Muscle Building Foods
Posted by admin on December 13, 2009 | No Comments
You’re going to the gym on a regular basis (3 to 6 times a week) but you aren’t seeing the results you want because you aren’t incorporating muscle building foods into your diet.
No matter how many reps you do, and no matter how heavy the weights are, you just won’t build lean mass without adding muscle building foods, also known as a protein rich diet.
The very best muscle building foods are those that are full of protein, and these absolutely need to be added to your diet as well as the right amount of good quality complex carbohydrates (no junk food here), healthy fats and plenty of fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. Drinking plenty of water during the day can never be emphasized enough. Your body needs water to digest food and eliminate toxins. Avoiding processed food is essential to provide your muscles with what is necessary to build lean mass.
Working your biceps, triceps, gluteus, hamstrings, pectorals and quads without eating muscle building foods is like riding a bicycle without the chain-you’re not going anywhere.
How often to eat your muscle building foods
You’ll have to eat protein every 2 to 3 hours totaling 5 to 6 meals a day. You will want to have healthy and easy-to-eat muscle building foods on hand for those times when you can’t prepare food. And who has time to put together a decent protein rich meal every 2 to 3 hours? A great snack to have on hand is nuts and seeds.
Time of day to eat the most muscle building foods
You’ll want to eat your largest meal after your weight training session. This is the time in which your muscles are most in need of those healthy muscle building foods.
When to skip a meal or snack of muscle building foods
If you’re serious and determined to build lean muscle mass, then you won’t want to miss an opportunity to ingest muscle building foods.
How much protein/muscle building foods do our bodies require?
The amount of muscle building foods your body needs depends on your age, size, gender, activity level, and the amount of exercise you do. In general, you can estimate how much protein you need every day by multiplying your body weight in kilograms times .8. That result you’ll want to divide into 5 to 6 meals a day. You’ll need to add 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight on those days that you’re involved in heavy weight training.
A list of excellent muscle building foods
To give you an example of the portion sizes of muscle building foods, the food items listed all have approximately 8 grams of protein for comparison.
1 jumbo egg
1 cup of milk
1 cup of soy milk
1oz of most cuts of beef
¼ cup of most almonds and seeds
2 tbsp of peanut butter
½ cup of most beans
¼ cup of soy beans
¼ cup of cottage cheese
½-1 cup of yoghurt (depending on the brand)
3 slices of bacon
¾ oz of ham
1 ½ oz fish fillets
1 oz chicken
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