In order to build lean muscles and burn fat, you need to eat around 3 gms of protein per kilogram of body weight everyday, while reducing the carbohydrates intake. Building lean muscle mass include diet that is high in calories and revolve around healthy foods. The overall calorie, protein, carbohydrate and fat intake determines how much muscle you gain, rather than any particular food. So, it’s kind of difficult to mention foods that are categorically best.
Before going for any particular diet, determine your lean body weight? How’s that? Here’s how:
Take your weight and divide it by 100, eg 75kg/100=0.75
Subtract your body-fat percentage from 100, eg 100-15=85
Multiply these two values together to get your lean bodyweight, eg 0.75×85=63.75kg
You need 3 gms of protein per kg of lean body weight so multiply this by 3, eg 63.75×3=191g
However, these nutritional tips for building lean muscle mass may help you get in shape.
Pick Your Protein
At any time of the day, eggs are good muscle-building fare. Eggs have good quality protein, healthy fats and plenty of vitamins and minerals. However, for leaner muscle mass, picking up turkey rather than chicken breast is better option. Skinless turkey has 7gm of protein per ounce, so you can calculate how much quantity your lean body requires it. Another choice could be salmon—rich in omega 3 fatty acids and is potentially a better muscle-building protein than low fat fish.
Carbohydrates Quantity
How many carbs should you eat? Excess of carbs may not be the right way to go for gaining size and staying lean. But, before throwing away all your pasta, bread and rice and beans, remember that carbohydrates are the main source of fuel for our body. Not consuming enough will break your muscles down for amino acids which can convert into glucose.
When it comes to weight lifting alone, your carbohydrate requirement is going to be based on volume (sets x reps x weight) and intensity.
Get Your Fats
Nuts have high content of healthy mono-saturated fats and thus are extremely calorie-dense. You can extract some good amount of calorie content from a small serving of nuts. At 120 calories per tablespoon, olive oil is a surefire way to get in more muscle-building calories too. Fats are the source of 20 to 35 percent of calories for nutritional diet for building lean muscles.
Maintain your Glycemic Index
Lower GI foods are usually things like whole wheat bread, oatmeal, or any other fibrous. However, high GI foods includes those high in sugar—basically sodas, fruit juices, fat-free yogurt. Here, the concern is total carbohydrate intake which necessarily does not contain Glycemic Index. And, when you are on lean muscle diet, the spike in insulin will prevent weight loss and excess of sugar rush may cause you to “crash”.
Micro-nutrients:
Besides, diet rich in protein, carbs and fats, micro-nutrients are also important. Popular low-calorie diet puts you under the risk of nutrient deficiency. Don’t eat less food in order to lose weight, as it becomes hard for the body to cover up for basics. A multivitamin may help, eating fibrous vegetables, starchy foods and fruits provides the greatest benefit of overall muscle building.
So, buckle up and get prepared to get those abs.
