Remember that a muscle building diet is not a “typical” diet. Its function is to help you put on weight by using a lot of high protein foods. Many people believe the word “diet” to mean cutting back on food or on specific types of food to be able to lose weight or lose fat, but this is the incorrect use of the word. The term diet refers to the food decisions you make from day to day. So fundamentally what you pick to eat is your diet.
What are the Goals of Muscle Building Diets?
Simply the only objective of a muscle building diet is to build top quality muscle mass without adding fat. The following 6 point plan will help you realize this aspiration to build muscle fast without gaining fat.
1. Stick to Your Diet
If you really are serious about building muscle and losing fat you’ve got to keep to your diet the whole year round. This means that you should eat exactly the same when you aren’t training as much as when you are really pushing yourself to the maximum. So don’t abruptly change from chicken breasts to hamburgers, or from eggs to bacon just because you are not training as much recently. Most body builders have an “off season” where they do not train anywhere near as much as they typically would and give their bodies a break. But they keep in good shape by sticking by their standard muscle building diet.
If you really want one of your preferred (unhealthy) foods, only have them in your treat days.
2. Plenty of Protein
For each meal you need to ask yourself “Where is the protein?”
To add serious muscle you need to eat roughly 1.5 grams of protein for every pound of lean body mass you have. To discern your lean body mass, you need to find out what your body fat percentage is then use this percentage to find out how much of your weight is fat. Then simply take away this from your overall weight.
Don’t just use the same basis of protein all the time. Vary it and get a wide range of protein sources. Many people will get their majority of protein from chicken breasts, but In addition to that your body needs low-fat fish, lean steaks, eggs, nuts and seeds, fatty fish, beans and a mixture of dairy products.
When your busy its o.k. to get you protein from a protein supplement (but steer clear of protein meal bars!)
3. Cut Out Junk Food
Junk food includes one particular type of fat that you want to steer clear of at costs and keep away from your muscle building diet – trans-fatty acids. They severely obstruct you muscle building.
While “good” fats flick on your muscle building switch, junk foods do the opposite. Junk foods contain a lot of additives that the body simply is not intended to process, such as preservative, stabilizers and tenderizers.
These stuffs are like a poison to the body and cause a process called oxidisation to take place, which raises muscle breakdown at a cellular level. You get enough of this at the gym, so don’t make it worse by eating junk food.
You should be geared towards countering muscle damage, instead of getting over the poison of junk foods. Simply, if you eat junk foods you will be small and sick. If you eat fresh, natural foods you will be healthy and strong.
4. Eat Regularly Throughout The Day
A good number of people eat a big meal 3 times a day and think that is what the body wants. But for someone wanting to Build Muscle this isn’t the proper way to go about it.
Very few bodies can handle eating just 2-3 large meals a day without adding fat. It is important to eat smaller meals, more frequently throughout the day, which will keep your energy levels up and stop you feeling hungry.
I advise you to eat every 3-4 hours, which should result in 5-6 meals per day. As you have to pack a lot into the day, its best to start as early as possible. So your first meal should be eaten less than 20 minutes after waking up.
It’s also necessary to get an similar amount of your daily protein from each meal. So if you must eat 200 grammes of protein per day and have 6 meals, each meal should contain around 33 grams.
The secret is to pay attention to your body. When you begin to feel hungry, your body is saying to you it needs food, so give it what it want. You may well realize that every 3 hours is too much. If so wait until you start to feel hungry before having a meal. You will soon find a routine that works for you.
5. Eat the Foods Your Body Enjoys
If you struggle to eat dairy products, try to avoid these and get your protein and carbs from another source.
Everyone’s body is different so listen to what yours is telling you. There is no sense in eating foods that your body can’t tolerate or digest.
However if you find a source of protein that is good for you, try to integrate it into your diet more so you can get the most benefits.
I am not able to tell you what will and what won’t work for you as every person is different. You need to listen to your body and produce your own Muscle Building Foods for your diet.
6. Know Your Carbohydrates
Perhaps the most significant challenges facing anyone that wants to build muscle is eating the appropriate types of carbs at the right time. Your goal should be to get at least 2 grams of carbohydrates for every pound of lean body mass.
So if you are 200 pounds with a 10% body fat, you have 180 pounds of lean weight. Therefore you need at least 360 grammes of carbohydrate per day.
Carbs are the thing that you should be changing if you aren’t progressing in the way you wish. So if you aren’t putting on muscle and weight as fast as you think you should then elevate your intake of carbs. Or if you’re gaining weight, but it appears to be fat, cut back on the carbs.
All carbs will not be the same and you must focus on the high quality carbs that have a slow release factor, as these are less likely to be stored as fat.
These may be found in foods such as whole-grain bread, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. But if you are really skinny, then you can eat more fast releasing carbs such as potatoes, bananas, cereals, pasta and white rice.