FOUAD ABIAD’S 4 STEPS TO CREATE A BODYBUILDING DIET
Setting up a diet but don’t know where to start? This detailed whiteboard lesson with IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Fouad Abiad shows how to create the perfect bodybuilding diet, whether your goal is to build muscle or lose weight.
Step 1: Develop a List of Diet Foods
In this video, Fouad is taking you on his journey of creating his new diet for his fitness goals. To start laying out your plan, you must first list your foods. Fouad explains this by using his own food choices as an example.
List/pick out the clean foods you like and enjoy eating and separate these into three categories - Proteins, Carbs & Fats. If you are unsure of where your foods sit, find them in the list below or use a nutrition website/app to give you more variety.
Found starts by listing his proteins, naming the food sources below:
- Egg whites
- Whole Eggs
- Chicken breast
- Ground chicken
- Ground turkey
- Steak (flank)
- Ground beef
- Hosstile ISO[H1] Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate
Moving on, he then lists his preferred carb sources:
- Oatmeal
- Cream of rice - Fouad finds this is a good carbohydrate source when you have minimal/nothing prepared. It cooks fast, needing 2 - 3 minutes, so consider this a ‘back-up’ safety option if you have not listed it.
- White Potato - Fouad sticks to white/red potatoes as he doesn’t enjoy sweet potatoes. Sweet potato contains sugar alcohol which can cause stomach irritation and bloat. If you suffer from this after having sweet potation may benefit you to swap it out.
- Rice (white)
- Pasta (rice pasta) - Fouad explains that rice pasta digests faster and is a better choice than regular pasta. However, this is not essential and may need more attention on what time of day you eat this carb.
Lastly, to finish off this step, he lists his fats:
- Olive oil
- Peanut butter
Fouad has kept this section small as these are his favorite quick additions. You can consider more foods, such as whole nuts or avocados. He prefers an easier add-on to his oatmeal and cream of rice. Additionally, he explains that you may need to consider the natural fats in some of your proteins. These will affect egg yolks, higher fat percentage beef, and possibly steak if he opts for a different cut. These options may reduce the add-on fats in these meals.
Another section you may consider noting is your vegetables. However, Fouad feels these are best looked at as your ‘free foods,’ allowing you to mix them up for each meal and have more variety by going off how you feel. The vegetable he particularly enjoys are:
- Asparagus
- Green beans
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
The only vegetables he avoids overeating are corn, peas, and carrots. This is because they are higher in sugar, so if they are included in your diet, do not overuse them as they will add up in calories.
Step 2: Creating a Rough Meal Plan
Now that your favorite clean foods are listed, it is time to create a meal plan. Fouad starts by going off what he would like to eat in each meal by looking at the choices on his list. Fouad's choices are as follows:
Meal 1: Breakfast
- Whole eggs
- Egg whites
- Oatmeal
Meal 2: Pre-Workout Meal
This meal you want to be able to digest quickly, but not too soon, that you crash during your workout. To solve this, Fouad likes to add fats to this meal as they slow down the uptake of your carbs. This allows you to be fueled for longer during your training.
- Chicken breast
- Rice
- Olive oil
Meal 3: Post-Workout Meal
Fouad prefers something ‘heartier’ after he trains. Going by what he likes, he decides to list:
- Ground beef
- Rice Pasta
- Franks Red Hot Sauce (instead of pasta sauce)
Meal 4: Meal 2 Repeated
Meal 5: Last Meal
- ISO[H] WPI
- Natural peanut butter
This completes Fouad’s list. However, he explains that you may want to add an additional meal depending on your goals. He is eating enough to downsize but maintain muscle mass.
Step 3: Plugging in the Numbers
Now that you have the meals you’d like to eat, it’s time to get specific and start including the amounts.
Meal 1: Breakfast
- 2 Whole eggs
- 8 Egg whites
- 1/2 cup Oatmeal, dry measure
Meal 2: Pre-Workout Meal
- 4 oz Chicken breast
- 1 cup Rice
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Meal 3: Post-Workout Meal
- 4 oz Ground beef
- 85g Rice pasta
Meal 4: Meal 2 Repeated
- 4 oz Chicken breast
- 1 cup Rice
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
Meal 5: Last Meal
- 1 scoop ISO[H1] WPI
- 1 tbsp Natural peanut butter
How did Fouad get these numbers? How do you find the right amount that you should be eating? Fouad suggests using a calorie counting/nutrition site you are familiar with, e.g., calorieking.com, and input your meal plan and the estimated amount to calculate your macros. These macros should be appropriate for your lean body mass weight. If you are unsure about this, establish your lean body mass weight and base your diet around these results. Lean body mass is your overall weight minus your weight from body fat. In the short term, If you subtract the weight that comes from fat (your body fat percentage) from your total weight, you will have your lean body mass. How you can find the weights of your food on this result is written below.
Assessing your protein: Fouad explains that 1g of protein per pound (lbs) of lean body mass you weigh is a good starting point. For example, if you are 300lbs but your lean body mass is 220lbs, your protein amount should be 220g.
Assessing your carbs: For your daily carb intake, he explains that 2g of carbs per pound of lean body mass is where he should start for his goals. This is because it gives him enough room to reduce this down further into the diet. He may even need to begin slightly higher after
Assessing your fats: Fouad uses the math 0.35 per pound of lean body mass. These are generally the numbers he goes by to maintain mass, and all numbers would slightly increase if he were wanting to add on muscle.
Step 4: Put the Meal Plan into Action
Working out your numbers and seeing if you are in a good place. Fouad now works out the macros of his chosen meal plan and, using the science above, calculates whether it is a good starting point for his lean body mass.
Fouad’s Required Maintenance Macronutrient Breakdown
- 230 g protein
- 460 g carbs
- 81 g fats
If you are unsure of the amounts of protein, carbs, and fats in each serving, use the calorie nutrition website mentioned above to get more accurate results.
- 2 Whole eggs – 12 g Protein
- 8 Egg whites – 25 g Protein
- 4 oz Chicken breast – 30 g Protein
- 4 oz Ground beef – 35 g Protein
- 4 oz Chicken breast – 30 g Protein
- 1 scoop Hosstile ISO[H1] WPI – 25 g Protein
Fouad’s Diet Calculations
His written diet concludes with 157 g of protein. This means Fouad would be under-eating and could risk a reduction in muscle mass. This means he needs to go back over his numbers and tweak his protein amounts per meal. He adjusts meals 3,4,5, and 6, allowing him to reach closer to his goal of 230 g, equaling 232 g.
Fouad now looks at adjusting his carbs. His numbers were significantly low, so he changes his diet plan by increasing his weight of carbs per meal. To increase his carbs, Fouad adds some HOSSTILITY stimulant pre-workout, INTRA[R3] intra-workout, and CDX Cluster Dextrin carb powder into his intra-workout to keep him fueled and fed while he is training, allowing for a more optimal session and recovery. This allowed his numbers to increase to 471 g, giving him room to reduce his carbs over time in his diet.
Lastly, his fat calculation equated to 74 g. To add the extra 7 g, he increases one of his meals allowing him to have reached his appropriate macros, leaving him now at the optimal starting point for a diet.
Now all that’s left to do is the execution. Follow your diet and make changes/adjustments to what you enjoy eating as long as your macros add up correctly. Following the steps above, you can swap and alternate your proteins, carbs, and fats accurately but not interrupt your goals.
Converting Macros into Calories
1 g protein = 4 calories
1 g carb = 4 calories
1 g fat = 9 calories
Fouad’s starting point: 3,542 calories a day.