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Shortcuts to packing on new muscle mass and getting ripped to the bone are frequently peddled on late-night TV, but sadly, these feats cannot be accomplished with quick fixes or next-day miracles.
You can, however, implement certain dietary practices that, over time, will guarantee your investment in fitness. Yes, getting in your best shape ever requires hard work in the gym, but without the proper nutrition to fuel your gains, you’re dead in the water. Feeding your body the right way is just a matter of repetition learning and developing the kinds of dietary habits that leave your body with no choice but to respond with cover model-worthy size, strength and detail.
By applying these 6 strategies to your diet, you’ll find that things really do fall into place automatically, even if they don’t happen overnight. Adding new muscle to your frame is an admirable pursuit, but no matter how much weight you lift in the gym, you’ll never obtain that tight, shredded look you covet without chipping away at your bodyfat stores.
Many people mistakenly think that losing fat is simply a matter of exercising more and eating less, yet you can’t afford to arbitrarily hack calories and run until it hurts. It’s about striking a balance. These tips will help you get lean without losing hard-earned muscle.
Use BCAAs to Preserve Muscle
To help prevent catabolism, take 5-10 grams of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) with breakfast as well as before and after training. Ingested preworkout, BCAAs are used by the body as a substitute fuel source so it doesn’t tap into stored muscle protein to get through a session. Also, when you’re going low-carb, BCAAs can better trigger protein synthesis.
Always Feed the Machine
Prolonged low-cal diets end up impairing your metabolism over time. One way to get around these inevitable slowdowns is to eat constantly in small quantities. Consuming multiple small meals each day eating every 1 1/2-2 hours stimulates thermogenesis, which supports metabolism.
While dieting is about restriction, doing so while eating as often as possible allows your body to roll right through potential metabolic slowdowns.
Use Arginine
Taking 3-10 grams of this amino acid an hour before training increases blood flow to the muscles, boosting metabolism and enhancing your pump. It also magnifies the natural growth hormone (GH) burst associated with training, which amps muscle growth and steers the body toward using fat for fuel instead of muscle protein and glycogen.
Add Glutamine and Taurine
These two aminos help maintain your body’s anabolic environment while dieting. When you reduce calories and carbs, cortisol levels often rise. Glutamine interferes with cortisol uptake, staving off protein loss and muscle breakdown. Taken postworkout with fast-digesting carbs, glutamine also assists in recovery by pulling water into muscle cells; it has been found to significantly boost metabolic rate as well.
Another crucial amino acid, taurine enhances water retention within muscles, giving them a greater anabolic edge. Take 5-10 grams of glutamine and 1-3 grams of taurine pre- and post-workout to continue dropping bodyfat.
Stop the Low-Fat/Fat-Free Approach
Strict low-fat diets are for getting lean. When gaining mass, make sure you include olive oil, avocado and whole eggs in your diet, as well as lower-fat not fat-free yogurt, milk and cheese. These types of dietary fats drive growth and recovery. Fat also spares the use of protein as an energy source, meaning the protein you eat is directed to its most crucial role building mass. Fat also supports the natural production of testosterone and GH, two major players in the mass game. Make sure your daily calorie intake is about 30% of calories from fat, mostly from healthy sources such as egg yolks, fatty fish, nuts and seeds.
Make Protein Powder work for you
Protein is nutrient No. 1 when it comes to building mass. To maximize your protein intake, make at least two of your 5-6 daily meals a protein shake. Powders are more readily absorbed than tougher proteins such as meat and poultry, and you can generally control your portion down to the gram. The two most critical times to have protein shakes are right before (20 grams) and after (40-60 grams) workouts.
