Eating to Build Muscle

When it comes to building muscle mass or “bulking”, nutrition is going to play a vital role not only in providing your body with adequate energy to push hard in your workouts, but to recover properly afterwards. After all, muscle is built by effectively damaging and tearing down the muscles, and rebuilding them again. As you can well imagine, this process alone is going to require a lot of fuel, so it’s going to require a caloric surplus – typically around 200-500 calories above your maintenance intake. The division of your macronutrients becomes a little more important here to make sure this phase of your diet is as effective as it can be.

Protein

First and foremost, protein is the most important macronutrient for building muscle due to the essential amino acids content, therefore it should be the highest priority of your macronutrients. These amino acids facilitate the building of new muscle (muscle protein synthesis) and prevent the body from using any existing muscle as fuel during workouts. For most people, hitting your daily protein requirements from whole foods is doable. However, when trying to build muscle or participating in sports, supplements including protein powders, and bars are a convenient way to increase the amount of quality protein you’re taking in each day.

 

Carbohydrates

Second, carbohydrates (carbs) are equally as important as protein during a muscle building phase for three reasons. Energy, recovery, and protein synthesis (protein absorbed and utilized by the body for muscle growth and repair). Carbs are going to be your main source of energy for your tough workouts, because to build muscle you’re going to have to train hard. After training hard, carbs are going to replenish your energy stores and work alongside protein to facilitate a higher amount of protein synthesis. 

 

Fats

Lastly, fats. Fats are typically not going to make up a large portion of your diet, but they remain important for maintaining hormonal function and a healthy immune system. With that being said, if you are someone who struggles to eat in a caloric surplus due to time constraints or even a lack of appetite, fats are going to be your best friend when it comes to hitting your daily caloric requirements. Why? Because they are very calorically dense, packing 9 calories per gram unlike protein and carbs each containing only 4 calories per gram.

 

Muscle building, for the most part, is relatively straightforward. It’s going to take time, consistency, patience, and effort; both in the kitchen and in the gym, and we haven’t even covered sleep yet! With that being said, there are multiple ways to approach your muscle building phase. Keep an eye out for our blog post on a clean bulk vs a dirty bulk for an in depth look at how these approaches differ!