Proper nutrition for gaining muscle mass

Fitness and bodybuilding trainer, certified nutritionist

Gaining muscle mass is not as easy as it seems from the outside. This process requires not only time, effort and a certain amount of stamina, but also knowledge about nutrition. Approach the issue carefully and deeply studying all the pitfalls. And the first thing you need to know: the basis of the diet should be based on a surplus of calories.

Daily calorie intake should be more than the body usually needs for normal work and replenishment of energy needs.

For everything in the body to function stably, the average person needs 2500 calories. If the goal is to build muscle mass, then 300-500 calories more will be needed. But these are general data, the calculation in each case will be individual.

It is in the state of surplus (the state when you consume more calories per day than you spend) that the body receives the “building material” for the formation of new muscle fibers.

In other words, even with a balanced diet, which contains all the necessary nutrients – nutrients, but no excess calories, the body consumes calories to nothing or is in deficit – it will be extremely difficult to gain muscle mass.

Table of Contents

What should be included in the diet?

The diet for gaining muscle mass should be balanced and varied. It is important that macronutrients – proteins, fats and carbohydrates – come from different foods. Let’s break down where they are found.

Carbohydrates

They come in fast (simple) and slow (complex) forms. In the case of gaining muscle mass, most of the carbohydrates should be of the latter type. So the breakdown for energy will be long.

For this purpose, it is worth adding cereals to the daily menu: hercules, brown and black rice, basmati rice, buckwheat and couscous. It is important that fast carbohydrates are also present, but in a ratio of no more than 20%. They are found in sweet vegetables, fruits, berries, as well as honey.

Fats

Fats come in saturated and unsaturated. The former group is rich in meat and fish, while the latter are found in plant foods, seeds, nuts and oil. The nutritional properties of oils are retained when added to salads or consumed on their own, but not when fried.

Proteins

Every macronutrient has a specific function, and protein is the most important building material. Its main sources are white meat – chicken and turkey, red meat – beef, white and red fish, seafood, dairy products, eggs and partly cereals.

However, the emphasis should be on dietary poultry meat with low fat content. It is recommended to concentrate on farm products with a clean composition to eliminate residual traces of antibiotics in the meat.

Red fish, beef and seafood should be consumed in limited quantities. No more than two or three times a day, so that there is no oversaturation of the body with protein and the digestive organs are used to a greater load.

It is also worth increasing the number of meals for a surplus diet. The best result will show the scheme when you divide the meal into five or six times a day. But do not forget that the diet should consist of the necessary carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

Will protein help muscles grow?

“Now I’m going to buy sports nutrition and go get pumped!” – is a popular misconception that starts the road to beautiful muscles for some people. In fact, protein or casein are the same nutrients found in regular food, but in the form of powdered shakes, broken down to certain micronutrients. That is, they also contain the 22 substituted and essential amino acids found in everyday food.

You can work on gaining muscle mass without sports nutrition. It is important to remember that it is only a supplement.

First, you need to properly compose your diet, build a system of balanced nutrition and only then, if you can not achieve results, you can try to supplement the daily menu with a portion of sports nutrition. The main thing – do not go from the opposite!

As a rule, if there is enough meat, vegetables, cereals, nuts in the diet, there is no need to add anything. Therefore, sports nutrition can not exactly be called a mandatory attribute for gaining mass. Such a supplement is suitable for certain cases and is selected individually.

How to properly compose a diet for gaining muscle mass?

Now it is quite easy to compile a diet on your own, using information from the Internet. There are ready-made nutrition schemes, calorie calculators. Every year there are new studies, trends and tendencies.

However, some data may be contradictory or unreliable, so the safest and proven way is to consult a specialist: a nutritionist or a professional trainer. In the first case, the emphasis will be on the nutritional system. A competent mentor will help to effectively combine the diet with the training process.

Of course, it is possible to do everything yourself, but then the conventional route from point A to point B will be more convoluted and complicated. All schemes are individual, and it is important to find something that will suit you. In this case, consulting with a specialist is the best option.

Nevertheless, there are general options that can be relied upon to make the right diet.

Physical characteristics

Height, weight, age and mobility levels are all taken into account when formulating your diet. It is clear that an office worker and a delivery courier have different calorie intake and therefore different needs. This should not be overlooked.

Food quality

It is important to keep an eye on the balance of calories (calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates), the variety of the menu and the exclusion of harmful and low-quality products. Numerous studies show that the higher the quality of food, the higher the quality of macronutrients.

For example, if an animal has been raised in the most favorable conditions, its meat does not contain harmful additives, growth hormones and antibiotics, the nutritional effect from it will be much greater, and the sports result will not be long in coming.

This applies to other products as well: whole-grain homemade breads, farm dairy from free-range cows, premium raw oils (made exclusively from raw seeds and nuts) and diet kraft desserts.

Adherence to a drinking regimen

An important step that should not be forgotten when forming a daily diet. Water is necessary to maintain balance and normal functioning of the body. It is desirable to drink a lot and often, if required, then more than two liters a day.

How to train when changing the dietary pattern?

fitness trainer, co-founder and ambassador of FitStars online home training platform

The process of gaining muscle mass is very labor-intensive and slower than fat burning. It is worth taking this factor into account when training. You can lose a few kilograms in a month, but unfortunately, muscles do not grow at such a short period of time. The body is simply incapable of it.

What kind of muscle growth will be depends on gender, age, training and correctness of training. Those who want to become athletes with a beautiful relief body need to be patient.

Training to increase muscle is better to make up with an experienced instructor and taking into account your peculiarities. It is necessary to exercise with weights.

From zero to the first level of training you can do exercises without additional weight. But in this case, you will quickly reach a state when exercises without weights will not give the necessary stress to the muscles, which is necessary for their growth and increase in volume.

It is hard for an ordinary person who does not “live” in the gym, who has a job, family, business, to combine training and “proper” nutrition five or six times a day. Therefore, it is better not to be overzealous in the first stages.

Stop at four meals a day, each of which will necessarily contain the necessary amount of protein, enough to increase muscle mass.

Thus, building muscle mass is hard work from month to month. It is important to be consistent: follow the regimen, accustom your body to the new diet and regularly attend training sessions.