Food To Assist Building Muscles
Here is some information about foods to eat to help you build muscles. When you start an exercise program with the goal of building muscles, you must change your diet accordingly. If you start exercising and burning more calories, and do not increase your food intake, you will lose muscle mass.
Protein
If you start exercising regularly, you need to eat more protein. If you aren’t getting enough protein in your diet, then your body starts using its own sources of protein for energy. 60-70% of the body’s protein is found in muscle tissue, so your body will eat away at your muscles, which will slow your metabolic rate, reduce your strength and stop all muscle growth.
In order for muscle growth to occur, you must consume more protein than you utilize. The body can store carbohydrates and glycogen, however it cannot store proteins. To maintain the optimal environment for muscle growth, complete proteins must be eaten with every meal. This explains why nutritionists recommend that we eat up to six small meals a day, equally to about every three hours.
Best sources of lean protein for building muscles:
Chicken Breast
Turkey Breast
Fish
Shellfish
Egg Whites
Lean red meats
Nonfat or low fat dairy products
Protein Powders (eg. Whey protein)
Protein myth
Some people claim that the human body can only digest 3 grams of protein per sitting. This is not true, and no research has ever proved otherwise.
Recommended daily amount
1 gram per pound of bodyweight as a starting point for daily protein needs. Many body builders go higher than this, up to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. During pre-contest phases when carbohydrates are restricted, some body builders eat as much as 2.0 grams per pound.
Example 1:
You are female
Your total body weight = 130 lbs.
Your protein requirement = 130 grams per day
If you eat 5 - 6 meals a day (like you should) that’s 22 - 26 grams of protein per meal
Example 2:
You are male
Your total body weight = 190 lbs.
Your protein requirement = 190 grams per day
Spread over 5 - 6 meals per day, that’s 32 - 38 grams of protein per meal
Carbohydrates
A low carb/high protein diet is usually the best way for body builders to get that “ripped” look. Most bodybuilders go on some version of a low carb diet when getting ready for competition. However, this is done while working towards a specific goal and is not necessarily suitable for someone just wanting to build muscle. If you are a hard gainer wanting to put on more weight, a diet high in carbs would be the way to go.
Problems with a low carb diet
A problem caused by very low carb diets is loss of lean body mass. Many people don’t realize that if you lower your carbs, you are more likely to lose muscle along with fat. Another problem with very low carb diets is that once you add carbs back in, you are likely to gain the fat back very quickly.
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