Muscle Building Nutrition For Men Over 40

Men of all ages routinely look to gain muscle but often get mislead by advertisements or just awful advice. When you boil down muscle gain to the brass tacks you’ll find that only two factors govern muscle growth. The first being a consistent workout schedule but the next being your diet. Let’s cover the best dieting practices.

Rule #1: Eat upwards of 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight to build muscle

It has been long established that protein builds muscle, protein IS muscle. Sadly, most people go too far and recommend upwards of two grams of protein per pound of body weight. That’s way too much. You will see noticeable muscle growth by hitting 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight when you want to gain muscle. Your body will respond very favorably to quick changes in your protein intake.

How else do Hollywood stars gain muscle so quickly? They aren’t ingesting protein then all of a sudden they are having shakes and bars during the day.

Grass fed beef
Organic turkey and chicken
Wild caught fish such as salmon, tilipia, halibut swordfish or canned tuna.
Bison
Lamb
Ham
Eggs
Beans
Sardines
Cottage Cheese
Greek yogurt or regular yogurt:
Whey protein

Rule #2: Eat starchy carbohydrates with breakfast, pre and post workout and with dinner

Many individuals are too afraid of carbohydrates. Let me be very clear, it is HARD to gain muscle without starchy carbohydrates. That doesn’t mean that you are allowed to follow a see-food diet. No, this isn’t some bulking recommendation where you gain pounds of fat.

By eating a select amount of starchy carbohydrates with breakfast, pre and post workout and with dinner your body will always have tiny pulses of insulin that encourage muscle growth. Insulin is the bodies most ANABOLIC, muscle building, hormone and we should NOT be afraid of eating tiny amounts during the course of the day

Rule # 3: Aim to include a moderate amount of fat with each meal

The role of fat in our body is to control inflammation and produce raw materials for hormone health. On top of that, good fats increase cell communication, cell membrane health, body composition and heart health.

The trick is to balance your fats accordingly among three types, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Our issues arise when we overconsume certain types of fats while under eating others. Most people cook with omega-6 fats that raise pro inflammatory hormones known as cytokines. When our cytokine levels are high we’ll see increased joint pain, increased likelihood of muscle tears, reduced workout recovery , heart disease and a greater tendency to get sick.

We will also experience faster muscle and strength loss as omega-6 fats raise catabolic hormones that accelerate muscle protein breakdown.

Fortunately, omega-3 fats do all the opposites that omega-6 fats do and fight the good fight.

How much fat should we eat with each meal? A good measurement is the entire length of your thumb for nut butters or a medium sized handful of nuts or seeds

The best fat sources include

Extra virgin olive oil
Various cheeses
Organic or grass fed bacon
Any fat coming from grass fed meats
Pasture raised butter
Avocados
Chia seeds
Flax seeds
Natural peanut butter or almond butter
Any nuts but especially almonds, walnuts, macademia nut and cashews
Macademia nut oil

Rule #4: Supplement smart

While I understand that the supplement market is flooded with pills and potions, there are a handful of products that can be very effective. One is branched chain amino acids (BCAA) which has a ton of quality research supporting its usage.

BCAAS are multi-functional for muscle gain since they increase the rate, or speed, of muscle protein synthesis, decrease muscle breakdown and increase the muscle cells ability for protein synthesis. Basically BCAAS help you gain muscle while delaying fatigue.

Another quality product is a men’s based multi vitamin which can make sure that all of your nutritional basis are covered. Often times, a complete multi vitamin can correct vitamin deficiencies that a diet may not be able to.