Eating For Muscle Growth

Eating For Muscle

It doesn’t matter what you do in the gym, how hard you train or how much weight you lift if you are not eating for muscle your gains are going to be non-existent. I believe that nutrition and training are equally important when gaining muscle, but overall if I had to give one the edge I would have to be nutrition.

Why? The fact is if you are not eating correctly all your hard work in the gym goes to waste, however if you are eating correctly all your hard work in the gym will pay off. It’s all down to nutrition.

There are two main approaches when bulking up; the eat absolutely everything diet and the eat right diet! The eating everything diet will definitely see you gaining mass but you are going to add a lot of unwanted, and unnecessary fat. This will make you look fat, feel fat and work harder to lose the fat after you bulk. It’s also not really that healthy to just stuff your face with burgers and crisps just to get the calories in.

The eat right diet is harder; you will have to eat ‘healthy’ day in and day out, but it will pay off – your gains will be leaner, you will be healthier and in the long term it is the truly sustainable option.

What To Eat
When eating for muscle you need to make sure that you are getting plenty of the macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate and fat) in the right amounts. This will ensure your body is getting enough of what it needs to grow.

Protein
If you are at all interested in building muscle you will have heard a lot about protein intake. After all digesting proteins is how the body builds new muscle. You must make sure however that you are eating the right amount of protein and not too much. I believe that many people eat far too much protein as they have been constantly told to eat as much protein as they can and they therefore neglect carbohydrates and fats.

To easily work out how much protein you need to eat to gain muscle you can use this very simple formula
1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight

For someone that weighs 85kg (187lb) the calculation would be:

1.5 x 187 = 280.5g protein daily

Most people wouldn’t need more than 1.5g/lb unless they are competitive bodybuilders.Your protein intake should be split throughout the day with a dose of whey protein after your workouts.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are vital if you want to gain muscle. Carbohydrate enables your muscles to replenish energy and use protein to repair and build new mass. Great carbohydrate sources include pasta, brown bread, oats, rice, noodles, cous-cous and potatoes.

Eating these slow release carbohydrates is beneficial as they sustain your energy levels and also keep insulin at a steady level throughout the day.

“Insulin is an anabolic hormone – it signals your body to uptake nutrients and deposits them into cells that store energy as glycogen such as your lean muscle cells and some is even stored in your liver as liver glycogen.”

When you ingest sugar the insulin response is very high meaning your body uptakes all the energy you just ate very quickly. The problem here is your muscle and liver cells can only hold a finite amount of glycogen. All the energy that is left over goes straight into your fat cells. Slow release carbohydrates do not spike insulin so dramatically and therefore prevent this fat gain compared to eating the same amount of calories from sugary carbohydrates.

There are periods in the day that you want to spike insulin, as the anabolic effects will be beneficial. These periods are first thing in the morning and post workout. At these times your glycogen stores are very low and in need of nutrients. The insulin spike will enable fast replenishment of these stores.

Fat
Fat is an important part of a healthy diet and should not be underestimated in its power to build muscle. There are two broad types of fats – good and bad.

We actually need fat to live and we need to eat fat to be healthy. The fats we are required to eat are called essential fatty acids as the body cannot produce them, so need to be ingested through our diet.

Good fats are responsible for many processes in the body, but the most pertinent to bodybuilders is that fat is responsible for maintaining healthy hormone levels including testosterone.

Mostly you should be eating mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids from foods such as salmon, tuna, flaxseed oil, fish oil supplements, olive oil, almonds and avocados.

Your body does actually require a small amount of saturated fat however the amount needed shouldn’t be worried about. Saturated fat can be found in red meat, egg yolks, cheese and, in fact there are small amounts in any fat source. The amount of saturated fat that you would ingest incidentally from your diet should be sufficient.

How Much Should I Eat?
When gaining muscle you need to eat a lot of food! You simply must eat more calories per day than you consume

Carbohydrates should be your main energy source, followed by protein and then fat.

Supplementing For Muscle
Firstly your diet should be in place and at a good standard before you even think about buying supplements. Supplements cannot replace a poor diet, however they can perfect a good diet. Protein powders or MRPs for example are a good way of adding carbohydrates and proteins to you diet in a easy, cheap and convenient manner but there is no point taking them if the rest of the day you eat fast food.

Creatine is a proven strength and muscle builder, but again if you don’t lay the foundations with your diet and calorie intake you may as well not take it. Creatine can always help with strength gains but you won’t gain the full benefits unless you are eating a calorie surplus.

Conclusion
Eating a well-rounded healthy diet is the sustainable way of bulking up and gaining muscle without looking like a blown up balloon. A diet consisting of lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates will enable you to gain size and strength. Protein powders, MRPs and ergogenic aids such as creatine can have positive effects on your muscle gain but make sure your solid nutrition foundations are in place before considering supplementation.