Health & Fitness Tools

What Foods to Eat to Build Bigger Muscle

11th May, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Ensuring that you give your body the fuel it needs to build muscle is an important part of bodybuilding. Eating to build big muscle fast is just as important as your weight lifting program or other bodybuilding routines.

Working your muscles utilizes considerable energy. And the only way to replace that energy is with food! So what happens if you fail to eat the right type of food to build muscle mass? It will take longer to build muscle, and it may even prevent effect muscle building altogether once you reach a certain point.

When looking into the types of food that helps build muscle, you probably immediately think of eating a low fat diet. That is great, but probably the most important type of foods that build muscle are foods containing high levels of protein. Foods like meat, fish, chicken, eggs, cheese and other milk products. Nuts are also a great protetin source.

Finding out how much protein to eat when you are interested in building muscle fast is actually not difficult. First, you will need to find out your lean body mass weight in kilos, and then you simply multiply that figure by 2.75 to determine your daily protein requirement. Calculating your lean body mass uses some complex formulae, so ask a professional at the gym if you do not already have this figure.

Carbohydrates, in moderation, are also essential when finding foods that build muscle. Do not eat too much, though, unless you choose high fiber carbohydrates (which are the healthiest ones anyway), and then you can indulge in much larger amounts. Good high fiber carbs include rice, potatoes (yes, potatoes ? just do not add butter!), oatmeal and bananas.

Reducing fat in your diet is of course necessary to build bigger muscle on a body that appears lean and has a low body fat ratio. If you are focussing on what foods build muscle mass, you also need to bear in mind that it pays to reduce fat as well. Although proteins are essential (as we talked about earlier), it is really important to select proteins that are low in fat, or that you can cut the fat off. So eat your chicken without the skin, and go for lean steaks rather than more fatty cuts of meat. Opting for cottage cheese or other reduced fat cheeses, and low fat milk also helps reduce your fat intake.

When eating to build muscle fast, make sure you drink water. Liquid is important for hydration, and a dehydrated body is sluggish, and can even make you sick. This is not a recipe for obtaining the healthy, fit physique you are striving for.

Most experts agree that between 1.5 to 2 liters of water a day helps flush toxins and hydrate the body. And that is for everyone, regardless of activity levels and desire to have a buff body. So for those of us on bodybuilding diets, who are conscious of building muscle, water is even more important.

Foods that build bigger muscle are one of the two essential components to having the body of your dreams. The other component is your weight training program or other type of bodybuilding workouts that you engage in regularly. Just because you have found foods that build muscle does not mean you can start to slack off with your weight training.