The nutrition part of any muscle building plan is hugely important. Below is a list of muscle building foods you should incorporate into your diet.
Meat, Fish & Poultry
1 Steak
Considered the best muscle building meat due to high levels of iron, zinc and creatine. Can be expensive if you’re on a budget. Even if you need to buy cheap always look for the leanest cuts.
2 Turkey
Personally turkey is the ultimate meat despite it always coming second to chicken. Turkey is much leaner with next to 0g of saturated fat.
3 Chicken
Obviously the choice of many people because of price and versatility. However if you’re like me you will get bored very fast from eating chicken. Remains a popular muscle building food as its a lean meat with
plenty of protein per serving.
4 Eggs
The ultimate muscle building food due to its essential amino acid profile. Not only that they are cheap and easy to prepare. You can cook them or go with the hardcore and down them raw. If its good enough for Rocky Balboa?
5 Salmon
High quality protein and Omega-3 you get from salmon makes it an essential in your body building diet.
6 Tuna
Popular part of my diet. Tuna is a lean protein source with plenty of good fatty acids.
Also go with any other meat you can get your hands on e.g. liver, kidney, pork, ham, lamb, duck. Make sure you make friends with your butcher to get your hands on lean cuts and maybe some discounts.
All seafood can be included in your diet no problem. Asides from tuna and salmon I like to include crab, shrimp, mussels, crayfish, haddock, trout, cod, herring, mackerel, Pollack. All great options to keep your
muscle building foods varied.
Dairy
7 Milk
Great for gaining muscle and a good protein source with calcium for strong bones. If you haven’t heard of it yet many muscle builders go for the GOMAD system. The Gallon Of Milk A Day system is very popular among the bodybuilding community. They swear by it, although I haven’t tried it myself. If you use milk to mix your shakes this shouldn’t be too hard to reach.
8 Yoghurt
Good source of protein and carbs if you get the regular yoghurt and not fat free. Mix with some mixed berries for a great snack
Carbs
Carbs really are necessary for any muscle building diet despite what many think. Check out carbs for muscle building for more information. You should be looking to get as many complex carbs as possible and limit your amount of simple carbs.
9 Pasta
Great source for getting plenty of carbs and you can make a pile of different dishes. Go for the wholemeal pasta.
10 Brown rice
Great source of carbs with slow releasing energy to stop those insulin spikes. Again, another option to spice up your diet.
11 Bread
Again head for the wholemeal variety and your diet will be much better off. I also enjoy oatmeal bread on training days as it has a higher number of calories. Some turkey on oatmeal-perfect high calorie
nutritious snack.
12 Potato
Being Irish, where would I be without the potato?. So versatile and a good source of carbs. However, the potato is starchy and you shouldn’t consume too many in your weekly diet.
Vegetables
Veg is another nutritious way to get complex carbs into your body with the added bonus of gaining vitamins and fiber your body needs.
13 Broccoli
High in soluble fiber and low calorie.
14 Spinach
Popeye wasn’t wrong and was well ahead of his time when he enjoyed a good tin of spinach. Prevents muscle and bone loss, spinach is very high in nutrients.
15 Carrots
Another personal favourite. Keep some prepared carrot sticks in the fridge at all times for snacking. Full of vitamin A, rich in fiber and low calorie.
Eat plenty of green fibrous veg such as cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus and you’ll be well on your way to a better body. Also consider beans and peas in all their various forms.
Fruit
Like veg fruit is a great way to get carbs into your body, however with fruit they can contain simple sugars. This is ok because you need these too. For example immediately after your workout a boost in simple sugars can promote protein uptake.
16 Oranges
Full of vitamin C keeping your immune system healthy. However don’t get from fruit juices unless you juice your own. It is much better to eat them.
17 Berries
Raspberry, blackberry, blueberry? It doesn’t matter because they are all good. I like to mix a few different types. Much more interesting.
When it comes to fruit some say it is much better to stick with the main ones such as oranges, apples and bananas and some berries. However if you get bored easily feel free to eat any fruit you can get your hands on. For me I’m currently living in Malaysia and the choice of standard fruit in my town is limited. Plenty of exotic fruit hasn’t done any harm at all.
Nuts & Seeds
18 Almonds
High in vitamin E, almonds can help after a heavy workout by preventing breakdown of muscle.
19 Peanut butter
If you need extra calories and are finding it hard. Peanut butter will be your best friend. A peanut butter sandwich can give you over 600 calories.
Mixed nuts and seeds are excellent way to get fats, protein and fiber all at once. Buy some mixed nuts and seeds or individually to make your own trail mix. A couple of handfuls a day will give you everything you need to grow big.
Oils
20 Olive oil
Popular among bodybuilders as it fights free radicals that try to breakdown the very muscle tissue you’re trying to grow. Also made up of monounsaturated fat.
21 Flax seed oil
Contains more than twice as much Omega-3 as fish oil and is very popular in the muscle building community.
Last But Not Least
22 Water
Water is going to be the most important component of your muscle building diet. It is advised that normal people get about 2L (66 ounces). For muscle builders it should at least be this value if not
higher.
You should certainly consume water before, during and after you exercise as well as throughout the day if you can. Water is responsible for just about every process in the body which is includes protein
uptake.
Summary
So there you see a good wide varied list of muscle building foods you can use in your meal plan to support muscle growth. You should notice that these are real foods with no processed rubbish. This gives you a big clue if you can’t decide if something is right or wrong for your diet.
If you need to, think it through like this. Did a caveman eat this? If the answer is yes then is most likely to be good. If you the answer is no then maybe avoid it.
If you want a nutrition plan tailored to your exact needs, preferences ad body type then try the Muscle Maximizer.