A Perfect Diet for Building Muscles

May 16
08:20

2011

Robert Gillespie

Robert Gillespie

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It turns out that what you eat and when you eat it is just as important to muscle growth as working out. Learn how to coordinate your eating with your exercise for maximum results.

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When you exercise,A Perfect Diet for Building Muscles Articles the purpose should be to try and maintain good health. It’s no secret that you have to eat as well, so your body will have the energy it needs to exercise and still have a sufficient amount of energy left over for everyday tasks.  In order to make the best of your exercise, pay close attention to what you eat before and after your workout.

You should always make it a point to consume a balanced mixture of proteins and carbohydrates if you are going to be doing either a cardio workout or a resistance workout.  The ratio of carbs and protein you ingest should be determined by whether you are doing a cardio exercise or a resistance exercise and the intensity level you are prepared to work at.

The ideal time for you to ingest your pre-workout meal is an hour before beginning.  If you are prepared to exercise at a low intensity level, you should limit your pre-workout meal to 200 calories or so.  However, if you intend to exercise at a high level of intensity, you might want to make your meal so that it is between 4000 and 5000 calories.

Individuals who are doing a cardio workout will have to ingest a mix of 2/3 carbs and 1/3 protein. This supplies longer sustained energy from the extra carbs with still adequate protein to keep muscle from breaking down during exercise. In the case of resistance exercise, you'll need to eat a mix of 1/3 carbs and 2/3 protein. This will give you a lot of energy from the carbs to carry out each set you do while the extra protein will help restrict muscle breakdown to a minimum. 

Ingesting the correct foods after you exercise is just as crucial as eating your pre-workout meal. Anytime you do a cardio or resistance exercise, you deplete energy in the form of glycogen.  Glycogen is the main source of fuel for the brain and central nervous system. It’s critical to realize that if you don't replace glycogen after you exercise, your body will begin to break down your muscle tissue and convert this into amino acids. The amino acids are then changed into usable fuel for the brain and the central nervous system at the expense of the muscle tissue you have been working so hard to build.

During resistance exercise, muscle tissue is broken down by creating micro-tears. After a workout, your muscles go automatically into repair mode.  Protein is very important for muscle repair. You don't want muscle breaking down even further to make fuel instead of lost glycogen.

At the end of a cardio workout, you'll really need to eat mainly carbohydrates.  Choose carbs that supply a lot of fiber. Fruits, rice, whole wheat pasta and oatmeal are outstanding sources of this type of carbohydrate. Try to eat 30-50 grams of three types of carbs after you exercise.  It’s OK to eat within five to ten minutes after your cardio workout. After finishing a resistance workout, you will need to ingest a combination of carbs and protein.  Remember, resistance workouts will break down muscle tissue by creating micro-tears which is not a real with cardio workouts.

You'll need to replace protein, as this happens, to build up and fix these tears so that your muscles can expand in size and strength.  Not only will the carbs replace the lost muscle glycogen, but they will, additionally, help the protein in getting into muscle cells. This protein can synthesize into structural protein (the muscle itself).

When your resistance exercise is over, you should wait up to 30 minutes before you eat, so that you won't take blood away from your muscles too fast by making it to go to the digestive process. The blood in your muscles will help with the repair process by taking away metabolic waste products.