The Three Foundations To Your Diet For Building Muscle

By: Greg Gallon Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Regardless of whether or not you're already quite knowledgeable about diet for building muscle or are trying to better plan what direction you need to take for the first time or maybe you're at the end of your rope and ready to give up because nothing you do seems to be working, you have made a very smart decision by seeking to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can.

We can base wise and intelligent decisions upon knowledge and it is these choices that lead to meeting goals.

Learning the basics of a good "gain weight diet" is most peoples missing link to how they get bigger muscles. Your weight lifting diet plan is how you build muscle, period. You can train all day every day but if your diet is weak you WILL NOT grow.

This is why many people resort to harmful weight gain drugs or weight gain pills of some kind. They bring upon themselves unnecessary health risks and unnecessary expense for something that is unnecessary for building massive amounts of lean muscle at a rapid rate.

Don't be deceived, unless you have some kind of major problem with your health that prevents you from being able to put on muscle (like a pituitary gland disorder) you do not have too fast of a metabolism to be able to grow. You might be a "hard gainer" but no one is an impossible one. You might need to eat more than another person to be able to grow but it is not impossible for you to reach your goal.

We emphasize three primary foundations to a good muscle building diet.

They are:

1) What kind of foods should you eat?
2) How much should you be eating?
3) When or how often should you eat?

Some of the details of each of these points may surprise you. If you are one of those guys at the end of your rope with trying to grow you will probably notice some real short comings in your diet plan when you compare it to even just our basic plan. If that is the case it would be a good area to start making some changes. Diet is where people make their biggest and most frequent mistakes and where they usually give up because it takes discipline and consistency to maintain. Even above your training efforts diet will be more challenging of an area to maintain consistency.

What kind of foods should you eat?

We'll break it down into the three main categories of carbs, proteins and fats.

Carbs. As far as carbs are concerned you should be eating mainly simple carbs. Our number one recommended food hear is oatmeal but whole grain breads and pastas are great too. Rice and sweet potatoes are another good choice.

Protein. Lean protein come best in the form of egg whites but chicken, fish, lean red meat, cottage cheese and isolate protein shakes are all great sources of protein.

Fats. Essential unsaturated fats containing omega 3, 6 and 9. Sources include flax oil, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil, avocados, nuts, beans etc.

Be sure to include a healthy amount of vegetables and fruits in your diet. They provide nutrients essential to good health. A healthy body grows best.

How much should you be eating?

We'll break it down into three categories again for you: daily calories, daily carbs and daily protein.

Daily calories. You should start your plan at 16 x your body weight in calories per day. After two weeks measure your weight. If you are growing faster than 2 pounds per week that is too fast indicating some fat growth along with muscle growth. Cut down your calories by about 200 - 250 per day until you are hitting numbers between 1 and 2 pounds per week. If you are not even gaining 1 pound then try adding 200 - 250 calories per day until you are hitting those same kind of weekly numbers.

Daily carbs. You should be getting 3 - 4 grams of carbs per pound of body weight per day. If you have a higher body fat percentage aim for the lower number and visa versa for really lean guys.

Protein. Contrary to a lot of information out there you only need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. It should be divided up between all of your meals to allow your body to fully process each dose of protein you give it.

Be sure to eat plenty of those essential fats in your day too. An easy way to get enough essential fats in a day is to take a spoon full of one of the above recommended oils with each meal. If you're having trouble hitting your daily calories this will help make it much easier as fats are high in calories.

When or how often should you be eating?

You need to get this into your noggin right now. You will have to eat like it is your job. Eat when your not really hungry sometimes and eat when it's inconvenient. You should start every day with a good hearty breakfast. Don't be afraid to make it the biggest meal of the day. After breakfast you should never go more than 3 hours without a meal right up until eating just before you go to bed. You should drink fast absorbing protein / carb shakes 20 minutes before a workout and then eat a meal right after you work out. At least take another protein / carb shake right after you work out too.

As you can see this is gonna take some work. It will be worth it though. Stop killing yourself in the gym and then destroying your potential results in the kitchen.

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