Calorie intake regulation is one area of body building that features the most ignorant confusion and misinformation in the contemporary society. It’s simply amazing how people easily fall for delusional fallacies and marketing gimmicks in regard to calorie intake. Consider the trend in the last five years for instance.

At some point in the last five years, the high calorie diets were the in thing that every dieter was going for. A year or so later the low calorie diets were back and the fashionable preference of the masses. This same trend has been marked in proteins, complex and simple carbohydrates as well as fats saturated or otherwise. When it comes to body building diets, opinions change on a nearly daily basis. The body builder who is seriously in search of a calorie control program must be ready to design her or his own based on several universal principles and guidelines governing body building diets. This is the safest access route to success, safety and consistency.

The formula that a body builder settles for must be comprehensive and tuned in respect of personal body building objectives. Adjustments to the daily caloric schedule must be made enroute the body building program according to the arising nutritional needs. Such a schedule works equally for male and female body builders.

Start by taking the current or target body weight and multiplying it by any desired factor of 12, 15 or even 18. When you are intent on loosing weight or slow down your metabolism rate, then it is advisable to multiply the weight by 12. If on the other hand you are intent on maintaining your weight at the current pounding, then you should multiply the weight by 15. Perennial hard gainers and those intent on gaining more weight on the scale are advised to multiply their current or target weight by 18. The product thus calculated represents your daily calorie needs.

If this rate of calorie intake is consistently implemented and still no gains are made towards the respective goals, then there’s need to make adjustments to your calorie needs by adding or subtracting between 50 and 100 calories for daily intake ratios. The main benefit of this formula of identifying daily calorie needs for an individual body builder is the possibility of varying caloric needs as the body building program continues and gains are accumulated over the year. There are some instances that calorie intake has to be revised objectively for a short duration before reverting back to the normal calorie intakes.

Such instances include the period leading up to a body building contest. For such a body builder, the target body weight should be multiplied by 12. If in cases of a body builder headed for an off-season period, the current or target weight should be multiplied by 15 or 18 solely depending on their metabolism rate and their weight goals during off-season.

The daily caloric needs constitute rationed grams of protein, minerals, carbohydrates and safe fats. Daily ratios of each of these nutrients must be configured to add up to an optimal total and yet be adequately biased towards achieving overall body building goals. Proteins should take at least 35%, carbohydrates should take at least 50% while fats should constitute at least 15% of the daily calorie intakes. A gram of proteins and carbohydrate equals 4 calories while a gram of fat produces 9 calories. The calories must be distributed throughout the 6 daily meals.

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