Nutritional approaches and guidelines

How many caloires do i need?

Bodybuilding is split up into two phases across a macrocycle: The offseason and Competition preparation (50), each of which will be the main factor upon the individuals calorie demand.

Off-season

The focus of the Off-season for most, is to build more muscle mass to 'improve' their physique. From this, this will automatically mean their calorie demand will increase and require them to be within a calorie surplus.
Literature states that in order to maximally increase muscle mass, a hyper-caloric state (>600kcal) is necessary, demonstrating greater increases than a small surplus (200-300kcal) (51).
However this doesn't necessarily mean it is the most 'optimal'. The hyper-caloric group also demonstrated greater levels of body fat percentage when compared to the lower surplus (51).
Avoiding unnecessary increase in body fat is key for bodybuilding as a rapid increase may cause numerous such as: shorter offseason, longer periods of low energy availability and longer preparation periods (50). So starting with a smaller surplus (300-500kcals) maybe more advantageous.

Competition preparation

To facilitate fat loss, more calories are needed to be expended than consumed in order to create an energy deficit.
The specific caloric demand will depend totally on the individual, however when determining the deficit it should be noted that lean body mass loss is influenced by the size of the deficit (3).
In addition, larger deficits also are correlated with a greater reduction in strength. A study by showed that individuals who lost 1kg per week compared to those who lost only 0.5kg, demonstrated a 5% greater decrease in bench press strength (52).
Therefore a lower decrease in bodyweight per week (0.5kg/1% of body weight) is advised to ensure preservation of lean body mass.

Setting up for competition preparation

In this interview we speak to Dan Steel, an amateur bodybuilder. We delve into how he sets up for his competition prep, his training and what advice he would give for others within the sport.

Dan interview.mp4

Macronutrient breakdown

Following calorie calculation, these needs to made up through combination of the three macronutrients: Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats.
The ratio of these will once again depend on the individual and their current body composition. There are some 'guidelines' we advice individuals should follow to help retain and increase lean body mass.

Hydration

Hydration is key for maintaining and optimising performance, as it evident when a individual is dehydrated, their performance is often adversely effected (51).

The effects of dehydration

If water levels within the body decrease it provokes a negative change to cardiovascular, thermoregulatory, metabolic and central nervous system function that will increasingly decline if not fixed, this is known as hypohydration (52).
Depending on the magnitude of fluid loss, performance is shown to decrease to as much as 30% during maximal effort attempts (51).

Hydration status

Clinically it is determined that the best way to measure hydration status is through the colour of urine as it is the most sensitive to change (53) .
The colour of urine is determined by the amount of urochrome, a breakdown product of haemoglobin (54) .
This acts as a dilute, so the more excess fluid there is the paler the colour, the less excess fluid, the darker the colour the urine will be (54).

How much do we need to drink?

Literature recommends that athelets as a whole, should be intaking around 400-800ml/h (57) to ensure adequate hydration, in addition to slighter increased intake around the training period as sweat increases (>1.5l/h) (58) . However this will totally depend on individual differences such as sweat rate, sweat sodium concentration, kidney function and specifically for bodybuilding, hydration plans.

Electrolyte balance

In addition to fluid in take, we must ensure that sufficient electrolytes are also digested along side our water and food consumption.
On average, an athlete who drinks 5 litres of water a day will loose around 4,600-5,750mg of sodium throughout the day through sweating (Around 11.5-14.4g of salt) (51).
However, sodium loss does not directly impact performance, but replacing lost sodium chloride will aid voluntary fluid intake, protect plasma volume and decrease urine production, thus preserving hydration status (52).

Page updated

Report abuse