Eat to Grow Muscle: Foods for Muscle Growth

You have to eat if you want to grow muscle (or keep breathing for that matter). When it comes to food and muscles, that seems to be about all that anyone can agree on. But that information isn't much help by itself. Here's some information that will be useful to you. This article gives you the basic information you need on foods for muscle growth.

You Need Calories for Muscle Growth

Everyone knows that you have to work out hard enough to stimulate your body to build muscle. Well the actual act of building muscle is hard work too. Your body burns a lot of calories to build new muscle. That means you're probably going to have to eat more than you are now to give your body the calories it needs to build muscle.

But that isn't a license to stuff your face all day. Eating a bunch of jelly donuts or other junk foods will increase the number of calories you get, but loads of sugar and fat and empty calories won't help your body build big muscles. You have to choose healthy foods for muscle growth or you'll just get fat instead of more muscular. The rest of this article will help you pick the right foods.

Muscles are Built from Protein

When you work out hard enough to build bigger muscles, you are in reality damaging the muscles that you want to make bigger. Your body responds to the damage by rebuilding the damaged muscle a little bigger and stronger to handle the stress. And protein provides the raw material for the work. That means you need to eat enough protein for your normal daily needs, plus enough to do the repairs. If you don't get enough protein, your body will run out of raw materials and won't be able to repair the damage you do working out. You'll fail to make your muscles bigger. In fact, over time, they'll get weaker and you'll probably end up with a nagging muscle injury.

Getting the protein you need has got to be your primary objective to succeed at. The best sources of protein are chicken (particularly the breast), turkey, and fish. You need to make sure that your diet includes large quantities of these three foods. You can also benefit from lean red meats, eggs, and nuts, but your primary sources of protein ought to be turkey, chicken, and fish.

Carbs Are Your Workout Fuel

Carbs are your body's main fuel. If you don't eat enough carbohydrates, you won't have the energy to work out long enough or hard enough to build muscle. And even if you somehow manage to pull off the workouts, without enough carbs to fuel the process, your body won't have enough energy to repair the damaged tissue, much less make the muscles bigger and stronger.

But the kind of carbohydrates you eat matters a lot. Simple carbohydrates, like bread or table sugar, give you a quick jolt of energy followed by a crash, while at the same time giving you a bunch of virtually nutrient free calories that your body is probably going to store as fat. Complex carbohydrates like whole grain breads, fruits, and vegetables give you more sustained energy, contain lots of nutrients, not empty calories, and are much less likely to end up as a ring of blubber hanging over your belt. If you eat lots of complex carbs, go real light on the simple ones, and you'll have enough energy for fast muscle growth.

Fat is Necessary Too

While everyone seems to be against eating any kind of fat, you do need to eat some fat to be healthy. Fat is another energy source and building block for your body. The biggest problem with fat is that we get too much of the wrong kinds of fat. What you don't want is the fat you see on a slab of steak, or the kind that's in unnatural foods like margarine. Fish and nuts can provide you with the Omega-3 healthy fats that most people don't get enough of. If you trim the excess fat from meats, don't eat the skins of your chicken and turkey, and make sure you get more fish and the occasional handful of nuts in your diet, you'll be better off than the vast majority of the population.

Are You Ready to Go all the Way?

Now you have the information you need to select foods that will help you to build muscle. As you read this, you probably saw several things you could apply to your current diet to make it more more effective for building lean muscle fast. Start applying this information and you should see more progress.

With that said, while all this information will surely help, its really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to foods for building muscle. And we haven't even touched on ways to make your diet work with specific workouts. For that kind of information, you will want to get yourself a complete muscle building plan. The top plans provide complete guidance on what and when to eat in addition to giving you tried and true workouts to do.

To learn about the best foods for muscle building and read reviews of the top muscle building plans, visit http://GetFitAtLast.com