I used to hit the gym daily thinking there was a direct relationship to the time spent working out and muscle gained. After months of no progress, I hit the books to learn how muscle really works. Here is what I have learned.
There are three important stages of muscle growth. First, weightlifting – you need to break the muscles at a cellular level, so your body can build them stronger. Second, rest – you need to give your body time to repair muscle damage. Third, and most importantly, diet – you can’t build a log cabin without wood, and your body can’t build muscle without the right nutrition.
This article focuses on the importance of nutrition for a bodybuilder. There are three types of food: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Both carbs and proteins have 4 calories per gram and fats have 9 calories per gram. For reference, you burn about 100 calories every mile you walk, run or bike.
Carbohydrates (sugars, fiber) provide energy; fats are stored (look at your midsection); and proteins compose muscles. These three do a lot more than that, but we just need to focus on these functions to understand how diet affects growth. Your body is amazing and can take excess carbohydrates and proteins that you consume and turn them into fat – belly fat, arm fat, even fat within your muscles. Clever? Yes. Annoying? Most certainly.
Why does your body want to turn everything you eat into fat? Because fat is a highly efficient fuel, and back when we were in the state of nature, we oftentimes did not have a reliable steady source of food. Thus, our body has a natural propensity to store fat in order to avoid starvation and death. Too bad it doesn’t make us look good in the eyes of modern society!
This is why the Atkins diet works so well, even though in the diet you are allowed to eat fats but not carbohydrates. Excess carbs turn into fat, so when you cut out carbs (quick energy source) you are no longer building fat, but burning your ‘fuel reserves’, making you skinny…. temporarily. But no-one can eat all fat and no carbs indefinitely – to do so is extremely bad for you. As soon as you waiver on the Atkins Diet – BOOM! Your fat comes back with a vengeance.
Now, onto proteins. Proteins are complex chains of amino acids, which your body can turn into fat. However, it takes a lot longer to turn a protein in to fat. Additionally, your muscles are made out of different proteins. So more proteins = more muscle. Yes, it is that simple.
You do need to combine protein intake with weight lifting and rest in order to really bulk up.
There are about 2500 calories in one pound of muscle, which is 600-700 grams of protein. You can work out 20 hours a day, but if you’re body doesn’t get additional protein, it cannot build new muscle. This is like trying to build a house without lumber despite drawing the perfect blueprint.
So here’s the trick to building muscle – eat right! You want to hit the health food store or supermarket and pick out low fat, high protein foods like fish, chicken, other meats, eggs, beans, soy products, and dairy products. My favorites are tuna, chicken, low fat cottage cheese, skimmed milk, and eggs. These have the lowest amounts of carbs and fat versus protein.
To build muscle, you should to eat 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh, per day. So, if you scale in at 200 pounds, you should eat 200 grams of protein every day. That is about 1.5 pounds of chicken, or 1.5 gallons of milk.
When starting a muscle gaining program, try not to focus on immediate results. Building muscle takes years. Yes, years. So, building lean muscle should be seen as a lifestyle choice, not a fad program. However, the results speak for themselves. Many people feel the benefits of a healthy, trimmer body are worth the restrictions on diet.
So whatever your motivation, get out there and eat!
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