If it’s time to grow, then it is time to eat! Here is a useful eating plan for bodybuilders looking for solid muscle size gains without gaining much fat.

Breakfast

Eggs are a favorite for bodybuilders in the morning. If you can tolerate them and have the time to make them, then you should use them every day. Mixed with oatmeal or grits, you can enjoy a very low-fat, high-protein food source with ketchup and start your bodybuilding day off right. If you don’t enjoy eggs in the morning, you can always opt for a meal that matches lunch or dinner.

Mid-morning snack

Make a pile of high protein, moderate carbohydrate snacks and keep them in the fridge. Grab a handful mid-morning and give yourself the clean energy you need to keep you going until lunch. Great choices include lean cold cuts, string cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. Toss in a piece of fruit or cup of applesauce to help with digestion. You don’t want to forget your fiber when bulking!

Lunch

Lean meat cuts belong on your plate for lunch. Fish or chicken, along with a nice carbohydrate source such as rice or pasta, are your safest bets. Enjoy a large garden salad with this meal to assist with digestion of all of your daily meals.

Mid-afternoon snack

Whey shake with rice cakes is a very popular afternoon and post-workout snack for many bodybuilders. You will enjoy the carb and insulin release from the rice cakes, and the protein will be shuttled to your muscle groups quickly.

Dinner

It is time to give your body a bit of calories at this meal. A double serving of meat (at least 9 ounces total) should start your plate. Follow up with a nice baked potato, some rice, or a clean pasta salad. Just as with lunch, you should consume a nice garden salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and other vegetables to keep your digestion flowing smoothly.

Evening snack

Late at night, you are going to want to give your body a source of protein which will last you for the next 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Many bodybuilders prefer casein protein, which will digest slowly as the night passes, and won’t fill the stomach, making sleep uncomfortable. If you don’t have issues with indigestion, perhaps you can opt for a roast beef or other fatty meat which will digest very slowly as you sleep. As you may know, the higher fat content present in a food source, the slower it will digest. During the day and post-workout, fast digestion of protein is the goal. At night, you want to enjoy the opposite effect.

Supplements

Supplements should play a key role in your nutrition as you look to gain muscle weight. When you are training harder than you ever have before, your body is going to break down in ways it never has before. You are going to need more sleep, food, and micro and macronutrients than you ever have before. Supplements can make that happen. Aside from a multi-vitamin and Vitamins C, E, and B, you may want to look into creatine and glutamine to help with muscle water volumization and immune system boost during recovery.

Water

If you are training hard, eating a lot of food, and in particular taking supplements, you are going to need to drink a great deal of water. The reasons are numerous. Training hard results in a lot of sweating, and you need to replenish this water. More food means your body will have to do a great deal more digestion, and you need more water for this. Also, supplements will often lead to cramping, as is the case with creatine. Drink at least 64 ounces of water each day and 64 ounces of other liquid such as Crystal Lite.

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