How do I start a bodybuilding diet?

So you want to bulk up but are clueless about what and how to eat on a bodybuilding diet.

How many calories should you eat?

Before we even begin our bodybuilding diet, we need to figure out how many calories you need to consume. After all, without sufficient calories you won't gain muscle weight right? First things first, we must determine your body composition to calculate the amount of calories that you need.

Body composition is simply how much lean mass and body fat you carry. Your lean mass is basically your muscles, bones, organs, and blood. The rest of it is bodyfat.

So how do you figure out your body composition? There are several ways to do this. The cheapest way is to get some bodyfat calipers and measure your bodyfat levels.

Calipers are quite accurate and easy to use.

You can also get a hydrostatic water test but this may not be the most convenient way.

There are also electronic scales and readers that will measure your bodyfat but their accuracy is questionable.

I highly recommend that you get bodyfat calipers.

So lets say that a man who weighs 200lbs uses the calipers and gets a bodyfat reading of 14%.

So it is 200 x 0.14 = 28.

This means that 28 pounds of him is bodyfat. That means that he has 172 pounds of lean mass.


This is where some math will be involved. We need to figure out your resting metabolic rate. Your resting metabolic rate or RMR is how many calories you burn just by doing nothing.

This is the formula:

Katch-McArdle Formula: 370 + (21.6 x (LBM in kg))= RMR

The first thing that you want to do is to convert your lean body mass in to kilograms. We convert 172 pounds to kilograms by dividing it by 2.2

This gives us 78.18 kg so

370 + (21.6 x (78.18))= 2059

So his RMR is 2059.

Next we have to multiply the result with the following:

Sedentary (No Exercise): RMR x 1.2
Lightly Active (1-3 days/week): RMR x 1.375
Moderately Active (3-5 days/wk): RMR x 1.55
Very Active (6 - 7 days / week): RMR x 1.725
Extremely Active(2x a day!/labor job): RMR x 1.9

If you work an office job, choose "moderately active." Construction work and other demanding lifestyles will obviously use the higher multipliers.

Lets say that our guy stays at home most of the time. So we multiply his RMR by 1.375

We get 2831 calories. This means that he burns 2831 calories for just moving about in his house.

Since you will be lifting weights, you obviously need to know how many calories you burn while lifting.

Genreally, a person can burn 300 or more calories when they do weightlifting for 30 minutes. Around 500 or more calories are burned if they do it for one hour. However, this is very general and does not consider factors such as age, sex, height, weight, and bodyfat.

To get a precise amount of the calories burned, download this free softare. It has a calorie calculator that gives you an accurate number based on your body composition, age, height, etc.

So lets say that our 200 pound guy burned 300 calories in the gym. He would have burned 2831 + 300 = 3131 calories for the day. This means that our guy has to eat slightly over 3131 calories to gain muscle. 3231 calories will be enough for him to build muscle.

I have had success just eating 100-200 calories over my daily calorie expenditure.

Now you may ask, isnt that a little low?

It is actually enough. If you ate over 200 calories, you risk increasing your bodyfat levels. The average gym goer usually gains a maximum of one pound of muscle a week.

A one pound gain is not going to require too many excess calories.

You don't have to eat like a pig on a bodybuilding diet.

You must eat smart to gain weight without putting on too much fat. Many muscle magazines will recommend that you eat like a pig, but it is totally unnecessary.

Counting calories on your bodybuilding diet

You will want to develop the habit of reading nutrition labels so that you can count calories. Check to see how much calories each food item gives you. So if you were eating a dish of rice, chicken, and vegetables, you should know exactly how much you are getting.

Counting calories is essential because it will let you know if you are getting enough nutrition.

If you don't count calories, there is the risk of under or over eating.

Also know that carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram.

But how should you eat? What should you eat?

If you want to bulk up, there are several options:

If you want to eat a variety of foods, you should try a well balanced bodybuilding diet

If you are carb sensitive and cannot tolerate wheat, you may want to try the anabolic diet

Any of these meal plans will help you gain muscle fast.

You don't have to feel like your food choices are limited on a bodybuilding diet.