Bodybuilding Diet for Beginners: Where to Start

Step 2: Hit your protein

Protein is the building material for muscle, and the one macro worth being precise about.

A 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 49 studies and found that the benefit of protein for muscle gain levelled off at about 1.6 g per kg of body weight a day, with 2.2 g as a sensible upper end to cover most people. For a 75 kg (165 lb) lifter, that is about 120 to 165 g a day.

How to get there:

• Spread it out. The Iraki review suggests 3 to 6 meals with about 0.40 to 0.55 g of protein per kg in each. For a 75 kg lifter, that is roughly 30 to 40 g a meal.
• Start the day with protein. Breakfast is often the meal with the least protein in it.
• Use whole foods first, with a protein shake as a convenience.

On a fat loss diet, aim towards the top of the range. For the full detail and food lists, see how much protein you need to build muscle, or use the protein calculator.

Step 3: Split the rest between carbs and fats

Once protein is set, the rest of your calories come from carbohydrate and fat. The Iraki review recommends:

• Fat: about 0.5 to 1.5 g per kg of body weight a day. Enough for health and for meals you enjoy.
• Carbohydrate: the rest, aiming for at least 3 to 5 g per kg a day to fuel hard training.

Protein and carbohydrate have about 4 calories per gram and fat about 9 (NHS figures). Here is how that works for a 75 kg lifter eating 2,800 calories a day to build muscle:

	Grams	Calories
Protein (2 g per kg)	150 g	600
Fat (1 g per kg)	75 g	675
Carbohydrate (the rest)	about 380 g	about 1,525
Total		2,800

That is about 5 g of carbohydrate per kg, which meets the review's minimum, and fat at about a quarter of calories, the same share the free calculator uses. On a fat loss diet, the calories come down, protein stays high, and most of the cut comes from carbohydrate and fat.

The bodybuilding diet for beginners: what to eat

You do not need special "bodybuilding foods". The NHS Eatwell Guide covers most of it, with a little more protein than most people eat:

• Fruit and vegetables: at least 5 portions a day, in a variety.
• Starchy carbohydrates: choose wholegrain or higher-fibre versions where you can, such as brown rice, wholewheat pasta and potatoes with the skins on.
• Fibre: the UK guideline is 30 g a day, and the NHS says most adults only eat about 20 g.
• Fish: at least 2 portions a week, one of them oily, such as salmon, sardines or mackerel.
• Drinks: 6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day.

A simple way to build any meal is to put one food from each column on the plate:

Protein	Carbohydrate	Fruit and veg	Fat
Chicken, turkey, lean beef	Rice, pasta, potatoes	Any vegetables	Olive oil
Fish, prawns	Oats, bread, wraps	Berries, bananas, apples	Nuts and seeds
Eggs, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese	Beans, lentils	Salad	Avocado
Tofu, tempeh, whey or plant protein	Fruit, cereal	Frozen veg mixes	Cheese

Mostly whole foods, plus a few foods you simply enjoy, is the version you will still be following in a year.

A sample day

Here is what a day could look like for a 75 kg lifter building muscle. Portions depend on your own targets.

Meal	What
Breakfast	Porridge with milk, berries and a scoop of whey, plus two eggs
Lunch	Chicken wrap with salad, a piece of fruit and a yoghurt
Before training	Banana and a slice of toast with peanut butter
After training	Salmon, rice and vegetables cooked in olive oil
Evening	Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese with nuts

Four or five meals, each with a protein, each easy to repeat.

What not to worry about yet

Beginners lose a lot of energy on details that barely matter. These can wait:

• The "anabolic window". A 2013 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Aragon and Krieger in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that once total protein was accounted for, eating protein right around training made no significant difference to muscle or strength. Eating enough protein across the day was what counted.
• The perfect number of meals. Anywhere from 3 to 6 a day works, which is the range both the Helms and Iraki reviews give. Pick what fits your day.
• Carbs at night. Your total for the day matters far more than the clock.
• "Clean" and "dirty" foods. No single food builds or ruins a physique. Your totals and your habits over weeks do.
• Supplements. Most are not needed. Creatine has the best evidence for lifters: see creatine: what it does and doesn't do. Protein powder is just food in a convenient form.
• Perfect tracking. Weigh and log your food for two or three weeks to learn what your targets look like. After that, you can decide how closely you need to keep tracking.

How to know it is working

• Weigh yourself every morning and compare weekly averages with your target rate.
• Keep a training log. If your lifts are going up, your diet is supporting your training.
• Give each change two to three weeks before judging it, then make one small change, such as adding or removing a snack, if the trend is off target.

Where coaching helps

The basics of a bodybuilding diet for beginners fit on one page. The hard part is adjusting them as your body responds, and staying consistent when work, travel and social life get in the way.

With one-to-one coaching from CoachAk, your daily calorie and macro targets, step target and training program are set for you in the app, and updated as your body responds. You log your weight daily and see a smoothed trend, and each week you send a check-in covering your weight, training and nutrition adherence, hunger, energy, sleep and more. Your coach replies with written feedback explaining what changes next week and why, and you can message your coach directly between check-ins.

If you want your nutrition set up and adjusted for you, apply for coaching.