Burn Stomach Fat

Posts Tagged ‘muscle building nutrition’

Holding down two jobs, meetings to get too, kids to pick up from school and so on there are so many distractions, pressures and time constraints that if we are not careful can only lead to one thing… not enough time to plan and arrange your meals. As regards muscle building nutrition then this is the ultimate crime. The main reason is because it leads to eating fast food.

Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat and very little nutrient value combined with little in the way of decent energy providing nutrition. So, if we simply cannot avoid going to fast food restaurants then what can we eat for correct muscle building nutrition?

Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:

Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A simple portion of medium sized fries will stuff your body full of around 200 calories including around 400 calories with around 20 grams of fat and the drink will provide you with around 200 calories with heaps of sugary content!

Choose the grilled version every time. You can save about 80 calories that come mostly from fat by consuming a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich rather than a premium crispy chicken. A simple choice but often overlooked.

Make sure you skip the dessert. At any fast food restaurnat you are going to be bombarded with so many chices of sugary desserts and if you really must have a sugary item then keep it down to a kiddies portion size.

Make sure you restrict your use of those extra sauces. A good deal of these are extremely high in fat content with not much muscle building nutrition. You know what I am talking about, those little packets of mayonnaise, tartar sauce and so on. Do yourself a service and give it a miss.

If it is not possible to avoid a fast food restaurant then what can I eat?

If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:

For the bulk of your dinner/lunch a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich will nourish you with 10 grams of fat, 51grams of carbohydrates, 420 calories, and 32 grams of protein. A Honey Mustard Snack Wrap (Grilled) would yield 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the Sesame Ginger Dressing that is low in fat. Probably the premium option would be the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that, yields 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.

For those of you that reside in Australia the choices change slightly too:
A Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.

A decent breakfast selection would be: 12 grams of fat, 300 calories, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.

I hope that shows you that you can indeed find a fairly good muscle building meal even at a fast food joint like McDonalds. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.

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We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that reason we are going to clear up a few things right now about what not to do to build up muscles. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:

1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can be counter productive as at this point a hormone is released that actually inhibits the muscle building process, train for less than this and the hormones are at the right level for building muscle.

2) Consume lots of all foods. Often you hear people say to eat as much of everything as you possibly can. Well of course we need extra calories to add muscle mass but do you really believe that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, fatty red meats, fast food, simple carbs (sugars) and so on is going to be healthy for you long term. Of course not stay with the nutritious muscle building foods and these will then make sure that you develop lean muscle mass and prevent your body suffering long term health problems.

3) Isolation exercises. That refers to exercises such as tricep presses that place focus on one individual muscle alone. This is not an efficient use of time and energy. Stick to multi joint exercises like presses, squats, pull ups and so on. These exercises stimulate muscle growth in more than just one muscle at a time.

4) Ignoring cardio-vascular fitness. I’m sure you have heard that you should avoid aerobic stuff as it uses up valuable calories that could be used for burning muscle. yes this is correct but come on there is a sensible balance to be had. Sure get big, but do you really not want to be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without losing your breathe. Train aerobically two or three times a week and just consume additional calories to make up for these sessions.

5) Switch exercises a lot. You may know that variety ensures muscles keep growing, that is correct but naturally at the same time not letting your muscles establish an exercise rhythm can also limit your progress that you might otherwise make. Stick with an exercise for a couple of months before dropping it.

6) Over train. The major cause of lack of muscle gain is over training. For most people 2-3 sessions a week will be suffice.

7) Give in. Way too many people stop working out just because there muscle growth eases up somewhat. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.

Go get em!

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A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Quite often it is recommended that to build muscles fastest you ought to keep aerobic training down to as little as possible. This is often stated due to the fact that aerobic training sessions do two particular things that may restrict muscle building, namely: 1) burn an abundance of calories 2) speed up your metabolism. Both of these two things contribute to the same problem, namely, not getting enough calories on board. The next question to naturally consider is that of how many calories should I be taking on board each day?

Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. Each day you need to eat a further 500 calories if you wish to build muscle mass.

Can I work this number out?

Yes, there definitely is and one way of finding this total is by following the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wght in kg) + (5 X hght in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wght in kgs) + (1.8 X hght in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (desk job, little or no exercise)
Lightly active equals BMR X 1.375 (sports/light exercise 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active equals BMR X 1.55 (sports 3-5 days/wk/moderate exercise)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc

So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. Your daily energy needs will be safely covered by this amount. This amount then needs to be altered to suit your goals. Assuming your goal is muscle building a further 500 calories each day need to be added to this amount.

So, for arguments sake lets say the number you figure out is 3000 calories then that would mean 6 meals everyday which each contain 500 calories. Each meal would then be made up of 62 grams of carbohydrate, 37 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. This is due to the fact that a gram of protein or carbohydrate equals 4 calories where as a gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!

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 It is a well known fact nowadays that to build muscle diet is a key component that will determine whether you are successful or not. If your diet is poor regardless of how hard you train you won’t grow. So we will briefly outline some basic points to consider for a ‘build muscle diet’ and then we will take a peek at some fantastic muscle building foods.

Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:

1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will allow you to comfortably take on board enough calories to grow. {It will mean that your body keeps high energy levels through the entire day}. 

2) Divide your meals up in to approximate portions of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the remainder can come from fats.

3) Eat about an hour half to two hours before your workout and eat immediately or at least within an hour after your workout. The post workout meal may merely be a shake but ought to include a high amount of protein. To support muscle growth throughout the night then consuming a protein shake or eating a meal before bed is a smart move. After getting up consume calories as soon as you can as your muscles will be low on energy first thing upon waking.

4) If you can afford it take supplements. You may wish to experiment with: essential fatty acids, creatine, whey protein and multi-vitamin pills. Although you know to build muscle diet is important the addition of supplements can give you that extra boost required to build even more muscle.

5) Drink water, little and often. water is important for many reactions in the body. Ample supplies of water will produce much more efficient reactions. Muscle growth won’t happen without water. Try not to drink massive amounts at once as this will leave you feeling bloated.

Well, we have gone through the basic points then. Now what food exactly is good for muscle building purposes. Here are some great foods for your to try:

Protein is needed for growth and repair of muscles. Obviously this is important for muscle gain seeker.Fantastic sources of protein include: Cheese, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast, Salmon, Lean Beef, Chicken Breast, Tuna Cottage Whey Protein.

Carbohydrate is the bodies supply of energy and fuel for day to day activities and for supporting muscle growth.In your diet to aid muscle growth and provide energy try to include the following foods: Brown Rice, Baked Potatoes, Whole Wheat Pasta, Sweet Potatoes, Bagels, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt and Beans.

Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Some essential metabolic functions require certain types of fat. For fats that build muscle try to include in your diet: Avocado, Olive Oil, Nuts, Flax Seed Oil, Natural Peanut Butter and Fish Oil

Vitamins and minerals play a wide variety of roles in all of the important reactions in the body including muscle growth.Great sources of vitamins and minerals are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots and Spinach.

By following the above guidelines you ought to be able to pack on some serious size. Just don’t forget that in order to grow your body needs to take on board excess calories for energy and to support mucle growth. If you don’t consume excess calories you won’t grow. Follow these above rules and a sensible ‘build muscle diet‘ containing these types of foods and you should have no problems building muscle.

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Just before I tackle the main purpose of this article which is to show how to build muscle vegetarian style I will briefly outline the different types of vegetarians. Vegans do not eat dairy products or any other animal by products,  pesco-vegetarians will eat fish and dairy products and lacto-ovo vegetarians will drink milk and eat eggs but won’t eat meat. This is sufficient categorisation for now although there are several further types of vegetarians.

Why be vegetarian?

Due to the nature of the food that vegetarians avoid they are at a significantly reduced risk of the following: hypertension, cancers, coronary artery disease, and diabetes mellitus. As you may agree the reasons for changing to be vegetarian are compelling indeed and that is before we even discuss the idealistic side of things such as being less cruel to animals, saving food for others, preserving the rainforest, becoming more enviromentally friendly and such like.

Ok , then as a vegetarian how exactly am i going to take on board enough protein?

The answer to this question very simply is Soy. Soy actually contains more higher levels of protein than beef and is also a complete protein meaning that it contains all eight essential amino acids. Soy can eaily be gotten from sources like: textured soy protein, soy milk, seitan, miso, tempeh, and of course tofu. These ingredients can form the basis of a good deal of tasty dishes. Another great supply of protein for vegetarians are beans, rice, seeds, legumes, nuts and even vegetables which together can pack together a wide variety of amino acids, so you should never go short.

Alright so that is protein deficiency crossed off the myth list now how about vitamins and minerals like: zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iron and vitamin B12?

Well, vegans ought to really to take a supplement for this. Vitamin B 12 is found in dairy products so other types of vegetarians ought to never go short of this. As regards the others a decent meal replacement powder will see you through to getting adequate supplies of these. Of course however many minerals and vitamins are easily available in the form of leafy green vegetables and fruit that you should not overlook if you wish to build muscle up vegetarian style. 

So, overall there are many health benefits to being a vegetarian and being a vegetarian need not prevent you from achieving your bodybuilding goals. Planning is the key and this is just as true for none vegetarian bodybuilders also. With the above guidelines in mind go ahead and build muscle vegetarian style!! 

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Ok, great, so you have finally decided that you are going to do something about your skinny physique and try and pack on some muscle mass. Whether it is because you want to look good at the beach or you have just watched another ‘Rocky’ movie or you want to perform better in your chosen sport. So obviously you know that you are going to need to pump some iron. However you may not be aware of what you are supposed to be eating for muscle building nutrition. This short guide will show you precisely what to consume but intially we’ll walk through a few of the basic ground rules for a sensible muscle building diet.

Firstly to build muscle eat more often. Try eating 5-7 small meals per day. This is due to the fact that excess calories are required in order for your body to support muscle gains. If you are not taking on enough calories then you will not be able to build muscle. 5-6 small meals every day will mean that you can take on enough calories without stuffing yourself too much at any single meal.

Secondly, cutting out or severly reducing the amount of junk food in your diet is a must. Go admit it, we are all at times prone to eating junk food at some time and it is these measl that we need to cut out.

Thirdly, you are going to need to take on more water than you are used to. Ensure that you have a bottle of water near you throughout the day to sip from. nearly all of the bodies reactions require water to some degree or other and that includes muscle growing reactions too.

Fourthly, try to divide each meal up into portions of the following amounts of protein, carbohydrtates and fats. Attempt to split your meals in to seperate amounts of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein with the rest to come from fats.

Fifthly, you need to learn what foods you should be eating for muscle growth. Here is a start to illustrate what some of the best muscle building foods are:

For protein: turkey, chicken, fish and shellfish, eggs, red meats, dairy products. These are terrific sources of quality protein so include them in your daily meals as often as possible. Be aware that these are high in saturated fat so you would be wise to mix them with the following foods that supply protein but with much less fat: Egg whites, Lean meats like poultry and fish, Non-fat or low-fat milk and dairy products (skim milk and cottage cheese are terrific foods), Turkey breast, Lean cuts of red meat and skinless chicken breast.

For carbohydrates and sustained energy release: bread, bagel, pasta cereals, brown rice, oatmeal, and potatoes. For instant bursts of energy try to eat: fruits such as apple, raisins, orange, bananas, grapes and sports drinks.

The fat portion of the meal will naturally come from the foods that you will be consuming and will thus take care of itself. Also be sure to get plenty of vitamins and minerals from leafy green vegetables. If you have enough money for muscle building supplements then go for a decent multi-vitamin, essential fatty acids, whey protein and creatine.

Finally a few words regarding the timing of your meals. To build muscle eat within one hour of finishing your workout, before bed and immediately on rising. If you wish to pack on muscle mass then these are very important times. With the afoermentioned guidelines adhered too you are then in a great position to start packing on some muscle mass.

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Bodybuilders are typically always searching around for new ways to bust through training plateaus, to provide variety for your routines and to find new ways to trigger muscle growth and improve strength levels. Finding and using new and different exercise techniques is essential for muscle building success as your muscles soon adjust to the demands of new exercises and will not be able to grow until new different stress is placed upon them.

There are a variety of ways in which to stimulate growth including the standard progressive overload principle of using sets and reps and doing as many repetitions as you can until muscle failure. Other variations include: compound sets, drop sets, partials, supersets, 21s and such like. However today we are going to look at negatives as a way to stimulate muscle growth.

So, what exactly are negatives? And how can you build muscle fast using negatives?

Well, negatives go something like this. Taking the bench-press as an example, imagine that your benchpress is 110kg for 8 repititions. You have gotten stale and found muscle building progress difficult to make and got stuck at this weight. Put an extra 20kgs on to the bar and have your gym partner assist you in pushing the barbell until your arms are nearly fully locked. Now once the weight is at the top let the spotters take away their hands allowing you to gradually lower it under full control. Then let your friends help you press it back up once more. Repeat this again and do as many reps as you possibly can until you can no longer do so safely.

Why do negatives? And will I build muscle fast using negatives?

Well it happens to be that your muscles are actually in the lowering phase stronger than what they are in the lifting phase. So, you can allow your muscles to handle more weight by doing negatives. Do a few sessions like this and you can stimulate muscle mass and improve your performance for regular repetitions and increase your overall muscle mass.

Does doing this pose any problems?

Because your muscle will probably not be used to performing this type of work and also for physiological reasons you will probably be sore on the next day after your workout. Certainly do not workout again until you have totally recuperated and keep high your protein intake and be completely sure to take a quality protein shake straight after your weight session.

Negatives can be used in any exercise but work best for the major compound multi-joint exercises like: deadlifts, pull ups, squats, shoulder presses and so on. To trigger muscle growth and break training plateaus then use these workouts on an infrequent and occasional basis.

With those points in mind keep taking on good solid muscle building nutrition, rest adequately and workout hard and frequently and you ought to have no problems piling on muscle mass. Now go ahead and build muscle fast using negatives.

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There are many advice columns, hyped up products, infomercials, e-books and so on all giving advice about the newest latest and easiest ways to build muscle. So if there are so many different ways to build muscle then why is it so difficult for people to do so? Well the answer is partly in the question. With so much differing advice about, both on the net and in bookstores, web sites and magazines, how on earth is someone new to weight training supposed to make sense of it all?

The new bodybuilder really needs to merely have knowledge of the essential basics in order to start growing therefore much of this information will be irrelevant. So with that in mind here are three sure fire steps to help anyone build muscle easily.

1) Train intensely. Make use of the all time classic muscle mass building exercises such as: deadlifts, rows, squats, benchpresses and pull ups. These are tried and tested exercises that will help you build muscle easily. try to keep away from exercises that promote isolation of individual muscles, these are designed for muscle shaping, carving and defining as opposed to building muscle mass. Get to the gym, hit the weights hard and intensely for 45 minutes then get out and grow.

2) Pay attention to muscle building nutrition. For decades now experienced trainers have been saying that at least 80% of muscle growth success is down to good muscle building nutrition. Even today this is still very true! As a general guide half of your food should come in the form of carbohydrates, protein should make up 30% and the remainder should come from fats.

The following foods are recommended, for carbohydrates: potatoes, rice, pasta, brown breads. For protein: chicken, turkey, beef and fish, especially mackerel and tuna. naturally these foods will supply all the fats that you need. Whey protein, essential fatty, acids, creatine and a good multi-vitamin product would really boost your muscle growth if you can afford them.

3) Rest. Muscle grow whilst you are asleep and at rest so it therefore comes as know surprise that you need to spend quality time resting. Many novice bodybuilders do not understand just exactly how important it is that their body has a chance to recover properly after each workout. Two workouts per muscle group a week will be sufficient for most people.

Yes, I did indeed say it was simple and it is. If you just stick to those basics you too can build muscle easy. basically that is all you need to know, although you can delve much much deeper of course into all of these topic areas. With those points in mind, go out there, train intensely in the gym, follow a good muscle building diet and give yourself time to grow!

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There is much advice floating around both on and offline about how to build muscle fast. As a personal trainer myself here are a few little known facts, building muscle tips and secrets that I personally consider worth your while contemplating on your quest to build muscle mass:

I often hear that you should train each muscle group just once a week. Although this might produce solid progress for extreme hardgainers it is not going to be true for most people. Sure, you should avoid overtraining but like most things in life you won’t get good at something by practicing it just once a week, this is true to a certain extent in weight lifting also. You need to train each muscle more than once a week, probably twice per week being suitable for most bodybuilders. Ideally you should rotate your workouts through periods when you are near overtraining and periods where you near undertraining. This provides times when there is a lot of stress for the body to handle and other times when the body has more time to recover and build momentum for another push. This technique will help you avoid training plateaus.

Ensure that your training sessions don’t exceed 45 minutes. If you think that is not long enough then either your routine is too long or you don’t workout intensely enough. If you really focus on quality and intensity and avoiding distractions 45 minutes ought to be plenty. If your workouts last longer then this then testosterone levels drop dramatically due to the increased production of cortisol which actually causes the body to eat muscle tissue and store fat. completely the opposite to what we are after.

In an ideal world you should put your training sessions in to cycles. after a while your body adapts to a routine so that it no longer stimulates growth. You should try to switch your routine a little bit before gains start to diminish. You ought not to alter your training sessions too often either. Doing this will confuse your body too much and prevent it from getting into a nice groove and feel like you are just simply spinning your wheels.

Regardless of whether you follow the above rules or not you will never make big gains if you simply use the wrong exercises. The classic time proven muscle building exercises are the multi-joint exercises otherwise known as compound exercises. The time proven exercises being: bench presses, rows, squats, pull ups, shoulder presses plus any exercise that moves your entire bod through air ie, not just moving individual limbs. If you use these exercises, with a few of their variations and correct muscle building nutrition then you can’t help but stimulate muscle mass growth. With those tips in mind, go hit the gym and build some serious muscle mass.

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As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle mass. The timing of your meals is also important. Around two hours prior to your workout is when I recommend you eat your meal. This should give enough time to mean that you don’t hit the gym when you are bloated or still feeling full and sluggish.

Ideally this preworkout meal should be something that you are used to and that you know won’t make you feel heavy and bloated as you want to be at your best to give your all in the gym. Make sure it contains slow burning energy such as that found in rice and oatmeal and that you consume the protein part first. You are in danger of becoming tired if you eat the protein after the carbohydrate. This happens because both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release certain chemicals that affect the brain. Protein releases tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic whereas the carbohydrate triggers the release of tryptophan that tells the brain to become sleepy. Therefore always take on the carbohydrate second.

If you really want to know how to build muscle fast then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will significantly boost your energy for your workout. Ingredients ought to include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. Try to aim for 25 grams of protein and around 40 grams of carbohydrate. Doing this will boost your insulin levels which is one of the bodies most powerful muscle building hormones. Furthermore it will also cut down the amount of cortisol that is produced by your body which has a negative impact on muscle building.

Remember that you aren’t going to breaking any personal bests in the gym if you are feeling tired and hungry when you start your workout. Always try to have fruit or meal replacement powders or bars handy should you not have time for a proper pre-workout meal.

If you are a regular coffee drinker then try and switch your coffee for a green tea which contains less caffeine but has lots more health benefits. One more thing, don’t forget to keep taking on board the water all day. Ok bear those things in mind and you’ll be hitting the gym in peak mode for an awesome muscle stimulating workout which you will be able to grow from because you will have had the correct muscle building nutrition.

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