Muscle Building Nutrition for Hardgainers
If you were born with skinny genetics and ask yourself on a daily basis how to gain muscle, then it’s important to know all hope is not lost and that you can in fact gain muscle and improve your physique. Sure, you may not be able to see the same gains as bodybuilders blessed with perfect bodybuilding genetics, but this does not mean you can’t have a better body then what you have now, and your self esteem will thank you for it later. When it comes to build muscle, you want to look at three macronutrients in your diet: protein, carbohyrdrate, and fat. Fat Regardless of what you may have read, if you want to gain muscle, you don’t want to be on a low fat diet! Some healthy fats like polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats are good for you and will help to build muscle. Have a little fat with every major meal, as it is necessary for absorption of the fatsoluble vitamins. Remember that fat is 9 calories per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrate are 4 calories per gram, so you are getting twice the number of calories per gram. This is very helpful to consume more calories, which is what a muscle building diet is all about! Dietary fat is most easily converted to body fat, so make sure the number of fat calories doesn’t sneak up on you. I favor a diet which consists of about 20-30% fat. Protein The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8g per kg of body weight or 0.36g per lb of body weight. So a 160lb person would need to consume about 58g to meet their RDA requirements. However, if you are consuming more calories to build muscle, those calories have to come from somewhere, so you would be required to increase your protein intake. You should get at least 1.2 g/kg, but anything much over 2 g/kg will not be used by the body. In addition, if your diet is more than 25% of calories as protein it will crowd out other important nutrients. It’s seldom necessary to go over 20%.
Carbohydrate Anybody who works out needs a lot of carbs – at least half of your daily calorie intake should consist of carbs. Without sufficient carbohydrate in your diet, you won’t have the energy to work out hard enough to build muscle. What about low carb diets? Consider this: your brain and nervous system use glucose as fuel. The body makes glucose from carbohydrate. If there isn’t enough carbohydrate, the brain will make glucose from protein, which may require breaking down muscle. Not what you want from your muscle building program, is it? Pre/Post Workout Nutrition You can work out a couple of hours after eating a moderate meal or an hour after a snack. This varies by individual, so see what works for you. Research shows improved muscle building when you eat soon after a workout. So, if you follow the advice in this article, regardless of genetics, you will be well on your way to achieving the body you want.