So are you a hard gainer and getting buffed is one of your major concerns.

Being an ectomorph and a hard gainer I can really understand the hardship faced by you to achieve Muscle mass. Most of the people say that ensuring a diet with high protein will help you gain muscles., let me tell you it is totally BS.

Today The Workout Magazine will bust few myths about gaining muscles and will share a mass building diet guide for greater muscle mass! When it comes to gaining muscle mass, your mass gaining diet must be slightly less precised from the weight loss diet.

MASS-BUILDING DIET

Mass building diet works on a simple formula: that is to ensure that your body is getting enough macros and enough stimulus to load your muscles. Protein plays the major part when it comes to Mass-building but only adding high protein in your diet will not help you in gaining muscle mass. If you aren’t gaining, it is essential that you keep adding more foods until you are.

Tracking Calories as precisely as a fat loss program would not help in your mass building program, obviously you should track the sources from where you are getting your calories and avoid empty and unhealthy calories. But at the end you have to ensure that you hit your caloric surplus.

That said, we will present major factors which you should take in consideration that will help you in your mass building program. We will also tell how you should plan your meals in terms of macros which will maximize your gains.

For calculation purposes, we will use a 150 pound male, you can adjust the number accordingly.

CALORIC REQUIREMENT

Before starting a mass building program the first question you should ask yourself is how many calories you require in the quest for mass gain. Here is one simple formula to calculate the number of calories you require to gain mass, just multiple your bodyweight in pounds by 15-17 calories.

In case of a 150 pound male, one would require at least 2250- 2550 calories of daily caloric intake to gain mass. If you are not gaining weight or muscle mass, add an additional 10% more calories to bump weighing machine.

Caloric Distribution

Now after calculating your caloric need to gain muscle let’s come down to the macros needed to support your muscle growth. To support your workouts and repair of your muscles it is important that you at least supply one gram of protein per pound of your body weight (150 grams for our example). You can add up to 1.5-2 grams of protein to improve results, but adding any further quantity of protein will not be much beneficial.

Diving the remaining calories depends on your body and you. If you feel tired and sluggish after heavy carb meal it is better you stick to higher healthy fat approach. But if you feel more energized and pumped after a heavy carb meal then go for a carb route instead.
During bulking aim to add a minimum of 100 grams of carbs per day and at least 15% of fat to keep your testosterone level high.
In case of our example a 150 pound guy, if split his macros (Protein, carbs and fat) in 30:30:20 ratio, he would require at least 170 gram protein, 170 grams of carbs and 100 grams of fat, to reach 2250 calories goal.

Choosing Meals

You must have heard that eating 6 portions of meals will help in weight loss and muscle gain. Let me tell you straight it’s a myth. Choosing how many meals you will eat is variable, if you alike eating frequently, it is better that you break your food intake into 4-6 meals a day, in addition to your pre/post workout meals. But if you cannot prepare 6 meals a day, you can stick with 3 large meals a day, along with your pre/post workout meals.
Many gym dudes think that it is important to eat in every 2 or 3 hours to stay in anabolic state or to avoid catabolic state. This is totally BS, while bulking you are already in a caloric surplus state which won’t let you lose muscle mass.

The only major benefit of having more number of meals a day is that when you are bulking you need to eat very large number of calories and getting so many calories at once can be very challenging at times, so if you are troubled eating whole lot of food at once then you should consider adding smaller meals in your daily diet.

How to divide your meals and macros for the day?

MORNING

Protein
After an overnight fast your body requires some fast acting protein to replenish your muscle cells. So consider adding a breakfast containing foods like eggs, fish, or some whey protein to provide instant energy to your muscle cells.

Carbohydrates
Try to add simple and complex carbs in your breakfast to ensure a better muscle growth. The simple carbs will spike your insulin which helps the amino acids to further reach your muscle tissues sooner and the complex carbs will be a long lasting source of energy for your day.
So, examples of this could be juice with some oatmeal, a couple pieces of fruit with a bowl of whole-wheat cereal, or a bagel with some low-sugar yogurt.

FATS
It is necessary that you add some healthy fats in your morning meal to keep your calories scale up throughout the day. You can add foods like peanut butter or some nuts to support muscle gain.

AFTERNOON

During afternoon hour it is important that you keep your protein intake up along with some complex carbs to provide your muscles with energy throughout the day. If you set up a high protein and high complex carbs diet during afternoon it will ensure that the muscles are getting enough nutrients over the entire day to promote anabolism and prevent the accumulation of fat.
Go for options like chicken breast, fish, salmon, and turkey, along with brown rice, brown pasta, whole wheat breads, or potatoes, veggies, and few healthy sources of fats such as nuts, olive oil, flax seeds, or avocado.

NIGHT-TIME HOURS

Finally for night time it is important that you focus on slow digesting foods which will support muscle repair and growth during your sleep, (when your growth hormones are at their highest).
During night hours avoid simple carbs which can lead to insulin spike or release as it can shunt growth hormone release. Go for good source of protein and large dose of healthy fats. Carbs should be kept limited in amount.
Typical examples of food choices here would be a lean piece of steak, other cuts of lean red meat, or cottage cheese (due to its casein content), along with more peanut butter, nuts, or any types of seeds.

PRE/POST WORKOUT

Pre/post workout meals are the most important meals for your muscle growth. The food eaten during this period should be rich in easy digesting protein and carbs with fewer amounts of fats. Reason being, that fat slows down the release of nutrients in the bloodstream and this could lead to feeling lethargic during your workout and you might not able to perform optimally in the gym.
Make sure that you have quick digesting carbs after your workout to create an insulin spike and get those carbs immediately to your muscle so that your muscle will replenish its glycogen stores. Add a slower digesting carb source along with protein after 2 hours of your workout.

CONCLUSION

So these are the major factor you must keep in mind while bulking. Make sure that you hit your caloric goal daily to pack on muscles. With time you need to optimize these calories according to what your body needs, you should measure your weight every week to set up a new caloric goal for yourself.

The post The only Mass Building Diet Guide you will ever need! appeared first on The Workout Magazine.