Tuesday, March 3, 2009

When it comes to building muscle, junk food isn't good enough

By Jon Cardozo

You're probably tired of hearing this, but it never hurts to repeat an important concept. If you're serious about building large amounts of muscle, you need to increase your calories in order to give the body the necessary raw materials.

If you eat about as many calories as you burn, then your weight will stay the same. If you eat more calories than your body burns in a given day, then the surplus will be turned into extra weight. So at this point the formula may seem pretty simple.

However, if you want to gain muscle, that means you need to eat more calories than your body is using up in a day. Still, you can't simply eat whatever you want and expect to gain large amounts of muscle. There is a method to the madness.

You can't expect to build muscle if your diet consists primarily of fast foods like chips, French fries, and cookies. Remember that you need a significant amount of protein to build your muscle, as well as carbohydrates and healthy fats.

You have probably heard of the dangers of hydrogenated oils, or Trans fats. Well, these won't help you build muscle at all, and over time they actually increase your chances of heart disease. Sure, you can probably get away with a little bit, but you want to be careful. You want to be healthy and you're also trying to build muscle, so treat yourself like a world class athlete.

Foods high in refined sugar will also hamper your muscle building efforts. Excess sugar only has three possible outcomes in your body: it is burned immediately as fuel, it is stored as glycogen in the liver and the muscles, or it is converted to fat.

So, all that wonderful ice cream and candy bars can lead to extra fat whether you like it or not. Whatever you don't burn off can become fat, and if you eat excessive amounts you probably won't burn it all off.

If you want to maximize your muscle gaining efforts, stick to whole nutritious foods like lean protein, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Stay away from the junk food, and you'll be doing your muscles a favor. - 16650

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