In this Q & A Article “The Superman of Fitness” Anthony Catanzaro shares his advice on bodybuilding nutrition.

How important is diet when it comes to bodybuilding?
I can’t even begin to explain how important nutrition is to bodybuilding. I have always said that nutrition plays a key role in how you look and how you feel. You can take off from working out for 6 months and if you maintained the proper diet, you wouldn’t change much at all. But if you eat garbage for 6 months while you train, you will see how dramatically your body would change, let alone how you would feel. So yes, nutrition is the key component to bodybuilding or just simply building a better physique.

How much protein, carbs and fat do you consume on a daily basis?
I tried all types of diets, but I what I found works best for me and the look I have is eating a diet high in protein, moderate in fat and very low in carbs 50-30-20. I will carb up when I feel the need to, which would be once a week. If I ate a significant amount of carbs on a daily basis, I would get fat bottom line! My total daily caloric intake is around 2,200 calories per day. I’m 180lbs 5 foot 10 inches in height.


What are your main sources of protein, carbs and fat?
For protein, I like to go with lean cuts of beef, fish and of course tons of chicken and egg whites. I also supplement with two protein drinks a day as eating too many solid food meals a day is hard on the digestive system. For fats, I consume olive oil, peanut butter, egg yolks, and avocados. For carbohydrates, I eat very little but if I do I choose complex carbs like brown rice cakes, sweet potatoes and all vegetables for simple carbs. I eat fruit once a day on an empty stomach as fruit eaten with food causes gas and bloating.

How much water should we consume daily?
This is very important because a lot of people either drink too much or too little. If you drink a lot of water, you need to replace the loss of sodium in the body that will occur. Use sea salt with your meals if you do your own cooking. If not, I’m sure the food on the outside will contain salt. A good rule of thumb is drink up to a gallon of water a day while eating around 2,400 mg of sodium, no more than that.


How often do you have cheat meals?
I don’t consider them cheat meals. I would never eat anything that wasn’t good for my body. If I eat something I normally wouldn’t eat, it would be in between photo shoots or on a Sunday. I might have a hamburger or some whole wheat pasta or whatever I wanted. But really, I never would eat anything that was negative for my body.

What are your thoughts on bulking?
Well I don’t need to bulk, but many guys do.  In this case I would recommend a diet much higher in carbs like 60% carbs, 30% protein and 10% fat. By following a diet higher in carbs, your body will begin to grow and the higher amount of carbs will pull water into the cells. Once you achieve your goal in weight, then you can replace the high carbs with healthy fats.

What foods should we completely avoid?
All foods that contain white flour and white sugar. These foods are complete trash and destroy the body! Also, don’t eat anything that says “fat free” or “sugar free” as these foods contain harmful if not deadly chemicals in them that in time, will plant seeds of bad health in your body. Remember my saying: “If God made it use it! If Man made it lose it!”

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