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When it comes to bodybuilding diets for men, the internet is filled to the brim with sample diets, tips and tricks, diet plans, and various meal options. However, when you try to find bodybuilding diets for women, you often only end up with out of date articles or with diets that are aimed solely at losing weight.
So, what about you who doesn’t just want to lose weight but also gain lean muscle mass?
Here we have created a list of points that you should consider when creating your own custom diet plan for female bodybuilding.
And if you are wondering why we didn’t just create a meal plan and try to convince you to buy it, it is because every woman is different.
This means that you have a different body condition, physique, metabolism, and tastes than other women, making a diet plan made for me, unsuitable for any other woman.
After you read this article, you will be equipped with the information and resources to ensure that your body and mind get the foods and nutrients they need to ensure you reach your bodybuilding goals in no time.
So, let’s get started with talking about calories:
Calories Are They Important For Bodybuilding?
Before anything else, know that calories are not your enemy. They are required by your body to provide you with the energy to eat, talk, workout and live. The concept of gaining and losing weight is simple:
- If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight
- If you burn fewer calories than you consume, you will gain weight
When it comes to the effects of diet and food on your calories, you need to keep an eye on the TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) on your calorie intake. The different macronutrients have different TEF values which can affect your weight loss or muscle gain process.
For example:
- Proteins TEF is between 20-35%
- Carbohydrates TEF is between 5-6%
- Fat TEF is 3%
Different Macronutrients For Different Jobs
Macronutrients make up everything that we eat. Food gets converted into its individual macronutrients.
These macronutrients do everything from supplying our brain with brain cells to helping us lose weight and gain muscle mass.
And depending on whether you are working out to slim down or bodybuilding to gain muscle mass, the macronutrients ratio is different.
| Purpose | Carbohydrates | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muscle Growth | 40-60% | 25-35% | 15-25% |
| Maintaining Current Fitness | 30-50% | 25-35% | 25-35% |
| Weight Loss | 10-30% | 40-50% | 30-40% |
Keep An Eye On Your Caloric Surplus
If you think that you can work out and gain muscle mass without gaining a little body fat, you would be wrong.
This is because any food you eat, no matter how healthy, will contain some percentage of carbs and fats.
And if you want to gain muscle volume and bulk up properly, your diet should also include more carbs.
Remember that if your body doesn’t have sufficient surplus fat, the workouts you do may just sacrifice your muscle mass for the energy your body requires.
An example of a good female bodybuilding routine should be to follow the muscle growth macronutrient ratio on the days you workout and go for the maintenance ratio for non-workout days.
Lean Protein Is The Solution To Most Bodybuilding Queries
If you want to see the best results of your bodybuilding routine, you will need to ensure that you eat foods that contain lean protein.
Protein is essential to gaining muscles, for both men and women. This is why so many bodybuilders ensure that they have their protein shakes ready before going to the gym.
However, here are a few healthier lean protein sources you should include in your diet:
- Eggs
- Tofu
- Turkey breast
- Non-fat dairy products
- Beans
- Nuts and seeds
- Ground beef
Choose Your Carb-Rich Food Carefully
Carbohydrates or carbs is a tricky macronutrients that can sneak up on you to make you gain too much fat and too little lean muscle.
This is because there are different types of carbs having different glycemic values where low-glycemic carbs foods are digested slower than high-glycemic carbs foods.
If you manage to eat the right type of carbs, you will be able to gain muscle mass with very little body fat.
So, cross out your Big Mac dinner plans if you want to eat healthy carbs.
Here are a few low-glycemic carbohydrate food sources:
- Sweet potatoes
- Pasta
- Oats
- Nuts
- Brown rice
- Dairy
Some Fats Are Good For You
Your body requires fats to provide you with the energy needed to perform day-to-day activities as well as to exercise and work out.
The amount of energy you get from fat is nine calories per gram of fat while to get the same amount of energy, you will need to eat four grams of carbs or protein.
So, if you want to gain muscle mass faster, opt to eat more healthy fats.
Also, avoid eating anything that has saturated fats since these fats can increase your risk of heart disease.
And if you are considering eating trans-fats, don’t.
This is the worst kind of fat and increases your bad cholesterol levels as well as causes other health problems.
Supplements That Support BodyBuilding Diet For Women
Yes, there are.
Our team performs research on bodybuilding supplements for women that are available in the market.
We know that it is a tough job to choose and get the right supplements as most of them do not work and lots of them are just to make money.
Every woman has a different need and hence we cannot recommend one particular supplement but we can definitely help you choose what you need!
We have been impressed by the Crazy Bulk brand lately and our readers have seen good results.
While not cheap, they provide steroid-like results, without any of the side effects of steroids.
There are various deals available and it’s worth taking a look at their website.
Conclusion About The Best BodyBuilding Diet For Women:
As you may have read, I haven’t provided you with a ready-to-use diet plan for your bodybuilding goals.
However, the information in this article should give you the knowledge in designing a bodybuilding diet for women that is centred on you.
The reason this is important is that if you create your own bodybuilding diet, it will be easier to change if required, and it will also be easier to maintain over an extended period.
