Nutrition for bodybuilders

[WayneRooney]

Hello John and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

Rip mentioned that you have experience with nutrition for physique competitors. As an aspiring bodybuilder, I would be interested in your opinion regarding bulking and cutting.

Should I follow GOMAD until I reach my target weight and then cut or would I be better off taking a more incremental approach to mass gain? My primary goals are all strength related at the moment as I appreciate that I need to build a solid foundation.

Once again, thanks for your time.

[Johnny Pain]

If you intend to get into Bodybuilding, nutrition is going to be the most valuable tool that you have.

I would start being conscious of your diet now. Even while doing the GOMAD approach you can be aware of what and when you're eating, diet refers to what you eat day to day, and doesn't necessarily mean fat loss or weight loss. You can diet to grow as well.

I am not a fan of traditional "bulking" and "cutting", you are capable of pushing your bodyweight up quite a bit on a novice progression while minimizing the fat accumulation. This isn't done by depriving yourself of needed calories as the ab worship crowd tries to do, but rather mainly by timing your meals and partitioning your macronutrients intelligently to avoid storing a ton of fat that you will then need to take off later.

As I mentioned before, I will be addressing a lot of these topics in my upcoming DVD Beyond GOMAD.

[WayneRooney]

Thanks for the reply.

I will certainly check out the DVD when it arrives. In the meantime, what do you recommend in terms of supplements? Is the 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight approach necessary? Is it worth taking a multi-vitamin? And creatine?

Apologies for the barrage of questions. I am genuinely interested in nutrition as I appreciate how important it is in the sport of bodybuilding. I think I've got the training locked down with SS but nutrition seems to be a more complicated beast.

[gordonrumble]

Any ETA on the DVD?

[Johnny Pain]

Thanks for the reply.

I will certainly check out the DVD when it arrives. In the meantime, what do you recommend in terms of supplements? Is the 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight approach necessary? Is it worth taking a multi-vitamin? And creatine?

Again, if you could provide some information about yourself I could give you a better idea of what you should be looking at, but assuming you're growing and relatively lean:

1g per lb of protein would be bare minimum, and that would be normally for a person trying to lose bodyfat. If you are lean and growing I would put that number between 1.5-2g per lb. A good protein powder makes this possible.

A multivitamin is a must, particularly if your diet is not all that great. Just get the cheapest store brand generic Centrum rip-off.

Creatine is an excellent supplement that honestly everyone should be taking. Just get straight creatine monohydrate without any of the fancy "delivery systems" (sugar) and take 5-10g ED. Don't bother doing the "loading phase" it will talk about on the bottle, it is not necessary.

It is important to note that supplements are exactly that, supplements
they work with a good diet, not in place of one.

[Johnny Pain]

Any ETA on the DVD?

It will be out in 2010 I can tell you that. It is in production currently.