photo credit: VirtualErn

Most people claim that your free weight workouts are the biggest part of your bodybuilding program, but I really don’t think it actually is.  I think that your mass gain diet is the really critical piece of the muscle building puzzle.  If you understand the importance your muscle building diet right from the start, you will be able to jump ahead of all of the guys who don’t believe it’s all that important.  While they are struggling to pack on any muscle at all, you’ll be in a position to seriously boost your muscle.

Any well thought out muscle gain diet will consist of a solid approach to muscle building nutrition that includes a balanced amount of all of the body building nutrients evenly dished out throughout the day. If you try to implement a nutritional program that forces you to severely limit your consumption of any single nutrient, you run the risk of not giving your body all of the ingredients to pack on new muscle mass over time.  While you may be able to get away with a restrictive muscle mass gain diet in the beginning, but over time your nutritional deficiencies will make it very difficult for you to gain any more muscle mass at all.

My favorite muscle gain diet strategy is to focus in on eating 5 or 6 small meals every day that are made up of just the right quantities of muscle building protein, high quality carbohydrates and veggies. I think it’s best to spread each of these small bodybuilding meals out every 2 hours over the course of the day primarily because it allows me to have very stable energy levels even when I’m not eating a of calories. If you go about designing your bodybuilding diet in this way, your body will be constantly flooded with the foods that it needs in order to repair muscle cells that are damaged and build new muscle mass.

Another critical piece to your muscle gain diet is water.  Without ample amounts of pure water your body just won’t be able to get the muscle building process kicked off properly. It’s important to keep in mind that lean muscle mass is composed primarily of water, so it only makes sense that drinking ample amounts of H2O each day is the way to go for serious muscle growth. I like to remind people to drink 1 – 2 gallons of clean H2O each day, spread out with each of your muscle building meals.  This will keep your muscles well hydrated and allows your body to effectively shuttle nutrients into your muscle cells quicker than before.

If you’re serious about building a lot of muscle mass this year, then you should spend some time getting your muscle gain diet designed for maximum effectiveness. Sure it can be tough to have to put in a few hours of your time before you even hit the gym, but this is ultimately what is going to allow you to gain muscle mass.

Muscle Mass Gain Diet Info is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help

In this article I’m going to point out all of the vital things that go into a well designed bodybuilding diet and show you how to put it all together for maximum efficiency.  If you follow along and figure out how to customize your own muscle gain diet, you’ll be sure to build muscle mass, so read on!

Your Muscle Building Diet

When it comes to designing your optimum muscle building diet, there are some things that you’ve got to keep in mind.  It’s critical that you understand that the entire muscle gain process is dependent upon the amount of calories that you eat each day.  If you get this wrong your body just won’t be able to build more muscle mass, so it’s important to get it right from the start. If you’re just starting out with your muscle building nutrition plan, an essential skill for you to pick up is learning how to calculate your ideal calorie target.

After you get your calorie target value all nailed down, then you need to plan out some sort of outline to get the appropriate quantities of each of the bodybuilding nutrients into your body spaced out throughout the day.  In order to put together an effective muscle gain diet, you’ll also want to learn about the muscle building macro nutrients; carbs, protein, fat and water. Any decent muscle building diet will include all of these macro nutrients in the right amounts.

Now that you’ve got your caloric value calculates and you have a good understanding of each of the muscle building nutrients, it’s time to sit down and grab a piece of paper and start listing exactly how many muscle building meals you intend to eat each day, exactly what foods are going to make up each meal, and when you are going to eat each of your meals.

In order to make sure that you are feeding your muscles the foods that it needs to repair muscle cells, it’s definitely important to make it a habit to eat between 5 – 8 bodybuilding meals each day. Each of these meals should have a decent amount of while food protein as well as complex carbohydrates and Veggies or fruits along with a lot of of H2O.

One technique used by physique athletes looking to strip off fat and uncover their abdominals is to learn how to bracket your most energy intense portions of the day with the biggest meals of the day.  That means that if you know that you’re going to be going on a 20 mile hike through the woods, it might be a good idea to eat a big meal before taking off so that your muscles have the energy they needs to fuel your activity level.

If you’re serious about gaining muscle and gaining weight fast, then put these time tested muscle gain diet strategies to work for you immediately. Not only will you start to build muscle mass and increase your strength levels, but you’ll also notice that your body fat will start to naturally decrease due to your updated nutrition program. If you stick with it and make your muscle building diet a habit that you can live with, you’ll be able to achieve some amazing things with your body.

Muscle Gain Diet Advice is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help

Over the past few weeks  I’ve decided to implement my version of  the anabolic muscle building diet.  While I’m not typically a fan of low carb fad diets, something about all of the research surrounding the anabolic diet made me take notice.  I became increasingly interested in this nutritional approach after talking with a high level natural bodybuilder at my gym. He mentioned that if you implemented this style of body building diet correctly then you would definitely strip off more fat than a traditional carbohydrate based bodybuilding nutrition approach.

After riding the anabolic muscle gaining  diet wave out for a few weeks, I’ve got to say that the results have been nothing short of amazing! I’ve been able to melt off body fat and slowly but surely expose my long lost abs all the while increasing the amount of muscle mass on my body.  In the past whenever I’ve implemented any type of bodybuilding diet, I’ve had to deal with hunger issues and steadily decreasing strength levels.  So far (now 5 weeks in), my strength levels are through the roof and my body has begun to change dramatically without having to suffer through the day obsessing about all of the foods that I can’t eat.

Today I wanted to lay out exactly what I ate during week 5 of my body transformation, but I’m warning you it’s repetitive, boring and bland…but very effective.  I’ve been able to make some serious p[progress towards my goal of gaining 25 lbs of muscle mass while stripping off a lot of body fat at the same time.  This is something that I’ve never been able to do simultaneously before, strip off body fat while actually building muscle mass – it feels great!

If you’re looking to try something a little different with your muscle building diet, then you may want to consider implementing your version of the anabolic muscle building diet.

here’s what I ate last week…

• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 3 cups of green tea
• 2 cups of cooked ground beef
• 3 cups of beef brisket
• 2 cups of cooked spinach (sauteed in a pat of butter)
• 3 cups of beef brisket
• 1/2 cup of walnuts
• 1/2 cup of cheese
• 3 eggs fried in olive oil

I really tried to get more calories into my diet in order to ensure that I don’t start to lose muscle mass along with my body fat.  It’s a fine line to walk when you’re trying to accomplish both goals at the same time. Unfortunately it almost unavoidable to lose a bit of muscle mass while you’re focusing your efforts on cutting, but you can go a long way to prevent any type of muscle loss by adjusting your calories up and down in  an undulating fashion.  This tricks your body into believing that you’re eating a surplus of calories when you really aren’t – it’s a great way to give yourself a quick strength boost and ensure that you won’t start burning off muscle mass at the same time.

Muscle Building Diet is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help

Simply slugging down huge amounts of low quality protein throughout the day will not help you build muscle mass. If you’re serious about achieving your muscle gain goals, you definitely need to be taking a look at the quality of the protein sources you’re consuming.

When it comes to supplemental whey protein isolate – the best muscle gain protein powder I’ve ever used is AST’s VP2. Not only is VP2 easy to mix and smooth going down the hatch, but it’s also predigested for faster nutrient uptake.  This makes it an ideal choice for a post workout nutrition boost. I’ve never had a bad experience using VP2 and I use it religiously as a staple in my supplemental post workout nutrition arsenal.

When it comes to naturally occurring whole food sources,  the best muscle gain protein can be found on nearly all lean cuts of meat including: beef, chicken, turkey, venison, bison, lamb, pork and cold water fish.  If you’re unsure about the protein content of a particular food source, grab a calorie counter and look up the nutritional profile of the protein source.  If you don’t want to buy a calorie counter, there are many free versions available online:

Here’s a link to my favorite free online calorie counter!

What ever you do,  make it a priority to eat enough of the best muscle building protien sources to fuel new muscle growth. Providing you’re eating a minimum of 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day and you’re making an effort to consume your protein from a varitey of natural and supplemental sources, chances are you’re doing more than enough to provide your body with the muscle building protein it needs to help you pack on some new muscle!

Read the full article and uncover the best muscle gain protein sources.

The Best Muscle Gain Protein is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help

In my experience, nothing is ever quite as good or bad as it seems.  Before assigning CLA supplements the top shelf billing in the muscle building supplement market, or relegating CLA supplements to the “worthless” category, you owe it to yourself to take a look at the studies and make your own informed decision regarding CLA.

Over the past 25 years, more than 600 CLA studies have been published highlighting the many ways CLA supplements can help to enhance the way your body looks as well as your health.

What Are CLA Supplements Supposed To Do?

Lets kick this off by explaining that traditionally, CLA supplements have not been presented as muscle building supplements, rather fat loss and weight loss supplements.  If you’re reading this blog to find out about the best muscle building supplements, CLA is definitely not in the same muscle building category that supplements like creatine monohydrate are in.  That said, there is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that CLA can help you shed excess body fat.

When it comes to decreasing body fat, CLA supplements safely work in four ways:

1.) They decrease the amount of fat stored after eating

2.) They Increase how fast fat is broken down in fat cells

3.) They Increase the rate of fat metabolism

4.) They Decrease the total number of fat cells in your body

While these benefits are not directly related to the muscle building process, I have never met a bodybuilder who wasn’t interested in burning more fat – naturally!

What Is CLA?

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a naturally-occurring polyunsaturated fatty acid – an essential fatty acid of the omega-6 family. The human body is unable to manufacture Linoleic Acid or CLA, so it must be obtained from dietary sources. Foods highest in CLA include milk, cheese, beef, and lamb as well as a lot of other processed foods.

Getting enough CLA from your diet for the preferred benefit would require considerable intake of potentially unhealthy foods. This is not only impractical, but would also have a seriously negative impact on your metabolism due to the high caloric penalty you would pay.

My Experiences With CLA Supplements…

Based on my experiences with CLA, I honestly can’t say that I noticed a dramatic impact in the amount of lean muscle mass that I gained, or a drastic reduction in body fat once I began taking CLA supplements regularly. I don’t believe that CLA is a supplement that will give you results that you’ll be able to instantly recognize.

I view taking CLA supplements as more of a healthy thing to do to ensure that I’m getting enough high quality essential fatty acids into my diet. In addition to CLA I regularly use an omega-3 essential fatty acid fish oil supplement and occasionally throw high quality flax seed oil into the mix (especially if I am cutting calories to burn fat). I really believe that if you can experience even one of the many benefits commonly associated with CLA supplements, taking them regularly is well worth the price!

==> More information on cla supplements.

CLA Supplements is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help

Regardless of…

• How Extensive Your Weight Training Workouts Are…
• How Many Muscle Building Supplements You Take…
• How Much Attention You Pay To Rest And Recovery…

To quote Bill Murray from Meatballs ”It just doesn’t matter”…If you neglect your diet for any length of time and think that you’ll somehow magically build muscle mass, you’re kidding yourself!

While most everyone understands that what they eat is important to the muscle building process, there seems to be a fair amount of confusion regarding exactly how to structure your bodybuilding diet for best results.

By now most people understand the basic (but very vague) bodybuilding nutrition principles like making sure to eat enough muscle building protein, loading up on complex carbs and drinking ample amounts of water. Sure these nutrition tips are great, but they do not explain the down and dirty secrets like…

• How Much Protein Do I Really Need To Eat Each Day?
• How Much Water Do I Need To Drink?
• How Much Fat Do I Need In My Diet & What Types of Fat Are Best?
• What Types of Carbohydrates Should I Focus On Eating?

If you’ve been trying to gain weight and build muscle mass…really getting after it in the gym, but haven’t had much success, you may want to review the bodybuilding nutrition basics discussed here. Then take a long hard look at your own muscle building nutrition habits.

Bodybuilding Nutrition Principles is a post from: Gain Muscle Mass Help