Bodybuilding is about enhancing your muscle gains with the help of weightlifting and proper nutrition.
Well, men and women usually stick to the first rule of bodybuilding which is lifting weights and intense workouts.
However, they often ignore the second most important thing about bodybuilding – proper nutrition!
Bodybuilding is just like your lifestyle that includes your daily routine as well as the diet that you eat.
Hence, it is equally important to focus on your meals as it is to focus on your gym time.
Another myth that surrounds bodybuilding is the fact that one could eat anything in his bulking period!
But the facts show that there are certain foods to avoid when building muscle!
Laying special focus on this fact, the following blog explains the foods to avoid when building muscle and losing fat.
But before that, we must give you a recap of how bodybuilding works.
This will help you connect logically the need to plan meals in your bodybuilding routine.
Muscle Building Diet Plan – How Does Bodybuilding Work?
The most important thing to be clear about while etching out a perfect meal plan is to know about the workings of bodybuilding.
For most muscle builders, their diet routines include two phases:
- Bulking phase – It is the time when you put on muscles. This phase requires a diet rich in proteins and calories. The bulking period usually lasts for weeks, months, or even years sometimes.
- Cutting Phase – Post bulking, comes the cutting phase where one cuts down fat levels to reveal ripped muscles. During this period, serious changes come into your diet routine to suit your exercises.
Usually, in both the phases, the diet is pretty similar, the difference comes in the portion size.
But people often make mistakes by including foods that are inadequate in calories or dangerous for muscles.
To formulate an ideal diet in both phases, it’s first important to understand the bulking vs cutting diet differences.
Hence, we classify a bodybuilder’s diet into three parts:
- Foods that provide enough calories.
- A diet that provides high protein levels.
- Foods to avoid for muscle gain.
The third part of the diet needs special attention as it includes food with unnecessary calories.
They also include foods that prevent muscle synthesis.
Hence, our next section gives special attention to all such foods to help you have a smooth bodybuilding routine.
15 Foods to Avoid When Building Muscle
For bodybuilding, one must choose meals that feed your muscles and fuel your body.
Usually, a balanced diet containing whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and low-fat dairy contribute to this.
In fact, even branch chain amino acids found in lean meats, poultry, and peanut butter are good body-building foods.
But not all foods are good for muscles!!
There are also foods to avoid for muscle building – and here are 15 of such foods to cut out of your diet for good.
#1. Alcohol
According to experts, alcohol is one such thing that cannot be beneficial for bodybuilding.
It tops the list of foods to avoid when building muscle.
This is because it lacks nutrition and inhibits your recovery post intense workout sessions.
Its inhibitory action is mainly because of the stress it places on your body.
Stress causes rapid consumption of antioxidants in your body, thus, reducing your recovery rate.
Hence, avoid alcohol if you want to get ripped.
#2. Energy Drinks
Energy drinks are often considered to be really good for health.
But according to facts, energy drinks form a prominent name in the list of foods to avoid when building muscles.
They definitely work for the athletes who are into running, but while bulking you won’t be into such activities.
Thus, consumption of energy drinks won’t benefit you rather its sugar will turn your muscles into fat!
#3. Diet Cold Drinks
One of the major drinks that you must avoid when building muscle is diet sodas.
Diet sodas contribute more calories than usual.
This is because they contain refined sugar that doesn’t provide you enough energy to train hard.
#4. Refined carbs
You must avoid foods rich in refined carbs when building muscles to promote muscle growth.
Though, foods rich in carbs aren’t always good muscle-building foods. Going for the wrong types of carbs yield negative results.
They make you gain fat instead of muscles.
Hence, you can avoid foods like baked goods, bread, and candy that have refined carbs when building muscles to prevent fat gain.
However, it would be a challenge to avoid sugary snacks after tough workout sessions.
But do remember your one mistake and all your efforts will be in vain.
#5. Wrong Types of Veggies
Some people think they are following a high protein diet plan for muscle gain by using veggies.
But often, these veggies turn out to be the factor, preventing you from muscle gains.
As a result, it’s imperative that you make sure you’re eating for muscle gains.
Wondering how?
The vitamins for muscle growth and all the vital nutrients that you need during muscle building are not found in all vegetables.
In fact, there are veggies that contain quite a low amount of calories as compared to the calories you need.
Hence, go for the right veggies like avocados or broccoli instead of spinach!
#6. Soy Products
These products top the list of foods to avoid while building muscle.
This might be shocking for you as usually soy has many health benefits.
But the fact is that if you need a diet specifically for boosting muscles, soy is to be kept out.
It contains a wide variety of proteins that are not usually found in animal-based products too.
But most of these proteins are incomplete!
Hence, the best way to get proteins for your muscle-building diet is through dairy, fish, and meat products.
#7. Diet Rich in Fiber or Fat
Diets with high fiber content have many health benefits.
But these benefits depend on the time of the day you eat them.
In fact, if you eat such foods before hitting the gym, it would slow down your digestion making your workout unproductive.
The same goes with the foods rich in fat that can cause digestive problems if you take them before your gym.
Because of these properties, such foods come under the list of foods that prevent muscle growth.
#8. Deep-Fried Foods
Some of the most important foods to avoid when building muscle is the ones that are deep-fried.
Firstly, because these foods lack any real nutrition as the high temperature destroys all the nutrients.
Secondly, they cause inflammation in your body!
These factors cause our antioxidants to heal the inflammation making the antioxidants absent for muscle recovery.
Thus, your recovery rate goes down with continuous consumption of fried foods.
#9. Bagels
A store-bought bagel usually contains 400 calories which have just refined carbohydrates.
Apart from this, some people like it with cream and cheese which only adds more unsaturated fats.
Neither the bagel helps you put on muscles nor the cream and cheese.
Altogether, they just form a big part of the major foods to avoid lean muscle.
#10. Sausages
Sausages are processed meats that contain calories, sodium, and saturated fat.
Apart from these, it also contains nitrates, a preservative preventing bacterial growth and maintaining red color.
Firstly, you don’t need the calories and the sodium present in sausages.
Secondly, nitrites are quite harmful to your muscles as they form chemicals called nitrosamines.
These nitrosamines can cause cancer and are very harmful.
Altogether, sausages take a prominent position in the list of foods to avoid when building muscle.
#11. Pre-Made Smoothies
Do you like ordering smoothies at cafes or restaurants thinking they are healthy muscle building foods for skinny guys?
Many pre-made smoothies have 600 to 1000 calories along with overloaded sugar content.
The amount of sugar that goes into your body causes severe interference with your bodybuilding.
Moreover, you won’t even be able to reverse the harm it does to your body.
Hence, stay away from such smoothies!
#12. Processed Cheese
All cheese slices come with high content of sodium and fat.
But we do believe that cheese might contain some important nutrients for bodybuilding.
However, what you get from cheese is slightly fewer proteins per ounce as compared to the unprocessed cheese.
Further, it has got ingredients that you actually don’t need for your well-formed body.
So, coupling the negative points, the positive nutrients reduce in number!
This ultimately makes processed cheese fall under the category of foods to avoid when building muscle.
#13. Breakfast Cereals
Breakfast cereals might appear healthy to you. But they contain more sugars than you can expect.
The best way to pick up your cereal is to look out for the first three ingredients!
If your cereal has more than 5 grams of those, skip buying it!
Sugar-rich cereals can convert your muscles into fat.
Instead, you can go for cereals rich in fiber and zero sugar additives.
#14. Granola Bars
Granola bars contain a combination of oats, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds with a small amount of fat and sugar.
However, certain granola bars contain chocolate, fudge, or candy pieces.
These bars contain more calories, sugar, or fat than you realize and can cause slow muscle building.
#15. Spicy Foods
One of the most popular foods to avoid to gain muscle is spicy foods.
It’s a common myth that spicy foods are good for burning fat.
Rather, taking such foods before your gym can cause digestive problems for you.
It can cause stomach pain and a feeling of a burnt throat that can hinder you from your workouts.
These were just 15 foods out of so many other foods that one must avoid when building muscles.
Now, what you might think of is how to know which foods to avoid? Or how to eat for muscle growth?
To help you out with that, the next section gives out a few important things to remember while bodybuilding!
How to Eat for Muscle Growth? [Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks]
The major goal of bodybuilding is to increase muscle mass during bulking and remove excess fat during cutting.
Both the phases include the same type of diet and, hence, the difference comes in the portion size.
Thus, to find out whether the food is healthy for your bodybuilding or not, you must keep a check on the following factors:
#1. How many calories do you need?
The best way to determine the calories that you need is by weighing yourself thrice a week.
If your weight remains the same, the daily calories you eat are your maintenance calories.
During the bulking phase, you must increase your calorie intake by 57%, and during the cutting phase, you must decrease it by 15%.
Hence, take care of the calories you need while planning a diet or adding new food to your diet.
#2. Macronutrient ratio
This is the ratio between proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Your macronutrient ratio must not change during the transition from one phase to another.
The ideal calorie count of these three nutrients must be:
- 30-35% of calories from proteins
- 55 to 60% of calories from carbs
- 15 to 20% of your calories from fat
Hence, maintain your food intake within these limits.
Conclusion
Bodybuilding is all about muscularity and leanness rather than athletic performance.
Achieving this form of the body requires regular exercise and special attention to diet.
It is mainly divided into the bulking and cutting phase where you must maintain the difference between the portions.
Your diet must be rich in nutrient-dense foods, 20 to 30 grams of protein with each meal or snack!
Apart from this, you must lookout for the foods to avoid when building muscles and see that they are not a part of your daily diet!
These foods can cause serious sabotage of your muscles.
FAQs
Right below are the answers to some of the most commonly-asked questions regarding diet and bodybuilding.
#1. Can you still gain muscle if you don’t eat a lot?
Bodybuilding includes a bulking and cutting phase.
During the bulking phase, your body needs enough calories to put on the muscles.
When you consume fewer calories than you burn, your body will break down your muscles into energy.
Thus, it is important to eat enough proteins and carbohydrates to maintain your muscles.
Altogether, gaining muscles is not possible if you don’t eat a lot.
#2. Does eating a lot help you gain muscle?
To increase your muscle mass, you must eat enough calories to maintain your body weight.
You must take in more calories than you burn, and this is possible if you eat high proportions of extra calories from foods containing proteins.
Hence, eating a lot of good muscle-building foods can help you gain muscles.
#3. What food builds muscle the fastest?
The best foods that you can eat for building muscles faster are:
- Eggs
- Salmon
- Chicken breast
- Greek yogurt
- Tuna fish
- Lean beef
- Shrimp
- Soybeans
#4. How can you gain muscle fast?
For gaining muscles faster than you already are, you can follow the given tips:
- Eat breakfast that keeps you full for a longer time
- Eat-in every three hours the foods that help you build muscle mass
- Take protein with your snacks and every meal
- Include fruits and veggies in your diet
- Follow a carb diet only after a workout
- Healthy fats are a must
- Drink water to help build muscle mass
- Include whole foods in your diet
#5. What should I eat to get abs?
Aside from hitting the gym, you can choose the following foods for building abs:
- Fruits and veggies
- Whole grains
- Nuts and seeds
- Fatty fish
- Legumes
- Tea
#6. What should I eat at night to build muscle?
Here are the late-night snacks ideas that you can eat for building muscles:
- Chocolate peanut butter casein protein
- Eggs and avocado
- Nuts and high protein spreads
- Low-fat cottage cheese with chocolate protein powder and almond butter
- Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese
- Poultry
- Fish and seafood