Every person dreams of having a beautiful and pumped up body. Everyone is attracted to the bulges of muscle that stick out from under a T-shirt. To have a beautiful body, people start dieting or exercising. But fasting and lifting "iron" will lead to nothing. Nutrition for gaining muscle mass is just as important as, for example, barbell exercises. Sometimes athletes do not attach much importance to this moment, after which they are disappointed in their results. Only by choosing the right menu for gaining muscle mass can you achieve success in bodybuilding.
50% of success is proper nutrition
It’s worth choosing a menu for building muscle mass only when your plans include getting pumped up. If a person goes to the gym just to keep himself in good shape and feel muscle tone, he does not need special food. The main key to actively gaining muscle mass is following a special diet.
Why you can’t live without food
You don’t need to look for the answer for long: when there is a heavy load on the muscles, a huge amount of energy is spent. Consequently, the same amount must be supplied to the body to restore it. The following question arises: “If you eat poorly, where will that same energy be found?” Nowhere! Nutrition for gaining muscle mass (menu) is primarily aimed at restoring the same energy spent during training and providing the body with new “building blocks” - proteins.
Proteins are the building material for our body
A person cannot grow and develop normally without a sufficient amount of proteins. These substances are found in muscles, organs and much more in the body. All enzymes that regulate the body’s activities also consist of protein. This is why it is so important to get enough protein foods. Its use provides building materials to the muscles, which are so important when gaining weight.
Another point: in order to build something, you need to expend some amount of energy. That's why you shouldn't ignore foods high in carbohydrates. These substances are a quick source of energy, which is needed for muscle formation. As a result, it turns out that proteins serve as “bricks” for building beautiful and relief mounds, and carbohydrates bring them together.
The secret to proper and rapid muscle growth
The secret of the menu is simple: you need to eat more calories than you manage to burn. This is the only way, and not otherwise, that you can, in simple words, get pumped up. Nutrition needs to be given great attention. So, if you make mistakes in nutrition, all the extra calories will instantly turn into fat, and not where athletes need it. If you eat everything in a row, it will turn out as written above. Proper nutrition for muscle mass should not contain large amounts of fat.
Sports nutrition is best for building muscle. Reviews say that its main advantage is the absence of harmful fats and sugars, which is a good start in the process of gaining muscle mass.
Daily routine is the key to success
Nutrition for gaining muscle mass (see menu below) requires a precise daily routine so that the body can get used to eating food at certain times. Below is the most balanced meal plan for beginner bodybuilders.
08:00 - Get up. You can do gymnastic exercises or go for a morning jog. This procedure will help the body and muscles wake up and tone them.
08:30 - Breakfast. The first meal is very important. Under no circumstances should it be ignored. A future bodybuilder definitely needs a hearty breakfast.
11:00 - Lunch. Snacks are just as important as main meals. It is at this stage that a person stores energy for the whole day, which is then quickly consumed.
14:00 - Lunch. Also an important point in the meal routine. It is after lunch that all the most important elements for building muscle mass come into the body.
16:00 - Pre-workout snack. This meal should not be heavy, as exercising on a heavy stomach is not very beneficial.
18:30 - Light snack.
19:00 - Dinner. You shouldn't eat a lot of heavy food for dinner.
21:00 - Snack before bed.
This simple eating routine will allow you to gain muscle mass in a short time.
How many times a day should you eat?
Let's start with the fact that the usual three meals a day of ordinary people will not suit a real athlete. Too much time passes between breakfast, lunch and dinner. A large pile of muscle will require regular fueling. This is why in-between snacks are so important. It is better to eat little, but more often.
When an athlete feels hungry, this is the first sign of an energy hunger strike, which will not lead to good. If your strength level drops, the hormone cortisol is produced. Its purpose is to convert accumulated reserves into energy. And it will first get into the muscles. That is, during hunger, muscle mass is burned due to the action of the hormone. Everything that was achieved with such difficulty in the gyms will be lost. Therefore, for an athlete gaining muscle mass, it is so important to remember the meal schedule and the role of nutrition for further pumping up the body.
Breakfast of a real bodybuilder
Breakfast is perhaps the most important of all meals. It is at this stage that the body needs fresh strength for the next working day. A pumpkin's first meal should consist of protein. To effectively gain muscle mass, the body will need more complex carbohydrates (ratio of approximately 30% to 70%).
Ideally, breakfast should look something like this:
1. After getting up, immediately eat some fast carbohydrates. The best and healthiest option would be a glass of fresh juice. Is he not there? A cup of tea and bread and butter will also do.
2. If you are too lazy to do morning exercises, then you can start preparing the main breakfast. At the second stage, they take proteins - fried eggs with bread.
3. There is little left - take complex carbohydrates. It’s better to eat a little, as there will be a snack ahead.
Fast carbohydrates
Breakfast must include fast carbohydrates. These substances are rapidly absorbed into the blood (the process begins in the mouth) and sharply increase sugar levels. Such food will help you quickly recover from sleep and awaken your body. Fast carbohydrates are found in baked goods, chocolate, ice cream, juice, fruit, jam and honey.
Complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates should be present in a bodybuilder's breakfast to maintain the same blood sugar levels for the long term. To avoid feeling hungry for several hours, you should eat porridge for breakfast. The best choice is oatmeal, which is very beneficial for the stomach and intestines.
Squirrels
Protein
There was so much talk: “Protein is a panacea for bodybuilders, muscles grow by leaps and bounds.” All these headlines were just good advertising. But what is protein? It's just protein. Protein is only part of a complex for building muscle mass, which involves exhausting training, healthy sleep and nutrition. Proteins for mass are useless without the above factors.
How to take protein
This protein should also be taken according to the method. If you eat your daily dose of protein in one sitting, no good will come of it. It should be taken throughout the day in moderate portions. Protein is included in sports nutrition. Reviews advise taking up to 2 grams of this substance per 1 kg of weight.
In the morning, in order to quickly get rid of the muscle-destroying hormone, you need to take a dose of fast whey protein, which will deliver the required amount of protein to the body.
If work or study does not allow you to eat 5-6 times a day, then taking the same fast protein will be mandatory for gaining muscle mass.
Do not forget about taking it before and after training, since it is at this time that the body needs additional strength.
A comprehensive intake of protein with different levels of absorption will constantly maintain the content of all necessary substances in the blood, which will certainly lead to a gain of muscle mass.
A word about water
Often, when we talk about training and sports nutrition, protein, meat, and so on pop up in our thoughts. In fact, no organism can function normally without water. Taking protein and carbohydrates will not pump up muscles if there is not enough water. Hidden dehydration is one of the main reasons for prolonged muscle growth. A bodybuilder is required to take about 3.5 liters of water per day, since a large amount of fluid is lost during training, and sometimes it is not enough for the normal functioning of the body.
How to find out if there is hidden dehydration in the body
The method is very simple: you need to drink three cups of water in a row; if after this amount of water a person does not go to the toilet for an hour and a half, then this is a clear sign of hidden dehydration.
Nutrition for gaining muscle mass (the menu should be drawn up taking into account the above recommendations) is very important. Only with proper nutrition can a bodybuilder achieve success in his business.
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When visiting the gym in the hope of getting a sculpted figure, they first of all try to remove excess fat and gain volume in the biceps. If there are no special problems with losing weight, then muscle growth stops after about two months of training.
A common cause is lack of nutrients. To further increase muscle volume, you need to combine training with proper nutrition.
Diet for gaining muscle mass for men
The first thing that admirers of a beautiful figure try to do is to increase the amount of food consumed, excluding fats. In their opinion, the latter can only lead to an increase in total body weight. Fats are as important an element as protein and carbohydrates.
Fats are a great help for muscle tissue, maintaining the metabolic reactions of the body. Some animal fats can be replaced with vegetable oil, fish, and nuts. They increase the elasticity of the walls of blood vessels and are divided into beneficial - unsaturated and harmful - saturated. The latter contains butter, sausage, and fried foods.
Protein is critical to muscle growth. Due to the fact that the body is not able to process the protein it needs at one time, the daily diet for gaining muscle mass should be divided into several times. Beef, chicken, milk, low-fat cottage cheese, nuts, egg whites, and fish contain a lot of protein.
Carbohydrates have a beneficial effect on muscle volume. This is a powerful source of energy and also serves to restore tissue damaged during training. Carbohydrates are found in pasta, cereals, bananas, potatoes, honey, and buckwheat porridge.
The latter needs to be given special attention. It contains glucose, a minimum of useful substances for the functioning of the body. A large amount of carbohydrates is converted into glucose, which serves to increase body fat.
Nutrient intake per day should be as follows: 60% carbohydrates; 25% proteins; 15% fat. It is undesirable to consume less than 15% fat in the daily diet; the level of testosterone, which forms protein, decreases. Some animal fats can be replaced with vegetable fats.
Meal frequency
To maintain muscle strength and growth, it is recommended to eat 6 to 8 times a day. Between main meals you should have a snack with juices, fruits, and vegetables. The best option for building relief is to eat meals at intervals of no more than three hours.
For example:- 08.00 – rise
- 08.30 –
- 10.30 – second tomorrow
- 13.00 – lunch
- 15.00 – afternoon tea
- 16.30 – training
- 17.30 – snack
- 18.30 – dinner
- 20.00 – snack
- 22.00 – glass of milk at night
It is necessary to gradually increase the calorie content of food so that the amount of energy received exceeds the amount spent during training.
Important Meals
The first important meal of the day is breakfast. It restores muscle energy after sleep. Having processed the slow protein - milk before bed, the extraction of energy from muscle cells begins. Two hours before active strength training, you can thoroughly eat protein foods, or an hour before eating foods containing glucose and sucrose.
It is equally important to eat after strength training; the body needs energy to restore and grow muscles. After training, you need to eat a couple of bananas or a protein-carbohydrate mixture. After 30-40 minutes, you can start your main meal, consisting mainly of protein, starches, and dietary fiber:
- Breakfast can consist of a choice of oatmeal or buckwheat porridge, cocoa, dark chocolate, egg omelet without yolk, black bread, juice.
- For lunch you can cook soup, buckwheat porridge with chicken, fish with a side dish of rice or lean meat with potatoes, scrambled eggs without yolk.
- Dinner – buckwheat porridge with fish, cottage cheese with jam, vegetable salad, scrambled eggs without yolk, berries, fruits.
- Intermediate food includes oatmeal, low-fat cottage cheese, kefir, milk, tea, cheese, dried fruits, honey.
The healthiest thing in this example is a chicken egg, low-fat milk . Protein-rich foods are effective for muscle growth.
An accurate calculation of daily calories is calculated using the formula: weight (kg) x 30 = Kcal. To maintain weight and gain muscle mass, you should consume 500 calories above the daily norm. For a thin figure, 500 extra calories will be the minimum. For - the norm, but for plump endomorphs it will be the maximum. An increase in muscle mass of 400-600 grams per week is considered normal.
Drinking regime
To maintain water balance and dehydration, the athlete must drink at least 2-3 liters of fluid per day. In case of intense physical activity, water consumption should be increased to 4 liters per day.
Dehydration of the body by 1-2% leads to a decrease in muscle strength by 10-30%. It is preferable to drink water between meals; drinking it during meals makes normal absorption difficult. Read about: .
Complete rest
Muscles do not grow when you exercise; it happens during recovery from exercise. For their complete recovery and growth, it is preferable to get at least 8 hours of sleep at night. A day's rest will also not be superfluous; through it it may be possible. Many people would like to quickly increase muscle mass in a few sessions by eating foods indiscriminately.
Such omnivorousness will only affect the overall weight of a person, but not the muscles. Lamb and fatty pork should be excluded from the diet. The protein they contain is poorly absorbed by the body, which leads to the deposition of fat cells.
Chips, crackers, and quick-cooking pasta do not have the best effect on the body's contours. To satisfy hunger, it is better to eat grain bread with low-fat kefir or. This will not create additional stress on the cardiovascular system.
Conclusion
A diet for gaining muscle mass, rich in proteins and vegetable fats, as well as properly selected physical activity, will be the key to the beautiful and sculpted figure you dreamed of.
All you need to do is give up junk food, which will slow down the desired result, and remember about the drinking regime, which plays an important role.
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It is generally accepted that there is no ceiling for gaining weight in the human body. There are known facts when excess weight reaches several centners, which turns a person into a helpless cripple. This is an unhealthy weight, fat. Most often, this is due to various diseases beyond the control of current medicine.
Proper use of products to gain muscle mass eliminates unhealthy consequences. However, those who want to increase it would do well to remember the precept of ancient doctors: do no harm!
For muscles to grow, you need to eat a lot, regularly, often. Food should be of high quality and high in calories, but with healthy protein rather than harmful fat calories. It is not advisable to save on food, since the lack of balanced nutrients during intense training clearly has a negative impact on health.
- cottage cheese
- beef
- chicken fillet
- turkey meat
- red fish
- fish fat
- buckwheat
- oatmeal
- water.
The listed products (except water) contain a complex of vital substances: proteins, healthy carbohydrates and fatty acids, fiber, vitamins, microelements. Water in the right amount promotes normal digestion, maintains strength, and adds energy.
Protein foods for gaining muscle mass
Excellent products for gaining muscle mass are the recognized “protein leaders”: eggs, cottage cheese, meat, fish, cereals, nuts.
Cottage cheese consists of proteins that are absorbed in different ways: some quickly, others slowly. This is the special value of a fermented milk product containing more than 20 percent of proteins.
Beef, white meat chicken (breast), and turkey top the list of products interesting for athletes.
Salmon, more than any other seafood, helps build muscle, and thanks to its positive effect on metabolism, it accelerates the desired result.
Fish oil also affects metabolism. Possessing an anti-inflammatory effect, it supports the body after active training.
Eggs themselves are a balanced, complete mini-product for sports nutrition.
Oatmeal is good for everyone; it is included in a variety of menus: from dietary to sports. Her presence is very useful in our case. Oatmeal contains enough healthy carbohydrates to help maintain a feeling of fullness and blood sugar levels.
Buckwheat porridge also affects muscle growth, so it cannot be ignored when choosing protein products for gaining muscle mass.
Edible nuts and seeds, in addition to plant proteins, supply the body with antioxidants that accelerate recovery processes after exercise.
High-calorie foods for gaining muscle mass
Typically, men gain muscle mass. They want to look more courageous, for this they are ready to give up some harmful hobbies and even go to the gym. But it turns out that this is not enough, you also need to watch your diet. Since a diet of high-calorie foods for gaining muscle mass, along with training, provides the expected result.
The principle of nutrition for a man who wants to have a beautiful and strong torso is that he must receive all nutrients, vitamins and minerals from food. But the amount of protein should prevail; per day with this regimen you should consume significantly more protein foods than usual.
- Protein is meat, fish, eggs, milk. Its daily requirement is at least 2 g per kilogram of body weight. It is absolutely necessary to receive more than you spend, because only in this situation will muscle mass actually increase. Experienced people advise not to take into account protein of plant origin, only from animal products.
- The second rule: in order for the protein supplied with food to be successfully converted into muscle fibers, sufficient energy is required for active metabolism. Energy functions are known to be performed by healthy, complex carbohydrates. These are various cereals, vegetables, wholemeal bread - but not semolina or rich pastries.
In general, the proportion of nutrients differs significantly from the usual daily diet in that the protein content is increased at the expense of fats. Like that:
- 20–30% proteins
- 50 – 60% carbohydrates
- 10 – 20% fat.
It is allowed to create a diet taking into account individual tastes, giving preference to your favorite dish or product for gaining muscle mass. The total amount of high-calorie foods should not exceed 70% of everything consumed per day.
A daily portion of high-calorie foods for weight gain should be eaten in six to eight meals. Start your morning with carbohydrates, and leave the lion's share of proteins for dinner.
Products for gaining lean muscle mass
Gaining lean muscle mass is building muscle without or with minimal fat. This is usually achieved in two steps, dividing sports training and taking products for gaining lean muscle mass into two stages:
- gaining muscle mass
- muscle polishing (getting rid of fat).
Experts who share this opinion are convinced that it is unrealistic to gain lean mass right away and you should not feed yourself with empty hopes. It's better to eat right and exercise regularly.
Nutrition at different stages is fundamentally different. If in the first case the body needs an excess of calories, then in the second it needs a deficit. This diet is achieved by limiting carbohydrates.
As you gain weight, eat frequently to maintain your body's constant, even nutritional support. The peculiarities are the difference in needs during the day. In the morning and throughout the first part of the day, you need a source of energy, that is, carbohydrates. From lunch until night - protein. Before training, it is advisable to take slow carbohydrates and proteins, drink water after it, and after a while again feed the body with high-grade proteins and carbohydrates. Casein protein is helpful at night.
The second period is fat burning. Here is a sample diet:
- rice (boiled)
- chicken breast
- low-fat cottage cheese
- egg or egg white
- vegetable salads
- water.
The main thing in a dry diet is to exclude simple carbohydrates in the form of sweets, juices, and baked goods with fatty creams. Otherwise, the products for gaining muscle mass remain the same.
Rating of products for gaining muscle mass
There are different ratings of products for gaining muscle mass. Most of the products are similar, they just occupy different positions. The proposed simple set consists of food products rich in healthy proteins and carbohydrates:
- chicken breasts
- fresh natural beef or veal
- rice, buckwheat, oatmeal
- pasta
- potato
- black bread
Carbohydrates – for breakfast and 25% of the norm – after classes. Fats no more than 15%. Without plenty of water, muscle growth is impossible.
- sunflower seeds, mackerel, kiwi, pineapple, venison, coffee, beef, ginger, natural yogurt, turmeric, cucumbers, chocolate milk, buckwheat, almonds, cherry juice, marshmallow, watercress, sesame halva, eggs, tuna, papaya, sweet pepper, herring, lentils, pasta (pasta), asparagus, sprouted wheat, spirulina (green algae), still mineral water, turkey meat.
Other rating options are also possible. But not only the quality, but also the quantity of food is important. First you need to double the usual portion. And also prepare yourself psychologically: tune in to the optimal diet and training regimen, be sure to fulfill all the requirements and believe in success. Without a person’s diligence and willpower, no products for gaining muscle mass will help.
Cheap Products for Gaining Muscle Mass
To ensure that everyone can afford a good figure, you can create a diet of cheap products for gaining muscle mass. For example, like this:
- pollock fish is a source of the cheapest proteins and essential fats;
- fish fat;
- chicken fillet;
- skim cheese;
- rice, oatmeal, millet, buckwheat (one at a time, for variety) as a side dish;
- mashed potatoes);
- egg powder (many times more protein than in the fermented milk group);
- eggs;
- mushrooms;
- beans;
- affordable vegetables, herbs, fruits, nuts;
- dried fruits;
- water.
In a budget diet, you should focus on quality, giving preference not so much to taste and smell as to healthiness. Although it is quite possible to combine both.
There are special tables for calculating calories. Over time, it is possible to determine how much of something there is “by eye.” Low-calorie vegetables don't count.
It is useful to prepare steamed, stewed, boiled dishes. Vegetables, herbs, and fruits are eaten raw.
The Best Foods for Gaining Muscle
The best products for gaining muscle mass, of course, are purely natural, organic products. If such nutrition is supported by regular physical activity, you can achieve an ideal figure and weight.
- Water is the number one product on this list. And for good reason, because both the muscles and the entire body in chemical composition are solid water, only about 20 percent is everything else. You need to drink constantly, and during exercise - intensively, in order to replenish moisture lost through sweat and breathing.
- Sea fish of all types, especially tuna and herring. Proteins and unsaturated omega-3 acids protect your own muscles and joints from self-eating after intense exercise. The body, in dire need of protein, does not stand on ceremony, and omega-3s slow down protein hunger - until lunch or dinner. It is advisable to eat fish three times a week.
- Milk and lactic acid products are indispensable in the diet of every healthy person. Milk relieves muscle pain, yogurt, kefir, and yogurt contain vitamin D and calcium needed for bones and muscles, and lactic acid bacteria are important for stimulating digestive processes.
- Chicken eggs are easy to digest protein, vitamins A, D, E, which are very necessary for the strength of muscle ligaments. Nutritionists recommend up to ten eggs a week.
- Meat, but not all of it. We choose beef, chicken, and turkey - a source of essential amino acids and creatine, which helps increase muscle mass and reduce fat reserves.
- Cereals and leguminous plants also make an irreplaceable contribution to the good. And also soybeans, lentils, buckwheat, sprouted wheat, even pasta, especially with vegetable oil and vegetables.
- Vegetables and fruits: potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, lutuk and other salads, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, imported pineapples, papaya, kiwi and native strawberries, cherries, currants, cherries - do not deny yourself anything, everything is beneficial if the food is fresh and the diet is balanced.
- Nuts and seeds – roasted, raw, mixed with other ingredients, but in moderation: a handful per day.
The article discussed natural products for gaining muscle mass. There are other means that may give quick results, but are fraught with undesirable consequences. The choice is always up to the individual. Although, undoubtedly, gradual effectiveness is better than a hasty and bright effect, but with a health risk.
When working to build muscle mass, the decisive factor is not what program you follow, but how correctly the regimen and nutrition plan is structured. The vast majority of amateurs do not pay enough attention to this issue, mistakenly believing that only training in the gym will help achieve the desired result, but this is not at all the case. Just imagine where the body will get amino acids to build muscle tissue, if an athlete often does not consume even the daily requirement for a person who does not engage in any sports?
You can torture yourself in the gym as much as you like, but without a competent regimen and nutrition plan there will be no result in gaining muscle mass. Therefore, before you start heavy mass-building training, make a nutrition plan that suits your goals and workload in the gym. I will present an example of such a plan in this article.
Basic parameters of the nutrition program
A nutrition program for gaining muscle mass should take into account the following parameters:
- Daily amount of protein
- Daily calorie intake
Daily amount of protein required for gaining muscle mass is calculated individually, based on the athlete’s own weight: athlete’s weight x 1.5 = daily protein requirement. It is this figure that will be the necessary value for the growth of muscle mass and the goal of our nutrition program.
Daily calorie intake is also an important parameter for building a proper nutrition program. If an athlete has excess subcutaneous fat, then we build the program in such a way as to reduce daily calorie intake. A small regular calorie deficit will lead to a gradual reduction in subcutaneous fat and, as a result, weight loss.
Nutrition program for gaining muscle mass
As an example, I will present the correct nutrition program for an athlete weighing 85 kg, having approximately 15% body fat ()
Training days
Eating | Diet composition | Example of diet in products |
---|---|---|
Breakfast | ||
Lunch (at least 2 hours before training) | ||
After training | 40 gr. squirrel | Protein (30 g.) + 200-250 ml milk + 5 g. creatine |
Dinner | 30 gr. protein + 50-60 gr. carbohydrates | 100 gr. cheese + 2 bananas |
Total | 140 gr. protein (at normal ~127.5 g) |
Rest days
Eating | Diet composition | Example of diet in products |
---|---|---|
Breakfast | 30 gr. protein + 50-70 gr. fast carbohydrates | 4 large eggs + several cookies (total 50-70 g) + tea/coffee (no sugar) |
Dinner | 40 gr. protein + 150 gr. slow carbohydrates | 100 gr. chicken breasts + 200 gr. boiled pasta |
Dinner | 30 gr. protein + 150 gr. slow carbohydrates | Herring (fillet) 150 gr. + 250 gr. boiled potatoes |
Second dinner | 30 gr. protein + 200-250 gr. carbohydrates | 120 gr. cheese + 200-250 gr. fruits (apples or pears) |
Total | 130 gr. protein (at normal ~127.5 g) |
How to create your own nutrition program to gain muscle mass?
- Determine your daily protein requirement (weight gain norm: 1.5 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight);
- Highlight the main meals, distributing the total daily protein intake among them;
- Precisely determine the composition of the products from which you plan to create a program;
- Sketch out a rough nutrition plan based on the example above and follow it.
Important! Don't try to immediately calculate the exact amount of carbohydrates for each meal. At the initial stage, consume as many carbohydrates as you think is necessary. If the excess weight does not go away or is added, and if the muscle definition does not improve or, on the contrary, “swims”, then start cutting back on your usual portions of carbohydrates by 10-15%. If the situation does not change after a month, then cut carbohydrates again by 10%. As soon as it becomes noticeable that subcutaneous fat is disappearing, this will be a signal that the diet provides a calorie deficit and, as a result, fat consumption. Over time, problem areas will cease to be such, and the muscle relief will become more pronounced.
Hello everyone! Surely, not all of you go to the gym to lose weight. Many men, on the contrary, want to increase muscle mass, and fragile girls set themselves the goal of obtaining more feminine forms.
However, gaining weight can sometimes be much more difficult than losing weight. And it is also impossible to be guided by the idea that you can “do the opposite” and eat everything in a row - unhealthy eating has never brought any benefit to anyone. So today I'm going to talk about how to create a meal plan to gain muscle mass.
Basic principles
In one of my articles, I already wrote about the general principles of weight gain. You can read it. And today there will only be specifics.
If the main goal of those losing weight is to cut calories so that the body begins to use up its own “reserves,” then in our case we need to follow the opposite: give the body more than it can spend. How to understand how many calories you need?
To do this, use this formula:
your weight x 30 = Kcal Add another 500 Kcal to the resulting figure - and you will get your daily requirement for weight gain.
For example, if we calculate the diet for girls weighing 50 kg, then we will get: 50 × 30 + 500 = 2000 Kcal. This is the number of calories she needs to consume per day.
However, if you can “eat everything and not get fat,” then it’s worth adding not 500, but 1 thousand calories. The fact is that people who have problems gaining weight are classified as “ectomorphs.” Their accelerated metabolism does not allow them to gain kilograms with a “normal” diet. Therefore, if you experience the same difficulties, then the daily norm can be increased by a thousand calories.
Now let's talk about how to eat properly. The following rules must be observed:
- The main task is to prevent the body from starving. It is optimal to eat 4-5 times a day and add 2 snacks to this.
- Your diet should focus on complex carbohydrates. They should be 60% in the daily diet. The rest is proteins – 30%, 10% – fats.
- Drink enough water - it is necessary not only for our life, but also for muscle growth.
- Before training - an hour or an hour and a half - you need to eat. These should be both fast and slow carbohydrates. But after training, combine carbohydrates with protein, which is necessary for muscle growth.
- At night, eat cottage cheese - it contains casein protein, which will be absorbed by the body during the night, preventing the muscles from “starving”.
But what you should avoid is eating meat at night. As you know, meat takes a long time to digest, which will negatively affect the quality of sleep, and will not have the best effect on the gastrointestinal tract itself.
Meal plan for muscle growth and weight gain
How to make a meal plan? If you haven't done this before, you simply don't know where to start. I will give approximate daily meal options for people of different weights. This diet can be followed for a week or longer - until you simply get tired of the same set of foods and dishes.
So, an approximate daily diet for men weighing from 60 kg to 70 kg:
- for breakfast you can eat oatmeal with a banana or replace it with durum pasta with boiled chicken;
- You can have a snack with an energy bar, which consists of healthy grains and bran;
- for lunch you can eat rice or buckwheat with meat and vegetables;
- 2 boiled eggs and vegetables are suitable as a second snack;
- half an hour before training, it is recommended to drink whey protein;
- You can have a banana immediately after training – it will saturate your body with energy and will not let you go hungry while you go home;
- for dinner, eat buckwheat porridge and meat (beef or chicken) or sea fish, add vegetables;
- before going to bed - cottage cheese or curd mass (it is better to prepare it yourself, adding pieces of your favorite fruit to regular cottage cheese).
An ectomorph can follow the following diet:
- for breakfast - durum pasta and chicken or fish;
- snack – two bananas, a glass of milk;
- lunch – buckwheat with pork, vegetables, one banana;
- second snack – 2 eggs with vegetables;
- before training, it is better to eat some durum pasta and chicken;
- immediately after training - a banana or drink a gainer;
- dinner – rice with vegetables and beef;
- before bed – cottage cheese or curd mass.
By the way, the gainer that I mentioned above is especially recommended for ectomorphs for gaining weight. They can successfully replace all snacks, because they are quite high in calories. Of course, it is better to dilute it in milk rather than in water - this way there will be more benefits.
As for training, to gain weight it is better to do it in the evening - during the day the body not only gains strength and energy, but also by the evening it also slows down the metabolism a little, which will promote muscle growth.
That's all for today! Subscribe to my blog, share the article with your friends! Happy training!