A Good Bodybuilding Diet Plan For Muscle Mass & Fat Loss

Your diet plays arguably the most important role in your effort to build muscle mass and lose body fat. Eating sugary, processed foods will set your bodybuilding goals farther away and provide your body with less of the nutrients it needs to tone up. Eating too much of even healthy food will cause your body to retain excess body fat. When you first begin bodybuilding, you may add some muscle while shedding body fat, but soon your caloric intake on a good bodybuilding diet plan will no longer be high enough to add new bulk while slimming down.

Carbohydrates

You'll need energy for weight training and endurance exercise, and carbohydrates provide your body with its most efficient source of energy, according to the Colorado State University Extension website. Your muscles draw on your stores of carbohydrates when you lift weights or perform cardiovascular exercise. Sources of carbohydrates include whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables and yams. Limiting your intake of sweet carbs like fruit and high-calorie starches like white potatoes and bread allows you to eat more food overall while keeping to your daily calorie goals.

Protein

For a day or two after you lift weights, your muscles will recover by taking amino acids from the plant and animal protein in your diet and rebuilding muscle tissue. According to the McKinley Health Center website, your body also uses protein as a source of energy when your stores of carbohydrates run low. Lean animal protein sources such as chicken breast, white fish and egg whites provide your body with all the essential amino acids it needs but can't produce on its own.

Fat

Your body also needs dietary fat when building muscle and even when losing body fat. Choosing lean protein sources ensures that your intake of saturated fat stays low. Diets high in saturated fat lead to chronic diseases and also provide your body with too many calories for weight loss. The Dietary Reference Intakes chart of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommends that 20 percent to 35 percent of your total caloric intake should be from fats. It also states that your body doesn't need dietary saturated fat and can produce this nutrient on its own.

Portions

By spreading your meals evenly throughout the day, you'll ensure that your body burns calories continuously as you digest your food. Choosing low-calorie, high-fiber foods such as green, leafy vegetables ensures that a 300- or 400-calorie meal keeps you full until the next time you eat. Determine the total number of calories you need based on your level of activity and basal metabolic rate, which is the number of calories your body needs at rest to support essential functions. Divide the total number by five or six to find how many calories to eat per meal.

Considerations

While most people won't build much muscle while losing body fat, you'll see changes in your appearance even as your weight stays the same for several weeks. After this initial phase in which you gain heavier muscle and lose fat, you'll either need to eat more to gain muscle or continue dieting to lose additional fat. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recommends cutting calories from carbohydrates rather than fats that are associated with lean meats and dairy products, to avoid a deficiency in protein, which could cause a slow recovery from intense workouts.