Can I Get Muscle Building Nutrition From Fast Food Joints?
August 14, 2009 by healthyguy
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Holding down two jobs, meetings to get too, kids to pick up from school and so on there are so many distractions, pressures and time constraints that if we are not careful can only lead to one thing… not enough time to prepare your meals. As far as muscle building nutrition goes that is the ultimate crime. The main reason is that it can lead to eating junk fast food.
Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat content that contains very little fat content mixed with very little in the way of quality energy. So, what can we eat for decent muscle building nutrition if we really cannot avoid muscle building nutrition?
Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:
Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A simple portion of medium sized fries will stuff your body full of around 200 calories including around 400 calories with around 20 grams of fat and the drink will provide you with around 200 calories with heaps of sugary content!
Always choose the grilled version. You can save around 80 calories coming mostly from fat by eating a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich as opposed to a premium crispy chicken. A straightforward selection but often overlooked.
Try to give the dessert a miss. At a fast food joint there are a huge array of dugary snacks in store for you that if you really must have a sugary item then keep it down to a kiddies portion size.
Make sure you limit you use of the sauces. A good deal of these is that many of these are high in fat content with very little muscle building nutrition content. You know what I mean, those small little packages containing mayo, tartar sauce and so on. Do yourself a service and give it a miss.
What can I eat if a fast food joint really is the only option?
If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:
For the main meal a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich would provide 420 calories, 10 grams of fat, 51g carbs and 32g protein. A Honey Mustard grilled Snack Wrap would gibe your body 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the Sesame Ginger Dressing that is low in fat. Probably the best option is the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that provides 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.
For those of you that reside in Australia the choices change slightly too:
A Lean Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.
Excellent breakfast selections would include an Egg McMuffin which gives your body 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.
I hope that gives you some idea of exactly how you can eat relatively healthily even at a fast food joint if you make the correct choices. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.
7 Costly Muscle Building Mistakes To Avoid
August 2, 2009 by healthyguy
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We hear loads of advice and guidance on what to do to build up muscle but much of it is conflicting. For that very reason we are going to set the record straight on a numberof different issues right here and now. Here we go, 7 things not to do when trying to build muscle up:
1) Train for more than 45 minutes. training longer than this can actually inhibit muscle gains because at this point a hormone is produced that limits the muscle building process, train for less than 45 minutes and the hormones level is about correct for building muscle.
2) Eat lots of everything. Often you hear people say to eat as much of everything as you possibly can. Well sure we need excess calories to build muscle mass but do you really think that stuffing yourself full of E numbers, simple carbs (sugars), fatty red meats, fast food and so on is going to benefit you long term. Of course not stay with the nutritious muscle building foods and these will then make sure that you develop lean muscle mass and prevent your body suffering long term health problems.
3) Isolation muscle building exercises. That refers to movements such as tricep kick backs that isolate one individual muscle alone. This is not an efficient use of time and energy. Stick to multi joint exercises like presses, squats, pull ups and so on. These exercises stimulate muscle growth in more than just one muscle at a time.
4) Ignoring aerobic exercise. I’m sure you have heard that you should steer clear of aerobic stuff as it consumes valuable calories that could be put towards building muscle. yes this is correct but come on there is a sensible balance to be had. Sure get big but do you want to be huge and not be able to walk up a few flights of stairs without panting. Train aerobically two or three times a week and just consume additional calories to make up for these sessions.
5) Change exercises a lot. You may know that variety ensures muscles keep growing, that is correct but naturally at the same time not letting your muscles establish an exercise rhythm can also limit your progress that you might otherwise make. Stick with an exercise for a couple of months before dropping it.
6) Lift too often. A major cause of limited muscle building progress is over training. One to two workouts a week for each muscle group should sufficient fro most people.
7) Quit. Way too many people stop working out just because there muscle growth eases up somewhat. This is the exact time when you should be rising to the challenge and training with more intensity, paying attention to muscle building nutrition and showing determination.
Go get massive!
Build Big Pecs Now With Muscle Building Support Tips and Techniques!
July 20, 2009 by healthyguy
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• Build Big Pecs Fast using the right Supplements can help…
Muscle building routines for beginners may seem a bit overwhelming at first with all the diet restrictions. There are some key elements that are essential to your muscle building routine and cannot go astray. Protein supplements can be a good addition to your daily diet. It is almost impossible to eat the amount of protein needed to build big pecs fast with regular food. Buy some good quality whey protein and drink a protein shake at least twice a day. Pay attention to the ingredients especially the fillers. High quality supplements are a must or you are wasting your time and money! You should drink one immediately after your workout and another in about 10 – 12 hours later. There are many great muscle building supplements.
• Rest, Rest, Rest…
Rest your body so that your muscles can recoup. During your workout routine your muscle tissues will begin to tear slightly a little bit at a time if it is apparent it is happening too fast cut back on your routine. As the healing process progresses you will see the difference as your muscles will be getting larger and larger and noticeably stronger in your workout. It very important for you to take a break and rest after every hard workout routine. You should not work on your pec muscles again for at least two days after a weight lifting workout. Your muscles should not be sore when you begin your next chest workout. If they are, give it another day and cut back on either the amount of weight or the reps. Rest will help you build muscle fast.
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• Spice it up with variety…
Change up your muscle building routines. As time passes your chest muscles will make progress faster and faster. Continue to spice it up with variety in order to keep you on the right track to building big pecs fast. To up the pace you can add weight to your lift and that will increase the time of your building pecs fast process. Varying your number of sets and reps is an option to help spice things up and keep your muscles working and growing. Mix it up by either increasing the reps with lower weight or increase the weight and lower the reps. Spice it up and vary your exercises with rotation. Use many angles while implementing your bench press and flies into your muscle building routine. Change it up regularly so that your workout makes you feel the pain again. Not extreme pain, just enough to make a difference.
You are on your way to Building Big Pecs Fast, Looking Great And Feeling Strong!
Should I Avoid Aerobic Workouts If I Want To Build Muscles Fastest?
July 14, 2009 by healthyguy
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A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle mass conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscles fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?
Well often you will read that in order to build muscles fastest you should keep cardio workouts to a minimum. This is said because cardio workouts do two main things that work against muscle building, they are: 1) use up a lot of calories 2) increase the speed of your metabolism. These two things both add weight to the problem of consuming enough calories. This takes us to the question of exactly what amount of calories should I therefore be taking on?
Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. Every day you will have to take on board another 500 calories if you want to build muscle mass.
Can I work this number out?
Yes, there definitely is and one way of finding this total is by following the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X hght in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)
Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (desk job, little or no exercise)
Lightly active equals BMR X 1.375 (1-3 days/wk sports/light exercise )
Mod. active equals BMR X 1.55 (sports 3-5 days/wk/moderate exercise)
Very active equals BMR X 1.725 (sports 6-7 days/hard exercise/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, contest etc
So, if you are doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will cover the amount of energy for your daily needs. To suit your specific goals you should then adjust this total. A further 500 calories a day need to be added if your goal is indeed to gain muscle mass.
So if your final figure is 3000 calories then you would be looking at eating 6 meals per day of 500 calories each. the constituents of every meal would therefore be protein: 37 grams, carbohydrate 62 grams and 11 grams would come from fat. This is figured out as so due to the fact that one gram of protein or carbohydrate is worth 4 gram whereas one gram of fat equals 9 calories.
Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!
Want To Build Muscle? Then Include These Foods In Your Diet
July 8, 2009 by healthyguy
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It is a well known fact nowadays that to build muscle diet is a key component that will determine whether you are successful or not. If you don’t have good muscle building nutrition then no matter how much you lift you won’t progress. So we will briefly outline some basic guidelines for a ‘build muscle diet’ and then we will take a look at some awesome bodybuilding foods.
Ok, quick guidelines for a diet to build muscle:
1) Eat 5-7 meals per day. This will allow you to comfortably take on board enough calories to grow. {It will ensure that your body maintains high energy levels throughout the day}.
2) Divide your meals up in to approximate portions of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the remainder can come from fats.
3) Eat about an hour half to two hours prior to your workout and eat immediately or at least within an hour after your workout. The post workout meal may merely be a shake but ought to include a high amount of protein. Also consuming quality calories from either a meal or protein shake is a wise idea just before sleeping so that you can support muscle growth during the night. Also eat as soon as you can upon waking as your muscle will be short on energy at this time.
4) Take supplements if you can afford it. Try supplementing with these: essential fatty acids, multi-vitamin pills, whey protein and creatine. Although you know to build muscle diet is important the addition of supplements can give you that extra boost required to build even more muscle.
5) Take on board water in small amounts regularly. water is critical to many reactions in the body. They occur much more easily in the presence of ample supplies of water. Water is required for muscle growth do drink plenty. However you will feel bloated if you try to drink too much water at once.
Ok, so we have covered the basics there. Now what food precisely is good for building muscle. Here are some great foods for your to try:
Protein is needed for growth and repair of muscles. Clearly this will be important for muscle building fanatics.Excellent sources of protein are: Chicken Breast, Egg Whites, Turkey Breast, Salmon, Tuna Cottage Cheese, Lean Beef, Whey Protein.
Carbohydrate fuels day to day activities and workouts and also provides calories to support muscle growth.To maintain energy levels and also to support muscle growth try and include the following in your diet: Brown Rice, Baked Potatoes, Bagels, Oatmeal, Fat Free Yogurt, Whole Wheat Pasta, Sweet Potatoes, and Beans.
Build muscle diets often neglect to mention that fats are important too. Some essential metabolic functions require certain types of fat. For fats that build muscle try to include in your diet: Avocado, Olive Oil, Nuts, Flax Seed Oil, Natural Peanut Butter and Fish Oil
Vitamins and minerals play a wide variety of roles in all of the important reactions in the body including muscle growth.Great sources of vitamins and minerals are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Green Beans, Peas, Carrots and Spinach.
With those guidelines in mind you ought to be able to build some serious muscle mass. Just don’t forget that in order to grow your body needs to take on board excess calories for energy and to support mucle growth. You will not grow if you do not consume excess calories. Follow these above rules and a sensible ‘build muscle diet‘ containing these types of foods and you should have no problems building muscle.




