You've spent countless hours working in the gym to build a better body, and for some reason, you aren't making the progress you wanted. If that's the case, it's time to look at your diet and develop a bodybuilding diet that helps you create a lean and muscular physique.
Strategy
Since women have a harder time building muscle than men due to lower levels of testosterone, employing a finely-tuned nutritional strategy is key. Aim for eating five meals a day with protein at each meal. Strive for 1 g of protein per pound of body weight each day. For example, if you weigh 130 lbs., you would eat 130 g of protein divided into five meals, which equals 26 grams each.
Another key to your success is keeping a detailed nutrition journal. Jen Heath, a formerly overweight mother of four, believes keeping a record of her diet helped her earn a pro card in her first National Gym Association bodybuilding competition she entered."I had an extremely detailed nutrition plan from meal construction, periodized around intense and effective training, macro levels, to the timing of those macros, and a pretty specific supplementation plan."
Carbs
Processed, starchy carbohydrates will spike your blood sugar. Bodybuilding women want to keep their blood sugar stable so that they continue burning fat and help reduce cravings. To do this, aim for whole grains and fresh fruit and vegetables.
Since many women are carbohydrate sensitive, employing a lower carbohydrate intake is advisable. "As the female bodybuilder progresses, it may be necessary to eliminate fruit and cycle the carbs," advises Rachel Cosgrove, author of "The Female Body Breakthrough." "Most women tend to be carb sensitive so I have had success using carb cycling with women where they eat lower carbohydrate for three days and every fourth day they cycle in the carbs to give them a glycogen boost."
Mass Phase
It is usually not critical for women bodybuilders to go on mass phase like male bodybuilders. "I think most women have never lifted like they should anyway so it is pretty easy to put mass on even while dieting," says Cosgrove. "I want women to follow more of a maintenance plan with their calories and really push the intensity of their training, so they don't necessarily need to eat a lot of calories to gain muscle mass."
According to Cosgrove, women tend to gain more fat instead of muscle due to their higher levels of estrogen, so ingesting extra calories must be done with caution.
Cutting Phase
Twelve weeks before a competition is when most bodybuilders will alter their training and diet to lean out. A popular strategy is to reduce calories below maintenance levels. This is a practice that Cosgrove does not recommend her athletes follow in most cases. "I don't like to go too low calorie if we don't have to until the very last phase when we will cycle in a pretty low calorie, low carb day every fourth day," she says.
Instead of cutting calories from your diet, increase your cardio to burn more calories. Start by adding an extra 15 minutes to your current cardio session and monitor how your body responds before adding or reducing your daily cardio volume.
Leigh Penman, bodybuilding writer and competitor, also recommends using dandelion, which is an extremely effective diuretic, to help shed water in the last few days before a contest. Dandelion, unlike non-natural diuretics drugs, does not cause mineral depletion.
Post Competition
The biggest challenge after the competition is the mental aspect of dieting. After being so precise and strict in their diets for so long, bodybuilders have a tendency to overeat and will lose many of their hard-earned gains.
"It is critical that women bodybuilders have a post competition plan. Most don't have one at all. You can't just go from being on to being completely off," says Cosgrove.
She recommends slowly regressing from a detailed plan to not being on any plan until you're ready to start for your next show. Immediately following the competition, follow a training and diet plan that is very similar to what you were doing the week before the show. From there, make the plan more lenient each week until you hit your maintenance training and diet levels.
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