The basic amounts of protein fat and crabs
Like many aspects of training to build muscle, these figures are arguable. Some may agree, other may disagree, but these figures are good for a guide and have worked for me. So here is a basic guide on what you should be aiming for on a daily basis:
Protein: 1 – 1.6 grams per pound of bodyweight
Crabs: 2.5 grams per pound of bodyweight
Fats: 0.25 grams per pound of bodyweight
So let’s take my example of a 200 pound man looking to build muscle. Using the figures above, he would have to eat 200-300 grams of protein, 500 grams of carbohydrates and 50 grams of fat per day.
So what does this mean in calories?
Visual Impact
Muscle Building Review:Here are the conversions of grams to calories for protein, crabs and fats.
Protein – 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates – 4 calories per gram
Fat – 9 calories per gram
So back to my 200 pound man, he would have a daily intake of 3650 calories. This figure is just about spot on for a man of this size looking to bulk up.
When you should be eating
When you eat is as important as what you eat. It’s important to get out of the “3 meals per day” mentality. Preferably you would eat 5-8 meals per day at 2 to 3 hour intervals. I know this is not possible for most people because of work, school etc but you should try to eat as many small meals as possible. If bodybuilding king Ronnie Coleman can work a full time job and eat a good muscle
building diet then so can you!
Ideally, every one of your small meals should contain the right amount of protein, crabs and fat. It’s easy to work out how much you need from each meal. Just work out the totals and divide it by the number of meals you eat per day. So let’s say my 200 pound man has time in the day for 6 meals. Each meal would need to contain about 33-50 grams of protein, 80-85 grams of crabs and 8 grams of fat.
You should try to eat 1 meal about 1 hour prior to training (energy for your workout) and 1 meal after
training (nutrients for muscle repair).
For guys with a thin build
If you’ve got a naturally thin build and fast metabolism I would advise you to add more carbohydrates to your diet for extra calories. I am naturally a true ectomorph with a thin build and rocketing metabolism. While this has its good points (like burning fat), it means I have to eat more calories in build muscle. If you have this body type you should literally eat as much crabs as you can.
Easy, isn’t it!
So that’s basically it. That is how you plan your muscle building diet, the simple way. There are also other aspects of diet and nutrition that I didn’t touch on in this article (like supplements), but the aim
was to keep it simple. If you’ve got any other questions about diet and nutrition head over to our forum, there’s always someone there to help you out.