THE NEW COOKBOOK FOR ATHLETES

Nobody pays quite as much attention to what they eat as a bodybuilder. The calories have to be right and macros have to be balanced, and we can't forget about the micros, either. Then there are the various diet philosophies that contend for the pole position - intermittent fasting, carbohydrate cycling, ketogenic, and flexible dieting, to name a few. Well, regardless of your preferences, these bodybuilding recipes will have you covered. You'll find a little bit of everything here to help make your meal prepping a success, from high-calorie and high-carb to low-carbohydrate and low-carbohydrate, fast and easy to more involved (and rewarding!). Oh and there's plenty of protein too, of course! Bodybuilding is a delicate balance between building muscle and burning fat. You need adequate calories to increase muscle mass, but you also need a caloric deficit to burn off stored fat. It sounds impossible, but it isn't. The secret? Basic math. Or, as it's referred to in the fitness world: the Energy Balance Equation. Simply put, the more muscle mass you have, and the more active you are, the more you need to eat. That's because the more lean muscle mass you have, the more energy (thanks, food!) it takes to move that muscle around. Anything from basic functions like breathing, digestion, and your heart beating, to walking around and carrying the laundry up the stairs, or more deliberate exercise like running or pushing serious weight in the gym-your body needs energy, and if you're doing all these tasks with more lean muscle, you need more fuel. Before you go running to the fridge, let's look at the other end of the spectrum. When we eat more calories than our body uses, all those extra calories are stored as fat. This is the reason why many people who gorge to get strong, never actually become lean and shredded. They may indeed get stronger, but getting lean means cutting out extra calories. There are still other factors to consider, like poor food quality, lack of nutrient timing, and improper ratios of macronutrients. All calories are, of course, not created equal. We want to fuel our body with the best building blocks, at the right time to power our workout, improve our performance, grow more muscle, and get rid of extra body fat.