The diet to increase muscle mass includes some strategies such as consuming more calories than you expend, increasing the amount of protein ingested during the day, and consuming more good fats. However, in addition to the reinforced diet, it is also very important to do regular strength training, which requires a lot of muscle mass, because in this way the hypertrophy stimulus is passed on to the body.
The menu to increase muscle mass varies according to the intensity of physical exercise and the size, sex, and age of each person, however, the following table provides an example of a menu to gain muscle mass:
How to increase muscle mass
To increase muscle mass, it is important to pay attention to the number of calories that are ingested during the day, the type of food, the amount of water consumed, and the frequency and intensity of physical activity. Here are 7 steps to increase your results:
1. Consume more calories than you expend
Consuming more calories than you expend is essential to gain muscle mass faster, as excess calories, along with training, will allow for muscle growth.
- Don’t skip meals
Avoiding skipping meals is important so that you can reach all the calories you need during the day, without stimulating possible loss of lean mass during a prolonged fast. Ideally, they should be made from 5 to 6 meals a day, with extra attention at breakfast, pre, and post-workout.
- Consume more protein
Increasing protein consumption is necessary to allow muscle growth, and it is important that protein sources are well distributed throughout the day, and not concentrated in just 2 or 3 meals. These foods are mainly of animal origins, such as meats, fish, chicken, cheeses, eggs, and milk and dairy products, but proteins can also be found in good amounts in foods such as beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, and chickpeas.
In addition, it may sometimes be necessary to use protein supplements such as whey protein and casein, especially used post-workout, or to increase the nutritional value of low-protein meals throughout the day.
- Consume good fats
Contrary to popular belief, consuming good fats helps to reduce the accumulation of fat in the body and even facilitates the increase of calories in the diet to gain muscle mass. These fats are present in foods such as avocados, olive oil, olives, peanuts, peanut butter, flaxseeds, chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and fish such as tuna, sardines, and salmon.
Throughout the day, these foods can be added to snacks such as tapioca recipes, fit cookies, yogurts, vitamins, and main meals.
- Drink plenty of water
Drinking plenty of water is very important to stimulate hypertrophy, as for muscle cells to grow, more water is needed to fill their larger size. If there is not enough water intake, muscle mass gain will be slower and more difficult.
A healthy adult should consume at least 35 ml of water for every kg of weight. Thus, a person weighing 70 kg would need to consume at least 2450 ml of water per day, and it is important to remember that artificial or sugary drinks are not included in this account, such as soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.
- Consume at least 2 fruits a day
Consuming at least 2 fruits a day is important to gain vitamins and minerals that favor muscle recovery after training, favoring a faster and more hypertrophied regeneration of muscle mass.
In addition, the vitamins and minerals present in fruits and vegetables are important for muscle contraction, reducing the feeling of fatigue during training, and for strengthening the immune system.
- Avoid sugar and processed foods
Avoiding sugary and highly processed foods is important so as not to stimulate fat gain in the body, especially since the diet to gain mass already has excess calories. Thus, to prevent weight gain from being made of fat, it is necessary to remove foods such as sweets, cookies, cakes, toast, fast food, sausage, sausage, bacon, cheddar cheese, and ham or ham from the diet.
These foods should be replaced by wholegrain bread, crackers and wholemeal cakes, cheeses such as rennet, Minas and mozzarella, eggs, meats, and fish.
- Avoid alcohol consumption
Excessive and regular consumption of alcoholic beverages can reduce protein synthesis, slow down metabolism and reduce the body’s ability to burn fat, which can compromise muscle growth. Therefore, it is important to avoid excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages. - Consume complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates are important for the formation of muscle mass, as they provide energy to the body for the hypertrophy process to take place. In addition, muscle cells store glucose in the form of glycogen to be used during exercise for energy and for muscle recovery after training.
Therefore, it is important to know how to choose which complex carbohydrates should be included in the diet, giving preference to those that are rich in fiber, such as oat flakes, quinoa, lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas, sweet potatoes, potatoes with skin, rice and wholegrain pasta.
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