High Protein, Low-fat And Moderate Carb Diets For Bodybuilding

To have a competitive physique in the sport of bodybuilding, your body needs an ample amount of protein for muscle growth, carbohydrates for workout energy and healthy fats for essential nutrients. Some bodybuilders gain the wrong impression from nutritional supplement companies and believe that eating a high-protein, low-fat and moderate-carbohydrate diet will yield the best results.

Protein Needs

Though there are nearly endless protein supplements available to bodybuilders, your body only needs a certain amount of protein to achieve muscle gains. The RDA value for American adults is 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight. The American Dietetic Association states that strength training athletes like bodybuilders need a higher amount, ranging from 1.2 g to 1.7 g per kilogram of body weight daily. Eating a high-protein diet that exceeds this value will only result in you excreting or storing the excess protein as fat.

Protein Timing

You may feel the need to increase your protein intake so more essential amino acids reach your muscles and help them grow, but in most cases better timing of your protein can have more impact on your body's protein efficiency. A 2004 review of bodybuilder nutrition research by Charles Lambert et al. states that consuming protein immediately before or after your weight training may be the most beneficial way to enhance long-term muscle hypertrophy. With proper protein timing, your muscles may more readily absorb the amino acids as your body metabolizes the protein.

Carbohydrate Needs

Reducing your carbohydrates for unnecessarily high amounts of protein in your diet can potentially weaken your overall weight lifting performance. As a general recommendation for bodybuilding, 55 to 65 percent of your daily caloric intake should be carbohydrates. Lowering your carbohydrate to less than this amount and making protein the main staple of your diet means that you will likely be lacking in stored muscle glycogen, your main energy source for weightlifting.

Pre-Competition Diet

Exercise physiologist Len Kravitz, Ph.D., states that you may need to adjust the amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fats you eat from time-to-time to better achieve your exercise goals. When you need to lose fat in the weeks and days before a bodybuilding competition, you may need to increase your protein intake for muscle maintenance while you reduce your carbohydrates and fats. In this case, a high-protein, low-fat and moderate-carbohydrate diet may be beneficial over the short term.However, you should always speak to a sports nutrition expert before making drastic changes to your diet.