The ultimate guide to muscle gain!

First thing first, understand this, there’s nothing like a bodybuilding diet, it’s always common sense nutrition and your daily calorie target as simple as that, you can follow any diet that you like, keto, paleo, low-carb, high-carb, falana-dhimkana, etc. As long as you suffice your protein intake and your calorie targets. You’re fine.

This is my attempt to give you a master reference to build muscles. (Nutrition per se)

When building muscles, it’s not only your workout that counts, but the amount of sleep you get and the food you eat. It’s a complete package, align these three together and you’ll see results like never before.

To be safe, aim for 7–8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, recommended by AASM.

How much to eat?

On the days that you workout, eat more than your TDEE, if you don’t know what your TDEE is refer to this link, and the days on which you are not able to workout eat on your maintenance calories or a little surplus, so that you don’t lose existing muscle mass. It’s important that you keep the macros as stated in the aforementioned link.

If you’re confused about how many more calories you should eat beyond your TDEE, say your TDEE is 2000, if you increase it by 400–500, then along with muscle gains you’ll be accumulating fat too, which you’re planning on losing someday. So, when you’re planning on building muscle, keep the increase to 150–250 (i.e 2150-2250), keep checking your progress and play with it accordingly, there’s nothing like a rigid parameter to this.

To reach your daily calorie target for muscle building it’s important that you make a reliable meal plan which contains your favourite foods and food items which are rich in nutrients so that you get all the required vitamins and minerals from you daily diet and don’t have to rely on supplements.

Follow these steps:

1. Make a list of all food items that you enjoy eating. (Just so that you don’t abuse this step, I’ll suggest limiting it to 5 items)
2. Some items recommended by me:

100g Oats — 380kcal (Great choice for breakfast)

100g Rice — 360kcal (good choice if you enjoy eating rice, good source of carbs and fibre)

100g Egg whites — 52kcal (Perfect source of protein)

Vegetables — Spinach, potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, soya chunks, lentils, rajma etc. (Cooked in any vegetable oil/ghee)

Fruits — Bananas, apples, kiwis, strawberries, guavas, etc.

For dietary fiber — cucumber, onions, radish, carrots, cabbage etc.

Chapatis are a good source of carbs and protein, that would go along with the vegetables.

Source — Healthline

3. Now, say your TDEE is 1800 and to build some muscle you decide to eat 2000kcals, now to completely suffice your calorie target you can either get all calories from junk food; Your favourite food items which taste great but aren’t rich in nutrients and minerals or you can eat everything that’s necessary for your body, green vegetables, optimum protein intake, fibres etc. You will gain muscle and weight because you’re eating in surplus.

Things to remember:

1. Stick to breakfast, lunch, snack (optional), dinner.
2. You do not need to enter into a bulk phase and eat like a maniac to grow muscles, as long as you’re on a slight surplus, you’re fine.
3. There’s only one reason someone accumulates more fat while gaining muscles, they are unaware of the calories they intake so due to the fear of being on a deficit, they end up eating more.
4. You do not need to eat high GI foods (High GI foods are junky starches and sugars like candy, dessert, pasta, bread, chips) They contribute to inflammation and fat gain.
5. You can consume whey to suffice your daily protein intake, it’s the safest and most researched supplement out there, but if you can fulfil your requirement of protein intake from your daily diet, you don’t need it.

You are not hungry? Try this:

1. Drink your calories -Make smoothies, shakes, or you can even mix some glucose in water and drink it (add some lemon for better taste)
2. Calorie dense foods -Peanut butter, dates, dry fruits, banana/potato chips, you can look for more from trusted sources. (Don’t blindly google and follow)
3. Don’t skip your meals. (Nothing can replace a good meal)

I Hope this helps. Thank you for your time.

~aniketium

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