I am pretty sure; you would be waiting to ask me this question from so long. However, tell me, do you really think it is that easy to gain muscle? I would say it is easy if you follow the right technique and give appropriate time.
Being a nutritionist, for me food is on top most priority, I think food plays a major role to gain muscle mass. If you exercise three hours a day and don’t eat a healthy well balanced diet, then there are high chances of you to lose your muscle. To be very frank with you, there is no rocket science behind muscle building. It only needs a perfect blend of proper nutrition and exercise design. I have often noticed that some weight trainers often overlook the food aspect which hampers the health of their client.
Each one of you whether male or female, require to increase your muscle to stay healthy. However, the structure of the male and the female body is different and hence the percentage of muscle in a sedentary male will always be more than a female.
You need to follow a healthy lifestyle pattern, if you need to increase your muscles and maintain a good physique.
So let us finally see how to gain muscle in a healthy manner.
How To Gain Muscle Fast?
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Equal Division of Meals
In earlier days my mom used to tell me “Don’t keep on eating again and again you might become fat, you should only eat three times a day”
However, after practicing this field of nutrition for 5 years, I got to know so many new things. You should eat small frequent meals so that your body will not store the food as fat, and also your metabolism will increase.
If you will eat a large portion at one time then there are high chances of you to gain more fat or fast way to gain muscle. Hence it is important to divide your meal size.
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Importance of Protein
One day at my clinic, Mrs Mehta came and said, “As you told me to eat every two hours I am eating similarly but when I checked my body composition analysis my muscle percentage has gone down”
I asked her “what did you eat in mid morning and mid evening meals”
She said “1 cup oats in the mid morning and 1 plate of bhel in the evening”
She was having quite healthy snacks than what was wrong in her diet?
She was missing protein in her mid morning and mid evening snack. If you want to increase muscle, it is very important to include protein in every meal. There are many ways to gain muscle fast. Your meals can only be protein at times but should not lack in protein.
Diet for mass gain of muscles
Few egs. of mid morning snack
- A glass of buttermilk
- A fruit with handful of roasted chana
- A fruit with 4-8 almonds/walnuts
- A glass of coconut water with a fruit
- ½ cup curd with cut fruits
- A glass of milk shake
- A glass of dry fruit shake
Few egs. of mid evening snack
- A bowl of sprouts
- 1 cup chole chat
- 1 bowl soup with added paneer pieces
- 4-5 egg whites boiled
- 4-8 pieces of paneer tikka
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Importance Of Carbohydrates
When I am in my gym I often hear people talking about diet. One incident was as follow,
“Sunny you have lost 10 kg of weight in a month’s time, how did you do so?
“Rocky, nothing I just removed this stupid carbohydrates out of my diet completely”
“Really? Don’t you feel hungry?
“If I feel hungry than I eat fruits more”
So are you aware which all foods come under carbohydrates?
You will say I know few but not all, right?
Come let us quickly glance through on carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates: Simple (Bad) and Complex (Good)
What are simple carbohydrates?
Due to less amount of fiber content simple carbohydrate is also called as bad carbohydrates. As you must be aware carbohydrate is ultimately converted into sugar, if the fibre is less, the conversion rate is much faster and you gain weight and muscle. The excess sugar which gets stored in the form of fat and, therefore, the weight increases and muscle decreases.
Foods which have simple carbohydrates are
- Cold drinks
- Fruit Juice
- White sugar
- White flour
- Cakes, pastries
- Pizza bread
- Pasta
The list will go on and on as all the junk food comes under this category. If you are serious to maintain good health and body then, you need to avoid such carbohydrates.
What are complex carbohydrates?
Complex carbohydrates are the one that has more amount of fiber and, therefore, their conversion to sugar is slow. Also, complex carbohydrate increases your satiety level and increase muscle mass. Complex carbohydrates are very healthy to have as they are full of fiber.
Food which are rich in complex carbohydrate:
- Fruits
• Vegetables
• Multi-grain flour
• Nuts
• Whole grains
• Almonds
• Walnuts
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Pre and Post Workout Meal
I am sure you might be aware of the importance of pre and post workout meals. These are the healthy way to gain muscle.
So let us take a tour on workout time foods.
Pre Workout Healthy Foods
- Banana
- Apple
- Milkshake
- Almonds shake
- Oatmeal
Pre workout meal is as you know important so that you are having enough amount of energy to do workouts. Hence complex carbohydrate is the ideal meal to consume.
Post Workout Healthy Foods
- Whey protein powder
- Eggs
- Sprouts
- Milk
- Buttermilk
During the workout, you breakdown lots of muscle and, therefore, to repair your muscle regeneration protein is required, and post workout meal should be rich in protein that will not only help you to recover but also will help to gain weight and muscle faster.
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Skipping Your Meals
Many a times it happens you eat a heavy breakfast and do not feel hungry during lunch hours .You tend to skip your lunch thinking you will balance your extra calories. That is the biggest mistake which you do. Even if you are not that hungry you should have some food that is rich in protein accompanying with salad so that the body will not store the next meal as fat.
This topic is so vast which I am unable to cover in one article. I know you are expecting me to guide you on exercises as well.
I promise you my next article will be on the same, till then try to follow all the advices given above and get back to me with lots of comments and queries on how to gain muscle mass.
Note: To increase your muscle as I said protein is very important. You should take whey protein powder 2 scoops daily with a glass of skimmed milk and also a tablet of multivitamin and minerals.
Photo Courtesy: healthxwellness.com
Great article,but my prblm is i dnt feel so hungry as required.1st f all dr is no reqirmnt f brkfast by my side ,nd if i takes tn lunch would be taken at evening nd so on….So plz suggest me
Hi abhishek, See try and understand that our stomach is very flexible and the amount of food we will provide it will stay with it, once yu start eating every hourly you stomach will increase the capacity and automatically you will feel hungry.
You need to have breakfast as an compulsion, initialy you might feel I am stuffing but then after 3-4 days you will start getting hungry.
You can include foods like banana, almonds, roasted chana+ jaggery, peanuts, milk, lassi as your hourly snack, Start eating 2-3 pc jaggery after three major meals.
Hey,
As you mentioned that whey protein is important as a post work out. so can you please suggest a cheap and best whey protein.
Dear sid,
I will not recommend you to go for any cheap whey protein as they might not give any result.
I am sending you the link wherein you can purchase the whey protein
http://www.inlifehealthcare.com/shop/whey-protein-2lb/
Excellent Article ..
Dividing the meals through out the day ..rather than jus 3 , is the most important thing i hav learnt when it comes to health and fitness
Thanks for the article
Hi Mohammad,
You are very right that diving the meals do help.It increases your metabolic rate and also controls your appetite.
excellent article…already started implementing the diet…
Thanks savio for liking my article.Do share your experience with me.
Hello Mukta mam,
Yeah, this was the article I was waiting for. Yes as rightly said by you gaining good muscle and physique needs a healthy lifestyle pattern.
This Good and Bad carbohydrates is a real concern. You differentiated it very well and this will be a real help.
My pre and post meal is much similar as mentioned by you in the article and same pattern is followed by me for last few months, but my only concen is that still i am gaining some belly fat which is so irritaing for me. And as my job demands travelling, Any suggestion on keeping them at bay during working office hours without compromising on muscle loss ??
Please do follow following tips to reduce it.
• Do not keep long hours between your meals.
• Do make your meal as only salad, it should have some amount of protein
• Do not incorporate more amount of carbohydrate in dinner time.
• Have a cup of milk at bed time.
• Do not sit for long hours keep moving.
• Check the position while standing; it should be in erect position.
• When sitting on a chair or driving your back should be in erect position.
• Do crunches on abs little more as compare to other exercise.
• Check you fat intake because some protein like chicken, mutton is also high in fat.
• Check you alcohol intake as well, bear too causes fat belly.
As you said your job is travelling you should carry healthy food items always with you like roasted chana, almonds, buttermilk, curd, sunflower seeds, walnuts, soy nuts, peanut, khakras.
Great post, I’m looking forward to start working on my diet and some muscle building. Looking to develop healthy habit. Already got a muscle building strategy from how to get ripped hq and diet from you. Time to get busy!
Thanks Jim for appreciating the post,Firstly best of luck for starting healthy lifestyle.I will be waiting for you updates.Please let me know if you require any help.