Muscle Building Diet. If you want to build muscle, getting your diet right is vital.

You can do all the workouts you like, but if you don't supply your body with the right muscle building foods you won't get anywhere.

On this page you can find tips and advice for creating your muscle building diet.

Muscle Building Diet|Muscle Building Foods|Build Muscle Food

First thing to note is that a muscle building diet is not a “normal” diet. Its purpose is to help you put on weight by using a lot of high protein foods. Many people believe the word “diet” to mean cutting down on food or on certain types of food in order to lose weight or lose fat, but this is the incorrect use of the word. The word diet refers to the food choices you make from day to day. So basically what you choose to eat is your diet.

What are the Goals of a Muscle Building Diet?

Simply the only goal of a muscle building diet is to gain quality muscle mass without putting on fat. The following 6 point plan will help you achieve this goal of building muscle without gaining fat. After these 6 points, I'll also give you a very simple guide to creating your meals throughout the day to build muscle and make sure you are getting enough of the right muscle building foods.

1. Stick to Your Diet

If you are serious about building muscle and losing fat you've got to keep to your diet the whole year round. This means that you should eat exactly the same when you aren't training as much, as when you are really pushing yourself to the maximum. So don't suddenly switch from chicken breasts to hamburgers, or from eggs to bacon just because you haven't been training as much recently. Many body builders have an “off season” where they don't train anywhere near as much as they normally would and give their bodies a rest. But they keep in good shape by keeping to their regular muscle building diet.

If you really want one of your favourite (unhealthy) foods, only include them in your treat days. But stay clear of fast foods whenever possible. But for the main part you need to be eating the same muscle building foods all year round

2. Plenty of Protein

For every meal you prepare you should ask yourself “Where is the protein?”

To put on serious muscle you need to eat around 1.5 grams of protein for every pound of lean body mass you have. To find out your lean body mass, you must find out what your body fat percentage is then use this percentage to find out how much of your weight is fat. Then simply subtract this from your overall weight.

Don't use the same source of protein all the time. Mix it up and get a wide variety of protein sources. Most people will get their majority of protein from chicken breasts, but on top of that your body needs low-fat fish, lean steaks, eggs, nuts and seeds, fatty fish, beans and a mixture of dairy products.

When your busy its okay to get you protein from a protein supplement (but stay away from protein meal bars, as these are nothing more than cleverly marketed candy bars)

3. Cut Out Junk Food

Junk food contains one type of fat that you want to avoid at all costs and keep away from your muscle building diet – trans-fatty acids. They seriously hinder you muscle building.

Whereas “good” fats turn on your muscle building switch, junk foods do the opposite. Junk foods contain a lot of additives that the body simply isn't designed to process, such as preservative, stabilizers and tenderizers.

These substances are like a poison to the body and cause a process called oxidisation to occur, which increases muscle breakdown at a cellular level. You get enough of this at the gym, so don't make it worse by eating junk food.

You need to be geared towards countering muscle damage, instead of recovering from the poison of junk foods. Simply, if you eat junk foods you will be small and sick. If you eat fresh, natural foods you will be healthy and strong.

4. Eat Regularly Throughout The Day

The majority of people eat a large meal 3 times a day and think that is what the body needs. But for anyone wanting to Build Muscle this isn't the right way to go about it.

Not many bodies can handle eating just 2-3 large meals a day without getting fat. It is important to eat smaller meals, more frequently throughout the day, which will keep your energy levels up and stop you feeling hungry. Your body needs a steady supply of muscle building foods

I recommend that you eat every 3-4 hours, which should result in 5-6 meals per day. Since you have to pack a lot into the day, its best to start as early as possible. So your first meal should be consumed no later than 20 minutes after waking up.

It is also important to get an equal amount of your daily protein from each meal. So if you are to eat 200 grams of protein per day and have 6 meals, each meal should contain around 33 grams.

The secret is to listen to your body. When you start to feel hungry, your body is telling you it needs food, so give it what it wants. You may find that every 3 hours is too much. If so wait until you start to feel hungry before having a meal. You will soon find a routine that works for you.

5. Eat the Foods Your Body Enjoys

If you struggle to break down dairy products, try to cut down on these and get your protein and carbs from another source.

Everyone's body is different so listen to what yours is telling you. It makes no sense to continue eating foods that your body can't tolerate or digest.

On the other hand if you find a source of protein that works very well for you, try to incorporate it into your diet more so you can get the most benefits.

I can't tell you what will and what won't work for you as everyone is different. You need to listen to your body and develop your own Muscle Building Foods for your diet.

6. Know Your Carbohydrates

One of the biggest challenges facing anyone that wants to build muscle is eating the correct types of carbs at the right time. Your aim should be to get at least 2 grams of carbohydrates for every pound of lean body mass.

So if you are 200 pounds with a 10% body fat, you have 180 pounds of lean weight. Therefore you need at least 360 grams of carbohydrate per day.

Carbs are what you should be changing if you aren't progressing in the way you want. So if you aren't gaining muscle and weight as fast as you think you should then increase your intake of carbs. Or if you're gaining weight, but it appears to be fat, cut back on the carbs.

All carbs are not the same and you need to focus on the quality carbs that have a slow release factor, as these are less likely to be stored as fat.

These can be found in foods such as whole-grain bread, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. But if you are really skinny, then you can eat more fast releasing carbs such as potatoes, bananas, cereals, pasta and white rice.

Creating Your Muscle Building Diet

Many of the “experts” would have you thinking that you need to be some kind of mathematical genius to figure out what and how much you should be eating. Well let me tell you something; you don't need a calculator, pencil, paper or a set of scales to work everything out. While of course, weighting out everything precisely and getting exactly the right amounts of everything is the best way to get results, who has the time?

What You Should Be Eating

I said earlier that I would give you a meal plan for building muscle that would have the best muscle building foods, but not require you to waste time measuring everything. Well here it is:

Protein:

For each meal choose one of the following

• 1 Can of Tuna

• 4 Eggs

• 4 Cups Of Whole Milk

• 250 ml of Cottage Cheese

• A Fist Size Of Meat (Any lean meat you like such as chicken, fish or beef)

• 2 Scoops of Protein Powder

Carbohydrates:

For each meal, if you weigh under 200 lbs choose 1 and if you weight more than 200lbs choose 2 of the following.

• Medium Bowl of Oatmeal

• 1 Cup of Cooked Rice

• 3 Slices of Whole Wheat Bread

• 1 Full Sized Baked Potato

• 4 Cups of Whole Milk

• 1 Plate of Pasta

• 1 Large Bowl of Cereal (sugar free or at least low sugar)

• 2 portions of fruit

• 2 Whole Wheat Bagels

Fruits and Vegetables:

You should be looking to get 2 servings of each of the following, but don't just get the low calorie veggies.

High Carb:

• Apples

• Bananas

• Grapes

• Oranges

• Melon

• Berries

Low Carb

• Cauliflower

• Cabbage

• Broccoli

• Spinach

• Green Beans

• Tomatoes

Fats and Oils

Minimize your consumption of saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Instead you should be enjoying healthy fats which can be found in

• Olives

• Olive Oil

• Natural Peanut and Almond Butter

• Mixed Nuts

• Fish Oil

• Coconut Oil

• Avocado

• Flaxseed Oil

Also remember to drink plenty of water and cut out the fizzy drinks. This is really important for your muscle building diet, as the body is mostly water and needs to be kept hydrated. But fizzy soda drinks will only result in you getting fat

This is a very simple way to get the right kinds of muscle building foods into your diet, and will allow you to get started with creating your own muscle building diet.

Of course if you want to get the best results, you will need to be as accurate as possible in what you eat, so once you are used to getting the right types of food, start to really look at the amounts of foods and the timings of your meals to make sure you are getting exactly what your body needs.

I know this can be really confusing and difficult to get right, so if you want to make sure your muscle building diet is right, grab yourself a copy of Vince DelMonte's No Nonsense Muscle Building. This eBook is designed to give you a complete guide to muscle building, but also has an excellent section on getting your muscle building diet right, and also comes with pre made meal plans for you. Get it >>HERE<<

Or if you already have your diet set, but would like some ideas for new meals you can make, that will be perfect for building muscle, check out Dave Ruel's Anabolic Cookbook. This is packed with tips and advice for creating your muscle building meal plan, and has loads of great recipes for you to try out. Get it >>HERE<<