Make the most of your lifting program by following a diet that alters your body composition. By occasionally changing the way you eat, you can either build huge muscles or cut back on the pounds. During the muscle-building phase, you’ll want to follow the bulking diet to feed your body the nutrients it needs to grow strong. The cutting phase sloughs off the padding to reveal firmly toned muscles beneath your fat layers. Read on to learn more about these two diet phases.

Bulking Phase     

You can choose to follow a natural, whole foods diet or complete a dirty bulk, depending on your food preferences. The dirty bulk involves loading up on high calorie foods for quick gains. Although this method is not as healthy, it often proves to be quite effective. Despite that, many people prefer the clean bulk diet, which includes good cuts of meat, lots of vegetables and ample servings of fruit to give their body the extra calories it needs.

While following a heavy lifting program, many participants add five hundred to a thousand extra calories to their diet each day. The excess calories are quickly converted into muscle through the effort it takes to lift heavy weights repeatedly.

Cutting Phase

After several weeks of bulking, weightlifters may want to shed the excess pounds gained during the growth process. Since building muscle is an inexact process, some of those extra calories turn into fat stores. By cutting down on the calories, people allow their body to shed the extra pounds, which better displays the muscle growth on their frame. To lose weight, it’s usually necessary to cut out processed foods or practice portion control to keep your body healthy while the pounds disappear.

The cutting phase usually lasts until the weightlifter reaches their desired look. Since muscles weigh a lot more than fat, it’s not usually possible to identify an ideal pound range to meet during the cutting phase. Instead, you may take pictures throughout the process or ask a trusted friend for feedback about your progress. Upon reaching your goals, you can either replace just enough calories for maintenance or start the bulking phase all over again for further gains.

Finding Balance

You need to keep a level head throughout this process to meet your goals without becoming unhealthy. Whenever possible, it just makes sense to eat clean by choosing whole foods over processed ones. You also need to eat a wide range of foods, including meat, beans, fruit, vegetables and grains. By doing so, you ensure your body receives the vitamins and minerals it needs to thrive.

Avoid the temptation to only fill up on foods that you find tasty or filling. Always try new things to widen your palate preferences and improve your outlook on a healthy diet. Pay close attention to foods that make you feel energized after eating to find ingredients that will revitalize you after workouts.