Bodybuilding Nutrition Guide: What & When to Eat (2025)

Introduction — Nutrition Intake, Why the Ratio Matters?

As a bodybuilder, nutrition is one of the most important training elements. Nutrition can make or break your dedicated attempts. Even if you work out regularly, you will still not make all of your fitness goals without a proper diet.

For proper bodybuilding, you need a clear-cut ratio:
20% of your calorie intake should be protein foods
40% should be complex carbs
The rest should be from fibers or fats.

With regard to muscle strength building, the amount of protein you intake and your gym training are two of the most important components. You must blend these in order to get the muscle mass you want. This is not to discount the importance of the other aspects of nutrition like carbohydrates. These, too, are important in maintaining overall muscle health.

How to calculate nutrition intake

in order to make sure you get getting the right amounts of proteins, fats, and carbs, you need to calculate your nutrition intake. Keeping a log for a few days at a time can help you to make better calculations.

Step 1:

Start by recording the amount of food you have eaten throughout the day, making a note of the calories, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. You can use nutrition fact labels for the ingredients you use in regular cooking, or the USDA website for more specific information on the raw foods you are preparing. Packaged foods like canned tuna or meat should have a nutrition facts label. Restaurants should list this information on their website.

Step 2:

Add your total intake for each category at the end of the day

Step 3:

With your totals on hand, multiply your total grams of carbohydrates by four. This is the number of calories in one gram. This helps you determine how many calories total in your diet come from carbohydrates.

For example: If you have a standard diet of 2,000 calories, 150 grams of which are carbs, then a total of 600 or 30% of your calories are from carbs.

Step 4:

Once you have done this, multiply the total grams of fat by nine. This is the number of calories in one gram of fat. For example, if 80 grams of fat are consumed in one day, using the 2000 calorie example above, then 720 calories are derived from fat.

Step 5:

Now it is time to calculate the protein. Multiply the total protein by four. This is the number of calories in one gram. For example, if 50 grams of fat are consumed in one day, using the 2000 calorie example above, then 200 calories are derived from fat.

Be cautious about the size of your servings. For example, if you are reading the nutritional intake information on a label for wild rice, remember that it is for one serving size which might be the same as one cup. If, then, you consumed two cups, multiply this information by two.

There is an online nutritional intake tracker you can use online called the USDA SuperTracker or Bodybuilder.com. The online trackers can take into account things like age, sex, height, weight, fitness goals, and activity in order to give you more precise information not only on nutrition intake, but on calories burned based on activity level.

How can I tell my body type?

It is important to stick with the fundamentals until you see how your particular body type responds to training. Different body types respond very differently to training, and what works for one type will not necessarily work for another.

One method of categorizing body types recognizes three fun- damentally different physical types, called "somatotypes":

The ectomorph

Short upper body, long arms and legs, long narrow feet and hands, very little fat storage; narrow chest and shoulders; generally long, thin muscles.

The mesomorph

Large chest, long torso, solid muscle structure, and great strength.

The endomorph

Soft musculature, round face, short neck, wide hips, and heavy fat storage.

Of course, no one is totally one type but rather a combination of all three types. This system of classification recognizes a total of eighty-eight subcategories, which are arrived at by examining the level of dominance of each basic category on a scale of 1 to 7. For example, someone whose body characteristics were scored as ectomorphic (2), mesomorphic (6), and endomorphic (5) would be an endo-mesomorph, basically a well-muscled jock type but in- clined to carry a lot of fat.

Any body type can be developed by proper training and nutri- tion, but individuals with different body types will find it neces- sary to initially approach their training with different objectives, even though they may share the same long-term goals.

Protein

The foundation for building, repairing, and maintaining muscle tissue.

Protein is used by the body to build, repair, and maintain muscle tissue. Protein is made up of a number of amino acids, and the body cannot use the protein you ingest unless all of the necessary amino acids are present. However, the body itself can only produce some of these amino acids. The others, called the essential amino acids, have to be obtained from the foods you eat.

Some foods contain what is called complete protein, that is, they provide all the amino acids necessary to produce usable protein. Examples of these foods would be milk, eggs, meat, fish, and various vegetable products, such as soybeans. But even these foods contain differing amounts of usable protein per weight:

Protein Quality — Percent by Weight vs Net Utilization

Food	% Protein by Weight	% Net Protein Utilization
Soybean flour	42	61
Cheese	22–36	70
Meat and fowl	19–31	68
Fish	18–25	80
Eggs	12	94
Brown rice	8	70
Milk	4	82

This chart tells us, for example, that an egg contains only 12 percent protein by weight. Yet, because of the specific amino acids present in that protein, 94 percent of it can be used by your body. In contrast, 42 percent of soybean flour is protein, but the makeup of that protein is such that your body is able to use only 61 percent of it. So there is a big difference between how much protein a food contains and how much of that protein you can actually use to build muscle.

Protein Rating (Eggs = 100)

Food	Protein Rating
Eggs	100
Fish	70
Cow's milk	60
Lean beef	69
Soybeans	47
Dry beans	34
Peanuts	43
Whole-grain wheat	44
Brown rice	57
White rice	56
White potato	34

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are made up of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen synthesized by plants through photosynthesis.

Types of Carbohydrates

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Monosaccharides

Glucose (blood sugar)
Fructose (fruit sugar)
Galactose (milk sugar)

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Oligosaccharides

Sucrose (table sugar)
Lactose (milk sugar)
Maltose (malt sugar)

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Polysaccharides

Plant polysaccharides (starch & cellulose)
Animal polysaccharides (glycogen)

Simple carbohydrates, such as those found in fruits and processed sugar, metabolize very quickly in the body. Complex carbohydrates, starch and cellulose primarily, are found, respectively, in foods like potatoes and rice and in a wide variety of vegetables. Complex carbohydrates take longer to metabolize and therefore have a kind of "time-release" effect in providing energy to the body.

Carbohydrates are the easiest form of food for the body to convert into energy. Once ingested, carbohydrates are turned into glucose, which circulates in the bloodstream and fuels muscular contraction, and glycogen, which is stored in the muscles and the liver for future use. Adequate supplies of carbohydrate are essential for the serious bodybuilder for a number of reasons:

Carbohydrate is a primary form of energy for heavy and intense weight training.
Muscle size increases when glycogen and water are stored in the muscle cells.
Carbohydrates have a protein-sparing effect, preventing the body from burning protein for energy.
Carbohydrates fuel brain function — deprivation can severely affect mood, personality, and mental ability.

Carbohydrate Content in Common Foods

Food	% Carbohydrate by Weight
White rice (dry)	80%
Oats	66%
Potatoes	17%
Banana	23%
Whole wheat bread	49%
Apple	14%

Fats

Fats are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen like carbohydrates, but with a different structure. They occur in plants and animals and are insoluble in water. We group them as simple fats (triglycerides), compound fats (phospholipids, glycolipids, lipoproteins) and derived fats (cholesterol).

Fats provide the body’s major reserve of stored energy, cushion and protect organs, and insulate to preserve body heat. They are the most calorie-dense nutrient: ~3,500 calories per pound versus ~1,600 per pound of protein or carbohydrate.

During long exercise, fat contribution rises—after ~3 hours the body may obtain up to 80% of its energy from fat. Fat types include saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated. Diets high in saturated fat tend to raise blood cholesterol; aim for more unsaturated and polyunsaturated sources.

Saturated Fats

Food	% Fat by Weight
Beef	18%
Lamb	20%
Chicken	14%
Shellfish	3%
Egg yolks	10%
Cream	36%
Milk	3.5%
Cheese	33%
Butter	81%
Chocolate	31%
Lard	100%
Vegetable shortening	100%

Unsaturated Fats

Food	% Fat by Weight
Avocados	15%
Cashews	46%
Olives & Olive oil	11% (fruit) / 100% (oil)
Peanuts / Peanut butter / Peanut oil	49% / 50% / 100%

Polyunsaturated Fats

Food	% Fat by Weight
Almonds	49%
Cottonseed oil	100%
Margarine (usually)	80%
Pecans	72%
Sunflower oil	100%
Corn oil	100%
Fish	12%
Mayonnaise	75%
Safflower oil	100%
Soybean oil	100%
Walnuts	65%

Vitamins

Vitamins are organic substances that the body needs in minute amounts and that we ingest with our foods. Vitamins do not supply energy, nor do they contribute substantially to the mass of the body; rather, they act as catalysts — substances that help to trigger other reactions in the body.

There are two basic categories of vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. The water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body, and any excess amounts are flushed out in the urine. The fat-soluble vitamins are dissolved and stored in the fatty tissues of the body. It is necessary to take in water-soluble vitamins on a daily basis, but the fat-soluble vitamins can be ingested less often.

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Water-Soluble Vitamins

B1 (Thiamine)
B2 (Riboflavin)
B6 (Pyridoxine)
B12 (Cyanocobalamin)
Niacin
Pantothenic acid
Biotin
Choline
Folacin (Folic acid)
Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid)

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Fat-Soluble Vitamins

Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K

Minerals

Essential inorganic substances required in small quantities, minerals support metabolism and help build vital compounds like glycogen, proteins, and fats.

Minerals are inorganic substances that the body needs in very small quantities. There are twenty-two metallic elements in the body, which make up about 4 percent of total body weight.

Minerals are found abundantly in the soil and water of the planet and eventually are taken in by the root systems of plants. Human beings obtain minerals by eating the plants or by eating the animals that eat the plants. If you eat a variety of meats and vegetables in your diet, you can usually depend on getting a sufficiency of minerals.

The minerals in the body play a part in a variety of metabolic processes, and contribute to the synthesis of such elements as glycogen, protein, and fats.

Water

Water is often overlooked as a vital nutrient. It acts as a transport system for chemicals in the body and the medium where biochemical reactions among nutrients take place.

The body is made up of 40–60% water. Muscle is about 72% water by weight, while fat is only 20–25% water. This means diets or activities that cause excessive fluid loss can significantly reduce muscle size.

Bodybuilding Nutrition:
Find Your Body Type & Eat Smart

Introduction — Nutrition Intake, Why the Ratio Matters?