musclebuildingforum.com

Bodybuilders are some interesting creatures. ..They choose to use their free time in a place as exciting as a gym. ..They lift the same weights on the same machines. Instead of seeing movies and going out clubbing, they attach themselves to the same cardio equipment on Friday nights... When they get home, they enter the kitchen, and they usually eat the same foods. This can cause a problem though. Due to ease of preparation, eating six meals per day during travel, or for accurate calculation of nutrient composition, many bodybuilders often have diets which don’t vary. They may decide chicken is what it takes to make them a successful bodybuilder, and they’ll eat chicken 5 times per day... Or, if they’re looking to gain weight, they’ll cook up two pounds of ground beef each day, and chew on that all day long... This kind of dedication is admirable. However, when it comes to providing our body with food, the fat/protein/carbohydrate content of foods shouldn’t be the only factor in determining our diets... When a bodybuilder eats the same kind of protein source each day, he runs a distinct risk of depriving his body of a wide variety of nutrients – as well as a proper amino acid balance... Foods contain a wealth of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, as well as some things which scientists just haven’t discovered yet. At the same time, he also runs the risk of creating an amino acid imbalance in his body... Each food has a different amino acid profile, and researchers believe human beings need a wide variety of protein sources to cover all their bases as far as finding a proper mix... No food, in isolation, is a perfect bodybuilding protein... Even whey protein, which is considered the best, can contain varying amino profiles... The solution, of course, is to design a bodybuilding diet which employs many different protein sources. Here is a sample diet which allows for the convenience of only cooking one meal per day, and delivers multiple protein sources offering multiple amino profiles Meal #1 - Protein shake & toast upon rising Meal #2 - Leftovers from second half of last night’s dinner Meal #3 - Lunch – Drive through protein source from healthy restaurant chain Meal #4 - 5 ounces of lunch meat from refrigerator Meal #5 - Cooked dinner at home Meal #6 - Protein shake before bed As you can see, this diet only requires you to prepare one meal per day... You cook an extra large portion, and consume the second half for meal 2 the following day... You toss back two shakes each day. ..You grab a handful of turkey, ham, or other lunch meat from the refrigerator after work – zero preparation. You hit a drive-thru for lunch and have a grilled chicken sandwich or a few chicken fajitas...This is a minimum diet for a bodybuilder on AAS...The more you add to this diet the more your gains will be... Balance is very important in both life, and in bodybuilding... The importance of a balanced diet cannot be emphasized enough..Finding the most creative and convenient ways to deliver 4 to 5 different sources of amino acids each day will help to do this!