Step Two

Step Two:

Adjust your diet so that you're getting enough calories and the optimal protein, carbohydrate and fat percentages over six to seven feedings a day. Start this new diet as soon as you begin intense training.

    You've no doubt heard it said over and over again that you need protein and more protein in order to build muscle. The hard training bodybuilder does need protein, up to a point.(.85 to 1 gram for every pound of bodyweight is a good rule of thumb: that's 170 to 200 grams of protein for a 200 pound bodybuilder.) The real key to maximum growth, however, is intensity in the gym, which is directly related to the complex carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables and grains, that you eat.

    Carbohydrates supply your body with glycogen, the substance that's stored your in your liver and muscles and changed into sugar as your muscles need it for high-intensity contraction. In other words, the glycogen in carbs is high-octane fuel that your muscles require for intense all-out effort. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables. pasta, bread and other grains every day-enough to total 50 to 60 percent of your daily calorie intake- in combination with protein, and you'll rapidly replenish the glycogen stores in your muscles and liver, which will ensure the type of high-intensity performance in the gym that creates explosive muscle growth.

    A good place to start is with the Size Surge Diet outlined later in this work. This nutrition plan takes into account the fact that frequent feedings equal optimal recovery and rapid muscle growth. The reason it's so effective is because the muscle-growth process is a cumulative effect that takes place over a period of days after hard training. Therefore, you have have to make sure your system is never starved for the nutrients it needs to accomplish the goal of getting bigger and stronger, especially when it's recovery and building between training between training sessions. You must continually provide it with the elements it requires for hypertrophy-hence the six to seven meals-a-day schedule.

    You should eat every two to three hours and make sure that every meal includes a complex carbohydrate-for example, an apple, a banana or some dates-and a protein source-like milk, cottage cheese or yogurt. This strategy ensures that your system always has readily available the elements it needs for the intricate chemical process of growth to take place.

    Granted, many bodybuilders have a problem eating every few hours, and this is where the blender is a saving grace. You can whip up a nutritious blender concoction and drink it down, saturating your system with muscle-building nutrients without interrupting your schedule for more than 10 minutes. Here's the convenient blender drink that's used in the Size Surge Diet outlined later in this work. It's inexperience and quite effective for providing your system with what it needs for recovery and growth.

    Power Shake
    8 ounces lowfat blueberry yogurt
    1 medium banana
    1 cup of milk(2%)
    ice cubes for texture
    water to thin(if necessary)

    This drink gives you the following calorie and macronutrient totals:
    Calories 488
    Carbohydrates 80 grams
    Protein 24 grams
    Fat 8 grams

For more calorie punch you can add a couple of scoops of your favorite weight-gain or metabolic-optimizer powder.

    As mentioned above, a balanced diet is one that includes an ample supply of fruits, vegetables, grains and protein every day and provides you with 50 to 60 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent protein and 15 percent fat. It's a good idea to keep most of your meals close to these percentages as well so that you have this bodybuilding balance in your system at all times(see the macronutrient breakdowns of each meal in the Size Surge Diet.)

    For example in the Power Shake listed above there are:
Calories 488
    Carbohydrates 80 grams
    Protein 24 grams
    Fat 8 grams

    To figure the percentages you convert all of the macronutrient gram counts to calories, as follows.(Note that there are four calories in every gram of carbohydrate and protein and nine calories in every gram of fat.)

80 grams of carbs x 4 calories = 320 calories
    24 grams of protein x 4 calories = 96 calories
    8 grams of fat x 9 calories = 72 calories

    To find the percentage of each macronutrient, you divide each of these figures by the calorie total as follows:

    320 carb calories divided by 488 total calories = .65 or 65 percent
    96 protein calories divided by 488 total calories =.20 or 20 percent
    72 fat calories divided by 488 total calories = .15 or 15 percent

    The Power Shake's percentages are very close to the 60-to-25-15 macronutrient balance that's ideal for bodybuilders, which makes it a near perfect bodybuilding meal.
    Keep in mind that the Size Surge Diet is a sample schedule that you can use as a template for creating your own eating plan. Yes, you can follow it as it is, but you may want to tweak it because you'll doubt need more or fewer calories depending on your metabolism and activity level.
    For example, if you need to reduce your calorie count, you can do one or more of the following:
*delete a meal
*decrease the portions in one or more meals
*decrease your Power Shake intake

    If you need to add calories, you can do one or more of the following:
    *add a half or another whole Power Shake to the Size Surge Diet
    *increase your portions at one or more meals-for example, eat two tuna sandwiches instead of one or up your chicken
    and vegetable intake by a few ounces at dinner.
    *add weight-gain or metabolic-optimizer powder to one or all of your Power Shakes(this is by far the most convenient
    choice)

    Once again, it only takes a few extra calories more than your maintenance needs each day to build muscle. In fact, as Dorian Yates trained through his size-building phase for his '93 Mr. Olympia victory, his calorie intake hovered around 5,000-and he competed at a ripped 250 pounds. Obviously, if you weigh in the neighborhood 200 pounds or less , 3,500 to 4,000 calories should be plenty to keep growth coming at a rapid clip and may actually be more than enough.
    You can't force-feed your muscles into growing. Eating binges-even when they consist of nutritious foods-pack your physique with fat and do you absolutely no good because you'll eventually have to lose that fat if you want the solid bodybuilder look. Losing fat is a struggle for most people, plus there's the added dilemma of losing hard-earned muscle during the fat reduction process. A good strategy is, if your abdominal start to do a disappearing act, don't hesitate to roll back your calorie intake. Solid muscle-mass gains are what you're after, not definition-blurring fat.

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