Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bodybuilding Dieting, Tips to Do it Right

By Ricardo d Argence

All right, so you want to get strong and go to the gym to work. You may think that pumping weights is all you have to do, but it is not that simple.

It is nutrition that plays in big role when it comes to recovery and growth. You need to change your diet according to the increase or decrease of your muscle mass. If you gain muscle you need to eat more. If you loose muscle you need to eat less. How can you observe what is occurring inside your body?

The first is to monitor your weight to see if your goal to put muscle on is causing an increase in bodyweight. If the scales show that weight are staying the same or going down then its time to look at the diet and eat more. If the weight is going up because your stomach is getting bigger then you are eating too much. But be cautious, you can expect to put some bodyfat on when trying to put muscle on, but you want to monitor that the dreaded fat isn't going on to much.

Another good method of checking which is going up, muscle or fat is to use a set of body fat calipers. By using the calipers every two weeks that will show exactly what is happening, if muscle is going down due to not eating enough then that will show with the calipers and you will need to eat more. If the calipers show that bodyfat percentage is going up then you need to eat less.

Decent gyms should offer a set of calipers, which should give you true readings as to the results as long as you ensure the same person takes measurements each time. Using the callipers and finding the millimeters and your bodyweight you can use the chart and find the percentage bodyfat you have.

If you take your bodyweight in pounds and times it by the bodyfat percentage then that will come out with your total bodyfat. Then take this figure from the total bodyweight and that will give you a figure for your fat free mass. The figure is not all muscle but includes internal organs, bones, etc, but just use the figure as muscle for our calculations.

The two figures you have just worked out, the total bodyfat and fat free mass, should be written down and kept. Then next time you have the measurements done you will see if the bodyfat percentage has gone up. You will find that if your food intake is right then with your exercise and nutrition the fat free mass will go up and the total bodyfat will go down. But if your not eating enough then you will find that the fat free mass, muscle, is going down and the bodyfat will go up. - 16955

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