Female Bodybuilding Nutrition

If you're a female bodybuilder, eating balanced meals with plenty of complex carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables and protein will support your fitness goals. Ignore advocates of fad diets who encourage you eliminate certain foods or eat only certain foods. Eat nutritious snacks and small meals to fuel your body and avoid hunger, and never skip breakfast. Stay in touch with your nutritionist, as well, and adjust your diet as needed.

Carbohydrates

Get a healthy balance of macronutrients -- carbohydrates, fat and protein. Some popular diets claim that carbohydrates are bad for you or that eating all protein is healthy. Your body actually uses carbohydrates as its primary source of fuel, and you need to get 45 to 65 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates to stay fit. The best sources of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Fruits and vegetables also give you calcium and iron, nutrients that athletes need. Avoid prepackaged foods with added sugars and refined flours, because they have little nutritional value.

Protein

Avoid the Atkins diet, but do eat your protein. The average person needs to get about 20 percent of her calories from protein, but bodybuilders need more -- as much as 1.6 to 1.7 g. of protein per kg of body weight. A 130-lb. female bodybuilder weighs 59 kg and needs around 95 g of protein daily, for example. Gain protein from healthy food sources like lean meat, fish, tofu, nuts and whole grains.

Fat

Get 25 to 30 percent of your daily calories from fats, but avoid saturated fat and trans fats, which are linked to high cholesterol and heart disease. Some fit people assume that they need not worry about illness associated with excessive fat intake, but the opposite is true. Just looking slim and muscular doesn't mean that your risk of disease vanishes. Use vegetable oils such as olive oil, sunflower oil and canola oil for healthy unsaturated fat. If weight loss is an issue, reduce your intake to 20 percent of your calories, but do not exclude fat completely.

When to Eat

Weightlifting causes micro tears in muscle tissue. As your body repairs itself, you get stronger and increase muscle tone. Your body needs energy to make repairs, so do not skip meals, especially breakfast. Eat a small meal with protein and 1 to 4.5 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight one to four hours before exercise. Take 30 to 60 g of carbohydrates during exercise for every hour you work out, and follow exercise with a protein and carbohydrate snack or small meal. Using carbohydrate and protein snacks and meals gives your body energy and enhances muscle repairs.