Nutrition Basics

Healthy Eating for Bodybuilding and Fitness

• Eat a lean protein with each meal.
• Eat small, frequent meals - preferably every 2 to 3 hours
• Eat nonstarch vegetables with every meal.
• Add in healthy fats. These will keep you full longer, and are needed for health.
• Cut out as many processed foods as possible. Eating healthy, non-processed foods will provide you with better energy, and keep you full longer.
• Cut out most liquid calories (save these for pre/post workout and milk) as they are not filling - this is obviously more crucial for those on reduced calorie diets.
• Cut out sugars (except for fructose and lactose - fruit and dairy sugar). These can be replaced with artificial sweeteners.
• Drink at least 1 gallon (4 litres) of water a day - more if you do a lot of cardio.

Quality Food Choices

Below is a list of great foods (of course there are MANY more foods, this list is designed to help you choose foods, and is not comprehensive). For an indepth look at many great foods, see The World's Healthiest Foods. Also, Venuto has compiled some short lists of nutrient packed foods that are great for fat loss - see those here.

Healthy Complete Protein Sources:

Lean beef cuts - eye round (often stew meat), top round, round tip, top sirloin, bottom round, xlean ground round, xlean ground sirloin, beef tenderloin, top loin (NY strip steak), ribeye steak, flank steak.

Lean pork cuts - pork tenderloin, pork boneless sirloin chop, pork boneless loin roast, pork boneless top loin chop, pork loin chop, pork boneless sirloin roast.

Skinless chicken breast (or skinless boneless), skinless turkey breast

Dairy - skim or 1% milk, fat free sugar free yogurt, fat free or 1% cottage cheese, fat free cheese, fat free cream cheese.

Seafood - tuna (water packed), salmon, sea bass, halibut, shrimp

Venison, Buffalo, Ostrich

Protein Powder

Egg Whites or Whole Eggs

Slow Burning Complex Carbs

Cereals - oatmeal (old fashioned or quick oats), farina (cream of wheat), oat bran cereal, grape nuts

Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, Yams

Lower Starch Potatoes - fingerling, round red, long white, peruvian blue, round white, yellow finnish, yukon gold.

Beans - pinto, black, kidney, garbanzo (chickpeas)

Whole wheat or Spinach Pasta

100% whole wheat bread, multigrain bread (which does not list white flour as an ingredient).

Nonstarch Vegetables

Green lettuces - green leaf, red leaf, romaine

Broccoli, asparagus, spinach, bell peppers (green, red)
Okra, spinach, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini
Onions, garlic, pumpkin, green beans
Cabbage, celery, cucumber

Fruit

Apples, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, tomato
Peaches, Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries

Fats

Natural peanut butter, olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil
Nuts - peanuts, almonds, walnuts  

Calorie Counting

The truth about calorie counting and weight loss

Nutrition Logging Website

Nutrition Calculator with good recipe calculator

The USDA Nutrition Info Site

Pre-, During, and Post- Workout Nutrition Guidelines
(by Alan Aragon)

Note that TBW = target bodyweight:

60-90 minutes preworkout, have a solid, balanced meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.25g/lb TBW
Adding fat at this point is fine, use your discretion as long as it fits into your macro goals.

30-0 minutes preworkout - (and/or sipped throughout the workout), have a liquid or easily digested meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.25g/lb TBW
Fat should be minimized here. Guidelines aren't hard & fast, but it would be good to not exceed 20% of the cals of this meal, in other words, keep the fats here incidental, not added.

Sooner the better postworkout - within 30 minutes, but optimally ASAP, have either a liquid or solid meal:

Protein = 0.25g/lb TBW
Carbs = 0.5g/lb TBW
Fats here should be kept minimal to moderate.
If your workouts exceed 1 hour, you may want to consider having a whey isolate shake or a BCAA supplement before the end of your workout.

Post-postworkout is simply your next scheduled meal, whether it's 1, 2, or 3 hrs later simply doesn't matter - especially if your immediate postworkout meal (which may be split up into 2 halves) was designed as above.