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When we think about muscle growth, we typically think about lifting heavy at the gym, but nutrition is just as, if not MORE important! If you are not paying attention to it, you will hold back your gains. While training clients over the years I have found common themes in the mistakes people make when it comes to eating for muscle growth, so I figured I would share them with you. Get ready to take some mental notes because if YOU are making these mistakes, you will not grow as much as you could!
1. Not Eating Enough
For you to grow muscle, you have to give your body the building blocks to support growth! I do not care how hard you work at the gym, if you are not eating enough calories; it is just not going to happen.
I know in the past I have talked about and disproven the myth that weight training will stunt your growth, but I want to make it VERY clear for the young people watching this video that it is actually lack of food that will affect your growth, not lifting!
My recommendation is to find out your BMR, which is the amount of calories your body needs just to maintain its normal functions, and consume 250 to 500 calories above your BMR. The mealplan section of MuscularStrength.com has a BMR calculator for those of you who need help with the calculation.
Now notice that I did not say: go eat everything in sight to fill your calories for the day! You have to eat above your maintenance calories but in a CONTROLLED MANNER and with the right ratio of protein, carbs and fat. The site calculator will give you a breakdown of those numbers as well. Remember guys, you do not want to gain too much fat because that will be detrimental to your muscle growth and you can check out the video below to see what gaining too much fat does to your muscle gains!
2. Not Eating Enough Fat!
This may surprise you, but fat is VERY important! Fats get a bad reputation, but they are not the bad guy if you are eating them in the right amounts! I have seen people on YouTube teaching their communities, for the most part, to almost completely cut fat from their diets and that is LUDICROUS! If anything should set off alarm bells in your brain about the advice someone is giving you, this is it!
Did you know that saturated fat promotes the transport of cholesterol into your testicles so it can be used to MAKE testosterone? Cholesterol is the main “ingredient” used to make testosterone and testosterone is key for muscle growth! If you cut fat too much from your diet, you are not only jeopardizing your gains in the gym but also your “manhood” in the bedroom!
Keep in mind that unsaturated or the so called “good fats” are very important for your overall health as well. The ideal ratio is to have 13% of your total calories come from good fats or unsaturated fats, like olive oil and salmon, and 7% of your total calories should be made up of saturated fats which I mostly get from coconut oil. Not too much or too little, you need to do it just right!
3. Not Eating Quality Foods
Sorry if this is bad news for you, but I am not a believer in eating junk food for gains. As much as ignorant people preach that a carbs is a carbs whether it came from cake or oatmeal, vitamins and minerals are critical for many of the processes that affect muscle growth! They affect things like nutrient absorption and hormone level regulation which includes one of the most critical hormones for gains, testosterone! Also, you are not going to find fiber, vitamins and minerals in junk food.
The other piece of information you should know is that processed foods, refined sugar and all those additives affect not only your testosterone levels, but totally throw off your endocrine system as well. For those of you who do not know, the endocrine system regulates your hormone levels and balanced hormones are key for building muscle and also losing fat!
I personally do not get lean just for the summer or for a specific purpose like a competition or photo shoot. I like to be lean all year round and get a lot of backlash for not being “huge” but I prefer to be proportional and aesthetic. I like to be able to step into a pool party in Vegas ANY TIME of the year and look awesome and have abs!
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