Muscle Building Foods

What are the best muscle building foods when you have no time to spare and want to start packing on lean muscle mass right away? The good news is that this is more than an article about whey protein, shakes and power bars. All of those have their place, but they don't fill out a complete diet by themselves. There are plenty of healthy options available to you that not only will help you gain muscle mass but will taste great and leave you craving free from other, less healthy snacks and treats.

Why is Protein So Important?

Why is protein intake such an important element when you want to build muscle? Simply put, proteins are the building blocks of the actual muscle fibers and muscle cells in your body. Your body needs protein and the building blocks of protein, called amino acids (which in turn have their own building blocks, elements such as nitrogen) in order to repair muscle damage and grow larger muscles in return. This is known in bodybuilding circles as maintaining a positive nitrogen balance and an anabolic environment.

When your diet is short on protein your body won't have all of the tools it needs to complete the job of repairing muscle. In fact, not only will your body fail to build new muscle, it will start cannibalizing existing muscle to feed itself! Obviously this is not a situation you want to find yourself in if you're trying to gain muscle mass.

Lean Protein for Lean Muscle

This might some obvious to some, but many people fail to get enough lean protein into their diets when they want to build muscle. Think about it, if you want to build lean muscle, shouldn't you be eating plenty of lean protein? Of course! Your goal needs to be to eat a minimum of 1 gram of protein per your ideal body weight. If you want to bulk up to 225 pounds, eat no less than 225 grams of protein each and every day.

So which lean proteins make up the best muscle building foods? In truth, all of them are equally great, and each provide different minerals and other essential elements. That means you shouldn't find one and stick with it, but you should incorporate all of them into your diet. Lean proteins include turkey, chicken, salmon, tuna and other fish, lean beef and so on.

Incorporating Carbs & Fats

Just because you are building muscle doesn’t mean that you are avoiding all forms of carbs and fat. Actually, they are the two other main components (called macronutrients) of a diet and are essential as well. The key is to picking the right foods and maintaining a proper balance of muscle building foods in your diet.

Choosing the Right Carbs

One reason that carbs are so important is that they are your short term energy supply. You need them to operate your daily functions, including going to the gym and giving it your all. Additionally, the body healthy fiber found in foods such as beans is actually in the carbohydrate family.

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