The Basics of a Diet for Building Muscle

When talking about building muscle most people focus on the importance of lifting weights, however a diet for building muscle is also important.  The right diet for muscle building ensures that your body loses fat and not muscle, the rules behind such a diet are simple, but can be hard to adjust to initially.  Aim to have six meals a day, with three main meals and three snacks are how you should build your diet.  You should also space your meals three hours apart, you may also need to eat additional snacks if you are working out.

While how much you eat is important the types of food you eat are equally important and you should be paying attention to what you eat.  There are a lot of misconceptions about the importance of protein in a muscle building diet, however your protein intake should not exceed your carbohydrate intake.  In terms of protein you should be looking at lean proteins; chicken breasts, fish, lean cuts of red meat, and cottage cheese are all good examples of good protein.  It is also important to have good fats in your diet for building muscle; you can get good fats from flax oil, fish oil, avocadoes, nuts, and beans.

The key to maintaining a diet for building muscle is to make sure that you plan your meals ahead.  It is also important that you choose the right proteins when you are trying to build muscle; eat chicken, turkey, nuts, fish, and lean pork.  While fats don’t seem like a good component in a diet for building muscle it is important to have good fats in your diet from salmon, almonds, walnuts, and flax seed.  You may want to reduce your carbohydrate intake a little if you have a high percentage of body fat that you want to bring down.

Adding variety to your meals is the best way to make sure that you stick to your diet for building muscle.  If you find that you don’t have time to cook then it is best to make food in advance so that you can stick to your diet when you are on the go.  Your last meal should also be right before bed, usually this is a snack that comes three hours after dinner.  With these basic guidelines you can start to put together a diet for building muscle that works for you and will help you to tone your body.