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Is Your Bodybuilding Diet Plain Stupid?

If you are a bodybuilder and you just read the title of this article you will no doubt start to feel your temperature rise. Your grip on the mouse might start to tighten and your knuckles might even start to turn white!

The idea that your precious diet is "plain stupid" really just makes you mad.

For all you non-bodybuilders out there you will be wondering why they are getting so angry. It is quite simple really; bodybuilders are obsessed with their diet and they hate anyone who dares to suggest they might be doing it incorrectly. And because they lift weights all day and have such high testosterone levels they often let their angry thoughts get the better of them.

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So Why Are Bodybuilding Diets Stupid?
I suppose I should explain myself instead of just angering a bunch of really strong people; many of whom are probably much bigger than myself!

Bodybuilding diets are stupid because of the underlying motivation. Bodybuilders are concerned with getting big and getting big quickly. If its not about getting big then it is about getting cut and getting cut quickly. Both of these bodybuilding goals fail to address the scared little guy in the corner - your health.

My many years in the martial arts and bodybuilding gyms have shown me that bodybuilders will almost always put their muscle gains ahead of their health. They will try supplements without knowing the side effects, they will use fat burners without understanding how it works and so on.

If you are sitting there saying: "No, no, no... that's not me" then ask yourself this question: "What negative effects does all that protein you are eating have on your body?"

Can you answer it?

Probably not.

And this is where my problem lies with bodybuilding diets; much of the time they are ill-researched, poorly thought out and very rushed. They don't put health first and they don't consider the long term.

So How Do I Make My Bodybuilding Diet Effective AND Smart?

If you think you might be guilty of having a stupid bodybuilding diet then there are a few active things you can do to change.

Firstly, read and then read some more. Scour the Internet and find out what is healthy. Find out what works. Most importantly, find out what is dangerous and avoid it.

Secondly, make a firm vow that you will never again put ego driven muscle gain ahead of a long and healthy life. When your body no longer functions the way it should because you juiced up on so much junk when you were 20 you will not know how to forgive yourself. Or explain it to your children...

Thirdly, listen to your body. Constipation and stomach problems are a huge sign that all is not well inside you. If your toilet time is not enjoyable then you are sick. You need to make changes. Headaches, muscle cramps, excessive thirst and so on are all indications that your diet might be a little off. Listen to it.

Conclusion
Bodybuilding and health do go hand in hand. It is a relationship that you need to work on and pay attention to. Lifting weights can be extremely good for you but it can also be very negative. Make sure you are looking after your long term health as well as your short term appearance.

Do you have a stupid bodybuilding diet?


About the Author
RT is the owner and creator of Real Muscle Online, a large "real" fitness and health portal on the net. Real Muscle Online is about providing people with free information to get real health and real fitness without the bull.

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11 Comments

RT

That's it! Simple concept that hardly anyone follows.

RT

Reply
Fitness_Fanatic

One of the biggest prongs of body-building is carbo-loading days where they jump the carb intake by a factor of 10. I wouldn't even think of doing something like that because of the inflammatory effects alone. Basically it's all about fat-loss/muscle-building REAL fast w/o consideration for long-term health.

Reply
Kailash

Negative effects of high protein diet:
- If you don't eat enough fat or carbs as well, your body will preferentially burn protein for fuel and you will likely end up burning your muscle like a damned fool.
- If you don't eat enough alkaline foods, like vegetables, your blood will become acidic and the body will need to release its storage of buffers to bring pH back in-line.

So neither is a negative effect of protein, but rather how the body will react to the lack of a balanced diet.

------------------

This is a good post, though. It got me to rethink my use of some supplements that I have been taking.

I had for the longest time only taken regular foods as a supplement. Stuff like fish oil and amino acids, liver tablets and greens powder.

But, now that I am cutting, I have been taking some herbs that are in no way food-like. Specifically vitex and a twice-daily ECY stack (ephedra, caffeine and yohimbine).

They'll be taken out again, just as soon as I've got abs.

The norephinephrine is not a good feeling. Maybe my body is different, but I don't understand how caffeine junkies can put up with it.

Yes, I'm a damned fool, an impatient fool!

I at least want to remember when I'm cut, how much I may have suffered from biological process modifying herbs put into an otherwise healthy body.

Then, hopefully, I will eat more sensibly in the future, to not perform such a protocol again.

Reply
Online Health

Yes,writer is right i have also seen lot of people who are ready to eat any supplement which can help them to gain muscles faster.

Reply
Villy

Bodybuilder-boys are great chemists :)

Reply
SCal
Fitness_Fanatic said:
One of the biggest prongs of body-building is carbo-loading days where they jump the carb intake by a factor of 10. I wouldn't even think of doing something like that because of the inflammatory effects alone. Basically it's all about fat-loss/muscle-building REAL fast w/o consideration for long-term health.[...]


Fish oil everyday my friend.

Reply
William "Bill" Foster

Not to burst your bubble, but I'm fairly sure that the health effects of a bodybuilding diet are beside the point.

The point is - muscle gains. At more or less, any cost - be it liver, kidney function, joint health or mobility etc. That is the pursuit.

It would be like saying "Boxers: is your sport stupid? Research the effects of blows to the head."

Your point is valid in an everyday non-bodybuilding context... but invalid in it's given context.

Reply
Body Building Diet

Body Building Diet
You are working hard and sweating it out because you want to build hard muscles. You want to lose all your fats and you’re thinking that you have to limit your intake of food while doing your body building exercises; combining body building and diet.
If you have grown to believe that combining both exercise and diet is the ideal solution to losing weight and gaining muscles, you have come to the right conclusion. But starving yourself is not the right kind of diet while you are doing body building. In fact you need to be eating a lot more.

Reply
j

I believe the coined term "eating clean" is a healthy and balanced diet. The exact contradiction is the modern western diet. Perhaps, bodybuilders ease on protein, calorie, and macronutrient counting in their off-season, when not preparing for a show, but stick to clean foods.

Reply
Natural Bodybuilder

A proper bodybuilding diet with a balance of healthy protein, natural carbs, a plethora of fibrous vegetables and healthy fats is perhaps one of the best "diets" anyone can follow. This article is way too general and puts everyone in the same basket. There are differences between natural bodybuilders, athletes who choose to use pharmaceuticals and those who are competitive. I will agree that some people tend to go overboard on calories and junk food when they are trying to gain muscle but that is simply because of misinformation. Natural bodybuilders who dont even use supplements in many cases have the most perfect diets anyone can find. Athletes who use anabolic steroids in order to reach a certain goal faster MUST eat more calories in order to make the drugs works better. Those who are competitive have to diet hard but their diet only gets "unhealthy" the last few days before a show, where they have to show up as dry as possible. A proper bodybuilding diet will always be MUCH healthier than your average new diet plan on the market, including low carb diets.

Reply
kami

sir all is good
plz send me some more effective information
thanks

Reply

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