What’s wrong with the average American’s diet? In a word, there are plenty of things wrong. For starters, it’s way too high in dietary fat. Excess fat, especially when consumed by inactive average Joe, is efficiently packed away as body fat. Throw in refined carbs from white bread and sodas, and you create a metabolism that becomes incredibly adept at depositing all incoming calories as body fat.

What about a mass-seeking bodybuilder? What’s wrong with his diet? It just might be too little dietary fat! An over reliance on carbs and protein to spark muscle growth is, in reality, not the ideal approach. Although dietary fat is down fall for the average Joe, it supports growth for the average bodybuilder. How so? In a good way, fat affects hormones and the manner in which a body handles carbohydrates and amino acids from protein.

Fat especially, saturated fat, is important for maintaining testosterone levels. These amounts fluctuate; one day, they may be relatively high, then they fall to statistically lower levels for a few days. This may explain how you can feel great and recover quickly on certain days, but struggle to recover after hard training sessions on others. Stress can kill testosterone levels, and chronic all-out training will, too. However, research shows that athletes who maintain high saturated fat levels also maintain high testosterone levels.

Fat works in conjunction with insulin, another hormone that rises with carbohydrate consumption. When you eat carbs, insulin levels go up, which, in turn, should drive those carbohydrates (as well as amino acids from protein) into muscles, resulting in growth.

However, insulin has to lock up with special receptors located on muscles to allow this process to take place. Guess what happens if you follow a high-carb diet that boosts insulin levels but is far too low in fat? The receptors located on the muscles refuse to let insulin work effectively. That’s referred to as a compromised anabolic metabolism.

Dietary fat also changes what is known as the glycemic rating. Refined or high-rated glycemic carbohydrates, such as white bread, white potatoes, rice cakes and, of course, sugar, aren’t supposed to be the best choices for a bodybuilder, other than the critical juncture immediately after a weight workout. They tend to digest and break down far too quickly, causing insulin levels to surge. At times other than after workouts, such surges are correlated with greater fat storage.

However, when such carbs are consumed with dietary fat and protein, you can arguably throw the rating method out the window. Fast-digesting carbs, such as a bowl of cornflakes, may not be ideal carb choices, but eating cornflakes at breakfast with two whole eggs mixed with a half-dozen egg whites creates a totally different picture. The dietary fat from the yolks and protein from the whites skews the breakdown of the cornflakes, making them a slower-digesting, carbohydrate, which creates a moderate rise of insulin, thought to be more beneficial in staying lean.

And don’t forget omega-3 fatty acids. Special consideration should be given to omega-3 fatty acids common to canned tuna, salmon and sardines. Omega-3s make the receptors on muscles far more receptive to insulin. When the receptor is recruited in assisting, carbs and amino acids from protein are more readily transported inside the muscles, resulting in better growth. That’s what is known as a facilitated anabolic metabolism.

Omega-3s also spare the burning of branched-chain amino acids, the three important components that play a big role in protein synthesis and in the prevention of protein (muscle) breakdown. One of those BCAA’s, leucine, plays a monumental role in pushing the body into an anabolic state where signals are sent to the muscle to build up. If a bodybuilder skimps on omega-3 fat, his body will more readily burn through its limited reserves of leucine, which can throw the metabolism back into a compromised anabolic state. A mass seeker’s goal should always be to encourage growth, and including fish in a daily meal plan will ensure just that. Of course, if you can’t stand eating any sort of fish, you can supplement with 2-6 grams of omega-3 fatty acids to make certain your body has what it needs to support the growth process.