DISCLAIMER: Some of this preceding information will be common knowledge, repeated from other stickies, and/or debatable. The purpose of this thread is to inform beginners about the world of dieting and exercise
Article 1: Build Muscle on a Budget: The 10 Cheapest Sources of Protein
Some of you are on a tight budget, still student, living in expensive cities or just frugal. These can make it hard to get the protein you need to build muscle. This post will help you — the 10 cheapest sources of protein to build muscle.
1. Canned Tuna. 40g protein/can. Buy tuna in spring water or brine. Don’t worry about the mercury: 1 can chunk light tuna per day is safe.
2. Whole Eggs. 7g protein/egg. Lower your body fat rather than throwing the yolk away if you have bad cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol isn’t bound to blood cholesterol, and the yolk contains half the protein and vitamins A/D/E.
3. Whey. 1 scoop ON whey is 24g protein/30g serving. At 2 scoops/day, a 10lbs bag will last an easy 2.5 - 3.5 months.
4. Ground Beef. 25g protein/100g. Buy 80% ground beef and rinse the fat if lean beef is too expensive.
5. Milk. 30g protein/liter milk. If you’re a skinny guy, want to gain weight fast and don’t bother gaining some fat, drink whole (aka - Homogenized). Don’t worry about the saturated fat.
6. Frozen Chicken Breast. 25g protein/100g. Cook the frozen chicken breast using a BBQ or Oven. Consume the chicken breast within 2 months of freezing for optimal tenderness & taste.
7. Cottage Cheese. 12g protein/100g. Cottage cheese is more expensive in Europe than in the US. Alternative = Quark cheese: 10g protein per 100g, cheaper than cottage cheese and a better taste.
8. Ground Turkey. 25g protein/100g. Expensive cuts are made from turkey breast. Cheaper cuts can contain skin, which increases the fat content. Rinse the fat like for ground beef using this method.
9. Canned Mackerel. 23g protein/100g. Canned mackerel is high in omega-3, contains less mercury than canned tuna, and tastes a lot better too.
10. Calves Liver. 20g protein/100g. Low fat and nutrient dense. Contrary to what you might believe, liver is safe.
Bonus Tips. Buy generic food. Buy in bulk to get discounts. Freeze everything. Get a job if you don’t have one. Increase your income if you do. Cut expenses.
Article 2: 10 Foods You Probably Think Are Healthy, But Aren’t
To build muscle & lose fat, 90% of your diet must consist of whole unprocessed foods. That’s anything that doesn’t come out of a box like meats, veggies, eggs, fruits, etc. Eating 6 meals/day leaves room for 4 junk meals per week.
You’re already doing that but not getting results? Maybe you’re not eating that healthy. Here are 10 foods you might think are healthy because they’re labeled as such, but which in reality are anything but healthy.
1. Breakfast Cereals. Cereals are labeled healthy & nutritive and recommended for weight loss. Read the labels: cereals are often high in sugar & salt and their vitamin/mineral content is chemical based.
2. Granola Bars. Granola bars consist of healthy oats & nuts. But they’re glued together with blood sugar raising ingredients like corn syrup. Some bars even contain chocolate chips, making them as bad as candy bars.
Healthy alternative: homemade protein bars.
3. Yogurt with Fruit at The Bottom. Fat free doesn’t mean healthy. Labels tell you they contain added sugars, corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. Same with fat free frozen yogurts which can contain 20g sugars per 1/2 cup.
Healthy alternative: plain unflavored yogurt mixed with fruit cut into pieces.
4. Bread. Convenient and tastes good, but not as healthy as you think. Whole grain or whole wheat means nothing. Dark bread can still contain corn syrup & trans-fats and eating too much bread will make you fat.
Healthy alternative: Ezekiel Bread, but lower your bread intake.
5. Sandwiches. Often labelled “fitness” or “light”, but containing sugar-laden salad dressings, little veggies & proteins and too much white bread. Freshness is questionable and you need the foot-long to fill your stomach.
Healthy alternative: make your own sandwiches.
6. Fruit Juice. Even 100% fruit juice has added sugars, usually fructose. Cans of fruit juice contain up to 38g sugar per 8oz. Excess fructose causes obesity, bad cholesterol, poor appetite control, etc.
Healthy alternative: home-made fruit juice or eat fruit.
7. Sport Drinks. Supposed to help you replenish electrolytes, carbs, etc. But it’s actually sugar water, with up to 30g sugar/serving. If you eat healthy and don’t drink 2 gallons water in 1 setting, you don’t risk water intoxication.
Healthy alternative: water during workout, protein + carbs post workout.
8. Fast Food Salads. Contain sugar-laden salad dressings, croutons made from refined white flour or white floor pasta. In many cases you’re better off ordering a double cheeseburger than a chicken salad.
Healthy alternative: make your own salads.
9. Frozen Meals. Nothing is wrong with frozen veggies/fruits. But a lot is wrong with frozen meals often labeled “light” or “healthy”. They’re processed, high in sugar, and come with sauces & sodium. Avoid.
Healthy alternative: cook all your meals for the day in the morning or evening.
10. Diet Soda. Contain artificial sweeteners like the controversial aspartame. Do your research and decide if you want to take the risk.
Article 3: Tips for Building Muscle
1. Get Stronger. More strength is more muscle. Get into strength training. I recommend weight training because it allows you to start light and add weight endlessly. Body-weight exercises work too. Start with an empty bar. Learn proper technique. Add weight each workout to keep pushing your body out of comfort zone.
2. Use Free Weights. You can lift the heaviest weights using barbells. More weight is more stress, thus more muscle. Dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but not for your main lifts. Stay away from machines.
* Safe. Machines force you into fixed, unnatural movement patterns which can cause injuries. Free weights replicate natural motions.
* Efficient. Free weights force you to control and balance the weight. This builds more muscle than machines, which balance the weight for you.
* Functional. Strength built on machines doesn’t transfer to free weights or real life. No machine balances the weight for you in real life.
* Versatile. You can do hundreds of exercises with just 1 barbell. Saves a lot of money and space, especially if you want to build a home gym.
3. Do Compound Exercises. Isolation exercises are okay once you’ve built base strength & muscle mass. But if you’re starting to build muscle, exercises that hit several muscles at the same time are better.
* No endless Biceps Curls -> Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Barbell Rows
* Also no Triceps Kickbacks -> Bench Press, Overhead Press, Dips
* And definitely no Leg Extensions -> Squats & Deadlifts
4. Train Your Legs. Squats work your whole body, they’re the most important exercise. You’ll look totally different once you can Squat 300lbs. That’s a free weight Squat with hips coming lower than knees.
All your muscles tense when doing Squats & Deadlifts. They work your body as 1 piece and let you lift heavy weights.
5. Do Full Body Workouts. Don’t do those muscle magazine workouts. Body part splits with isolation exercises is fine once you’ve built a foundation.
6 Get Recovery. Pro athletes workout 5-6 times per week. But they didn’t start that way. They added workouts as they got stronger & bigger. You’ll overtrain if you jump into their routines. As a beginner you need more recovery.
* Rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you workout. Start with 3 full body workouts per week and focus on intensity, not gym time.
* Sleep. Growth hormone releases when you sleep, building muscle. Aim for 8 hours sleep. Nap post workout if your lifestyle allows.
* Drink Water. Avoids dehydration and helps muscle recovery. Drink 2 cups water with each meal, and sip water during your workout.
* Eat. “Eat like a horse. Sleep like a baby. Grow like a weed”. Your training is useless if you don’t eat enough calories for recovery.
7. Eat Whole Foods. You’ll achieve a lower body fat, so the muscles you’ve built show better. And the vitamin & mineral content helps recovery. Stop eating food coming from a box. Eat whole foods 90% of the time.
* Proteins. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, …
* Carbs. Brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta, quinoa, …
* Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, tomato, salad, carrot, …
* Fruits. Banana, orange, apple, pineapple, peers, …
* Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, real butter, nuts, flax seeds, …
8. Eat More. Training is more important than diet for muscle building. But you do need to give your body the food it needs for optimal recovery. Most guys don’t eat enough, you got to eat more to build muscle.
* Eat Breakfast. Get calories from the first hour.
* Eat Post Workout. Get proteins and carbs post workout to help muscle recovery and replenish your energy stores.
* Eat Every 3 Hours. 6 meals/day. Gives your muscles a steady intake of protein, speeds up muscle repair & recovery, boosts your metabolism.
* Eat BW in lbs x 18kcal. Track your daily caloriey.
9. Gain Weight. You’ll never look muscular weighing 140lbs at 6″. No matter how much training you do.
* Eat Calorie Dense Foods. 100g raw spinach is 25kcals. But 100g raw rice is 380kcals.
* Get Stronger. Muscle size is directly related with strength gains. You got to get stronger to build muscle.
* Drink Whole Milk. If you don’t bother gaining some fat.
10. Get Protein. Proteins have the highest thermic effect. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight daily to build & maintain muscle. That’s 160g of daily protein if you weigh 160lbs/72kg. Eat whole proteins with each meal.
* Red Meat. Ground round, steaks, deer, buffalo, …
* Poultry. Chicken breast, whole chicken, turkey, duck, …
* Fish. Tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, …
* Eggs. Eat the yolk, it’s full of vitamins.
* Dairy. Milk, cottage cheese, quark cheese, yogurt, whey, …
Persist. Get stronger, track progress and persist until you’ve built the muscles you want.
Article 4: 10 Nutrition Rules For Beginners: Never Ignore The Importance Diet Plays In Achieving A Great Physique
With the dedication and effort required to stay muscular and lean, the last thing you need is for the details to be overly confusing. Take your diet, for example. We could go on and on about fat-soluble vs. water-soluble vitamins, the different types of saccharides and all the intricacies of gluconeogenesis, but what would be the point? It would just complicate the matter and get you no closer to the body you want. So let’s break it down to the nuts and bolts, to just the vital information you really need to build more muscle and become leaner than ever before.
The key is a series of rules, a list we call the 10 Nutrition Rules for Beginners. Follow all 10 and not only will you not be bogged down with scientific jargon but you’ll also be well on your way to a bigger upper body, better abs and a massive set of wheels. How’s that for simple?
#1 Have A Meal Every 3 Hours
Mass-building boils down to nutrient delivery, and nothing beats eating every 2-3 hours, which works out to 6-8 meals a day. Frequent feedings ensure a constant influx of protein, carbohydrates and essential fatty acids required to maintain an anabolic state. Following the three-hour rule, you should eat at least the same amount and up to twice as many carbohydrates as protein at most meals, along with a smaller amount of healthy fats at most meals (more on specific macronutrient intake in later rules). Because you’re eating every three hours, don’t overstuff yourself; keeping each meal relatively small enhances nutrient absorption while simultaneously allowing you to sidestep gains in bodyfat.
“Eating smaller, more frequent meals creates an environment inside the body in which blood sugar levels don’t elevate and drop as drastically as when you eat fewer larger meals,” says Justin Harris, NPC amateur bodybuilder and nutrition consultant (troponinnutrition.com). “Elevated blood sugar levels cause the body to increase insulin production in an attempt to store that sugar for later.
When insulin is present, fat-burning is blunted. Lowered insulin levels and steady blood amino acid levels (a product of eating relatively small, frequent meals throughout the day) help fight against this situation.”
#2 Load Up On Protein
A meal should never go by without a sufficient amount of protein being consumed. To maximize muscle-building, you’ll need to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. (This means 200 grams of protein daily for a 200-pound person.) In order to provide your muscles with a continuous influx of amino acids the building blocks of protein throughout the day, you’ll divide your daily protein by the number of meals you consume. For example, if you eat six meals per day, 200 grams of protein divided by six meals would mean at least 30-40 grams of protein per meal.
Your main protein sources should be lean animal sources, such as chicken, beef, turkey, fish, eggs and dairy (more on red meat and fish in later rules), and, as with your training regimen, variety is crucial.
Sticking to the same one or two protein sources each day may not be as effective as mixing it up and including the widest array of protein sources available. “There’s a phenomenon in the body called the all or nothing principle, in which all amino acids must be available for proper utilization of digested protein,” Harris says. “Many proteins can be made by the body; those that cannot are called essential amino acids and must be derived from nutritional sources. You’ll need to mix various sources of protein to ensure that all essential amino acids are consumed.”
#3 Hydrate Yourself
The importance of drinking plenty of liquids goes beyond the obvious benefits of staying hydrated; at a much deeper level, it’s all about pushing more water into muscle cells. The more water that’s inside muscles, the better they’ll function and the greater their strength and size capacity. “The consensus in the bodybuilding community is that high water storage within muscles helps act as an anabolic factor,” says Chris Aceto, nutrition consultant to Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler and author of Championship Bodybuilding and Everything You Need to Know About Fat Loss (available at nutramedia.com). “This allows the muscles to maintain a positive nitrogen balance, which directly impacts muscle growth.”
And if you’re supplementing creatine, glutamine and BCAAs, your muscles will have a greater capacity to store water, because when muscle cells are stocked with these nutrients, more water is actually drawn into the muscles. Consume at least 1 gallon of water every day, and drink around 8 ounces of water every 15-20 minutes during training.
#4 Carb Up The Right Way
When it comes to carbs, too few can shortchange your gains in mass and too many can transform you into a bulked-up softie. A good rule of thumb is to consume 2-3 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body-weight per day when trying to add mass. And as with protein, you’ll want to divide this between however many meals you eat daily, with the exception of two times during the day: breakfast and your postworkout meal.
“Breakfast and the postworkout meal are also vital in aiding muscle growth because the higher carb content boosts one of the anabolic hormones responsible for driving nutrients into muscles, thereby producing a favorable hormonal environment that kick-starts recovery.” At most meals (pre- and postworkout notwithstanding, as you’ll learn in rule No. 7), you should consume slow-digesting carbs such as wholegrain breads and pastas, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables, rather than fast-digesting sources such as white breads and sweets. The former help build muscle and provide sustained energy.
#5 Eat Red Meat
Steaks and beef patties often scare people off because of the high fat content found in many cuts. But when you’re looking to build muscle, shunning red meat is the last thing you want to do: It’s high in B vitamins, including [B.sub.12], which supports muscular endurance and growth, and yields, gram for gram, more iron, creatine and zinc than any other source of protein. These nutrients play important roles in muscle recovery and growth, so if you’re sticking with chicken, turkey and protein powder, you’ll likely fall short of your hypertrophy goals. “Red meat is a great slow-digesting source of protein that can aid in nitrogen retention and sustained elevation of amino acids in the blood,” says Alan Aragon, MS, CSCS, a private-practice nutrition counselor in Thousand Oaks, California (alanaragon.com). “Red meat can be used for all seasons, not just mass phases.”
When choosing an appropriate type of red meat, select primarily leaner cuts such as ground round and sirloin, looking for meat that’s at least 93% lean.
#6 Eat Fish
A lot of bodybuilders seem to live on fowl and low-fat beef, but salmon, trout, bluefish and tuna offer advantages other sources of protein can’t namely, they’re sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which can indirectly make you leaner and bigger. Omega-3s help the body make glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrates that gets socked away in muscle tissue. Glycogen is the main source of energy for training and, generally speaking, adequate levels are a marker for muscle growth and repair. Omega-3s also fight muscle inflammation in the body and spare the loss of glutamine, a vital amino acid that plays a backup role in the muscle recovery process by boosting the immune system. You don’t have to go overboard, but including fish in your diet a few days a week will go a long way toward promoting lean muscle gains. All in all, don’t be afraid of fat 20%-30% of your daily calories should consist of healthy dietary fat.
“Fish is an excellent source of protein, with an amino acid profile very beneficial to enhancing muscle growth,” Harris says. “Omega-3s can increase the insulin sensitivity of the tissues, creating an environment in which less insulin is necessary to shuttle nutrients around the body, which benefits you getting leaner.”
#7 Protect Muscle Mass With Pre- And Post-Workout Meals
The catch-22 with training is that stress hormones, namely cortisol, can run amok and blunt muscle-building to the point that getting back on track is not as simple as following the basic rules. The solution? Eating and supplementing with the right foods in the pre- and post-training meals. This is where whey protein is essential it gets into the blood faster than any other source of protein, providing amino acids that muscles harness for growth and interfere with cortisol uptake. A slower-absorbing protein such as casein takes longer to combat cortisol levels.
Throw in some fast-acting carbs those that digest quickly such as Gatorade, fat-free Pop-Tarts, cream of rice cereal mixed with jam or a toasted bagel and you benefit further. These carbs, when combined with whey protein, are extremely effective at almost immediately halting muscle breakdown. According to Aragon, “sandwiching” your workout with protein and carbs causes greater protein synthesis and inhibits muscle protein breakdown.
Consume at least 20 grams of whey protein before and 40 grams after training, a slow-digesting carbohydrate (refer to rule No. 4 for the best sources) 30 minutes before training and a fast-digesting carb Immediately afterward, along with your whey.
As for dietary fat, pre- and postworkout are the two times of day when you want to forgo eating foods high in fat. They’ll slow the absorption of protein and carbs, which will delay the muscle recovery process.
#8 Schedule A “GET BIG” Day
While eating a sound diet by implementing the steps above is the foundation for growth, taking one out of every 7-10 days and eating far above and beyond your typical dally food intake increasing protein, carbohydrate and overall calorie intake can trigger new muscle growth by driving up your body’s levels of growth hormones. Some people call this a “cheat day.” When you occasionally overeat, the body responds by increasing the release of naturally occurring growth agents, such as growth hormone, insulinlike growth factor-1, thyroid hormone and possibly testosterone. Since even a small boost in one or all of these can impact recovery and muscle growth, it makes sense to harness them, and temporarily eating “really big” can do just that.
“Eating relatively clean all the time can lead to boredom and compromised adherence to a bodybuilding diet,” Aragon says. “Periodic spikes in calorie consumption are a great way to achieve a net caloric surplus that can speed muscular growth and strength. To avoid large gains in bodyfat, make sure ‘once every 7-10 days’ doesn’t turn into cheating on most days.”
#9 Supplement The Big Three
As you become more advanced in your training and nutrition knowledge, try a variety of supplements to help improve strength, size, energy, fat loss and overall health. But for now, just stick to the basics: creatine, glutamine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), three of the most effective and affordable supplements on the market. Creatine has been shown in numerous studies to boost muscle power, strength and size; glutamine is a key amino acid in preventing muscle breakdown and boosting the immune system; and BCAAs also thwart muscle wasting and delay the onset of fatigue during training.
Take these dosages both before and after working out: 3-5 grams of creatine, 5-10 grams of glutamine and 5-10 grams of BCAAs. Adding these supps to a diet full of protein and complex carbs will ensure that you reap all the benefits from your training.
#10 Don’t Fear Late Night Feeding
In the 7-9 hours you sleep every night, your body is more or less in a fasting state, taking aminos from your muscles to fuel your brain in the absence of food not an ideal situation if your goal is to pack on muscle. However, you can offset this by eating right before you turn in for the night. The key is eating a slow-digesting protein source along with a moderate amount of fat so amino acids feed your muscles gradually throughout the night. At bedtime, consume approximately 30 grams of casein protein or 1 cup of low-fat cottage cheese along with 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter, an ounce of walnuts or mixed nuts, or 2-3 tablespoons of flaxseed oil. Casein is a slow-digesting protein (as is cottage cheese) that comes in powder form, and the healthy fats found in peanut butter, nuts and flaxseed (almost exclusively unsaturated, by the way) will help slow the absorption of protein even further.
Aceto also recommends consuming protein, and even carbs, in the middle of the night if you happen to get up to use the bathroom. “That’s the perfect time to have a shake,” he says. “If gaining bodyfat is no issue, have 50 grams of protein mixed with 50 grams of liquid carbs such as a meal replacement shake that contains both protein and carbs, or mix the protein in fruit juice. If you’re struggling to control bodyfat, though, skip the carbs. This round-the-clock nutrient delivery will keep the body in an anabolic state.”
Author: Joe Wuebben
Originally Posted by gbrice75
