Nutrition Plans for Muscle Growth
Protein is the vital macro-nutrient that helps rebuild and repair your muscles that were used in your workouts. So if you were looking for a nourishment strategy on how to build muscle and gain weight than you are reading the correct article.
However, there are other things needed besides protein within this often confusing dietary puzzle. Let us face the facts, today there are thousands of different methods on how people think we should eat. We have all types of supposed experts explaining to us the proper ways to eat or diet to burn fat, blah blah blah.
We are not stating that they are all wrong, it’s merely that there is a lot of contradictory information flying around out there. Likewise a lot of it is dealing with fat-loss which is not exactly what we’re after on a muscle gaining diet.
Therefore, let us give you some principles on how to resolved the puzzle once and for all.
Foremost, there are 4 key Macro-nutrients that you need:
1. Protein- the best ones to choose are chicken breasts, eggs, lean steaks, lean ground beef, turkey, tuna, shrimp, salmon, lean ham, swordfish, wild-game, and low fat cottage cheese.
2. Carbohydrates- some good ones to pick are baked potato, sweet potato, brown rice, pasta, oatmeal, beans, corn, strawberries, melon, apples, oranges, bananas, fat-free yogurt, and whole-wheat bread and grains.
3. Vegetables- the best ones to pick are broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, green peppers, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, peas, brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, zucchini, cucumbers, and onions. Typically fresh or frozen are best.
4. Fats- some good choices are avocado, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cold-water fish, natural peanut butter, olives and olive oil, safflower oil, canola oil, sunflower oil and flax-seed oil. Stay away from butter, fried foods, mayonnaise, sweets, and dairy products.
A great ratio for your daily calories would be: 30% protein, 40% carbs, 10% vegetables, and 20% fat.
Now, here is a quick hint on coming up with the requirements for calories you need for building muscle while minimizing fat accumulation. We have used many different methods and compared them and this one is pretty exact. There are more involved techniques to look at to determine the total amount of calories you should consume and Sean Nalewanyj covers these in depth in his program The Truth about Building Muscle.
Nevertheless, for our purposes here we’ll employ the simpler technique.
To determine your DAILY CALORIE REQUIREMENTS FOR BUILDING MASS, merely multiply how much you weigh by either 17, 18, nineteen, or 20 depending upon how quick your metabolism is and what your daily activity level is.
For example, if your metabolism is relatively normal choose a lower number like 17 or 18. However, if your metabolism is pretty high or quick, we advise choosing a larger number like nineteen or twenty.
Also, if your day to dayactivity level is lower (ie you sit on the couch all day and watch t.v.), then select a smaller number like 17 or eighteen. On the other hand, if you have a rather physical day or lift weights a lot, or if your line of work is manual labor, you might be better off selecting a larger number like nineteen or twenty.
So, what if you’ve a speedy metabolism, but do not have a lot of daily activity( ie you have a desk job.) Well, in that case maybe you had better choose a number around like eighteen or 19.
O.K., now that we have that addressed here’s the equation written out. We’ll assume that this person weighs 150 pounds, has a fairly high metabolism, works out 3-4 times a week, and has a office job.
150 lbs X 19 = 2,850 calories per day to build muscle.
Pretty elementary huh? Now, just divide that number by 6 and that is how many calories you had better be acquiring for each meal. Of course start with this number and change by 500 calories when your gains stop or muscle weight drops. To put it differently, if the individual in our example above is not gaining muscle he may increase the daily calories to 3,350 and then look what alters after being on that level for a few days.
Of course we cannot cover the huge scope of info on mass building nutrition in one article, but don’t despair….You’ll be able to learn even more nutritional advice by visiting Our Muscle Building Articles Page.
We Will see ya there,
Brandon and Cory Cook (a.k.a. The Cook Brothers)
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About the Author:
Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a site specifically designedto teach people with the ectomorph body type the laws and scientific principles for building a classic, muscular and functional physique.
HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class dealing with the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to build the perfect body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com