Posts Tagged ‘Quality Muscle’

15 Foods That Build Muscle- Top Muscle Building Foods

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Tony Smith asked:


Eating the right foods is just as important as training hard. It can actually determine how fast you build quality muscle. So, what I’m going to do is share with you 15 foods that build muscle. That way, you can quickly and easily build muscle mass in a short amount of time.

The top 15 foods you should eat to build muscles are:

1. Steak (red meat)- good source of protein. Steak has vitamins and other nutrients in it that are crucial for muscle growth. The fats in steak has been shown to help increase your testosterone. If you’re serious about putting on muscle, add this to your meal plan.

2. Brown Rice- great carbohydrate source. Slow digesting, which means it won’t spike your insulin levels.

3. Pasta- great source of carbs. Two cups provide about 90 grams of high-quality carbs. This will definitely help you build muscles.

4. Avocado- Helps increase your testosterone and also has other health benefits.

5. Eggs- This is a must if you are trying to build muscles. Great protein source.

6. Chicken- Lean protein. Great for anytime of the day.

7. Fruits (apples, bananas, strawberries)- Carbohydrate source. Also, fruits have many health benefits.

8. Oatmeal- Complex carb. Great for helping with carb intake.

9. Turkey- Great for lunch. Excellent protein source.

10. Salmon- Good source of protein. Salmon has omega fatty acids in it. Its a serious mass builder. You should eat this at least three times a week.

11. Cottage cheese- slow-digesting protein. Cottage cheese is a great late night snack.

12. Salad- Add olive oil and vinegar to your salad. It has alot of health benefits.

13. Tuna- Lean protein source. Tuna also has fatty acids in it. It’s great for helping with muscle growth.

14. Whole wheat bread- Great carb source.

15. Almonds- Great as a snack. Almonds have a decent amount of protein in it. It also has healthy fats in it. And is good for increasing testosterone levels.

Eating these foods is important if you’re trying to build muscle. Don’t skip meals. Make sure you eat every 2-3 hours. You should intake at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day and 1.5 grams of carbs per pound of body weight per day.

An example would be if you weighed 200 pounds, you would consume 200 grams of protein per day and 300 grams of carbs per day. This will ensure that your body is constantly in “muscle-building” mode. If you don’t intake enough protein, your muscles won’t grow.

These are the 15 foods that build muscle. Add them to your meal plan. Train hard. Drink plenty of water. And watch how fast your muscles grow.



Victoria

Muscle Building Nutrition 101

Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Shawn Lebrun asked:


Correct muscle building nutrition and a quality muscle building diet are often the most neglected parts of a weight training program.

Building muscle requires the right nutrition. Make no mistake, it’s an essential part of weight lifting and if you want to build muscle, you have to get it done. Bottom line — if you want to build muscle, you need to consume quality calories.

How many calories?

You need to consume more total calories in your muscle building diet than your body uses each day. It’s important to understand that the human body is constantly working, using and storing energy day and night.

It’s also very important to understand that in order to keep the machine rolling, you need to know what and how much to feed it. This is the single most important element in the muscle building process.

You need to feed your body a correct balance of calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat. Complete muscle building nutrition is the key. If you can find this key, your muscle building efforts will sky rocket.

Complete muscle building nutrition leads to optimal nutrition and optimal results. Over supplementation of certain nutrients will lead to imbalances in overall nutrition and is damaging to your weight lifting diet and health.

It is very important that you understand the importance of nutrition when building muscle. Without good nutrition and diet, your muscle gains will be non-existent and at best, poor.

As a muscle builder, it’s important that you get your muscle building nutrition down to a science. Your success is dependent on a well-balanced and complete diet that includes your optimal nutritional intake.

Poor dietary habits will hinder your progress and may eventually lead to injury to muscles and bones because they are not supplied with the nutrients needed to support the added stress of weight lifting.

What builds muscle?

Protein builds muscle. Without an adequate supply of protein, your body will not support any kind of muscle growth. If you supply your body with the optimum amount of protein, you ensure optimal growth; it’s as simple as that.

After all, you want to build muscle and to do that, you need a steady supply of high quality protein. You must include an optimal amount of protein in your muscle building diet in order to build and sustain muscle growth.

So how much protein should you include in your muscle building nutrition for maximum performance and muscle gain? Each of us has very different body types and the amount of protein will differ from individual to individual.

Protein intake will also depend on the amount of activity involved and how frequently you do it.

Your muscle building diet should be comprised of 30% to 40% protein, or about 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. You will have to do a bit of experimenting at the beginning to find out your optimal protein intake.

What fuels muscle?

If you want to build muscle, you’re going to have to take in a lot of quality, complex carbohydrates. No question about it. You are going to have to fuel your body to handle heavy weight lifting.

You must include an optimal amount of carbohydrates in your muscle building nutrition program in order to fuel heavy weight lifting sessions.

Carbohydrates are a very important source of fuel for the muscles as well as the leading source of energy for your body. When you have a hard workout, your body draws on carbohydrates, which is stored as glycogen in the muscles.

Glycogen is the product of glucose, which comes from the breakdown of carbohydrates after the digestion of food. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle.

During a long intense muscle building session, you can easily deplete your glycogen reserves. When your muscles cannot get enough glycogen, fatigue sets in and your body begins to lose endurance and performance drastically reduces.

However, there is a way to delay the onset of muscle fatigue. By taking enough carbohydrates each day in your muscle building diet, you are ensuring that the amount of glycogen stored in the muscles is being constantly replenished.

Every meal must have sufficient carbohydrates to sustain your hard intense workouts It is suggested that your muscle building diet consist of 40% carbohydrates. If you want to build muscle, you need quality carbs every meal.

If you don’t consume enough quality carbohydrates, your body will resort to other fuel sources such as protein.

Protein is a second rate energy source. Protein’s primary job is to build muscle, not fuel it. Therefore, keep your body filled with grade A fuel to support and maximize your hard, intense muscle building workouts.

If you use the tips written above in making your own personal muscle building nutrition, you’ll be a lot healthier and you’ll succeed in having the rock-hard body you’ve always wanted.

But this can happen only by having good muscle building nutrition.



Lauren