.
I realize the last part of this article raises as
many questions as it answers. The adjusting and monitoring of a
specific person’s nutrition and determining if it’s the absolute best
way of dieting is very much an individual process even with so many
scientific constants. The true art of this process is using all
the science available and molding it to a single person and all their
individuality. As I work with a WNBF world champion or a
fifty-five year old heart attack survivor, the program becomes a
process. Constant tracking, monitoring, adjusting, and analyzing
forms the program into what works perfectly for that person. I
suggest no less for you. Start now. Create an initial
program. Track it flawlessly. Make adjustments one at a time
so you can monitor your body’s reaction and don’t be afraid to keep
trying new things until you’re confident you know how your body responds
best. You may just stumble onto perfection!
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