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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. It doesn’t matter how much you train you aren’t going to get any bigger if you do not follow a good muscle building diet. So just briefly we’ll go over a few simple rules to follow for a superb ‘build muscle diet’ and then we’ll uncover some of the best foods for building muscle mass.

Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:

1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will enable you to easily consume the amount of calories you need in order to grow. It will also mean that your body has energy throughout the 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 should be high in protein and may be a meal replacement powder drink. Also eat a meal or take a protein shake before sleeping so your muscle have quality calories to use to support growth throughout the night. You muscle will be short on energy at this time so eat as soon as possible after waking.

4) If you can afford it take supplements. Try supplementing with these: essential fatty acids, multi-vitamin pills, whey protein and creatine. 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) Take on board water in small amounts regularly. water is important for many reactions in the body. They occur much more easily in the presence of ample supplies of water. Muscle growth requires water so drink it. You will be left feeling bloated and full if you drink massive amounts of water at once.

OK, so we have got the basics down. Now then for muscle building purposes what food is good. 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. Greta sources of protein: Chicken Breast, Tuna Cottage Cheese, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast,  Salmon, Lean Beef, Whey Protein.

Carbohydrate is the bodies supply of energy and fuel for day to day activities and for supporting muscle growth.To help build muscle and maintain energy levels the following carbohydrates are recommended top be included in your diet: Sweet Potatoes, Baked Potatoes, Bagels, Brown Rice, Whole Wheat Pasta, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt and Beans.

Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Important metabolic functions require certain fats. 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 source 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 remember that you need to eat a lot of calories to both give you energy for training but also so that you have excess calories that can be used for muscle growth. If you do not eat enough calories then you aren’t going to grow. OK now you know what to eat to gain muscle you should have no problems building muscle.

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. There are a number of other types of vegetarians however for our needs this is adequate categorisation for now.

Why would anyone want to be vegetarian?

Due to the nature of the food that vegetarians avoid they are at a significantly reduced risk of the following potentially life threatening diseases :coronary artery disease, hypertension, cancers 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?

Well, suprisingly the answer is extremely simple. Soy in reality has higher levels of protein than beef and also contains all eight of the essential amino acids. Particularly good sources of soy include: seitan, miso, soy milk, tempeh, textured soy protein and of course tofu. These can all be included in a variety of tasty recipes and 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.

Ok so straight away that is protein deficiency taken off the myth list now what about vitamins and minerals like: calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin D, and vitamin B12?

Well vegans would be wise 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!! 

Bodybuilders are always looking for ways to blast through muscle building plateaus, mix up their routines, discover new ways to stimulate muscle growth and increase strength. Discovering new variations is critical for bodybuilding success as your body soon adjusts to new demands of new exercises and will not continue to grow unless new ways to stimulate muscle growth are found.

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 useful exercises and variations include: compound sets, drop sets, partials, supersets, 21s and such like. However here we will be looking at stimulating muscle growth using negatives.

So, just exactly what precisely are negatives? And how can you build muscle fast using negatives and are they the answer to how to build muscle quickly?

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. Add to the bar an extra 20 kilos and get your friends to spot you and help you to press this weight up with their assistance. 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 again your friends can help you press this weight up again. Do this again and again until you are able to no longer do the exercise with correct technique.

Why should I make use of these negatives? And will I build muscle fast using negatives?

Well your muscles are actually stronger in the lowering phase so when you do regular reps you are only placing stress on the muscle fibers in the lifting phase which are not as strong. So, you can actually force your muscles to handle more weight than they are used to using negatives. Do a few workouts such as this and you can trigger muscle mass growth and thus improve your weight training efforts for your normal routine and increase your overall muscle mass.

Are there any problems with this?

due to the fact that your muscles will probably not be used to doing this type of work and also for physiological factors you will quite possibly be very sore on the next few days after your training session. Obviously do not return to the gym until you have totally recuperated and keep high your protein intake and be completely sure to take a very good protein shake straight after your training session.

Negatives can be made use of for any exercise but work best for the classic mass builders such as the major compound multi-joint exercises like: squats, shoulder presses, dead lifts, pull ups, 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 plenty and workout vigorously and regularly and you will likely have no problems stacking on muscle mass. Now go ahead and combine your weight gain programs guidelines with negatives.

Ok, cool, you have made the decision to 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 just want to improve your sporting performance. So obviously you are aware that you are going to have to life weights. However you may not be aware of what to eat to build muscle and of the correct muscle building nutrition. This mini muscle building nutrition guide will give you enough knowledge to install an effective muscle building diet.

Firstly to build muscle, eat more often. Try to eat 5-7 smaller meals every day. This is due to the fact that excess calories are required in order for your body to support muscle gains. If you don’t get enough calories then you cannot build muscle. 5-6 small meals every day will ensure that you can get enough calories without filling yourself overly at any single particular meal.

Secondly, you will have to significantly reduce the amount of junk food in your diet. 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. carry a water bottle around with you and keep one in your car. nearly all reactions in the body require water to some degree and that includes muscle building reactions also.

Fourthly, divide your meals up so that they contain roughly the following portions of protein, carbohydrate and fat. Attempt to split your meals in to seperate amounts of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein with the rest to come from fats.

Fifthly, you will need to educate yourself as to the kinds of foods that you should be eating. 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. However caution is advised as these foods are high in saturated fat so it would be sensible to mix them with the following foods that supply protein but with a great deal less fat: egg whites, lean meats like poultry and fish, non-fat or low-fat milk and dairy products, lean cuts of red meat, turkey breast,and skinless chicken breast.

For carbohydrates and long term release energy: bread, brown rice, oatmeal, bagel, pasta cereals and potatoes. For short term energy to be consumed near your workouts try fruits such as apple, raisins, orange, grapes, bananas 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 spare cash for supplements then shoot for a decent multi-vitamin, whey protein, essential fatty acids and possibly creatine.

Finally a few words of advice on exactly when to eat. To build muscle eat within one hour of finishing your workout, before bed and immediately on rising. These are critical times if you want to ensure muscle growth. With the afoermentioned guidelines adhered too you are then in a great position to start packing on some muscle mass.

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 suggested that in order to build muscles fastest you have to keep cardio training down to as limited an amount as possible. This is said because cardio workouts do two main things that work against muscle building, they are: 1) use up a lot of calories 2) increase the speed of your metabolism. These two things both add weight to the problem of consuming enough calories. 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. If you want to add muscle mass on top of this then you have to add an extra 500 calories every day.

Is there a way to figure out this total?

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 wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht 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 = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active equals BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc

So, if you are 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. To suit your specific goals you should then adjust this total. Presuming it is muscle building, you would need to add at least a further 500 calories per day.

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. To follow this strategy one snack or meal would be based around 11 gram coming from fat, 62 grams coming from carbohydrate and 37 grams coming from protein. 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!

As we are all aware a good muscle building diet is critical to build muscle up. The timing of your meals is also important. I recommend that you have a solid meal around 2 hours prior to your workout. 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 includes slow burning energy such as from rice or oatmeal and that you eat the protein part first. You are in danger of becoming tired if you eat the protein after the carbohydrate. This occurs as both the protein and carbohydrate cause the body to release specific chemicals that have differing affects. Protein stimulates the release of tyrosine which signals your brain to be alert and energetic as opposed to the carbohydrate which stimulates the release of tryptophan and instructs the brain to make you feel tired. Therefore always take on the carbohydrate second.

If you really want to know how to build muscles quickly then great advice is to drink a protein and carbohydrate shake about half an hour before you workout. This will really boost your energy levels for your gym session. Ingredients should include whey protein, maltodextrin, wxymaize or dextrose. Try to aim for 25 grams of protein and around 40 grams of carbohydrate. Doing this will increase your bodies insulin levels which is one of the bodies strongest muscle building hormones. What’s more it will also reduce the production of cortisol which has a negative affect on building muscle.

Remember that spending time in the gym when you start your session already hungry and lethargic is not likely to make it a productive session. Always try to keep fruit or meal replacement powders or bars to hand should you ever not have time for a proper solid pre-workout meal.

Try and wean yourself off the coffee with green tea which has many more health benefits whilst also providing some caffeine. Lastly, remember to keep taking on water, this is critical too. 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.

‘Why am I not growing?’ is one of the most often questions asked globally from bodybuilders. After all you are training hard, with good muscle building nutrition in your diet, yet your gains are still minimal. The frustration can be a huge blow to your motivation after so many months of hardwork. So, what exactly is the answer? Well, there are a few likely causes, see if any of these ring a bell with you, together they show you how to build muscle up:

1) Is your calorie intake high enough? Under eaters could be the real name for many hardgainers. Lack of muscle mass is often due to this. Eating lots and often is the key to weight gain in bodybuilding! Having meals every two hours is a sensible rule of thumb which will enable you to take in the required amount of calories. Make sure you snack lots on food such as: dried fruit and nuts, yoghurt, cottage cheese,  cereal and milk, protein bars, fresh fruit, and protein shakes, etc

2) Are you getting enough protein? To build muscle mass fast you should aim for 1.Every day you should consume per pound of body weight 5 grams of protein. Excellent protein sources include: chicken, fish, turkey as well as dairy products. Eat lots of everything and do not be too concerned about eating low fat products, you need the calories remember. Sure you need quality calories but make your life easier and eat everything, remember you can go through a cutting up stage in a few months time. A further great way to take on board quality protein is to get your hands on the large tubs of whey protein.

3) Have your routines gone stale? If you are able to say aloud your routine without thinking too much it could well be that you have been doing it for too long. Lots of variety is required in order to keep your muscles growing. What about really mixing things up with aided lifts, negatives, partials, super sets and so on. You can even just reverse the order of your routine and see what difference that makes, how about 10 sets of 10 reps to failure on just one major exercise such as the bench press (get ready to be sore!) or just give yourself a week off from training to allow your body to fully recover. As you can see there are endless variations, make sure you use them.

4) Are you resting enough? Did you ever see anyone walk into a fitness centre workout and then come out having put on half a stone of muscle? Never. So, clearly your muscles don’t grow when your pumping iron, they grow when you are resting. You will certainly be limiting your muscle growth if you are not getting enough rest time. If anything you ought to be giving yourself too much time to grow rather than too little. Try reducing your workouts to working out once muscle group per week. Also decreasing the amount of sets done for each body part, try just 3-5 intense sets per bodypart per workout. Why not try them yourself, you might be pleasantly suprised by your progress!

5) Is your water intake high enough? If you don’t drink plenty of water then your progress won’t be as fast it should be. Your muscles need copious amounts of water in order to grow. Always keep a water bottle to hand and make use of it.

So the initial question: ‘Why am I not getting bigger?’as you now know has potentially many answers. Answer with extreme honesty the above questions and if you need to make a few changes then do so. If you are not meeting just one of the above points then you may well have found the reason for your limited growth. If there are more than one of these points that your bodybuilding lifestyle does not meet then urgent change is required. Certainly there are a huge variety of reasons why you aren’t building muscle mass fast but they are the typical probelms. Now hit the gym and go get massive!

The question on the minds of a lot of beginning weight lifters is are there foods that build muscle? There are certainty muscle building foods that will help you to put on lean muscle mass, get bigger and stronger. When you eat the right foods and train properly you will increase your overall muscle mass and strength. Remember you need more than food and supplements to get bigger. If you don’t eat the correct foods you can actually hurt the development of new muscle. By all means find out as much as you can about taking supplements, they can make or break a good workout and recovery period after wards.

Our body is a complex bio-organism and it must have the correct nutrients to work properly and at the correct times. A diet of fresh whole foods and vegetables combined with high quality meat and fish will nourish our bodies with the muscle building foods we need to gain muscle. When your diet is made up mainly of processed foods you’ll find an increase in lethargy and obesity. To put it simply, garbage in garbage out. Stock your home with the muscle building foods that will make you look and feel like a champion.

Is Protein The Best Muscle Building Food?

Our muscles primary source of energy and growth producing potential derives from protein. If you’re interested in eating foods that build muscle then you need to be interested in protein. Vegetables are high in many of the amino acids ,which are the building blocks of protein and should be included along with fresh low fat meat and fish. You need to use a diversified quantity of protein sources because your body assimilates various types of protein at different rates.

Protein Types

The most common muscle building food has been and always will be red meat. Although a primary source of high quality muscle building protein eating too much meat can have negative effects on your body over the long term. Since so many good foods contain the protein you need make sure you deviate from just eating red meat. There is approximately 8 – 10 grams of protein in one ounce of meat.

Eggs are another good example of a muscle building food. Eat the eggs without the yolk to avoid the potential long term effects of cholesterol. Each egg contains about 6 – 8 grams of protein

For more great ideas on muscle building foods and nutrition you will also want to visit Rocko’s site, you can see it here:Rocko’s Muscle Building Foods

Meals And Protein Supplements

With 25 – 35 grams of protein per shake it is a good way to supplement your high protein diet. It is best if you eat five to six small meals throughout the day rather than the accustomed three large meals. Eating these 6 smaller meals will actually burn more calories and provide your body with the necessary protein it needs during the day.

How Much Protein

The rule of thumb for estimating the precise amount of protein you must ingest is to take in one gram of protein per one pound of body weight during the day. There are some people that now believe it is more accurate to calculate the correct amount of protein as one gram of protein per each pound of lean muscle mass. Also be aware that our bodies can only assimilate roughly 25 to 35 grams of protein at any one time, the rest will just be wasted.

There are a many other foods that build muscle and you should educate yourself about the different ways you can use muscle building foods to fuel your body and your workout. The easiest way for you to know that you are getting the right muscle building foods in your diet and doing the right workout routines is to find a program that provides both of these and will help to take the guess work out of your weight lifting program.

I hope you liked this article on muscle building foods, I also have a review of a high quality product you might want to take a look at here:No Nonsense Muscle Building Review