Nutrition for Muscle Gain and Growth
Your success in muscle gain and growth is dictated by your regular training at gym, proper rest and most importantly what you eat every day- nutrition. Not paying attention to your nutrition and focusing only on your workout and how you perform your exercises would be a grave mistake, something that unfortunately many gym goers do. And second mistake that most guys do is focusing on what whey protein and other supplements to purchase and use before working on how well they eat- a very well balanced diet, from which nutrient groups and number of calories to consume so as to achieve leaner and toned good quality muscles with more fat burned and maintain them. First of all you should eat according to your needs on that specific day and how many times you eat will be up to you but it is a common practice of not eating just the breakfast, lunch and dinner but distributing that total caloric intake over 6 small meals throughout the day, so it will be more like three main meals plus three healthy snacks.
As we all know there is no muscle building without eating enough protein rich foods as your muscles are made from amino acids that make up proteins and if you’re not eating enough of proteins on a daily basis you’ll not achieve results very fast. And for someone that lifts weights or does resistance training regularly, 2 grams of protein for each kg of their body weight is a good starting point and you will need more when you have a more muscular body down the track. Your body can not do without fats and it is another mistake to avoid fats and you need to make sure one thirds of your calories should come from fats- polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fats in more or less equal amounts. Both the Omega 3 and Omega 6 are quite important for your health but you’ll be better off having a gram of Omega 3 for 2-3 grams of Omega 6 and most people eat a lot more of 6 than Omega 3 that helps with better sports performance. You need to focus on eating low giycemic index carbs that will not spike your blood glucose levels that equals to sudden energy rush and crash- fatigue afterwards and develop serious illnesses like diabetes later on. Fruits and veggies are essential for your daily intake of minerals and vitamins and reduce acidity as muscle building exercises increase acidity and if you don not enough of fruits and vegetables your health may be at risk in the long run.
You should have your largest meal of the day after your workout as your body and muscles are in recovery and this will help them recover faster and better. The only drink you should worry about is water and you should have 2 to 2.5 litres of water per day to eliminate toxins and to increase muscle mass. Weight gain supplements give you a big appetite and make you eat heaps and increase your calorie intake and they are also high in glycemix index and will make you gain fat as well. Avoid simple sugars and choose carbs with low GI, focus on keeping your blood sugar levels stable and force anabolism. Just bear in mind that a gram of carb is 4kcal, 1g of protein is 4kcal and 1g of fat is 9 kcal. Eat some kind of protein food at each of your 5 or 6 meals per day and be easy on the protein powder as you don’t want to burden your kidneys- the best time to have a serving of protein drink is within 45 minutes of your workout. You need some saturated fats but focus more on fish, olive oil, nuts, avocado etc. and avoid fried foods and first use spices before salt when you want to improve the taste of your meal. To increase your lean muscle mass you need to increase your calorie intake just a little bit every day (more than calories burned) to keep the needs of basal metabolism and store any excess to promote muscle growth. Be aware that everyone’s genetic structure is different and we will all have different metabolic needs and you will find out what works for you best in no time.