Understanding the fundamentals of nutrition and its application to bodybuilding

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” 

– Socrates

This post aims to give you the fundamental toolkit to understand nutrition and its application to bodybuilding. You might have the best workout in the world but if you do not have the correct application of nutrition this would be a waste as nutrition is 70% of weight loss/gain and exercise is only 30%.

This post is aimed at:

• Understanding what body type you are
• Understanding the fundamentals of nutrition
• Understanding why timing is essential for nutrition
• Understanding when and why to bulk or cut

What body type am I? 

The first step is to understand what body type you are. This is imperative as it will allow you to not only tailor your workout but, more importantly, the nutritional intake you should be aiming at.

Good indicators of your body type includes:

• Looking at your wrist / ankle size - this indicates your body frame
• How much you can eat before gaining fat
• How easily you can pack on muscle

Once you have identified your body type you can then identify how strict you need to be around your diet and also the style of workout that works best for you. I am slightly towards the mesomorph ectomorph, so this means I have a bit of freedom on my diet, so I do not bother counting calories if I know I’m active enough to burn fat.

If you are an ectomorph you should not bother with cardio and eat loads. You would be a 'hard gainer' someone who struggles to gain muscle so you should eat as much as possible - when it comes to reaping the benefits through a cut this would be easy to do for you.

If you are a mesmorph, congratulations you have won the body type lottery. You find packing on muscle quite easy but you can put on fat with a bit more ease than a ectomorph. In this case, you should be more careful around the fat intake and aim to do some cardio sessions.

If you are a endomorph unfortunately this means nutrition will be everything for you. Always do cardio and try to decrease your fat intake as much as possible. Keto - a more extreme diet type - might be ideal if you are a extreme endomorph. 

Getting to know your BMR and the Golden Ratio

The next step is to identify your BMR – this is how much calories you would normally burn in a day if you were bed ridden to maintain your weight. To do this you need to follow the site: 

BMR Calculator

Once you have this amount you need to times this by 1.7 to account for the fact you are undertaking strenuous exercise. When I was a waiter, I multiplied this by 2 as I was doing cardio as well as weightlifting, since I am now in a more sedentary lifestyle (oh the joys of office work) 1.7 is enough. This is the number of calories you should be aiming to intake daily.

However, it is crucial to note the ratio you should be intaking these calories. The golden ratio is a 40:40:20 split between protein, carbs and fats respectively:

• A gram of carbs is 4 calories
• A gram of fat is 9 calories
• A gram of protein is  4 calories

So if my staple meal would be, say, 200g chicken breast, 125g of pasta, 50g of spinach I can analyse the outputs of the calories through this site. 

150g chicken = 254 calories (Protein 40g, Fat 8g, Carbohydrate 3g)

150g pasta = 220 calories (Protein 9g, Fat 1g, Carbohydrate 44g) 

50g spinach = 17 calories (Protein 1g, Fat 1g, Carbohydrate 2g) 

Total = 491 calories (50g Protein, Fat 10g, Carbohydrate 49g) 

So this hypothetical meal would be 41% protein, 18% fat and 40% carbohydrate, which fits in with the golden ratio. The fact there is a lower intake of fat means this meal would be more ideal for those who have a endomorph type of body. 

The science behind the ratio

Some examples of each are shown below: 

Timing - does it matter when I eat?

• Timing is everything
• Breakfast = aim to take most of the fats here and you need to replenish the protein. Eggs for breakfast always a good idea
• Lunch = aim for the golden 40:40:20 ratio here
• Pre workout = intake the most carbs here as youre about to burn it off
• Post workout = aim for no fat, higher protein and higher carbs
• Dinner = start removing carbs and fats here and focus on protein intake
• Before bed = always good to have some cottage cheese or a few eggs as this contains casein protein too

Bulking

• If you want to pack on muscle, there’s no faster way than a bulking cycle
• Generally, keep cardio to a minimum – do it but don’t overdo it
• You WILL put on fat – its unavoidable but do not let this deter you especially if you’re leaning towards an ectomorph, it’ll melt off in no time
• General rule of thumb: add 500-1000 calories to your BMR (after multiplying it by 1.7 per instruction above)
• If you’re looking to supplement, I would recommend creatine monohydrate (teaspoon a day) but only do it for 1 month. Make sure to drink plenty of water in this period as it is a chemical that draws water into your muscle and helps stretch the muscle wall for efficient gains
• If your diet is good enough there is not really a need for protein shakes. However for those 'hard gainers' this might be the way that is needed if you're an extreme ectomorph

Cutting

• Typically, a bodybuilder will do a yearly cycle: bulk as much as possible in winter (roughly sepàfeb) then cut from April for the “summer body”
• How much of a aggressive cut you wish to pursue is up to you. The faster the cut the more muscle you will lose along with the fat
• The slower the cut the lower the calories deficiency you will have in the period. 300 deficit is recommended for a slow cut, 500 for a more aggressive cut
•  You can go for a deficit 2 ways:
• Cardio – this helps burn calories with ease
• Reducing calories intake
• The optimal way is a combination of the above

So, that concludes an introduction to nutrition for bodybuilding. This is quite a high level view so if you want me to explore any aspect of this deeper please let me know and I will stride to put something together. 

Thanks always, 

Demitrius