Not too long ago, professional bodybuilders were considered a step above the rest, yet an oddity that most

people would admire from afar. In this world of ever increasing awareness of maintaining a healthy weight,

body building has moved into a more acceptable position as people realize it is a healthy choice to make. To help you

get started in the right direction, this article shows you positive and negative aspects of bodybuilding and how

you can achieve your goals.

If you are a beginning bodybuilder it\'s important to realize that what you eat may be more important than

your workout system. In reality, you won\'t get the \"ripped\" muscle definition results you want if you don\'t eat the proper foods. The same is true when you

are in your \"bulk up\" phase. You have to eat right. If you are thinking about trying to gain weight to add muscle

mass at the same time as eating to get lean muscle definition, you won\'t succeed. The two phases, getting

ripped and bulking up, are just the opposite. The first thing you want to do is \"bulk up.\" This is where you eat a lot

to build muscle mass - about 15-20 calories for each pound of body weight. You also eat many more carbohydrates than during the cutting stage. The ideal macronutrient

split, per pound of body weight, would be 2.5 - 3.5 grams of carbohydrate, .3 - .49 grams of \"good\" fat, and 1 gram of protein. Next would come the cutting phase, where you eat less and your carbohydrates, protein, and fat would be

in different proportions than during the bulk up stage. When you are on the bulking up diet plan, it\'s true you

can eat a lot of foods, but you must eat high-quality. Find a competent plan - either on line or from a trainer at your

gym - and follow it. Don\'t spend all your time at McDonald\'s or Baskin-Robbins. The mainstay of your bulking up diet should be protein with as little fat as

possible, vegetables and fruits, and complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains. Skip the white flour bread. A good rule of thumb is one gram of protein per

pound of bodyweight.

A new concept that you might not be aware of is the fact that it\'s necessary, and recommended by professional

bodybuilders, that you eat every two or three hours. The exception is, of course, when you are asleep and, to protect your body during sleep, you should have a

bedtime snack of some high quality, long-lasting protein. Why? When you allow too much time to lapse between meals, your metabolism could get sluggish. You want to prevent this and make sure your metabolism is working with maximum efficiency at all times. When you allow a lot of time to go between feedings, you body can go into what is called \"starvation\" mode. Then it shuts down

unnecessary fuel consumption to prevent your body from running out of energy, or life-force. This was great for our ancestors who didn\'t have a reliable source of food, but

it\'s not good for us in today\'s world. If it\'s running more efficiently, the result is that your body can run on fewer

calories and the excess will be converted into fat. Keep the components of each meal varied. Don\'t fall into the habit

of just eating one macronutrient at a time - such as just protein or carbohydrates or fats. Eat a combination of each

food at each meal in the proportion recommended for whichever phase of training you are in.

When you get to the point where you want to begin the \"cutting\" phase, leaning out your muscles, you will

find that cardio routines will burn more fat - if you do them right - than other exercises. While some fat loss occurs during strength training, that shouldn\'t be the

main focus of your workouts. This is why it is essential to include cardio in your exercise regimen to ensure you lose the fat. There\'s a lot of controversy in the bodybuilding

community as to whether long, consistent hours of cardio is better for fat loss, or full-body highly intense, interval

training. In any event, both will result if body fat loss. You should try both and see which works for you. Just learn

how much exercise you need to do to overcome \"diminishing returns\" which is when your fat loss slows down as you get close to your desired results. You have to work harder and train better for the same

results, but you don\'t want to go to extremes, either. Be that as it may, it\'s only necessary to do your cardio routines for up to sixty minutes, not any longer. As

mentioned above, cardio is good for burning fat if you do the workout in the morning before you eat any carbs. This is especially useful if you have a lot of body fat to lose and

can dedicate six days a week to this routine. On the day you don\'t do cardio, just take it easy and let your muscles

recover.

Bodybuilding is likely to steadily increase in popularity, mainly due to the health benefits it offers, including improved stress management and a higher level of

resistance to various diseases. You need to start today in order to begin to change your life in a positive way

through bodybuilding.

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