How to Safely Gain Muscle Through Means of Simple Nutrition

Whoever told you to stuff your face to gain muscle was wrong! Moreover, I bet they never told you how to maintain a balanced diet in an effective manner. After reading this, it will all become clear, simple, and concise. I will tell you the steps to gain muscle, but here are a couple things to take into consideration:

· How much muscle do you want to gain in a year?

· Do you know what your daily caloric intake is?

· Do you know how many calories is in a pound of human muscle/fat tissue?

I'm leading you on because I know the simple solution. However, I want you to get thinking how much we all have been mislead on gaining muscle or loosing wieght! So first step is that you would want to figure out what your daily caloric intake is or BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). BMR is basically the amount of calories you're body needs to consume for your basic body vital functions. Here is how you calculate:

1. Take your body weight and add a zero at the end (ex. 140 = 1400)

2. Next take that number, and add it to twice your body weight (ex. 1400 + (2x140) = 1680)

Now this number is based on only your bodily function, not outside exerted physical activity. According to www.livestrong.com, RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) suggest the average caloric intake is 3000 calories for men, and 2400 calories for women considering an active daily lifestyle. Remember, this calculated BMR number is based of your bodily vital function. However, this will give you an idea of how much you should and need to be eating daily if you are not on a weight training workout. Here is where I am going to drop some knowledge so you can understand the ease in gaining muscle:

· One pound of fat contains 3500 calories

· One pound of muscle contains 600 calories

Here is a round figure of the caloric content that makes fat and muscle:

· FAT: Water 15%, Protein 12%, Lipids 70%, Inorganic Material 3%

· MUSCLE: Water 70%, Protein 22%, Lipids 6%, Inorganic Material 2%

Here is what is I want you to acknowledge since we are talking about gaining muscle:

· It takes 600 calories to gain one pound of muscle

· Muscle is made up of 70% water and 22% protein

So let's put this into perspective, if you wanted to gain 10 pounds of muscle in one year it would take 6000 calories, but 6000 calories in one year. Break that number down to per day, it comes out to 16 calories. Since your muscle is made up of roughly 25% protein, this means, four out of those sixteen calories have to be protein. Another important fact is that one gram of protein is equal to 4 calories. So check the math! All you would have to do is add 16 calories (1680+16= 1696) to your daily diet to gain 10 pounds of natural lean muscle in one year. (Now if you wanted to make that result quicker, then you can play with the numbers, however just remember caloric diet is not based on non-physical activity).

So after all the simple science, I'm going to simplify it even more. When you consume your food it is recommended that you consume 60% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 15% fats. This means if you divide your BMR (1696) you'll get a ideal number for a proportionate caloric diet. Remember, this is based on a non-exertion factor. Since you are underweight you are going to have to consider a high calorie diet with a slightly higher fat intake. So for example you might want to consider anywhere from a 3500 to 5000 calorie diet. Those numbers are relevant considering that you perform a consistent weekly weight training workout. Your proportion would be 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein, 20 % fat. Then you can go back to a regular 3000 calorie maintenance diet. A lot of people get freaked out by the sound of a "6000 calorie-diet"; in reality you wouldn't eat 6000 calories worth of salad right? That's why they get freaked out; instead you would eat "high-calorie" foods. The only difficult part in a high-calorie diet is actually finding the small portions of food that have abundance in calories (ie. protein, carbs, (good) fats).

So there you have it, I hope this explanation can you give you an idea on how to gain muscle without having to spend hundreds of dollars on buckets of protein. If you want an example of a high-calorie diet, contact me! I can show you a sample of a high calorie diet and you can use that as an ideal foundation. I hope you find this useful!