Whats the ideal diet for a bodybuilder?
It is important to get enough protein in your diet, from foods such as red meat and eggs, as amino acids are essential for making new muscle proteins. In a 2004 paper, Charles Lambert, then at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and colleagues recommended that protein make up 25 to 30 per cent of a bodybuilder’s diet. During exercise, most of the energy for muscle work comes from carbohydrates that have been broken down into glucose and converted to glycogen. Lambert’s team reckoned carbs should make up around 55 to 60 per cent of a bodybuilder’s energy intake. Before a photo shoot, some male models are known to go to drastic lengths to look their most buff. A pre-shoot drinking binge dehydrates the skin, so it is pulled taut over the muscles to accentuate them. A healthier way to look your best would be to cut fat intake, says Phillips. But cutting out too much fat could be a mistake. Lambert thinks fat should make up around 15 to 20 per cent of total energy intake. Reducing fa
