A Beginner's Guide to Building Muscle (Part I)

A Beginner's Guide to Building Muscle - Published on TruePeakFitness.com

Chances are that if you’re reading through this guide, you’re looking for guidance when it comes to building some quality lean muscle. Well, as you may have already guessed, we’ll be upfront and honest and tell you that first and foremost, easy isn’t a part of the vocabulary for those looking to put on lean, quality muscle. Fast isn’t in the vocabulary or used in the same sentence as those you may see as an example of the body you strive to achieve. It takes time and dedication paired with solid nutrition and training to build the muscle you desire.

Now with that being said, we are here to guide you and provide the tools needed to have the upper hand as you start your quest to create a better version of yourself. Right out of the gate, the goal is to lay a solid nutrition plan in place with Part I of this guide and in Part II, give you a blueprint for which you can structure your weight training and cardio. After reading both parts, you will have the knowledge and tools needed to continue on the path to building lean muscle for years to come.

The secret to building lean, quality muscle comes from within. The dedication, desire and drive to see the change within yourself is what will shape and drive you to change your body and it’s up to you to stand, take charge and make changes. Follow this guide and you will be on the path to muscle building success.

 Can I Build Muscle While Losing Fat?

This is hands down one of the most burning questions that is brought up and asked time and time again, so we are going to address that right now. In a “Cliff’s Notes” version of an answer: Yes, it is possible to gain muscle while losing fat. This includes both men and women, younger and older, active and sedentary, and based on scientific evidence and not just common ‘Bro-Science’. Now, with that being said, let’s dive into the science a little deeper.

The first study we’ll take a look at investigated the effect of strength training and aerobic exercise on a group of overweight, sedentary adult males. For the study design, the assigned them to either a cardio-only group or a cross-training group that performed both cardio and resistance training. Both groups performed the assigned physical activity three days per week for a duration of 14 weeks before the results were assessed. At the study’s conclusion, they found that the group that performed cross training did indeed lose fat (Avg: 16.3 lbs.) while at the same time adding muscle (Avg: 9.5 lbs.) (1).

What about older populations? Well, another study showed that men and women (Avg: 61 years) who performed resistance training three times a week for a duration of 12 weeks also gained muscle (Avg. 4 lbs.) while simultaneously losing body fat (Avg: 4 lbs.) (2).

Obviously, the previous two studies we looked at only had more sedentary and overweight populations, so naturally you’re probably wondering if the same effects will be observed in those that are already active. Well in regards to that, a study included 30 younger (Avg: 21 years) physically active, healthy men (Avg: 12% body fat). They assigned them randomly in to one of three groups with one being cardio only, another being resistance training only and a third a cross-training group who performed both. Each group, like the other studies, performed their training protocol three times per week for a duration of 10 weeks. The results were pretty definitive with the cardio group only losing fat (Avg: 4 lbs.) and even some muscle. The resistance training group had better results as they lost fat (Avg: 2 lbs.) while gaining muscle (Avg: 5 lbs.). However, most impressively, the cross training group lost fat (Avg: 6 lbs.) while gaining muscle (Avg: 7 lbs.) (3). The gentlemen weren’t the only ones that had good results, either. In a similar study, young women (Avg: 23 years) were able to lose some fat (Avg: 3.5 lbs.) while gaining muscle (Avg: 4.2 lbs.) over the course of 12 weeks (4).

All in all, the underlying theme is that in order to see results, it takes time and the combination of both resistance training and cardio to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. We will cover the resistance training and cardio portion in Part II of this guide, so for now, let’s focus back on nutrition!

 Calories – Metabolic Currency

By now, it’s probably no secret that fat loss is determined in large by calories in vs. calories out (as you may have read in our Weight Loss Guide). It’s been a long established concept that in order to burn body fat optimally, one needs to be in a calorie deficit and is supported by the first law of thermodynamics. This essentially states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed but rather only changed from one form to another (5).

With that concept in mind, just like a calorie deficit is needed in order to burn body fat, a caloric surplus is required to build muscle. Another concept important to remember is that stored fat on the body is energy, and stored fat can be used to fuel (as calories) muscle building. No, you absolutely cannot turn that fat into muscle, nor does muscle turn into fat as that isn’t how physiology works, as fat is fat and muscle is muscle. The fat stores can be used as energy for the workout and contribute to the calorie surplus (consistent with the first law). We also can observe from the first law as well as the studies we cited in the previous section that the more fat and less muscle one has as a starting point, the greater the recomposition (gain muscle, lose fat) potential there is.

 Nutrition – The Building Materials

First and foremost, the foundation of any physique goal whether it be gaining muscle or losing fat has to be nutrition. Without it, the progress will be slow or non-existent and you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels despite putting in work at the gym. Another thing that we want to dispel right off the bat is that contrary to what many have heard, it is possible to build quality lean muscle without putting on tons of fat. What is classically known as ‘bulking’, in which a large surplus of calories is consumed in order to increase body weight and more specifically, increase the amount of lean muscle.

Now, with that being said, realistically when you’re eating in a calorie surplus, you can expect to put on a little bit of body fat in order to increase lean muscle, but by being mindful of your nutrition, you can minimize it. Also, don’t fear as you can always do what is called a ‘cutting’ phase after to trim off the fat you put on while keeping your newly acquired muscle.

In order to drive home the concept that a little fat gain is necessary, let’s do some simple math. Imagine that you start at 150 lbs. and have 15% body fat. If starting out on a muscle building nutrition plan and you added 25 pounds of pure lean mass and no body fat (lbs. of body fat stay the same), you would be 175 pounds at about 13% body fat. If you did this again, that means you would weight 200 lbs. at 11% body fat.

Putting all that in perspective, while it is possible to do that kind of transformation over a long, extended period of time, no one can gain only muscle. There will always be some fat gain and depending on metabolism, genetics and a few other factors, you may have to gain a higher proportion of fat. For a more realistic example, if you were to put on 22lbs of muscle with 3 pounds of fat gain from that 150lb/15% body fat starting point, that means you would be 175lbs with 14.5% body fat. So, even though you did in fact gain some fat, you’d still be slightly leaner than before.

Regardless, the point we’re making is that you can still stay relatively lean because proportionally, you’re adding more muscle than fat. Muscle gain doesn’t have to come coupled with a belly of jelly.

 Nutrition – Adjustment & Quality Matters

That brings in another key point before we dive into diet specifics: Start from a good point. Since you’re inevitably going to put on some fat along with your lean muscle, give yourself an advantage by making sure you have some wiggle room to begin with by being leaner. At the heart of any nutrition and diet conversation, calories are a dominating subject these days. With so many diet and exercise philosophies, a lot of people have come to the conclusion, frustratingly, that “calories are everything” when it comes down to influencing if you’ll be packing on lean muscle tissue or dropping that body fat you’ve been looking to shred. If it were that simple, then in theory 40 grams of carbohydrates from table sugar would have the exact same effect on the body that 40 grams of protein would, correct? It doesn’t take a genius to call it out right away that that doesn’t make any sense.

There are two things required for sustained, consistent progress in gaining lean muscle: a calorie surplus and metabolism that is in balance. The same goes for those looking to consistently drop body fat, being in a calorie deficit and have metabolism in balance. Anyone can gain lean muscle or lose body fat for a period of time, but done the wrong way and you’ll find yourself stalling sooner rather than later when it comes to your progress. How can this be? Well, it boils down to many believing metabolism is as simple as these two equations:

Reduce Calories -> Reduce Weight

Increase Calories -> Increase Weight

While the almighty ‘calorie’ is in fact a part of both equations in a big way, the important factor that is left out is the source of the metabolic compensation, calorie source impact and balance. If you start cutting calories and maintaining the same level of exercise, of course the fat will start to melt away, but only for a while as the body will soon have metabolic compensation take effect. This causes the body to freak out a bit causing cravings and other dieting pains. Even with a steadfast adherence to the diet, your body is highly adaptive and reacts by reducing your metabolic rate. Not only does this cause you to halt your fat loss progress, but it can actually revert and you start to gain weight as your body panics.

Those looking to gain lean muscle and have a calorie surplus may be thinking that they are in the clear now as this adaptation only affects those in a deficit; however that is far from the truth. Your body strives for a sense of homeostasis and anything pushing it further from it’s normal ‘set point’ will cause it to adapt. Initially lean muscle gains will be easy to put on, but eventually, especially when pushed too far with a calorie surplus, the body will start to store fat more than divert it to muscle growth.

If you’re out for lean mass and keep pushing the envelope on how many calories you are pounding down in your quest to put on size this may work for a little while, but think of working off borrowed ‘metabolic time’. If you keep pounding high levels of carbohydrates, your body’s response to insulin sensitivity will decrease and only get worse with the more body fat you are accruing from pushing the calorie envelope.

How do we combat these factors? It comes down to adjustments in calorie intake over time, the macronutrient (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) source of which we are consuming our calories from and perhaps most importantly, the timing at which we consume said macronutrients. The key point is that protein, carbs and fats are all utilized in different ways in the human body. A similar analogy is if you were to compare a gasoline to diesel: Diesel is more efficient as less is burned off as heat while regular gasoline loses more heat when it is burned, meaning less efficiency.

When it comes to protein, it resembles gasoline and a good portion (up to 20% of it) is burned off in the digestion, while carbohydrates resemble diesel and lose less in the digestion, meaning they’re more efficient at providing energy. Fats are the most efficient of all in terms of energy and are the most calorie dense gram for gram. Aside from just the calorie utilization difference, they cause different effects in the body. For example, protein has a thermic effect when eaten (causes a rise in body temperature) while carbs, not so much. By regulating the source of our calories and the timing of when we are consuming each macronutrient, we’ll have a large effect on how they impact our body and ultimately our physique.

 A Word on Insulin

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are that at some point, you’ve heard of insulin. It is the hormone that drives glucose out of the bloodstream and into the various cells of the body (6). For the longest time, it seemed that it was only brought up in regards to metabolic diseases such as diabetes, which causes the loss of the ability to control blood glucose levels. However, insulin is so much more than a hormone that controls glucose. Specifically, for our purposes, it is important to know that it’s highly anabolic, translating to a vital role in building muscle and recovery. On the flip side of the coin while insulin is indeed a very anabolic hormone in regards to building muscle, it can also result in the accumulation of body fat if you don’t harness its power properly.

To understand its mechanism a bit better; let’s delve into the physiology a bit more. Insulin is technically a protein that is produced in the pancreas and is released in response to the ingestion of carbohydrates and protein. However, unlike the proteins you typically think of (dietary) which are made up of amino acids, insulin is a functional protein more along the lines of human growth hormone (7).

After it is released from the production center of the pancreas, it travels throughout the bloodstream throughout the body to the various tissues including skeletal muscle. The muscle fibers are lined with insulin receptors and once the insulin attaches to the receptor, it signals the muscle cells to open up, allowing glucose, amino acids and creatine to all enter the muscle. These are the anabolic properties that make insulin so vital to building muscle. Furthermore, not only does it signal the cells to open up and be receptive to amino acids, glucose and creatine, but it also increases protein synthesis and decreases the breakdown of muscle (8).

Now, insulin also has the role of signaling the body that it has just been fed and since the body is pre-programmed to spare energy in case of emergency, it also stalls the body’s burning of body fat stores as it works to clear the majority of glucose out of the blood. It instead shifts it towards utilizing the ingested nutrients, and like muscle, it also opens up the gates on your fat cells. Whatever isn’t utilized for energy or by your muscles can be stored as energy for later use. This is why it isn’t a good idea to spike insulin levels multiple times throughout the day at inopportune times. This leads us to the power of harnessing insulin when it is most beneficial with nutrient timing.

 Nutrient Timing – The Do’s and Don’ts

A nice result of resistance training is that it increases insulin sensitivity and makes the body more responsive and sensitive to insulin. As we just discussed and due to its anabolic properties, this hormone is a good thing that aids in recovery and helps the body rebuild. The second item of note before we go any further is that carbohydrates are best utilized in the peri-workout nutrition period (before/during/after) training for the most benefit in improving lean muscle and losing fat (9).

In regards to the individual macronutrients of protein, carbs and fats, it is important to cover exactly how to utilize each of them when it comes to meal combinations. Now, the worst thing to do whether you are looking to cut fat or add lean muscle is to have a combination of high fat, carbs and the hormone insulin in the blood stream simultaneously. Insulin is a very powerful hormone that shuttles nutrients throughout your body; however we don’t want it to be chronically elevated. High, prolonged levels of insulin in the body can lead to insulin resistance, meaning less of it goes to your hard working muscle and instead gets deposited into fat cells, and having it combined with high levels of fats and carbs in the blood is a recipe for massive fat gain.

Now don’t panic, remember that insulin is a good, crucial element in the body that does fantastic things, but the key is controlling it, and to do that, it comes down to how you are structuring your diet. Done at the right time, it delivers critical nutrients to your muscle for fuel, recovery and rebuilding, but done at the wrong time, it can promote the undesired fat storage (9).

What Not To Do

Starting with the things that you need to avoid doing is to avoid meals with both high fats and carbs. This is the obvious one as the carbohydrates cause an insulin response and having both high levels of carbs and fats in the same meal will promote storage. Though fat does in fact lower glycemic index some, the insulin response will still be quite elevated and this leaves us with the situation of high fat and carbohydrate levels in the blood.

The next thing that comes to mind of some, thinking that since they don’t want to combine fat with high levels of carbs, is that simply eliminating fats and eating just carbs will alleviate the issue. If there’s an excessive level of carbohydrates, the body will actually convert the carbs into fats via the liver. By combining it with protein, it will blunt this to some degree, but still it is wise to not consume large amount of carbohydrates by themselves or at inopportune times.

The Do’s

Protein + Carbs (Minimal Fats)

Now, as you have learned, carbohydrates cause an insulin response, and in many cases this is a good thing when done in a controlled fashion. By combining protein and carbohydrates, you get an insulin response that shuttles these carbs and amino acids from the protein to your muscles, putting you in an anabolic state and since the calories are in controlled amounts and the fats are minimal in the blood, the potential of putting on body fat is minimized.

The ideal time to consume these kinds of meals is pre-workout, intra-workout and post workout; however additional protein and carb meals can be beneficial as well in a bulking phase due to the anabolic effects.

Protein + Fats (Minimal Carbs)

While there are the anabolic effects of the insulin response from the protein and carb meals, we obviously don’t want to make all of these meals as such due to not wanting to chronically elevate insulin. Fats are an essential part of the diet as we discussed earlier and the purpose of protein and fat meals is to give you the calories from fats and the amino acids from protein without having a large insulin response. Additionally, with protein and fat meals, the body will use less of the carbs stored in the body (glycogen) and utilize fat as the energy source, meaning that you will be burning fats for fuel, a plus for anyone regardless of cutting or bulking.

Here is a sample way of structuring your meals throughout the day, with the workout time in the evening. You can rearrange the meals as needed if you have an earlier workout in the day to make it fit. Remember, it’s not about what time of day it is, but rather what you are doing at each time!

 

Meal Structure Example – 6pm Training Time

• Meal #1 (Breakfast) Protein + Fats
• Meal #2Protein + Carbs
• Meal #3Protein + Carbs
• Meal #4 (Pre-Workout)Protein + Carbs
• Intra-Workout Protein + Carbs
• Meal #5 (Post Workout)Protein + Carbs
• Meal #6 (Pre Bed)Protein + Fats 

Digging Into Peri-Workout Nutrition

The old saying is “timing is everything” and when it comes to your food selection, this couldn’t be more true. Many times people have gotten caught up in the dogma of oversimplifying things such as “no carbs after 6pm” or “don’t eat late at night”. While nutrition is in fact a complicated science, sometimes people forget that not one size fits all.

When it comes to building muscle, cutting fat, building strength, and maximizing recovery, when you eat is just as important as, maybe even more important, than what you eat. With this in mind, we present the concept of peri-workout nutrition. This simply means that the focus is centering your diet around when you are training, regardless of time of day. Another critical part of this concept that may throw a few off at first is that the most important time to consume your carbohydrates is pre, intra and post workout. Think of it this way: if carbohydrates are fuel for performance and recovery, then wouldn’t it make the most sense to consume them around your workout?

As a whole, pre-workout nutrition is the most important meal of the day, followed closely by intra and post workout nutrition. Through the years, the idea of pre-workout nutrition has evolved from consuming a meal a few hours before, to simply having a shake an hour before to worst of all, having a drink for a caffeinated buzz which as you already guessed, isn’t “nutrition” at all. Thankfully, the trend has been reversed and the value and science of pre-workout nutrition is making a comeback (9).

 Pre-Workout Meal: Prepare For Battle

Before any great battle, there needs to be preparation and the war waged within your body before your workout is no different. No, not everyone is looking to be a bodybuilder, but the fact of the matter that reins king is that muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is critical. MPS is the process by which the body recovers and repairs the muscle within to increase strength and muscle mass (10). Don’t worry, MPS won’t make you ‘bulky’ as some may fear, it simply is your muscle recovering from workouts. This is important as muscle is a very metabolic tissue as it burns calories at rest. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn, even at rest.

Before hitting the gym, the body needs to be primed for recovery and building muscle while at the same time giving it a fuel source for crushing the workout itself. Nutrition wise, a combo of protein and carbohydrates is ideal as you may have guessed, but also keep in mind the amount and ratio of these macronutrients is important as well. Both digestion and physical activity require blood flow to work properly, so the idea of the meal is to consume it about an hour or so before the workout to allow it time to digest and not divert blood to the digestive system. If eaten too close to a workout, it may feel like it is sitting in your stomach, so an hour give or take is a good starting point. Additionally, it’s ideal to avoid a meal that is too high in fiber or fat as both of these slow digestion and consuming too many in this time window can make food take too long to digest.

Relatively easy to digest foods are ideal for this situation. Lean protein sources such as chicken breast, egg whites, white fish or even a protein shake are optimal for meeting the protein aspect. As for carbohydrates the key is to provide energy and not have a huge insulin spike. Too many carbs of the high glycemic variety can negate the fat burning potential of your workout or worse yet, cause a crash that makes you feel sleepy when you get to your workout. Carb sources such as old fashioned rolled oats, jasmine rice or sweet potatoes are a perfect fit here as they will raise insulin a little bit (but not spike it) for the protective benefit of preventing muscle breakdown and priming the body for recovery post workout.

Rounding out your pre-workout nutrition, while you don’t want a large amount of fat as too much can slow digestion a little bit is ideal. This further slows the digestion of the carbs, controlling the resulting insulin response as well as providing a few extra calories for energy. Good choices for a fat would be something like 10g of fat from almond butter, grass fed butter, MCT oil or coconut oil.

 Intra-Workout: The Middle-Man

As we discussed earlier, insulin is the body’s most anabolic hormone and while you don’t want to spike it before or during the workout, you do want it to release in greater amounts as your training gets underway. Enter the realm of intra-workout nutrition, where it is also important to consume carbohydrates and protein. Now obviously you aren’t going to stop for a meal, your best bet here is going to be the route of supplementation. While a protein shake and a carb source may pop into your head, this isn’t ideal as regular proteins and carbs require digestion and that leads us back to the issue of bloating and blood being diverted.

The solution for this is to use a cyclic dextrin product. This is the ideal carbohydrate for intra-workout supplementation as it has a low osmolality, allowing it to pass through the stomach easily and into the small intestine to digest and go to work for you, all without the insulin spike or traditional ‘carb bloat’.

Now, you can obviously see the big deal about ingesting carbs before and during a workout, but some may be surprised that ingesting protein is equally important. Muscles need carbs to do work, but they also need amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to prevent muscle breakdown and kick start protein synthesis. The most important of the amino acids for this process is one of the three BCAA, leucine, but the other 2 BCAA, isoleucine and valine are also critical. Simply put, leucine causes an insulin release by the body which acts as a protective mechanism, isoleucine helps the cells of the body utilize carbohydrates and valine helps off-set fatigue. By supplementing with BCAA during the workout, it aids in sparing muscle protein, negates protein degradation and gets you on the road to recovery.

Putting it all together, combining 15-45 grams of cyclic dextrin with 10 grams of BCAA will provide you with the ideal muscle building cocktail. After mixing, start sipping it about 10 minutes prior to your training session to help it get in your system and start loading your system up with nutrients. Once the workout is underway, consume the rest of it throughout the duration of the workout, spacing it out to last the duration of the training. The amount of cyclic dextrin needed will depend on factors such as your bodyweight, training style and calorie needs. Start at the lower end of the range at 15 grams and work your way up if need be.

 Post-Workout – The Golden Era Lives On

For years, many only thought of the post workout period when it comes to the importance of nutrition to maximize recovery and progress. As you have gathered from reading thus far about the pre and intra workout nutrition importance, post workout emphasis is a thing of the past. Don’t get us wrong, the intent isn’t to ignore post workout nutrition or minimize the role it plays, but rather just emphasize the importance of the pre and intra aspect and how the maximum benefits are reaped from these two.

In reality, research on post workout nutrition has brought it into a bit of a gray area when it comes to necessity. Once believed to be a crucial element of recovery and maximizing strength and muscle gains, post workout nutrition has largely been found to be lacking concrete evidence to make cohesive recommendations. Interestingly, contrary to what was once thought the gold standard, it has been demonstrated that when pre-workout nutrition is properly implemented, the co-ingestion of protein and carbohydrates doesn’t further stimulate post exercise muscle protein synthesis (11).

With that being said, when intra-workout nutrition is on point, the main thing to do with your post workout nutrition is to feed your body with additional nutrients to fuel the recovery process and of course give it the calories that you need for growth and recovery. With a focus similar to that of pre-workout nutrition, the aim here is a lean, quality protein source and a good carb source. Such proteins would include chicken breast, 96/4 ground beef, sirloin steak, ahi tuna or even a protein shake. Carbohydrates wise, sweet potatoes, jasmine rice and oatmeal are all great choices.

 Putting It All Together – Source & By the Numbers

Finally, last but not least, let’s cover how much to eat and examples of what to eat to fuel your muscle gains. The key is to have a diet line up for your individual calorie needs. So, with that in mind, we’re simplifying the diet as much as possible to get you started. As a rule of thumb when it comes to gaining muscle, you want to eat a little more, shooting for 15-20 calories per pound of bodyweight per day. For example sake, we’ll start with the lower end of the spectrum at 15 calories per pound and you can always adjust up as needed. In regards to how much of each macronutrient to fuel muscle growth, the general goal will be to consume around 35% of those calories from protein, 50% from carbs and about 15% from fat.

These numbers may vary depending on individual metabolism, genetics, the amount of lean muscle mass you have and a few other factors. Another factor to consider is your rest days. While the first instinct of many is to eat less on days that they don’t train is to slash calories, this can be counterproductive. No, you won’t be burning as many calories, but keep in mind that when you aren’t training, you’re recovering. Following a workout, you can have elevated protein synthesis for up to 36 hours, so take advantage of this and refuel and rebuild your muscle, especially when the goal is adding muscle (12). With this in mind, to adjust for your rest days while still providing enough calories for recovery and growth, simply remove the intra-workout carbohydrates.

We’ve conveniently broken down those numbers for you here:

 Example Numbers By Bodyweight

150 lbs. 175 lbs. 200 lbs. 225 lbs.

2,250 calories 2,625 calories 3,000 calories 3,375 calories

196g protein 229g protein 262g protein 295g protein

281g carbs 328g carbs 375g carbs 421g carbs

37g fats 44g fats 50g fats 57g fats

Now, with those numbers in mind, let’s take a look at what foods you can use to put together your diet:

Examples of Protein Sources

Lean Beef (Grass Fed), Wild Caught Salmon, Whole Omega 3 Eggs, Chicken Breast (Skinless), Ahi Tuna, Egg Whites, 99% Lean Ground/Cutlet Turkey

Examples of Fat Sources

Grass Fed Butter, Coconut Oil (Virgin), Lean Beef (Grass Fed), Wild Caught Salmon, Whole Omega 3 Eggs, Avocado/Avocado Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Olives/Olive Oil (Extra Virgin), Palm Kernel Oil, Almonds/Walnuts, Natural Nut Butters (Almond/Cashew)

Example Recommended Carbs

Old Fashioned Oatmeal (Not Instant), Sweet Potatoes, Quinoa, Ezekiel Bread, Jasmine Rice, Beans (Black, Pinto, Navy, Kidney) 

Example Recommended Fruits

Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Apples, Pears

Examples of Recommended Vegetables

Spinach, Kale, Bell Peppers, Squash, Green Beans, Asparagus, Zucchini, Brussel Sprouts

Tracking Your Fuel

Now, while we have given you the numbers and foods you need to put together your diet, the last part is how to keep track of it all. You would be amazed, especially when it comes to eating to gain lean muscle how often people underestimate the amount of calories they are consuming on a daily basis. Our advice is to plan out your diet ahead of time. Divide up your calories among the meal outline we gave you previously and with a little experimenting with the foods we listed, see what fits best for your personal taste and preference. Utilize tracking/recording software or even a smartphone app to conveniently tally up your calorie and macronutrient totals and you’ll be on your way to gaining the lean muscle you desire.

 That’s a Wrap (For Now)

In the first part of this guide, we’ve outlined recomposition (gaining muscle while losing fat), nutrient timing, that it is normal to gain a little fat while eating to gain mass, and last but not least, the nutrition by the numbers. With an informed and scientific approach and plan in hand, you’ll be well on your way to gaining the lean muscle that you desire and creating a better version of yourself. Stay tuned for Part II where we cover training, cardio and a few other aspects to utilize on your quest for gaining lean muscle!

 

References

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2. Resistance training and dietary protein: Effects on glucose intolerance and contents of skeletal muscle insulin signaling proteins in older persons. Iglay, HB. 4, April 2007, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, pp. 1005-1013.
3. Concurrent resistance and endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals. Dolezal, BA. 2, August 1998, Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 85, pp. 695-700.
4. Body composition and strength changes in women with milk and resistance exercise. Josse, AR. 6, June 2010, Medical Science & Sports Exercise, Vol. 42, pp. 1122-1130.
5. The Three Laws of Thermodynamics. Boundless.com. [Online] [Cited: September 6, 2016.] https://www.boundless.com/chemistry/textbooks/boundless-chemistry-textbook/thermodynamics-17/the-laws-of-thermodynamics-123/the-three-laws-of-thermodynamics-496-3601/.
6. Insulin. Diabetes.co.uk. [Online] [Cited: September 12, 2016.] https://www.diabetes.co.uk/body/insulin.html.
7. Stekel, M. The Insulin Response to Carbohydrates. SpinalHealth.net. [Online] [Cited: September 12, 2016.] https://www.spinalhealth.net/insulin.html.
8. Insulin effects in muscle and adipose tissue. Dimitriadis, G. Supp 1, August 2011, Diabetes Research & Clinical Practices, Vol. 93, pp. 52-59.
9. Ivy, J and Portman, R. Nutrient Timing; The Future of Sports Nutrition. March : Basic Health Publications, 2004.
10. Muscle protein synthesis in response to nutrition and exercise. Atherton, PJ. 5, March 2012, Journal of Physiology, Vol. 590, pp. 1049-1057.
11. Coingestion of carbohydrate with protein does not further augment postexercise muscle protein synthesis. Koopman, R. 3, September 2007, American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology & Metabolism, Vol. 293, pp. 833-842.
12. The time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis following heavy resistance exercise.MacDougall, JD and Gibala, MJ. 4, December 1995, Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 20, pp. 480-486.