A beginner bodybuilder would be wise to follow sound nutritional practices for long-term success. Eating right will give you ample energy that will help you last each workout session. The only path to long-term muscle and strength gain is through adequate rest and eating sufficient amounts of calories daily. Not eating the right foods at the right time will just decrease your potential growth and render all your hard work useless.

According to Catherine Ratzin Jackson, author of the book “Nutrition for the Recreational Athlete”, the eating habits of bodybuilders aren’t always based on sound nutritional advice. She explains that many bodybuilders base their diet strategies on tips they’ve read in bodybuilding magazines or from -experts’ at nutrition stores. Unfortunately, much of this advice is usually one-sided and does not provide the complete picture of the essentials of calorie intake, protein requirements and specific types of food to eat for weight loss. If you’re just getting started with bodybuilding, here are some essential rules of nutrition used by professional bodybuilders:

1. Avoid sudden weight loss. Do not be impatient about losing weight as sudden weight loss destroys lean body tissues in the process thereby constraining muscular development. Starving yourself with a low-calorie diet to lose weight quickly deprives your body of essential nutrients and electrolytes needed for proper bodily functions. Moreover, you will not achieve your desired body weight by having a low-fat and high-protein diet.

2. Use calculations to determine your protein requirements. Protein is essential for building strength, but you won’t be able to achieve any results with your bodybuilding routine if you’re eating too much or too little protein; the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein is 0.8g/ kg per day for sedentary individuals, and 1.0-1.5 g/kg for athletes. You will need to start reading the nutrition labels of different foods to make sure you are getting enough protein in the diet.

3. Eat Fresh Foods. Eating fresh foods is an important component of any bodybuilding program. Stay away from artificial and processed food as much as possible. Natural foods from animal and plant sources give out the most nutrients to our bodies. Our bodies assimilate more nutrients from natural foods as compared with artificial foods.

4. Use supplements sparingly. Supplements are now in the mainstream of sports. Taking supplements can help in most cases but be careful as some supplements have negative side effects. In addition, supplements are really not that essential. What’s essential are a proper nutrition and efficient training programs.

5. Eat the right food before and after a training session. These periods are important for muscle development. What you eat will have an important effect on your results. Always take into account what you eat during these periods in a journal to track your results and even improve your food selection and consumption timing.