With insights into how professional bodybuilders and athletes train now so easily accessible, people now believe that if they mimic everything they do, why wouldn’t this mean that they look like them? Often the two easiest things to change are how you train and what you eat. Really, that’s the only thing you do need to change to see a difference, baring recovery, but that’s another topic.
The workout is often the first thing to change, once every exercise, set and rep count is identical to the pro’s, its onto the food shop. Now it's wrong to assume your diet is going to be identical to anyone else’s anyway, unless you are the exact same age, weight, height, have the same activity level and lifestyle, but it's even more wrong to assume it if the person you’re attempting to copy is on steroids. Sorry if that came as a shock to you, but most professional bodybuilders are and must be to stay competitive.
Just to be clear, taking steroids, or any drug, will never correct a poor diet. If your diet is bad on or off drugs you will still get fat. It still comes down to the simple principle fr calories in vs calories out, that will never change. Steroids do, however, change the way your body operates and can help you out if you happen to have a bad day.
Someone training on steroids could be in a prolonged calorie deficit and never lose any muscle because of the way that drug impacts the body (damn them, right?). They could also eat over 350g of protein a day and benefit from it due to the massive increase in protein synthesis. In fact, they could also eat less protein than a natural lifter and still make better progress due to the improved uptake.
Copying a bodybuilders diet straight off the bat just isn’t going to work for most of us. For starters, how do you know if they are eating for growth or fat loss? How do you know if that number of calories even matches the amount you need, for the same goal? You just don’t. You can eat for 3 goals. To maintain your weight, to increase your weight or to lose weight. And that’s the same for everyone.
So, what is the best diet for a natural lifter? Well, it's really one that you can stick to in accordance to your goals after finding out what your calories and macronutrient split needs to be. This will be unique to you, so don’t worry if your bulking calories are 2900 and your favourite bodybuilders are 4500 or more.
A very simple way of figuring out your starting calories is by eating around 11-12 calories per pound of bodyweight for fat loss, and 15 to 16 calories per pound of bodyweight for bulking. So, for fat loss this would either be 2200-2400 calories per day and for bulking, 3200-3400 per day for someone weighing 200 pounds. These will of course change depending on your activity level, so use the example as a starting point. You should adjust calories weekly. If you aren’t gaining or losing weight at a healthy rate per week (1-2 lbs) then either add or decrease calories form your daily intake but not by too much, 200 a day will be enough. You don’t want to gain weight or lose weight too quickly, it can be unhealthy.
Protein should be at around 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. So for a person weighing 200 pounds that’s 200g of protein. Protein has 4 calories per gram so we already have 800 calories. Add another 200 grams of carbs, which are also 4 calories per gram and there’s another 800 calories to the daily total, which is now 1600. With fats at 9 calories per gram, adding in 70 grams daily would be 630 calories. The total calorie intake for the day would be 2230. Which is a great starting point for a fat loss phase for a person weighing 200 pounds.
Remember to keep your foods nutrient dense and avoid as many processed foods as possible. The quality of food you eat should match the quality of your workouts, which by the way, should be hard as hell regardless of whether you are trying to build muscle or maintain it on a cut. Don’t let lazy workouts ruin all the hard work you will be putting in in the kitchen now.
