No matter what kind of workouts we all do, food and nutrients are an important part of deciding whether our efforts will be successful. And here we will be helping you with what you should have to complement the purpose of your workout.

A little bit of info about this guide is that we don’t promote skipping meals or excessive abnormal changes in your food. Meaning even if you have gastritis problem, you can still enjoy this diet plan without suffering any side effects.

There will be 3 goal-specific diet plans we’ll discuss here, which are bodybuilding, weight loss, and weight gain.

1. Bodybuilding

If you want to build nice, firm muscles, your meal will lead to more protein and less fat. The idea is to be able to use protein to form your muscles and not let fat hinder the process. There’s only one type of nutrition you should pay attention to: protein.

Smaller size, higher frequency

You’ve probably come across guides and health articles saying how eating more is healthy. Okay, this is not about having a full meal portion 5 or 6 times a day; it’s about splitting up your meals to a few hours in the period. So for example, if you had your breakfast at 6 in the morning, the next meal should be at around 8 am, and then at around 10 am and so on.

How do you know that you ate enough? We’ll say if you are not starving and not too full, you are doing great. Always remember that your meal should be composed of daily required vitamins and minerals.

The great thing about this is that your body will never experience bloating, blood sugar spike and is constantly ‘awake’, as opposed to that condition when you feel sleepy after a great feast in the afternoon.
Bonus: no more fear of diabetes.

Protein

The main idea is to get protein as much as you needed and avoid greasy food and fat. Reduce your carbs intake too, by consuming brown rice instead of white, oatmeal or whole-wheat bread instead of flour and (a lot of) white eggs.

2. Weight Loss

The range of options one can choose for their workout session is virtually unlimited. You can do cardio exercises, play certain sports, do HIIT sessions, take part in mixed martial arts training; anything that involved moving around a lot and sweating it all out. If you’re looking to shed some weight, then check out the following plan.

Fewer Carbs

Your body’s main burning fuel is glucose which is sourced mainly from carbs that you eat. So if you can cut back on carbs, your body will start burning fat.

Less sugar

Let’s not forget, like everything else in this world, sugar too, have a good and a bad side. However, when it comes to losing weight, the general advice would be to decrease the amount you’re consuming.

Fruits are naturally sweet, so if you are planning to make some juice, refrain from adding more sugar. If you are cooking, use brown sugar or broths instead.
Bonus: Did you now that cinnamon helps reduce insulin resistance and is great for your health? Yes, they do!

Decent protein

Depending on your activity, your protein should be just enough to form enough muscles and to power your body. Do not consume too much or too little as they can both lead to causing harm to your organs. For comparison, Dr. Mercola in his article The Very Real Risks of Consuming Too Much Protein states that American on average consumes at least 3 times more than what they need.

3 meals a day, healthy snacks in between

No matter what kind of diet you undergo, craving is always there, lurking around the corner. And instead of trying to ignore it completely, there’s a win-win solution to this.

Often, cravings for sweet, delicious, fattening foods are a sign of your body in need of certain nutrients. For example, when your body craves for sweet chocolate bars, your body is in need of magnesium. Surprised? Don’t be, most food cravings are like these unless you have imbalance hormones and significant stress in your body.

3. Weight Gain

Unappealing appearance, slow growth, slow metabolism, and fatigues. These are signs that commonly come with people weighing below their ideal weight.

Don’t stack on chocolate bars

Weight gain does not give you the freedom to eat as many ice cream or chocolate bars as much as you like. There are many cases of people simply thinking that eating more sugar and carbohydrates will increase their weight with no risks.
You are, however, allowed to consume slightly more than the average adults, with enough nutrients to balance it.

Fiber

Important to note that you need to increase your fiber intake. Fiber helps your digestive system to keep moving out the waste and keeping your digestive system clean. It also slows down sugar absorption. Without it, no matter how much vitamins and supplements you take, your body is not effectively absorbing nutrients and simply stacking on sugar.

Healthy weight gain

Remember that you should aim for a healthy weight, not just fuller and nicer look. What’s the use if you are only stacking carbs and sugar with no regards to your daily needs of nutrients? Do workouts to pair up with your weight gain plan for even better benefits; muscles can be formed and you can achieve a better-looking body.