The 5 Biggest Eating Mistakes

I know that nearly all of us have the goal of building muscle, and losing fat.  While you all may kill it in the gym, that may be for only 1 hour a day.  The other 23 hours is what will really make or break your fitness goals, and that is why nutrition is so important.

1.  Not eating Before/ After your workout
Eating before and after a workout, is the most critical time.  The window that is 30 minutes before the workout and 2 hours after is the most anabolic period for building muscle.  When you eat before you will increase your energy in the gym.  In addition, eating after a workout, will provide your muscles with all the nutrients that you need to gain size, and adequately recover from a workout.

2.  Not being consistent
I know that this one is really obvious, but it needs to be said.  There are so many people (myself included) that just can't seem to keep their nutrition is check ALL of the time.  If you really wan't to see those results your nutrition really needs to be spot on.  If you want to cheat, you can consider adding 1 to 2 cheat meals per week.  These cheat meals would be 1 or 2 out of your 6 meals a day.  So that is like 1 out of 42ish meals which you should be eating per week.  If you can eat 40 meals consistently, then you cheat one that might be OK.  But, don't cheat too often, or you will see your results go away.

3.  Eating Too Much
Many people who are trying to gain mass fall into the habit of just eating everything in sight.  While this may cause you to gain size, the size will be anything but healthy.  You will have an increased risk for diseases.  In addition obesity is another health problem that you could put yourself at risk for.  If you are trying to gain weight it is best to eat around 600 or so calories more than you need.  So if your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is 3000 calories a day, bump it up to 3600 calories a day.  You can calculate your BMR by multiplying 15*Lean Body Mass.  While it may take a little longer to gain size, you will not get that unwanted bodyfat that comes as a result.

4.  Eating Too Little
Yes, I know I just said that eating too much is a problem, but eating too little is also a problem.  There are many people who are trying to gain size/lose weight who just don't eat the adequate numbers of calories needed.  It is important for those even trying to lose weight, that they need to eat enough to get all of the health benefits of food.  Also eating can help you avoid binge eating in the future.  In addition for guys trying to put on size, no matter how much work you do in the gym, if you don't eat enough there is no way that you will be able to pack on that muscle that you want.

5. Eating Too Much of One Type of Food
So many people think that you should have protein over any other food nutrient.  But that is a huge mistake.  It is critical to have enough carbs, proteins, and fats for ideal muscle growth.  While protein what muscles are made of, if you don't have enough carbs or fat, your body will not be able to continue its basic functions, and not having enough carbs or fat, can actually hinder your development.  A good ratio is try is to have 40% protein 40% Carbs and 20% fat.  You can adjust those ratios to fit to your nutritional needs.