Most people do not realize how much food it takes to add muscle mass. If you are a young male this holds very true. It is very difficult to get enough nutrients in your body to recover from workouts. Here is a little formula to determine how many calories you need to consume in order to grow. Take your body weight (in pounds), and divide that by 2.2 to get your weight in kg's. EX. 165 pounds/ 2.2 = 75 kg. Now take your weight in kg and times that by your body fat percentage. EX. 75 * 12% = 65 kg. That is your fat free body mass. Take this number and times it by 22 and add 500. EX. 65*22+500= 1930 That is what your resting metabolism rate is. So in the example I would burn 1930 calories/day by doing nothing but sleeping. The next thing that you need to do is to add in your energy expenditure for the day. This will be based on your daily activities, NOT including exercise. Find your number below. 20% very low activity level 30% moderate activity level 40% fairly active level 50% active 60% very active 70% extremly active day (EX construction worker) Since I'm a college student and have to walk from my house to classes and am invoved in some fairly active classes I will go with a 50% So now take your number and times it by your activity percentage. My example would be 1930*50%=965 Now add this number back into your RMR EX. 1930+ 965= 2895 The next step is to add in the thermic effect of food. This is dependant on the type of food you eat. If your diet is rich in protein your thermic effect of food will be higher than a high carb or fat diet. If your diet is on the high protein side ther thermic effect can be up to 10%-15%, diets higher in carbs and fat will be down around 5%. Since my diet is higher in protein and I eat frequent meals I will use 12% for mine. EX. 1930 *12%=231.6 Add that number to the total EX. 2895+232= 3127 Looks like a lot of calories right? Well we're not done just yet the final step is to add in your exercise expenditure. For this you need to take the amount of calories burned durring the workout and add the number to your total. Since I weight train for about 45 minutes this would account to about 250 calories burned. I do more powerlifting so if your rest periods are short your number will be higher. So now my grand total is 3127+250= 3377 calories per day. So in order to have any chance of adding muscle I need to consume at least 3377 calories per day.
Protein is the building blocks of your muscles. In order for your muscles to grow they NEED protein. This is why protein drinks and meal replacements are such big hits. After a hard workout your muscles will use up protein to rebuild. Protein is broken down into Amino Acids and then used by the muscles. I can't say a whole lot more except that if you want to build muscle you better take in your protein.
Here it is! If you take in more carbs than you burn you will put on weight. If you burn more carbs than you take in, you will lose weight. When you workout you are going to use carbs. This is why it is good to take in a lot of carbs right after you workout.
I am going to give you a list of foods that you could eat. Do not
try to eat all of these in one day.
Breakfast--
-Eggs- (the whites are loaded with protein) Eat them however you like. Remember that the yolk has a lot of fat and
cholesterol.
-Bagels- These are good for taking in a lot of carbs. I
think that the average bagel has about 40 grams of Carbs. Don't load
on the butter. Jelly is okay because it has more carbs too.
-Milk- Drink a glass or two of milk with your breakfast.
One cup of skim milk has 9 grams of protein. 1% and 2% aren't as
good because they only have 8 grams of protein and a lot more fat.
-Cereals- Most cereals are okay to eat. I mean the
healthy ones, not the Sugar Pops or Lucky Charms (even though they are
the best cereal to eat-- Oh well)
Lunch--
-Sandwichs- Chicken is loaded with protein. Roast beef
is also a good meat. If you eat peanut butter and jelly that is okay, but remember that peanut butter has a lot of protein but also a lot of fat too. Turkey and other meats are good. You will have to look for the nutrition values by yourself.
-Juices- Juices are good because they have a lot of carbs.
I prefer to drink grape juice because that has the most carbs.
Dinner--
-Fish- Fish is in my opinion the best food you can eat.
Not only is fish loaded with protein, but it also has the good type
of fat. This fat is known as Omaga 3 fatty acids. If you have seen
how the Asians are very thin, that is because they eat a lot
of fish.
-Pasta- Pasta is loaded with carbs. One serving of pasta
has around 42 grams of carbs.
-Chicken- Chicken breasts are also great to eat. They have
a lot of protein. Do not eat the skin!!! Skin has 11 grams of fat per 1 OUNCE.