Nutrition can help you to achieve your dream of building more and more muscle. There are some nutrition hacks which will help you to achieve more muscle within a short time.

The amount of carbohydrate needed

The amount of carbs will play a big role in deciding how much muscle you will build. If you want to gain muscle, it is not possible without at least in moderate surplus in calories over what you burn during the day. If you exercise regularly, then you may need a few more calories than that. However too much carbohydrate may not be the way to gain size and also stay lean.

Carbohydrates are the main source of fuel for your body. If you do not consume the necessary carbs, your body will break down muscle for amino acids and it means you will lose your muscle. Glycogen is the stored form of carbohydrate present in your body and in general your body can store about 400 g of glycogen at the time.

Carbs timing

Timing of the carbs is also very important for maximising its effect on your body and helping you to build more muscle. The main time to consume carbohydrate is in the morning as soon as you wake up. That will help you to take advantage of its protein sparing or anabolic capabilities. Since you have not eaten for the last 6 to 8 hours and your cortisol levels in the body are elevated, you need more carbohydrates to maximise the results. You also need carbohydrate post workout. When you consume high glycaemic carbohydrates after you exercise, it will spike insulin levels and that will pull amino acids from the blood and deliver them to muscle tissue.

You should also consume carbs 1 to 1 ½ hours before exercise.

Don't avoid fats

Healthy fat is very essential for your body because it will reduce inflammation, increase heart health and will lower blood cholesterol. You need poly and monounsaturated fats. If you want to increase your dietary fat, you will need in at butter, chicken breasts, turkey sandwich, oil and vinegar. If you consume omega-3 supplements or fish at least twice a week that will also help you to get the necessary healthy fats. Omega-3 fatty acids are good for you because they help you to control blood pressure, decrease triglyceride levels and decrease the risk of heart disease.

Even though you need healthy fats, moderate amounts of saturated fat is also necessary for your body and especially if you want to build more muscle. Little bit of saturated fat occasionally will not hurt you. But you should be careful to keep the saturated fat in check to ensure that you do not suffer from a heart problem while trying to build more muscle.

Use the glycaemic index

You need lower GI food such as whole wheat bread, oatmeal and other foods that contain more fibre. Higher GI foods often contain high amounts of sugar and they include soda, fruit juices, fat-free yogurt etc.

If you are trying to lose fat, then you should be more careful about the glycaemic index because they will cause spike in insulin levels which will prevent weight loss. If you continuously consume more processed high glycaemic foods, you will likely to become obese if you have a sedentary lifestyle. You should not try to replace fat to with carbohydrate because that will make you of these and will not help you to build more muscle and look lean.

References

1. The Muscle Maximizer
2. Healthy Muscles Matter
3. Musculoskeletal System