Muscle Gain Nutrition Guide/Cheat Sheet
Key requirements and helpful strategies & recipes for adding muscle mass and strength without compromising other health markers
Table of Contents/Topics Covered:
Why Nutrition Matters + Basic Problems
Basic requirements
How to set up a diet
Strategies
Tips + recipes
Sleep
Closing thoughts
*Note: this guide is for gaining weight and Building muscle tissue. If you are over 20% body fat as a man or over 30% as a woman, your main goal should be fat loss not a diet like this at the moment. Read the foundational health essays or personally message me if you need help. Upcoming essays to improve and set up fat loss diets will be coming soon as well*
Why Nutrition Matters/Basic Problems
You are likely well aware that nutritional requirements for muscle & strength gain are very important. To make a simple reminder - if nutrition/sleep are not adequately handled then you could be throwing away most if not all of your returns on training. (Avoid wasting whole training weeks because you fail to eat responsibly) Nutrition is often one of the most screwed up and difficult areas to get under control for most people, often due to lifestyle factors/lack of compliance. 1 or more of several issues usually occur:
(In order of approximated importance)
You don’t get enough protein in
You don’t get enough calories in
You don’t get enough carbohydrates in
You don’t get enough high-quality sources of those macro-nutrients in - I.e. Bioavailable proteins from meat, starch sourced carbs, etc.
You don’t get enough micronutrients - this is the “least important” short term but affects your health and therefore positive results - especially when compounding over your lifetime of training (see my last post on the ‘Secret to Elite Performance’)
Practically speaking, none of you guys need to get a deep science lesson about why these matter. But I will provide short explanations that provide incentive for you to prioritize making sure you check off all these boxes which will help ensure that you maximize your results from each training session you push yourself through.
If you fail in one or more of these criteria depending on its importance you will take away some of the gains you would have had or perhaps eliminate them entirely. It is common that a proper training program is butchered through a terrible dietary program. (Yes, you should think of your diet as a program as well)
Protein is obviously the macronutrient your body uses to build tissue - thus, this is obviously non-negotiable that its needs are met. Total calories are the total amount of energy you are consuming from your food (calorie totals are made up of energy totals from macronutrients - 4kcal/gram for protein and carbs, 9kcal/gram of fat). Without enough total calorie intake your body will not have the extra energy surplus to build more mass with. It will always prioritize using food intake to nourish the body’s organ and current energy needs to survive over building more biceps, therefore “extra” food is needed in order to have the surplus energy to use up for a complicated task for your body like muscle building.
Yes - there are ways to build muscle without a calorie deficit. However, it’s not so much there being a “way” to do it, but rather individuals in specific circumstances that can do it.
There are cases even where I might recommend this occasionally, but every person needs to know this is extremely suboptimal, and you run a much higher risk of completely eliminating all progress. It is not recommended to attempt a “recomp” unless you fit into the category of “obese”. (In this case - I would suggest strength training while eating in a calorie deficit > surplus in order to lose fat + potentially gain muscle. Even then, it is not a full guarantee and will be biased in favor of the total beginner / highly “detrained”.) If muscle & strength gain is a current goal - a calorie surplus is the most important nutritional need and is arguably more important than adequate protein intake. Do not waste your time with trying to “recomp”.
Choice of carbohydrate sources as well as protein/fat sources will also impact performance and response to training. Starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, etc. will provide a better response to recovering from training than simple sugars. This means you should *not* be replacing your carbohydrate meals, calorically, with things like Gatorade drinks and juice. For simple sugars that can be used to improve training performance you should use honey, preferably raw. If you invert this, then the nature of the carbohydrates you are using will not serve your ends nearly as well.
There is also the matter of protein bioavailability and fat source types. To make this simple and quick - plant based protein is inferior. Meat is better for muscle growth (and connective tissue growth - which is great - because of the collagen from animal products). Further, saturated fat is not bad for you either - unless you are already at highly elevated levels/cholesterol is very bad (do your bloodwork). Saturated fats like butter and other animal fats are actually very good for your hormonal system and vitality. Using a combination of mono-unsaturated fats (like olive oil) & saturated fats (like butter) are excellent for enhancing your lipid profile and wellbeing (brain + heart health included) - however this does not mean you just use an unlimited amount of it in your daily diet.
In summary, protein provides the building blocks to synthesize tissue. Carbohydrates are a fuel source to both trained and recover from training in order to promote an energy surplus and muscle strength gains. Fats are necessary to maintain a healthy hormonal profile so that your bodies health functions operate properly and your responses to training and the rest of your life are optimized – testosterones itself is synthesized from this.
Nutritional Daily Guidelines to Meet are as Follows:
*Many popular nutritional macro guidelines are subpar - they are designed to sell you protein powder and supplements; follow the guide below to both optimize your natural performance + save money/improve health*
(These can be augmented as needed but are a strong start point for those with limited experience)
Macro nutrients per day