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News

4-Time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler Breaks Down Bodybuilding Meal Plan

Greg Patutoby Greg Patuto Published on Sep 9, 2025

jay cutler
This post may contain affiliate links (disclosure policy).

Why Food Was the Hardest Part of Bodybuilding for Jay Cutler

4-Time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has been open about all aspects of his bodybuilding career since his days on stage ended. This includes his workouts, diet plans, and event steroid use. Recently, Cutler emphasized what was the hardest thing about bodybuilding for him. In this post, we detail Jay Cutler’s bodybuilding meal plan, calorie in-take and what helped him optimize digestion. 

Cutler has spoken about his insanely-large meal plans over the course of his career in the past. This includes an abundance of protein and egg whites daily. Now, he continues to follow a strict meal plan and getting all meals in is sometimes difficult.

“What’s the hardest part about bodybuilding? I always said the food.

It’s like now I’m having trouble getting enough food in. Yeah, my appetite is good but it’s just making the time to actually prep the food consistently enough.”

Cutler discussed meals in bodybuilding during an edition Jaywalking on his YouTube account.

Jay Cutler Instagram

Jay Cutler Talks Meals In Bodybuilding 

Just like any other sport, no athlete is created equal in bodybuilding. For Jay Cutler, his plan would be t make sure to add that extra protein before bed and after workouts.

“I think certain people can compete on anything. I think it depends on their genetics.

I almost won 2001 so I would eat some whole meals but I was definitely having after-training protein before bed. Sometimes, if I didn’t have egg whites. I always thought egg whites were probably the best before-bed digestible.”

During his career, Cutler varied with the amount of meals he ate. It was as many as seven when he began working with Hany Rambod.

“I’ve always been on six meals. I mean, Hany bumped me to seven so you know, thats the common question, is what’s the difference when I did all those years with Chris and then I did 09 and 10, seven meals.

I switched to eating grits. Oatmeal for whatever always bogged my stomach down. I don’t know if it was the gluten but I started eating cream of rice or grits.”

Many bodybuilders have doubled down on the fact that eating feels like a full-time job when prepping. This is because of the constant meal prep and full schedule over the course of the day. Jay Cutler has explained this at length prior and continues to do so.

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“FEAST LIKE A BEAST” is the slogan for FEAST MODE, and rightfully so. You will undoubtedly be eating like a pro and optimizing your digestion when you are on FEAST MODE. Perhaps the most critical component of any mass-building or weight gaining program is to ensure that you are consuming large quantities of calories, making sure to get in the proper amount of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Without doing this, you will have trouble if you are looking to increase muscle growth and body weight. 

Wrap Up

Overall, Jay Cutler’s diet is an incredible one, and he certainly had the physique to prove it. What do you think of Jay’s meal plan?

For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Greg Patuto

About Greg Patuto

Greg has covered the four major sports for six years and has been featured on sites such as Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, SB Nation, NJ.com, and FanSided. Now, he is transitioning into the world of bodybuilding and strength sports.

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