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A Bodybuilding Diet With Five to Six Meals a Day

Sep 12, 2011 | By Mike Samuels
A Bodybuilding Diet With Five to Six Meals a Day
Photo Credit Christopher Furlong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

When following a high-calorie bodybuilding diet, you may struggle to eat all the calories, protein, carbohydrates and fats you need in the standard three meals. This means you may need to eat five or six times per day sometimes. This may sound like a difficult task to accomplish, but if you take certain factors into account and plan your meals in advance, eating five to six meals a day can easily become part of your life.

Calories

No matter how many meals you eat a day, calories are the most important factor in any diet. To build muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn -- and vice versa for fat loss. As your training schedule may be fairly intense, involving training several times a week, you will need more calories than a sedentary non-bodybuilder. According to Tom Venuto, author of "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle," the best way to work out your optimal calorie intake is to use an online calorie calculator, which assesses your weight, body fat percentage and activity levels.

Macronutrients

Macronutrients are protein, carbohydrate and fat, and just like calories, they play a role in your body composition. Bodybuilding diet coach Shelby Starnes advises that when dieting for fat loss, you consume up to 1.5 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, restrict your carbohydrate intake to breakfast, and before and after workout, and make up the rest of your calories with healthy fats. When adding mass though, your protein intake should be around 1 gram per pound, and you can be slightly more liberal with your carbs, although you will still need to keep an eye on them. The leaner you are, the more carbohydrates you will be able to consume without adding fat. Again, fats should make up the rest of your calories. Divide your protein, carbohydrate and fat grams by 5 or 6 to get how much of each you should consume in each meal.

Workout Nutrition

According to Nick Tumminello, strength coach and owner of Performance U training facility in Baltimore, the two most important meals for bodybuilding are before and after workouts. Before a workout, consume 30 to 40 grams of slow-digesting carbs, such as sweet potatoes, fruit or oats, along with a lean protein source, such as chicken or fish, and plenty of fibrous vegetables. After your workout, drink a protein shake and a carbohydrate-based sports drink, with some branched chain amino acid supplements added. Vary the amounts of protein and carbohydrate to fit in with your other meals, and your calorie and macronutrient needs.

Considerations

While calories and macronutrients are extremely important, also consider your food choices. Consume nutrient-dense whole foods, such as meat, fish, dairy products, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, rather than processed junk foods.
Eating five or six times a day also requires good preparation. Starnes advises cooking up some batches of food every Sunday to eat throughout the week. You may also wish to have a liquid breakfast consisting of protein powder, oats and healthy oils to save time. Also keep a supply of high protein snacks, such as beef jerky, nuts and cottage cheese in your car or desk, in case you miss a meal.

References

Article reviewed by Adela McKay Last updated on: Sep 12, 2011

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