Your Bodybuilding Diet Plan

We all know what a plan is. Do you actually have a bodybuilding diet plan? “Just listening to your body” which is often an excuse to eat a lot, means if you are a hard gainer you are not going to gain much, and if you are a mesomorph (like me) you be on the chubby side forever.

You need some type of plan.

Now one definition of a plan (I learned this one from the military):

“A plan is so you know what you are deviating from.”

Plans often need adjustment based on what is working, what is not working, and practical necessities for example.

Now a plan can be a formal and semi-rigid framework with flexibility build in like the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. You get three meal plans to choose from, and can also substitute from over 1000 foods within the framework.

A plan can also be much looser, like the 4 Hour Body Diet, which although not specific to bodybuilding works well with some minor additions such as enduring enough protein intake.

Some diets, like Atkins and other very low carb diets are strict but many people have success following them partially. For example Atkins (and I personally burn fat and build muscle on Atkins) insists on no coffee and no alcohol, but almost no one does that and that includes me!

Perhaps my favorite, and a fun, tasty, plan with lots of variety is based on the meal plans from the very highly recommended by me Anabolic Cooking. The author, Dave Ruel, believes that a bodybuilding and fitness diet “can and should include a lot of variety and tasty foods.” He makes it quite easy with lots of very simple to make tasty and fun foods that promote building muscle and burning fat.

What is the most important part of a bodybuilding diet after decent nutrition?

That you can stick to it!

Even if one diet is theoretically better than another, it is just theory if you cannot or will not stick to it. That is why I say “decent nutrition” not “perfect nutrition.”

Now what kind of diet you can stick to varies a lot. I have made enormous progress on ketogenic diets, very low fat diets. My friend Rocco can’t function or think well on them so he can’t stay on them so there is no way they can work for him. And if they did, he would be miserable.

What diet plan works for you also can and will vary through your life. I used to maintain muscle and lose fat rather quickly on a ketogenic diet while drinking multiple glasses of wine a night. Maybe my body has slowed down, I’m not sure, but that diet without the wine works now.

So, you need a plan that works for you.

And that means a bodybuilding diet plan you can stick too!