What’s going on, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, www.SeanNal.com and in this video today I’m going to be sharing with
you the very simple truth of what the best muscle building diet is to help you gain muscle
effectively from week to week while keeping bodyfat gains to a minimum.
This is something that most lifters way overcomplicate, especially beginners, and with all the different
information out there that’s available nowadays, all the articles and videos telling you what
the best muscle building foods are or the exact macro nutrient ratio you need to follow
is -- pre-workout meals, post workout meals, bedtime nutrition, intra-workout nutrition
-- all these different factors.
With all that stuff, a big percentage of lifters are under the impression that proper muscle
building nutrition is this hugely complex thing that needs to be carefully monitored
at every hour of the day.
Now, the truth is that for the average lifter the things you actually need to focus on are
pretty simple and straight forward and it’s actually just a couple very basic factors
that are going to make up the huge majority of your results and that will get you close
to your genetic potential on their own.
If you’re a more advanced lifter who’s already close to their genetic potential and
let’s say you’re trying to squeeze out every possible ounce of growth and you’ve
been at this for five plus years and bodybuilding is your passion or you’re competing then
paying more attention to those smaller details would become more necessary.
But for most of you who are watching this who just want to build a great physique but
body building and fitness isn’t your whole life and you’re not trying to go to the
extreme with it, it’s just not necessary to micro manage all the small details.
And it’s probably, actually, counterproductive because it will create unnecessary stress
and it will decrease the chances that you’ll actually stick to your bodybuilding program
long term.
So what is the best bulking diet for the average trainee?
There are a couple of other factors that I’ll mention here in a second, but to put it very
simply the best muscle building diet is going to be a reasonably balanced, minimally processed
wholefood diet that allows you to meet your total calorie needs for the day.
That is the vast majority of it.
As long as you’re getting a good balanced mix of minimally processed protein carbon
fat sources and you’re hitting your overall daily calorie target, you’re probably doing
ninety percent plus of what you need to do in order to optimize your muscle gains.
Now, obviously, calorie aren’t the only thing that ammeters because it’s also important
that you get enough protein for muscle recovery and growth, it’s also important that you
get enough fat in order to keep your testosterone levels in the right range.
But if you’re eating a fairly standard diet where your main meals are based on some sort
of protein and carb combination, which something that most people just naturally do anyway
even if they don’t workout, if you’re doing that and you’re including a healthy
fat source or two during the day and you’re not going out of your weight to eat lowfat
then your protein and fat needs will usually just get hit automatically without even trying.
Because you don’t need a huge amount of either of them in the first place to begin
with and because you’re eating in a calorie surplus your overall daily food take is going
to be higher and so your margin for error in terms of hitting those macro minimum is
going to be a lot smaller.
0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight will likely be enough to maximize you gains,
which is only a hundred and thirty-five grams for a one hundred and seventy pound person.
And then about twenty-five percent of your total calorie is coming from fat would be
a good guideline there.
That’s pretty easy to hit as well.
So, if your diet is reasonably balanced and you’re eating in a surplus, it’s pretty
unlikely that you’ll undershoot those numbers.
Now, if you’re on a type of diet that is lower protein or lower fat by default like
a vegan diet, for example, or if you just don’t eat much protein or fat to begin with
then, yeah, you will want to double check to make sure that you’re getting enough
of those.
But for most people it really won’t be an issue and you’ll likely just get enough
without even having to really try.
And on top of that as long as you’re not intentionally restricting a particular macronutrient
or going really high on one macro for some reason, again, as long as things were decently
balanced throughout the day you’re exact macro breakdown is not going to be that big
of a deal when you’re bulking.
For example, it doesn’t actually matter if a higher percentage of your surplus comes
from carbs or fat because your body naturally will adapt to type of fuel you’re getting
and you won’t gain more or less bodyfat either way.
So, you can go a bit higher carb and a bit lower fat or vice versa.
Or if you went a bit higher protein and a bit lower carb or a bit higher fat and a bit
lower protein, again, as long as you’re meeting the minimums for each of those macronutrients
inter changing them a bit is probably not going to make a noticeable difference to your
results.
So tracking exact macros just becomes unnecessary.
And this is something that I really want to move more toward with my advice and that is
to encourage people to gravitate more toward a more intuitive style of eating.
Some tracking is obviously necessary if you’re serious about your results but I’d much
rather see people just focused on total calories and then roughly estimate their macros because
precise macro tracking just isn’t going to be sustainable for most people and it’s
probably not necessary either, unless fitness is your life and you compete or something
along those sort of lines.
When you’re in a focused cutting phase then it’s a bit different because you’re in
a deficit and so you’re going to have fewer calories to work with and so you do need to
track things a bit more closely to make sure that you’re getting enough of each macronutrient
jus for health reasons.
But in a surplus it’s usually not going to be a big issue.
Now, at the same time, I’m not encouraging people to be lazy here either because building
an impressive standout physique does take work and it does take consistency, so don’t
overlook the fact that calories do matter.
If you’re trying to maximize your muscle gains and you’re not getting enough total
calories then you’re not going to build muscle at your full potential or you might
not even build any real noticeable muscle at all.
And if you go high on calories then you’re going to gain an excessive amount of bodyfat.
Some people, especially those with good genetics, can eat more on the fly and just estimate
things by eating a bit more than normal and still get great results that way.
But if you’re a beginner and you’re serious about this for the long term then I would
recommend that you have a reasonable idea of what your calorie needs are for muscle
growth and how closely you’re hitting them.
And then going through a period of temporary nutritional tracking just to learn the ropes
because that’s going to teach you which foods contain what and how that fits into
the day as a whole as well as what your calorie needs are for maintenance and for muscle growth
and for fatloss, it will just served you really well moving forward.
And as you become more experienced, and especially if you tend to eat a lot of the same things
during most days like I do, then often you can just fall into a rhythm with it and you
might not need to track things that closely.
You’ll just get naturally better at it overtime as well.
I have gone over a few different ways to calculate your daily calorie needs for muscle growth
in previous videos, and of if you haven’t seen those or if you’re unsure then you
can check the description box and I’ll lay everything out for you step-by-step there.
You obviously do want to double check that you’re getting enough total protein and
enough total fat to be sure but as long as you clearly are then it really shouldn’t
be something that you have to specifically track or at least not that you have to track
it very closely.
I’d also say to ideally split your meals up into at least three separate protein feedings.
Two will still be effective, something like intermittent fasting, but I would say ideally
three, and then from there just structure your eating plan in whatever way is most enjoyable
and most sustainable for you.
There are no must eat bodybuilding foods.
There are no special pre or post-workout combinations that are going to make a huge difference to
your results.
There’s no magical macronutrient ratio and as long as you’re getting two to three protein
feedings then meal frequency and meal timing likely isn’t going to make a noticeable
impact on your gains.
Remember that fitness is not a quick fix.
This is an ongoing way of life.
So you need to find a way of eating that you can reasonably see yourself following over
the long term and that you can genuinely enjoy.
If every day is a struggle dietwise then you’re definitely doing something wrong.
Because as long as you take some time to plan things out there’s no reason why you can’t
fully enjoy your meals or why you should be straining to meet your nutritional needs.
And also remember that fitness is just one aspect of your life and you only have so much
mental energy available each day in the first place.
So if you’re obsessively tracking every aspect of your diet in super detail, not only
is that going to be unnecessary and stressful but it will actually be detracting from your
life as a whole by burning up mental energy that you could use on other things.
It’s going to decrease the chances that you’ll actually stick with it and it’s
going to make regular day-to-day things a lot less enjoyable, like going out to eat
with friends and family, for example.
Again, if you are a more advance lifter and fully maximizing your results is important
to you then you can start fine tuning all those little nutritional details to try and
squeeze out a few percent of extra gains.
But a few percent is probably exactly what you’re looking at, and so for the typical
trainee, especially beginners it’s much better to just stick with the basics and the
basics alone should take you close to your genetic potential anyway.
So, I hope this was helpful.
If you do want to grab a fully structured plan that covers everything you need to know
to maximize your gains in those initial beginning stages and up to the intermediate stage and
beyond in a practical and sustainable way; the workout plans, the meal plans, supplement
guides, along with one-on-one coaching so you can just put it the work and know that
you’re doing everything properly with no guess work involved then you can download
my Body Transformation Blueprint by clicking the little icon at the top of the screen.
Or by heading over to www.BTBlueprint.com the link for that is in the description box.
Make sure to like the video, leave a comment and subscribe if you haven’t already.
The official blog is over at www.SeanNal.com and you can follow Facebook and Instagram
as well if you aren’t already, the links for that are also in the description box.
Thanks again for watching, guy, and I will see you in the next video.