How Should I Gain Muscle Mass?

Do you eat breakfast regularly?

Do you eat after every three hours?

Do you eat protein with every meal?

Are fruits and vegetables included in your every meal?

Do you eat carbs only after finishing your workout?

Do you have a constant intake of healthy fats with your meals?

Do you drink water regularly or at least 16 cups a day?

Eat breakfast to help build muscle mass. This gives you an immediate burst of energy and helps you to stay full until your next meal or snack. It also sets the trend: you’ll tend to eat healthier if your day starts with a strong and healthy breakfast. Your best bets if your trying to build muscle mass are omelettes, smoothies and cottage cheese.

Eating the right thing at the right time is crucial for helping you boost your muscle mass. The easiest way is to eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner as usual, interspersed with meals post workout, pre-bed and with two snacks in between. By keeping your food intake up, it will mean you won’t be as hungry, because eating smaller meals more often versus a few big meals will decrease your stomach size.

You need protein to build and maintain muscle. To achieve this, you should be looking to eat at least 1g per 454g of body-weight. The easiest way to get this amount is to eat a whole protein source with each meal.

Most of them are low calorie: you can eat your stomach full without gaining fat or weight. Fruit and vegetables are also full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber which helps digestion, but just be careful to check the sugar content of some fruits.

While you need carbs for energy, most people eat more than they need. Limit your carbohydrate intake to after your workout only. Eat fruit and vegetables with all meals. These contain few carbohydrates compared to whole grains with the exception of corn, carrots and raisins.

Healthy fats improve fat loss and health as they digest slowly. Make sure you balance your fat intake, eat healthy fats with every meal and avoid artificial trans-fats and margarine.

Strength training causes water loss through sweating which can impair muscle recovery and thus, it won’t help you increase your muscle mass. Drinking water prevents dehydration but also hunger since an empty stomach can make you think you’re hungry.

To get the best results, 90% of your food intake should consist of whole foods.These are unprocessed and unrefined foods that come as close as possible to their natural state. Examples: fresh meat, fish, poultry, eggs, vegetables, pulses, fruits, rice, oats etc.