The body works best when you ingest foods in certain combinations. The required dietary "balance" is pretty much the same for the bodybuilder as for anyone else. The currently recommended balance, according to the McGovern Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, is approximately: protein, 12 percent; carbohydrate, 58 percent; and fats, 30 percent.

However, there are bodybuilders who go much too far in their pursuit of protein, eating as much as 70 percent protein in their diets. Others believe protein is not that important, and eat as little as 10 or 12 percent.

There are also bodybuilders who eat only a few foods for months on end-tuna, chicken, fruit, and salads, for example. This may help them to cut down on body fat, but it also prevents them from taking in all the nutrients, as they need for maximum energy and growth. Cutting way down on any of the general food groups leaves you open to developing vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Eating a lot of fruit makes it difficult to obtain sufficient protein and a wide enough variety of vitamins and minerals. Vegetarian and super-high-carbohydrate diets might not provide enough protein for a bodybuilder attempting to build maximum muscle mass. Diets too high in protein can put an unhealthy strain on your kidneys and liver, cause your body to lose calcium, and make you fat.

Bodybuilders who go to extremes in diet usually opt for the high-protein approach. They feel this maximizes muscle growth and minimizes body fat at the same time. However, in addition to the problems listed above, a diet too high in protein and too low in carbohydrates can cause you to lose muscle mass rather than gain it, due to the loss of the "protein-sparing" effect of the carbohydrate