A complete and practical guide to diet for bodybuilding

Posted on: 02/24/2025

Good nutrition is essential for success in bodybuilding. Along with training, it's one of the keys to achieving your goal, whether it's muscle gain, weight gain or fat loss. It's what we eat that enables us to rebuild and recover our muscles after an effort. It's also what you eat that determines your fat content, much more than cardio. Many beginners and even advanced athletes find it difficult to progress and achieve their goals because they rely solely on training. But without a food plan and with a haphazard diet, you risk going nowhere. Or waste a lot of time.

The aim of this article is to give you the basics of nutrition and to cover the important points you need to know about eating your way out of it. It will help you design a diet to suit your goals, so you can make faster progress.

Determine your caloric needs

This is one of the most important points: knowing how many calories our body needs. Yes, the body needs energy to function, and this energy comes from our meals. These calories are essential for good health. For example, an active man needs around 2400 to 2600 kcal a day to stay at the same weight. And a woman 1800 to 2200 kcal. This is the famous DEJ or "Dépense Énergétique Journalière" (Daily Energy Expenditure), a figure that will come in very handy depending on your goal.

Want to lose weight? You need to consume fewer kcal than your DEJ.
Do you want to gain weight or muscle? You need to consume more calories than your DEJ.
Want to stay at the same weight? Just swallow as many calories as your DEJ, every day.

Simple, isn't it? To find out your DEJ, you can use a formula or calculator like the one on this page. You'll have a rough idea, a benchmark, and you'll need to adjust with practice.

"In general, if you're into bodybuilding, fitness or Crossfit, and want to build muscle, you need to add between 200 and 400 kcal to your daily calories. This varies from person to person. Thin people may need to exceed 500 kcal to put on mass, while those who put on fat easily may need to stay below the low range. For those who want to lose weight, slim down, or play with their body composition (gain muscle and lose fat), you'll need to consume fewer calories than you need. Start by dropping 300 kcal from the DEJ, then continue to drop to 500 kcal to lose even more - and/or increase cardio -, then go back up a little."

Just know that it's not possible to gain a lot of muscle while losing fat, unless you're just starting out and you've got excess fat (overweight/obese). Don't run two hares at once! Try to gain muscle by putting your body in the right conditions, with even a modest caloric surplus. Do you still have fat? You'll lose it later with a diet and/or weight loss.

Understanding macronutrients

Now that you know more about calories, let's take a look at macronutrients. Macronutrients are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Together, these 3 groups of nutrients are essential for the body to have the energy to function, as well as the elements to develop. Together, they form the broad outlines of our diets, and must be consumed in the right quantities to enable effective development.

To set your total calories, you've determined your maintenance, your DEJ. Now you need to use the right nutrients to reach your desired calorie total. All you need to do is consume 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight, 1 to 1.5 grams of fat per kilo, and the remainder in carbohydrates. Do you weigh 70 kg? You need: 70 x 2 = 140 grams of protein. Do the same for lipids.

The amount of carbohydrates is therefore the main variable in the diet, but should not be set below 100 grams, even on a diet. Similarly, fats are essential to your hormonal functioning, and omegas are important for your health. Cutting them out of your diet won't reduce your fat intake, and won't help you lose weight. Several studies have shown that total calories are the key to weight loss, and that low-carb diets are no more effective than low-fat diets.

Protein intake should be kept to a minimum. Taking in too much is not productive and will not lead to better muscle gain, nor will taking in too little. And don't forget to eat plenty of vegetables to maintain your acid-base balance.

Choosing the right food for bodybuilding

Calorie intake, DIE, nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats) and how much of each to consume according to your goal, you now have all these elements in hand. But what should you eat? Which foods are best for muscle gain or fat loss ?

The best sources of protein for building muscle are animal proteins, as they are more complete. These naturally include meat (lean beef, chicken, turkey), fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines), eggs and dairy products (fromage blanc, plain yoghurt, cheese). But plant proteins should also play an important role in your diet. Choose from cereals (quinoa, brown rice, oats, buckwheat), legumes (kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, split peas, broad beans), oilseeds (almonds, pistachios, cashews, walnuts) and seeds (walnuts, flax, sunflower).

Lipids are important, and you shouldn't limit them too much, even if you're on a diet. The lipid sources you should prefer are healthy oils (olive, walnut, rapeseed), oilseeds (almonds, walnuts), oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), avocado and whole eggs.

Carbohydrates will be the adjustment variable, allowing you to reach your calorie quota for muscle gain. Choose foods with a low Glycemic Index (or GI). Choose raw, unprocessed products such as wholegrain cereals and legumes. Oat flakes, baked potatoes, wholemeal or sourdough bread, legumes such as lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, semi-branched rice, not forgetting wholegrain or semi-branched rice and pasta come to mind. Eat plenty of vegetables (low-calorie) and some fruit for their vitamin and mineral content, and their "basifying" effect on the body.

Distribute nutrients evenly throughout the day

All the nutrients you ingest should be spread throughout your day, with the most important meals being those around the time of training.

The pre-workout meal should therefore contain some protein (20-30g) and carbohydrates (60-100g), and be eaten between 1h30 and 3 hours before exercise. The post-training meal should be the highest-calorie meal of the day, and as close as possible to the training session, even if it's in the evening.

Since it's your total calories that define your weight loss or gain, eating at night, in the morning or at any other time won't make any difference, but eating after training will promote muscle gain, so it's an essential moment. Meals should contain all the nutrients you need, especially the meal after training.

In terms of meal frequency, except in special cases, a good rhythm is to eat 3 to 4 meals a day, concentrating calories as much as possible around training, and distributing their nutrients equally on the other days.

Each meal should contain at least 20g of protein. You should also remember to drink regularly, especially during and after training. Dehydration has negative effects on muscle building, but also on your health.

Adapting your diet over time

It's important to adapt your calorie intake to your body's evolution. Weigh yourself and keep an eye on both the mirror and your fat content. sIf you gain (or lose) weight too quickly, you'll need to adjust your quantities. A good starting point for mass gain is to start with 10-20% more calories than you would on maintenance. Similarly, for fat loss, you can start with 10-20% fewer calories. Be careful, however, not to adjust your intake too quickly, as weight gain and loss are not linear. Always wait 2 or 3 weeks before concluding that you've stagnated, if nothing moves either visually or on the scale.

How do you create a meal plan ?

Now you know the basics of bodybuilding nutrition. Now it's time to set up your diet. Bear in mind that this is still a diet plan, and that it can't necessarily be followed every day due to the vagaries of life. It's a plan to be followed as closely as possible, a guideline. So adapt it according to your habits and possibilities. The number of calories counts, and so does the proportion between nutrients. But the quantity of each meal will depend on your cravings. If you're used to eating little in the morning, don't force yourself if you don't feel like it. Eat more at other times, but the final daily tally should be good!

Meal organization

Here's an example of how to organize a day with 4 meals:

Breakfast: 7:30 a.m
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Training: 4:30 p.m
Dinner: 7 p.m

With 5 meals :

Breakfast: 6:30 a.m
Morning snack: 9:30 a.m
Lunch: 12:30 p.m
Training: 2 p.m
Post-training snack: 3:30 p.m
Dinner: 7:30 p.m

Or :

Breakfast: 7:00 a.m
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Training: 5:00 p.m
Post-training snack: 6:30 p.m
Dinner: 8:00 p.m

To sum up, to implement your meal plan you need to :

1 - Define your objective: muscle gain, weight gain and/or weight loss.

2 - Calculate your approximate calorie needs (DEJ).

3 - Set a number of kcal to reach according to your goal.

4 - Calculate and distribute proteins, carbohydrates and lipids.

5 - Implement the plan using the list of recommended foods.

Examples of meals:

Here is an example of an eating plan for muscle gain with minimum fat for a 70 kilo man:

Breakfast

Bowl of muesli with fromage blanc, almonds and red fruit + 1 tea (or)
2 fried eggs, sourdough bread, 1 banana + 1 coffee

10 a.m. snack

High-protein bar + 1 banana + almonds

Lunch

150g raw vegetables (15g olive oil sauce) + Saithe fillet (200g) + Wholegrain rice (150g) + Steamed green beans (100g)

4 p.m. snack

Shaker whey protein + plant milk (200 ml) + instant rolled oats (or)
Skyr (200g) + 2 bananas + dried fruit (15g).

Dinner

Green salad with healthy dressing + Spanish tortilla (eggs, potatoes or kidney beans, onions).

Tips for your diet

Compromise! You're into it? That's great, but don't forget to live too. Many beginners are very strict and tend to eat the same thing over and over again. This lasts for a few months, but doesn't last because of fatigue or lack of motivation. You have to be able to maintain your diet over time. So, yes, you have to stick to the diet, but you can vary it and still stick to it. Give yourself some "cheat meals" to help you stick to your diet.

Make it your own! Your diet should be created specifically for you, not a copy of someone else's diet. It must be adapted to your needs. You need to get to know yourself and your body's needs. Some foods will be good for you, while others will cause digestive problems. You need to listen to yourself and identify the diet that suits you best, that keeps you motivated and happy to eat your meals.

Make your diet evolve! Nothing is set in stone. Remember to vary your quantities regularly, and make your diet evolve. You may well have one diet for your training days and another on days when you're not training. When dieting, whether during a lean period or when building muscle or mass, you need to weigh yourself regularly and adapt if your weight doesn't move or your figure doesn't change in the mirror. A review every 3 weeks is a good average.

What diet is best for building muscle ?

To gain muscle mass when you're bodybuilding, you need to consume more calories than your daily requirements and exceed your TDI. In the jargon of this sport, this is called "mass gain". But mass gain can be either clean (with as little fat as possible) or bulking (for weight gain). The former is designed for normal-weight, athletic (mesomorphic tendencies) or overweight (endomorphic tendencies) people, to minimize fat gain. The second is for skinny people (ectomorphs) who are unable to put on weight. To achieve this, you need to consume 200 to 400 kcal more than the DEJ, as a caloric surplus. In general, mesomorphs need 200 to 300 kcal more, and ectomorphs with a very active metabolism, 400 or even more (500 to 1000 kcal in some cases!). Overweight endomorphs often need to eat better, to rebalance their diet without necessarily swallowing more calories, at least initially.

As time goes by and you build muscle, you may need to increase this caloric surplus to gain, as the extra muscle mass requires calories to maintain. Try it out and adapt accordingly.

In practice, a good weight gain for a normal person will be around 1 kg per month. More is likely to be mostly fat (unless you're very lean), and less (or weight stagnation) may reflect a lack of calories.

What diet is best for losing weight ?

If your goal is weight loss, and you're severely overweight or obese, you need to consume fewer calories than you need. You need to reduce calories gradually, as explained above. Reduce by -300 kcal compared with your initial EAT, then continue to reduce until you reach -500 kcal to continue losing weight. Then work your way back up. The aim? To avoid going into starvation mode and prevent muscle loss. Cardio-training will help you modulate this.

If your objective is simply to lose a little weight, a diet with a balanced diet will suffice (eat better and a little less). As for the speed of weight loss, aim for a loss of 500 grams to 1 kilo per week. Be patient and don't rush. All the more so as sport helps you put on muscle, the right kind of weight.

Bodybuilders can also opt for a "dry period", i.e. a period designed to eliminate fat while retaining the muscle acquired during mass gain. It's not for beginners to bodybuilding, but for those who have acquired a good muscular base.

In any case, make sure you monitor the effectiveness of your diet by weighing yourself regularly and adjusting the calories. Also keep an eye on the mirror and whether you're swimming in your clothes. If you're not losing enough or if you're stagnating (or more cardio), you'll decrease the calories, and if you're really losing too much, you'll increase them. Beginners tend to lower calories too much, which "blocks" natural fat loss and sets off "starvation mode". The result is stagnation, muscle loss and yo-yoing.

Finally, cardio-training (running, cycling, swimming, walking, etc.) helps with weight loss, as it burns calories. Do 3 good 45-minute sessions a week, but separate from weight training (if possible) or afterwards. But remember that the most effective way to lose weight is through diet. Cardio won't work miracles !