6. Nutrition

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The nutrition section is by far the most important section towards reaching the ideal physique. How much you eat and what you eat will determine whether or not you leave the gym in a year feeling satisfied or not at all.

Without getting too dramatic, if you do not get your nutrition down it is near impossible to reach ideal. Pay close attention and get it right the first time before you come complaining about your not-as-fast-as-promised-but-still-quite-fast progress to us!

Your journey to the ideal body is nicely split into three phases: The cutting phase, the lean-bulking phase, and the maintenance phase.

1️⃣

The ⚖️Cutting Phase covers how to best lose fat while building muscle

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The 💪Lean Bulking Phase will tell you how to eat to grow muscle without gaining much fat

3️⃣

And the Maintenance Phase outlines how to keep your ideal physique forever

To know which phase you need to start on, check your BMI score to see how close you are to the ideal physique. If you've made a copy of "The Ideal Female Body Calculator" spreadsheet and entered your information, you'll find your score under the "Current BMI Score" tab.

Once you have your BMI score, make a mental note of it. One of the best feelings in the world is seeing your progress towards ideal validated and then finally completed.

To begin on your short nutritional journey to ideal, read both options below and then head over to the nutritional phase page you need to be at. After you're done going through it, come back to this page to continue onto the next portion of the guide. By the way, you're already done with half of this guide.

Remember to click the bolded, underlined links above to go to the page you need to be at! After getting your nutrition phases details, come back here to finish this page.

The nutritional cycle to ideal

To get started, go through the infographic below:

Notice that you need to cycle between the cutting phase and the lean-bulking phase until you reach ideal. The average female will complete the cycle twice before reaching ideal, or in other words, cutting → bulking → cutting → bulking → cutting → ideal → maintenance.

When you reach 19 BMI, you start lean-bulking. Then when you reach 20 BMI, you start cutting. You will repeat the process of switching between cutting and lean-bulking until you reach the ideal.

While the lean-bulking phase is meant to maximize muscle growth in all the right places while minimizing fat gain, you will inevitably add some fat as well.

This is where the magic of the guide begins: The cutting phase between lean-bulking phases gets rid of any unnecessary fat! No need for the stereotypical "bulked up" look—you will be beach-ready all the time, every time.

The number of times you cycle through the cutting and lean-bulking phases will mostly depend on your nutrition. Remember, the most important factor in regards to your health, muscle growth, and attractiveness is what you eat. Get your nutrition right the first time and you'll never have to worry about it again.

Reminder: The day you reach 19/20 BMI, your calories/macros goals, and more is located on your copy of "The Ideal female Body Calculator".

Moving on

After getting the information for your current nutrition phase, feel free to browse the Nutrition Research page for all the studies used. If you are not the research type (why are you here then, eh?), just continue to the next page.