Don't be alarmed. Good muscle building nutrition isn't that hard to follow. Just make sure you know these nutrition basics, and you'll build muscle fast and add inches to your frame in no time.
Muscle Building Nutrition Tip #1: Meal Timing for Building Muscle
It's important to never, ever let your body get hungry. Why? When your body is hungry, your metabolism slows down and it stops burning fat for fuel. Instead, it breaks down your own muscle for extra energy. Not good for a muscle builder! Make sure you're eating every 3-4 hours and 5 or 6 smaller meals a day.
Muscle Building Nutrition Tip # 2: The Important Food and Nutrient Groups
* Protein
A brick layer can't build without bricks. Your body can't build muscle without protein. It's the stuff muscle is made of. If you weight train without consuming enough protein, your muscles will actually shrink in size!
Depending on the amount of muscle and how fast you want to build that muscle, you should consume AT LEAST 0.8-1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day. So a 150 pound person should eat 120-150 grams a day. The more aggressive your muscle building goals, the higher this number will be.
Foods high in high quality protein include...
- Grilled Chicken and Turkey
- Egg Whites
- Tuna and other fish
- Milk and other low-fat dairy products
- Lean Beef
*Carbs
Carbs are the main source of energy for your muscles. So if you're not consuming enough carbs, you're going to feel sluggish and not lift very well.
Foods high in good carbs include...
- Oatmeal and non-sugary cereals
- Whole-grain breads
- Brown Rice
- Beans
- Potatoes
*Fruits & Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables supply your body with minerals and nutrients not found in other foods. Some of these nutrients include potassium, zinc, iron, vitamins, and fiber. Every nutrient supplied in these foods help your body function as it should. If you're not getting enough essential nutrients, you'll only slow down your body's ability to build muscle.
High nutrient fruits include...
- Apples
- Berries
- Watermelon
- Kiwi
- Oranges
Vegetables...
- Spinach
- Beets
- Tomatoes
- Carrots
- Peppers
*Fats
Good fats are important so your body functions properly. Try to eat more mono- and polyunsaturated fats and less saturated and trans fats. Good sources include...
- Olive oil
- Nuts and nut butters
- Fatty fish like salmon
*Water
Pure water has no calories, nutrients, or protein. But it's the most important "food" in your muscle building pantry. Water makes up 70% of your body. It lubricates joints and transports nutrients through your body. Without water, every other food and nutrient is useless. Try to drink at least 8 glasses of water every day, more when you do cardiovascular exercise.
Muscle Building Nutrition Tip # 3:
Easy to follow nutrition habits you as a muscle builder should be doing
- Prepare food in advance and always have something on hand. You never know when you might have to bolt out the door for an unexpected event. If you know you have an appointment or meeting to be to, prepare food in advance so you can eat it as soon as you get home or whenever you have time.
- Take food with you wherever you go. You can't always be sure if food will be available. Remember, you don't want to miss a meal. It counter acts you weight lifting efforts.
- Eat food before you go somewhere. Then you won't have to eat on the run (even though you do have a back-up meal packed just in case!).
- Buy more food than you think you need. It can save money and it means you'll never run out of nutritious food when you're in a pinch.
- Eat a variety of foods. If you eat the same foods every day, you're missing out on some vital nutrients.
- Try to eat a calorie ratio of 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. So a person eating 2000 calories a day should eat about 800 calories from protein, 800 calories from carbs, and 400 calories from fat.
Muscle building sports nutrition has become a specialized branch, which is based on scientific knowledge and practical feasibility. Attractive muscles are the biggest assets of every bodybuilder. However, having good muscles, remains only as a dream for many, in spite of their hard work. The absence of a well planned muscle building nutrition strategy will be the possible reason behind this disappointment of lack of proper muscles. Anyhow, sports nutrition has taken up it as a part of its interest, as sturdy muscles are the need of every sports person. Now, muscle building sports nutrition has formulated specific muscle building strategies.
Muscle building sports nutrition mainly focuses to satisfy the physiological requirements needed for the muscle building. Muscles are the contractile tissue in the body, which helps for the proper movement of the body parts. The functional importance of muscles but does not make sense about the development of the size of the muscles. The muscle building has to be based on its requirement since some games require sturdy muscles rather than thick muscles and vice versa. However, muscle building is an essential requisite of body building and sports nutrition has attributed special attention for muscle building of the professional body builders.
Muscle building requires professional guidelines from sports nutrition since just eating up cannot build good muscles. Muscle building is often compared to an art since it requires special attention, planning, creativity to balance the features and beauty towards the perfection. The intake of excess fat and carbohydrate can only increase the weight with tiers of hanging tissue and not tone muscles. Anatomically, muscles are made up of protein stands and increased amount of protein intake will eventually help for building up of muscles. But, it does not mean that fat and carbohydrates has to be abandoned from diet. A proportionate intake of the fat and carbohydrate is required, with more prominence for proteins. It is believed that the diet will stimulate the hormone production that controls the muscle development. Muscle building sports nutrition have formulated the most appropriate formulas for the muscle building, based on the principle, using trial and error method.
Muscle building sports nutrition specifies that eating patter is also important for muscle building. The reports say that taking up of food in frequent intervals is better for muscle building rather than 2 or 3 giant meals. And essentially the calories of intake must exceed the weight training too. It is estimated that 350 to 500 calories are required for building up 1 pound of muscle. As carbohydrates will help to burn calorie for the weight training and regulate the insulin in the body, the meal with a combination of 30 gram protein to 50 gm carbohydrate will be recommended for the weight training snacks.
Muscle building nutritious diet can be provided using natural substances as well as supplements. The carbohydrates can be provided in diet through including juices, vegetables and grains in the diet. It is said that 1 gram of protein is required for one pound of body mass. Whey protein, chicken, egg, good beef, nuts and beans can be used to include protein. Essential fatty acid such as omega 3 fatty acid and omega 6 fatty acids can be in taken using cold-water fish (salmon), fish oils, flax seed oil, olive oil, ground flax seeds of hempseed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and walnuts. To add on, water is very important in muscle building sports nutrition, as in every diet.
Muscle building sports nutrition also suggests many supplements available in the market. It mainly includes amino acids, metal replacement products, thermogenic substances, and prohormones. Certain sports nutrition strategy utilizes the growth hormone and other steroid hormones for muscle building. However, it may lead to serious future consequences.
Muscle building sports nutrition includes scientific approach regarding the nutrition for a muscle inducing diet. It must include all the essential nutrients, but must give importance for proteins. However, no program can assure the muscle building since its growth is not linear, and depends upon the physiological specialties of the person.
Both Richard A Knight & Domen Lombergar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Richard A Knight has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Build Muscle. Richard Knight is a former "skinny guy" / hardgainer who cracked the code to building muscle fast. Richard teaches other "Average Joes", skinny guys and hardgainers step by step how to build more muscle with less effort in 28 days FLAT with his own weight. Richard A Knight's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.