The Role of your Muscle Building & Weight Gain Diet 

 Building significant amounts of muscle fast requires the right muscle building diet (also referred to as a weight gain diet, or a high protein diet). 

A sound muscle building diet will not only increase the number of calories you consume, but will also include a variety of the best muscle building foods to help nourish your body. 

A nutritious diet consisting of the right foods is very important, since consuming the wrong types of food, too few calories, or the wrong macronutrient ratios can sabotage your muscle building efforts.

Remember - without the right weight gain diet, building muscle will be almost impossible no matter how hard you weight train.  In fact, a muscle building program that is missing the weight gain diet component may actually lead to muscle and weight loss instead of weight gain... a true recipe for disaster! 

DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR MUSCLE BUILDING DIET!  Most experts agree that it is as or more important than your weight training routine if your goal is to promote weigh gain.  Diet is extremely important, and should never be overlooked!

Designing a High Protein Muscle Building Diet

As previously mentioned, the best high protein diet is one that will maximize muscle growth, while keeping body fat levels to a minimum.

Designing your own high protein diet is not as difficult as it may seem, as long as you have some knowledge, and the right tools.  Learning about the three most important elements of bodybuilding nutrition is a great starting point.

Those three elements are:

3.  How much of what to eat - It is important that you consume a variety of nutritious foods that provide your body with the nutrients it needs to recover from your weight training workouts.  You must also consume enough food in your diet so that your body has the extra calories it needs to build and repair muscle tissue. 

Step 1:  Once you've learned the roles of macronutrients, the best bodybuilding foods, and what and how much food to consume, it is time to apply your knowledge and design a weight gain diet.  The first step to designing your diet is to choose the foods that you will eat.  Start by picking a variety of muscle building high protein foods. Including these foods in your diet will ensure that your body has the nutrients it needs to repair and rebuild muscle tissue.  Now put together a grocery list, and start stocking up!

Step 2:  Now that your kitchen is fully stocked with the right nutritious foods, it's time to determine how much of each type of food you should consume daily.  First you have to estimate the number of calories that your body requires each day.  Then, you have to choose a macronutrient ratio for your body type, and estimate how many grams of carbohydrates, fat and protein you need to consume.  It sounds complicated, but it is quite simple after you become familiar with how it's done.  These procedures are covered in detail in the "how much of what to eat" section.

Step 3:  The next step is to map out a daily meal schedule.  Try to schedule between five and six meals throughout the day, with about 2.5 - 3 hours in between each meal.  Spreading your caloric intake out into more smaller meals will make it easier for your body to digest and absorb the foods and nutrients you consume.  The number of calories and macronutrient ratios for each meal should vary, depending on the time of the meal.  For example, the meal after your weight training workout should be the largest of the day, where as the meal closest to your bed time should be the smallest and should consist mostly of protein with few carbohydrates.

If five or six solid meals is too difficult to incorporate in to your high protein diet,  you can substitute one or tow of those meals with home made or commercial meal replacement bars or shakes.  Although the packaged shakes and meal replacement bars offer major convenience and portability, try to make your own home made bars and shakes whenever possible.  This will give you full control of calories, ingredients, and ratios.

The Final Step of your High Protein Weight Gain Diet:  EAT EAT EAT! 

Now that you've done all of the boring calculations, it's time for the fun part.  Start to eat, eat, and eat some more!  In order to look like a champion, you have to eat like one.  Like they say--you are what you eat--so get eating! As long as you continue to eat the right foods and track your bodybuilding routine regularly, you should be able to fine tune your high protein diet so that the majority of weight you gain is lean muscle mass.

Now for some final high protein diet tips: 

• Some people like to include one "cheat" day in there diet, where they are allowed to eat anything they like.  If you think think something like this might work for you, give it a try.

• Make sure that you don't eat too quickly, and that you chew your food thoroughly to help your body digest the extra food you are consuming.  Foods like steak for example, should be chewed around 70 times before they are swallowed.

• Never skip a meal!  Make sure you have meal replacement bars and shakes readily accessible at work and in the car to ensure that you don't miss a meal.  Remember, your body needs these extra calories and missing even one meal a day can mean that your body will not have the extra calories it needs to build muscle.

• Drink plenty of water throughout the day.  Water consumption is very important, especially now that you are consuming more food.  The body needs water to help breakdown foods, and eliminate toxins that build up as a result of metabolism.