Muscle Building Nutrition Program

With a well-balanced diet, you can add muscle far more quickly than you would with poor nutrition. If you are putting in time at the gym, to get the most out of it you need to feed your body so you not only recover from training, but build additional muscle. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

Protein

• When you train, you cause trauma to your muscles, and break down amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. The only way to recover from this is to get amino acids in your diet via dietary protein intake. The basis of your diet should be rich in proteins such as beef, chicken, milk, eggs and fish. Your in-between meal snacks should consist of protein as well, but this does not need to be all that complicated, a large glass of milk is a quick and easy source of protein, and was the supplement of choice in the days before supplement companies.

Fat

• You must have fat in your diet. A diet too low in fat will limit your ability to produce testosterone, which is the hormone most responsible for your ability to build muscle. Furthermore, your diet needs to be rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, both of which are critical for hormonal regulation. This does not mean load up on fatback and butter, but you should get essential fatty acids from fish oils, flax, nuts and seeds. If you have trouble getting these in over the course of the day, you may wish to supplement with fish and flax oil, both of which are available in either liquid or capsule form.

Carbohydrates

• This is where you should exert the most control over your diet. The amount of carbohydrates that you need to consume will be based on not only your training intensity and volume, but your daily activity level as well. If you sit behind a desk all day, you should not eat a diet rich in carbohydrates as you will not burn all of them, and the excess will be stored as fat. If you have a physically active job, then it's alright to eat a high volume of carbohydrates. In either case, you should get most of your carbohydrates from whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Post-Workout Nutrition

• There is a short window following intense exercise where your insulin levels are very high and your blood sugar is low, assuming you trained hard. Insulin is a hormone which, among other things, will help shuttle dietary sugars back into your muscles, and if you consume a drink consisting of simple sugars and easily digestible protein, you will recover that much faster. Whey protein is ideal for post-workout, and you can purchase dextrose or maltodextrin to use as sugars, as this is the only real time you should use a quickly digesting carbohydrate.