Muscle Building Diets
You are what you eat and many experts argue that muscle building diets count for about 70% of what your body looks like.
Without the right sort of nutrition to support your training, you will be limited in what you can achieve. A steady, consistent and daily approach requires discipline, consistency and patience at first. Then it all becomes a habit.
General Guidelines for Muscle Building Diets:
• Ensure that you eat protein and carbohydrate about thirty minutes before a workout session and immediately or within 30 minutes of the end of the session: whey protein and a simple carb like a banana.
• Only have simple carbs first thing in the morning at breakfast and immediately following your workout.
• Don’t use protein supplements excessively. You can get the required amount of quality protein from lean chicken, fish, soy, skim milk and some red meat.
• Some supplements work, some don’t and they are a waste of money.Whey protein is fine and it even has other health benefits but it is not necessary to have more than a serving a day, which is preferably after the work-out.
• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds; some lean meats, fish, eggs, low-fat dairy products; and mono and polyunsaturated oils.
• Eat lots of fibre. This is essential for a good digestive system and to maintain your ideal weight but also to prevent heart complications and bowel cancer.
• Your goal is to trim fat and build lean muscle mass, preserve abs by eating foods low in sugar.
• Follow a low sugar diet. Sugar easily turns into fat if not burnt by exercise and contributes to weight gain.
• Limit intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, salt, alcohol and an excess of added sugars and sugary foods.
• Drink plenty of water. Teas and juices count towards your daily fluid intake but coffee and alcohol don’t!
• Switch from flavored yogurt to low fat plain yogurt and from canned tuna to salmon for less mercury and more omega 3.
• Avoid salt, try and buy salt reduced or no-added-salt foods. Salt also masks the taste of food, you will notice this after a couple of weeks of eating low salt foods.
• Eat small meals throughout the day when you are hungry, rather than three big main meals.
Steps in Muscle Building Diets:
When you overeat for the purposes of gaining muscle you also gain some fat. To build extra muscle you need to eat in excess of what you currently eat and work out with weights on a regular basis.
How much muscle you can gain, how quickly and with what definition is largely determined by your genetics and age. But everyone at almost any age should be able to gain some muscle and strength with weight training.
Proper nutrition is a crucial element in the muscle building process. That overeating is not a good idea if you are already overweight is surely something you already know. Get fit first.
1.Overeat: Increase your daily intake of energy- calories by about 15 percent. It should not be all protein but the extra protein you consume, either in supplements or protein foods, should be low in fat.
2.Train with weights: Commence a solid weight training program targeting all the main large muscle groups such as the arms, legs, shoulders, chest, back and abdominals. The extra energy you consume will fuel muscle growth as the exercise stimulates growth.
3.Cut, lose and shed: This means that you are now bulked up with extra muscle and fat, and you need to lose much of that fat while maintaining the muscle. Gaining fat is somewhat inevitable during this process but you should be especially careful to eat healthy food at this time. Fast foods should be kept to a minimum. Eat healthy but big.
In this cutting phase, the diet should be low in fat- around 20 percent, and protein intake should be maintained, which can help protect muscles. For example, if your protein intake was 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight when you were bulking up and overeating, you would now keep that protein intake constant while cutting excess fat and carbohydrates, particularly added sugar and sweets and white flour products, all the while keeping up the supply of those antioxidants in fruit, vegetables and whole grains.
Bulking phase : Protein: 15-20% Fat: 20-30% Carbohydrate: 50-60%
Cutting phase: Protein: 20-25% Fat:15-20% Carbohydrate: 55-60%
Age, gender and goals determine how much protein you should have but as a general guideline, a healthy male aiming to increase muscle mass should consume about 1.5g of protein per kg of body weight from lean meats, fish, egg whites, chicken, turkey, lean pork, nuts, low fat cottage cheese and whey protein.
Fats should come from extra virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, nuts-almonds being the first choice, salmon and fish oil.
Complex carbohydrates are the most important nutrients to include in muscle building diets. They are broken down more slowly over time when compared to simple sugars. This is why they are better to include in your diet along with the fact they contain more fiber and B-Vitamins. Best sources of complex carbohydrates include oats, sweet potatoes, beans, legumes, whole grain rice and bread, whole meal pastas.
Use of Glycemic index in Muscle Building Diets:
▪ Use of Glycemic Index in muscle building diets may have some value when considering pre- and post-training meals. These are eaten according to whether they are rated as low, medium or high.
▪ It is suggested low to moderate ranked foods – pasta and porridge be consumed several hours prior to exercise due to their long slow release of glucose into the blood stream. While high glycemic index foods– corn flakes, honey, sports drinks, sweets should be consumed during or post exercise because they quickly release glucose into the blood stream which will be rapidly taken up into the muscles.
▪ Carbohydrates in the form of sugars are the body’s prime energy source. They are a ready source of energy that can fuel about 90 mins of continuous exercise, which represents an energy reserve of about 2000kcal within the body. Carbs are required by the body because it is the most effective means of producing energy. The GI therefore is a useful guide.
▪ For pre-exercise snacks, the food needs between one and four hours to be fully digested and supplying energy. Snacking on high GI foods before exercise can increase the blood sugar level to an extent that insulin is released which causes the glucose to be taken from the blood stream and stored. This may be detrimental as the glucose will be required by the working muscles.
▪ Therefore eating high GI foods for instant energy before a workout may have the reverse effect. During exercise this insulin response is dampened, so glucose will supply the cells with glucose from the blood. Isotonic sports drinks are therefore a beneficial way of sustaining endurance performance as they are quickly absorbed and supply the cells with glucose for energy.
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