The Importance of Strength Training and A Proper Diet by Steve Gwillim
The saying ‘you are what you eat’ really is true. When you are trying to build a better physique and grow muscle the proportions of what you eat are a large part of the gains that you make. When I say proportions, I am talking about the percentages of protein, carbohydrates and fats that you take into your body. This is nothing new, I’m sure you are thinking, but let me get into this a little deeper and maybe you will have a better understanding of this.
The basic facts do not change. There are many fads and theories out there, but I want to set the record straight when it comes to nutrition. The general idea is that you want to have something like a 30/40/30 split for protein/carbs/fat. This is a solid idea for general nutrition, but for building your body and to grow muscle, you need to up the ante.
What you really need to do is think about your goals, where you are at in your quest, how much you currently weigh and what level your training is at. I go into this in more detail in the RIPPED Weight Training e-book, but simply put, the more you train, and the higher your intensity you need to increase the amount of intake and switch up the percentages. The higher your training level the more calories, protein and fat you need.
Percentages aren’t all you need to think about though. What exactly are you eating? Are you getting your calories from Twinkies or tuna? Are your fats from beef or from fish? The quality of food you consume is extremely important when you want to build a body worth showing and to grow muscle. The less processed foods you eat, the better.
The other thing I will say is; don’t get obsessed with having exact amounts in your diet! What I mean by this is if you are close to the amounts you need, don’t stress out about “Oh, I’m only at 22% fats, what am I going to do to get that other 3%?” Relax, already! The effort you are putting into this can’t be distracting to your overall fitness and bodybuilding goals. Get close to what you need and forget about it. Obsessing and getting all anal about your diet isn’t going to help your gain. Remember the positive thinking mode. If you are thinking ‘Oh, my diet isn’t right, that’s going to effect my intensity.” Well, if you have it in your mind that it will effect your intensity, then it is going to effect your intensity. Let it go. You want to grow muscle or not?
The next thing I want to talk about is supplements. Everyone uses them, but not many people really understand what they are putting in their body. Again, I am not going to go into too much detail here, but minimally you want to be using creatine, and some sort of whey-isolate protein powder. You pretty much can’t go wrong with these. I will say though, if you have liver or kidney problems, talk with your doctor before taking creatine. It is tough to get some of your percentages close without using supplemental nutrition, so I strongly urge you to educate yourself on this aspect of your diet.
Remember, diet and training cannot be thought of as two separate things. They must work together to help you reach your goals. I don’t care if your goal is to be the next Mr. Olympia, gain 20 pounds of pure muscle or lower your fat percentage. Nutrition and fitness go hand in hand as you are building your body. As I said, you are what you eat, so make sure you think about what you are putting into your body.
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