subject: 4 Key Tips on a Diet for Building Muscle [print this page] 4 Key Tips on a Diet for Building Muscle 4 Key Tips on a Diet for Building Muscle
If you're trying to build muscle, chances are you've got the training part squared away. Lift heavy weights, use compound exercises, train your legs as much your upper bodymost people can get that stuff down pretty well. What most trainees struggle with the most is their diet for building muscle, and that's the reason that you see so few people actually making progress!
You can learn right now how to train, eat, and supplement for maximum muscle growth, or you can read on to learn the 5 most important tips for your diet for building muscle.
1. Protein every 2-3 Hours
You may have heard that you need to eat several meals per day to keep your body growing in muscle size, but the most important thing is to get PROTEIN every 2-3 hours in your diet for building muscle. This keeps your body in what is called a positive nitrogen balance, a state in which there are always plenty of building blocks for new muscle tissue. You don't ever want to miss an opportunity to grow!
2. Post-Workout Optimization
Even on a diet for building muscle, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but the time right after your workout is almost as crucial! To build the muscle mass you want, you're going to need to optimize your nutrition after your training. Consume a shake with a roughly 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein, and make them fast-acting. This means some type of sugar combined with whey protein.
3. Don't Neglect Your Fats
Many bodybuilders and others who use a diet for building muscle get caught up so much in their amounts of carbs and protein that they forget the importance of healthy fats in their nutrition program. Eating fat does not MAKE you fat! It is essential to get healthy fats from oils, nuts, and even some red meat. They keep your cells healthy and optimize your body's testosterone production.
4. Eat to Gain
It's amazing how many trainees don't understand that to build muscle mass, you must GAIN WEIGHT! Therefore, a diet for building muscle needs to have enough overall calories to cause a weight gain of about one half to one pound per week. Any more, and you risk gaining to much fat. Any less, and you are going to gain at a discouraging snail's pace.
