Spoiler alert: You should eat normal, healthy food, and it looks like this
I’ve been eating and training for 22 years. I’ve dieted for a bodybuilding show and bulked up for strongman. There is a lot of nonsense out there about how to eat but it’s really super simple.
Quick and to the point, you only need to worry about three things when it comes to eating for muscle gain:
- The Foods
- The Amounts
- The Supplements
The foods
Simple and healthy foods. That’s the answer you’re looking for when gaining lean muscle.
Eat meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Pretty simple. Make sure that you get a broad spectrum of each of those whole foods. That way, you’ll get all the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates you need.
Your 3-6 daily meals have protein, carbohydrates, and fats. If you’re not gaining muscle, you must eat more meals, lift heavier, or both.
Gaining mass is a different story. Let’s cover that next.
If you are vegetarian or vegan, I hear you. Message me, and we can talk.
The Amounts
Quickly, and this is the most important thing: You feed the muscle and anything extra in your mouth becomes weight gain. Not muscle gain.
The ONLY measurement I keep track of is protein intake. When I’ve been most successful in competition, strength gains and even dieting, protein is the cornerstone.
Easily, the measurement is 1 gram/pound of bodyweight.
We can debate a lot of things about that number. But that’s where I have personally been most successful. The science backs it up by stating it this way Short version of link: 1.6g/kg/day and up to 2.2 g/kg/day
Want to get leaner? Cut carbs not protein. Want to gain weight? Add more carbs and fat.
Simple. EASY.
If you want quick weight gain and don’t care whether it’s muscle or fat, you eat as much of everything as you can. You don’t care about simple sugars and fats, which won’t be very healthy, but you will gain a lot of weight.
To gain mostly muscle, you want to make sure that your carbohydrates come from complex natural sources.
Vegetables, legumes, and whole grains are great complex starches. As long as it’s real food, you’ll put on mostly muscle, not fat weight.
And, of course, the leaner your protein sources are, the more conducive for gaining lean muscle. Avoid things like bacon and use lean sources like chicken breast and fish. Not because of health reasons (there is that) but because more fat means more calories.
Here’s where things are different.
Gaining Muscle Vs Gaining Mass
Gaining mass means you want to get bigger and don’t care if it’s a combination of muscle and fat.
Gaining muscle means you want your belt size to stay the same but your muscles to get bigger.
If it’s gaining mass you’re after, you’ll pull out all the stops. Just eat everything, all the time, as much as you can.
If you still don’t gain weight, blend it and drink it, so you consume more calories.
The Supplements
You may choose to supplement if you don’t have time to sit down and eat proper meals. Another reason is when you don’t have time to prepare proper foods or are missing something in your dietary intake.
This is when supplementation can be a supplement to your regular eating.
You don’t need supplements to build muscle. The only supplements I take are because I eat plant-based. Therefore, I may miss out on a few things in meat.
I supplement with Taurine, L-Carnitine, Creatine, and a plant-based protein powder. I don’t eat 3-4 ounces of meat every 4 hours like most bodybuilders, so protein powder plays a role.
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