Bodybuilding involves developing muscle and improving physique through a combination of weight training, aerobic exercise, and dietary changes. A bodybuilding meal plan should provide a balance of nutrients, including healthy fats, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. The specific composition and calorie intake will depend on the individual, their goals, and may change over time. This article provides a comprehensive guide to creating a cheap yet effective bodybuilding diet plan, making it accessible for students and anyone on a budget.
Understanding the Fundamentals of a Bodybuilding Diet
Bodybuilders are interested in increasing their muscles’ size and improving their appearance, not just developing their overall strength. People can apply the same bodybuilding techniques to their regular workout routines. People interested in growing muscle, whether for bodybuilding or general fitness, need to focus on challenging resistance training to trigger the development of larger muscles. People can also consider the following three potential mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy: metabolic stress, mechanical tension, and muscle damage.
In addition to workouts, bodybuilders need to focus on their diet, understanding how foods affect their body composition and current goals is important for those looking to bulk up or lean out. To effectively gain muscle mass or reduce body fat, a person must focus on eating the right amount of calories. They also need to concentrate on their macronutrient consumption, eating strategy, and how often they eat throughout the day.
Bulking and Cutting Phases
Bodybuilding diets typically involve two main phases: bulking and cutting.
- Bulking: A bulk-up period can last several months to years. During this time, a person will consume a high calorie and protein-rich diet to grow as much muscle mass as possible. Aim to increase your calorie intake by about 15% during your bulking phase.
- Cutting: During the lean-out stage, the person focuses on losing body fat while maintaining as much muscle mass as possible. Decrease your maintenance calories by about 15% to transition from a bulking to a cutting phase. This involves specific changes in diet and exercise over 12-26 weeks.
It’s important to avoid losing or gaining more than 0.5-1% of your body weight per week. This ensures you don’t lose too much muscle during the cutting phase or gain too much body fat during the bulking phase.
Read also: Is Beef Tallow a Good Moisturizer?
Caloric Intake and Macronutrient Balance
Calories
The number of calories a person eats and the amount of exercise they do affect whether they will gain, lose, or maintain their current weight. In order to bulk, bodybuilders should eat more calories than their body needs to maintain weight each day. Conversely, when preparing for a competition, losing fat while preserving muscle requires a modest but not extreme calorie deficit, with close attention to the timing of meals, adequate protein intake, and appropriate strength training. A person should consult their doctor, certified fitness instructor, or dietitian for professional guidance on how many calories they need to eat daily. They can also try using a reputable online calculator. A person can then tailor their caloric intake based on whether they are in the bulking or leaning phase of their training.
The easiest way to determine how many calories you need is to weigh yourself at least 3 times a week and record what you eat using a calorie tracking app. If your weight stays the same throughout the week, the amount of calories you eat is considered your “maintenance” level. Plan to revisit your calorie goals every month to account for changes in your weight. Increase your calories as you gain weight in the bulking phase and decrease your calories as you lose weight in the cutting phase for continued progression.
Macronutrients
Macronutrients found in foods, or macros, are three general types of nutrients that provide energy to a person. They are: proteins, carbohydrates or carbs and fats. A person following a bodybuilding routine should base what they eat on a balance of these three macronutrient groups.
Various methods can determine how much of each macronutrient a person should consume. An older 2014 review suggests the following distribution of macros:
- 2.3-3.1 grams per kilogram of lean body mass per day of protein
- 15-30% of calories from fat
- remaining calories should come from carbohydrates
This is the ratio between your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake. Protein and carbs contain 4 calories per gram (g), and fat contains 9. Your macronutrient ratio will stay the same regardless of whether you’re in a bulking or cutting phase. A typical diet includes 30-35% calories from protein, 55-60% calories from carbs and 15-20% calories from fat. It’s best to consult a registered dietician to determine your individual needs and ensure your diet is nutritionally adequate.
Read also: Delicious Pasta on a Budget
Affordable Food Choices for Bodybuilding
When preparing their meal plan for the week, bodybuilders can choose from many different foods. They should focus on foods that provide adequate calories and nutrients. During the cutting phase, it is desirable for a bodybuilder to feel fuller on a given amount of calories. However, they may have issues with the opposite problem during the bulking phase. This is because they may need to continue eating to hit high calorie intake goals despite possibly feeling full. Foods that can help a person feel full include high volume, high fiber, and high water content foods, such as: legumes such as lentils and beans, fruits such as apples and strawberries and vegetables such as broccoli and cucumber. Foods that can help a person get in a lot of calories without feeling overly full include: nuts and seeds, peanut and almond butter, cheese and avocado.
Bodybuilding meal plan should contain healthy fats, proteins, and carbs. A person should plan to adjust their total caloric count based on whether they are trying to bulk up or lean out.
Protein Sources
Proteins should make up a significant portion of a bodybuilding diet. Sources should include lean proteins, including:
- Eggs
- Lean red meats
- Skinless poultry such as chicken and turkey breasts
- Fish
- Beans and legumes
- Yogurt and low fat dairy products such as cottage cheese
- Protein shakes
- Soy products such as tofu, tempeh, and edamame
Carbohydrate Sources
A person who is bodybuilding needs carbohydrates to provide energy during workouts. They can include the following as examples:
- Whole grains, such as oatmeal, quinoa, rice, cereals, and popcorn
- Starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, corn, and peas
- Fruits, such as oranges, apples, and bananas
Fat Sources
Fats are the third macronutrient people need to focus on in their diet. Health-promoting fats include:
Read also: Delicious and Affordable Meals
- Nuts and seeds
- Healthful oils, such as olive oil
- High fat fruits, such as avocado
A person should note that many foods provide more than one macronutrient. For example, nuts can provide both fat and protein, eggs and cheese provide protein and fat, and beans and legumes provide protein and carbohydrates.
Sample 7-Day Meal Plan for Budget Bodybuilding
Eating plans will vary from person to person, and different coaches and nutritionists may make varying recommendations based on various factors. Below is a sample 7-day meal plan for bodybuilding. These foods provide the balance of macronutrients that a person needs to maintain health while following a body-building exercise program. The quantity of each food will vary based on the person’s gender, size, age, and, most importantly, whether they are in the bulk phase of building muscle or the cutting phase of losing body fat while preserving muscle.
Day 1
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs, stir-fried veggies, and oatmeal
- Snack: whey protein shake
- Lunch: grilled chicken breast, mixed greens, and baked sweet potato
- Snack: hard-boiled egg(s), carrot sticks, and whole grain crackers
- Dinner: broiled fish, green beans with brown rice
Day 2
- Breakfast: protein pancakes with fresh berries
- Snack: apple slices and almonds
- Lunch: lean ground beef burger on lettuce with tomato, onion, and green beans and a side of roasted potatoes
- Snack: protein shake
- Dinner: shrimp stir-fried with bell pepper and brown rice over spinach
Day 3
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt, almonds or walnuts, whole grain granola, and fresh berries
- Snack: protein shake
- Lunch: grilled fish with a spinach salad, quinoa and broccoli
- Snack: egg white omelet with bell peppers and mushrooms, and an English muffin
- Dinner: chicken breast topped with fresh salsa with a sweet potato and a side salad
Day 4
- Breakfast: oatmeal with berries and scrambled eggs
- Snack: turkey breast with carrots and celery and a baked potato
- Lunch: sirloin steak with broccoli and mushrooms
- Snack: apples with natural nut butter and a turkey in a whole wheat pita with hummus
- Dinner: broiled fish, brown rice, and a mixed green salad
Day 5
- Breakfast: protein shake with oatmeal
- Snack: hard-boiled egg whites with sliced peppers, hummus, cucumbers, and whole grain crackers
- Lunch: grilled chicken with white bean, quinoa and tomato salad
- Snack: Greek yogurt with berries and nuts
- Dinner: grilled fish with quinoa and green beans
Day 6
- Breakfast: scrambled egg whites with cheese, peppers, herbs, and whole grain bread
- Snack: protein shake
- Lunch: grilled chicken breast with bell peppers, black beans, corn and onions over romaine lettuce
- Snack: apple and almonds
- Dinner: sirloin steak with sweet potato and asparagus
Day 7
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt with whole grain granola and berries
- Snack: turkey breast with carrots and celery sticks
- Lunch: grilled chicken breast over spinach with quinoa, sliced strawberries and almonds
- Snack: protein shake and carrots with hummus
- Dinner: shrimp stir-fried with peppers, onions, and broccoli over brown rice
Supplements: When and What to Consider
Supplements can play an important role in providing nutrients to a bodybuilder. According to a recent review that examines the cautions of taking supplements, specific ones that may help a bodybuilder include: creatine monohydrate, beta-alanine and omega-3 supplements. There is some debate about whether protein shakes are necessary for bodybuilding. Protein shakes can help people who cannot get all the protein they need from their daily diet. A person may want to avoid shakes with excessive added sugar unless it is consistent with their nutritional needs. Whey protein powder actually come out to be just as cost-effective as chicken breast or canned tuna, because it contains minimal fat and carbs. Meaning that the amount of actual protein it delivers per dollar is comparable to chicken breast and tuna.
When choosing any supplement, a person should note that the regulation of the supplement industry by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not as strict as for pharmaceuticals. People should look for supplements that verify their products using a third party. They should also seek advice from their doctor or nutritionist when choosing a supplement or shake. Examples of third-party testing agencies include: Consumer labs, NSF and USP.
Budget-Friendly Shopping Tips
- Prioritize Food Inventory: Before stepping out of the house to buy more food, take an inventory of what you already have. Condiments, spices, frozen and canned food items should be on at that inventory list; this can easily slash your weekly food bill.
- Utilize Leftovers: Last night’s dinner can be today’s lunch, freeze it and it could be next week’s lunch too.
- Shop Smart: Most coupons are for generic brands, which are almost always the cheapest options anyway.
- Plan Your Menu: The last step: plan out your menu for the week; this will not only save you money, but also time in the food store.
- Choose the Right Stores: Bank of America recently conducted a study on this. What did it find? Turns out the difference in price from the most cost-friendly option, Walmart, to the priciest option Whole Foods, was almost about 30%! So sticking to cost-friendly stores below (e.g. Aldi) would be wise. Doing so will help to minimize additional costs.
- Buy in Bulk: Cooking in bulk can save both time and money. Prepare large batches of staple items like rice, beans, and grilled chicken, which can be used in multiple meals throughout the week.
Potential Risks and Considerations
There are some risks associated with bodybuilding. One risk is overtraining, which could lead to injury or even illness. Another risk of bodybuilding is that some participants may have body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. A 2021 study found a correlation between eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and body dysmorphic disorders in female bodybuilders. The researchers indicate a need for more research and prevention strategies to help those affected.
Low levels of body fat can negatively affect sleep and mood. To prepare for a bodybuilding competition, competitors develop extremely low body fat levels, with males and females typically reaching body fat levels of 5-10% and 10-15%, respectively. A low level of body fat, combined with low calorie intake, has been shown to decrease sleep quality, negatively affect mood, and weaken the immune system in the weeks leading up to a competition. These effects may also last for several weeks afterward.
Anabolic steroids can have adverse effects. This misleads many people into believing they can achieve the same muscular look by taking the advertised supplement. In turn, many bodybuilders, especially those beginning their journey, develop unrealistic expectations of what they can accomplish naturally. This may lead to body dissatisfaction and, eventually, the urge to try anabolic steroids. However, anabolic steroids are very unhealthy and linked to several risks and side effects. In addition to being illegal to possess in the US without a prescription, using anabolic steroids can increase your risk of heart disease, decrease fertility, and result in mental health conditions like depression.
Sample Budget Meal Plan
The meal plan will consist of 4 main meals. Each meal will contain at least 20g of protein within each meal. This helps to keep our muscle protein synthesis levels elevated throughout the day. We’re going to aim for a daily total of roughly 2,700 calories and 160g of protein.
Meal 1: Smoothie
- Ingredients: 1/3 cup of oatmeal, 1 frozen banana, 2 cups of 2% milk, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, a scoop of whey protein (optional).
- Total Cost: Approximately $1.70.
Meal 2: Egg Stir Fry
- Ingredients: 3 whole eggs, ½ cup of uncooked brown rice with a chicken stock cube, ½ cup of diced carrots, ½ cup of diced celery, ½ cup of diced cabbage, soy sauce, and garlic powder to taste.
- Instructions: Cook rice with a chicken stock cube. Scramble eggs and set aside. Stir-fry veggies with garlic, then add rice and soy sauce. Mix in scrambled eggs.
Meal 3: Fajita Bowl
- Ingredients: ½ cup of uncooked brown rice with a chicken stock cube, 4 ounces (~110 grams) of uncooked chicken breast, 1 green pepper, 1 sweet onion, 1 cup of canned pinto beans, ½ cup of salsa, paprika, and salt.
- Instructions: Cook rice as before. Sauté chicken, green peppers, and onions with paprika and salt. Add canned pinto beans.
Meal 4: Ground Turkey with Roasted Sweet Potato and Green Beans
- Ingredients: 4.5 ounces of raw ground turkey, 8 ounces of chopped sweet potato, a handful of green beans, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and seasoning.
- Instructions: Roast sweet potato at 400 degrees for 30 minutes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook ground turkey with seasoning. Steam green beans.
Meal Prep and Variety
What I’d recommend is meal prepping the 3 meals but not the smoothie. And instead, just making that fresh. That's because it takes just 5 minutes to do and will taste a lot better. I’d also recommend prepping these meals to be good for 3 days. You can alternatively cook a week or even two week’s worth of meals in advance and freeze it. Then, take it out as needed if you’re short on time. But cooking it fresh in small batches instead is generally what’ll taste best. So, as for how to do this it’s very simple. You just cook enough of each ingredient I’ve gone through to last for 3 days worth of meals. So for example, the rice. In our meal plan, we use it in two of our meals and use ½ a cup uncooked each time. So when we cook it in batch, we multiply this amount by 3. Then repeat this with the rest of the ingredients. And use this strategy to guide your grocery shopping as well.
For your convenience, I’ve created a list of swaps for each of the main protein, carbs, and fats sources within each meal. These swaps will provide a similar amount of calories and nutrients as the original. In addition to this, experiment with different seasonings, sauces, and veggies for each dish as well.
Adjusting Calories and Macros
Once you have these two targets set, you can simply increase or decrease the portions of the meals in this plan as needed. So for example, if you require less than 2,700 calories, you can simply make simple tweaks to the carbs and/or fats. You can reduce the serving size of the rice in one meal by half. Doing so can lower the calorie total quite significantly. Or, if you require more protein than 160g, just slightly bumping up the servings of each of the protein sources will easily do the trick. Play around with it but don’t stress over this too much. The key is to just get started experimenting with it. Monitor how your weight is changing. And then adjust the serving sizes to ensure you’re not either gaining weight too quickly.
Additional Tips for Success
- Stay Hydrated: Drink water and calorie-free beverages to keep your body at peak performance. Avoid sugar-laden drinks that sabotage your body's defense systems.
- Strategize Your Carb Intake: Carbs come in two forms: starchy, faster-action options such as rice, bread, and pasta that raise the blood sugar quickly; and non-starchy carbs like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which are higher in fiber and raise blood sugar gradually.
- Eat Plenty of Lean Protein: You can maximize muscle growth while stimulating the release of fat-burning hormones by eating protein every few hours. If you’re only going to measure one macronutrient, make it this one!
- Avoid Problematic Foods: While it’s important to eat a variety of different foods, there are some you should limit when bulking and cutting: Alcohol, Added sugars and Deep-fried foods. Before going to the gym, you may want to avoid foods that can slow digestion or cause stomach upset during your workout. This includes: High fat foods, High fiber foods and Carbonated beverages
tags: #cheap #bodybuilding #diet #plan