Muscle building foods can be expensive and a lot of the time we eat them whether or not we want to because they contribute to our goals.
We sacrifice these things like taste and money in order to hone our physique and change our body for the better. It’s a big investment so it makes absolute sense that we will do everything we can to get the most out of the tools at our disposal.
So why do so many of us fail to optimise our diet plan?It’s probably because it’s confusing enough knowing which foods to eat let alone when to eat them. However, you can get better results from the foods you already eat by knowing the best times to consume them.
You get more without any further time, money or effort. A win-win situation!
Allow me to explain…
The Best Muscle Building Foods
Firstly it’s important to make sure you know the best muscle building foods, the list below outlines the foods that build muscle you should be consuming regularly:
Protein
Chicken, Fish, Beef, Turkey, Eggs, Whey Protein, Casein Protein
Carbs
Oats, sweet potato’s, brown rice, brown pasta, low GI vegetables (i.e not sugary veg like sweetcorn, carrots pea’s etc)
Fat
Olive Oil, nuts, avocado
The foods listed above should be the staple of your muscle building foods diet plan. Other foods should only be consumed infrequently. The reason the list is so short is this:
The Biggest Mistake People Make When Trying to Build Muscle
The single biggest mistake people make when they want to build muscle is to gain excess body fat.
Yes, it’s a given that some additional body fat will be accumulated on a mass gaining phase, however, if you let this get out of hand you will struggle to get rid of it later on.
I fell for this one; I followed the magazine articles and followed a bodybuilding diet plan because I thought I just couldn’t build muscle no matter what. It worked and I build lots of muscle but the fat gain that came along with it was outrageous!
I reduced the calories a little (but kept them above maintenance) and this helped to curb the fat gain but it wasn’t until I discovered nutrient timing that it finally dawned on me!
The Secret To Building Lean Muscle Without Excess Body Fat!
I was eating my muscle building foods at the wrong times! The food selection was spot on but the times I ate them was causing the lard around my midsection.
I started looking into nutrient timing and once I implemented it I found that I was able to gain lean mass without any additional fat!
It’s a complex subject but it can be easily summed up in 4 quick steps..
4 Steps To Get The Best Results From Your Muscle Building Foods
1. Understand The Effects of Simple & Complex Carbs
Here’s a quick primer on the two types of carbs and the effect they have on your body:
Complex Carbs
Oats
Sweet Potatoes
Brown Rice
Brown Pasta
Complex carbs take a long time to digest and provide a sustained release of energy over a period of hours. This is why they are recommended as your primary carb sources on a muscle building diet.
Simple Carbs
Fruit
Sugars and anything containing sugar
White Bread
White Pasta
White Rice
Supplements like dextrose, maltodextrin and waxy maize starch
Simple carbs digest rapidly and provide energy in a sudden rush that doesn’t last very long. This is good after workouts when you need to quickly replenish your body with nutrients but very bad at other times as I will explain in the next step.
2. Avoid Simple Carbs Except Around Workouts
When you consume simple carbs it raises your blood glucose level (i.e. your blood sugar) and this raises the amount of insulin present in your blood stream.
Insulin is referred to as a growth hormone because of the way it acts. When you consume simple carbs and its elevated it either uses the calories consumer to store fat or it uses them to build muscle.
If you are consuming simple carbs after a weights workout it will be used to build muscle because training with weights depletes the carbs stored in your muscles. This is a good thing.On the flip side, if you consume simple carbs at any other time your body will probably already have full carbohydrate stores and therefore all it can do with the excess is convert it to bodyfat.
The take home lesson here is only consume simple carbs around your workout. A little pre workout will give you an energy boost and probably won’t hurt but make sure the bulk of them are post workout when they can be put to good use!
3. Avoid Combining High Amounts of Carbs and Fat in One Meal
It’s been scientifically proven that high amounts of carbs coupled with high amounts of fat is very satisfying to the human taste buds. Ronald McDonald will testify that once he’s finished counting today’s takings!
But most trainees don’t know that it’s also been scientifically proven that your body is more likely to store the calories as body fat when they are combined in this way.
Your meals should be protein and carb meals or protein and fat meals. I know its not as fun but were here to build lean muscle not win Masterchef!
4. Know When To Consume Protein & Carbs Meals To Stay Lean
I can’t recall where I read it originally but once I started playing about with the timing of protein and carb meals and protein and fat meals I noticed myself getting more ripped.
I would break up my six meals a day into three protein and carb meals and three protein and fat meals. My activity that day would determine the order in which I ate them and it worked wonderfully.
My meal plan looked like this:
Weights Workout Days
Breakfast – Protein & Carbs
Mid Morning – Protein & Fat
Lunch – Protein & Fat
Mid Afternoon – Protein & Fat
Post Workout – Protein & Carbs (Simple Carbs as per step 2)
Dinner – Protein & Carbs
Rest Days
Breakfast – Protein & Carbs
Mid Morning – Protein & Carbs
Lunch – Protein & Carbs
Mid Afternoon – Protein & Fat
Dinner – Protein & Fat
Before Bed – Protein & Fat
This worked as I left carbs low in the evening when I wasn’t working out and it meant I had enough energy to train intensely!Lean muscle gains are the holy grail of muscle building and now you know how to use your muscle building foods these methods will let you get them.
Implement them now and keep the fat gains to a minimum!
Good Luck!
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