Foods to Help Build Lean Muscle
If you’re looking to build lean muscle, there are certain foods in your diet that will help you reach that goal faster. Remember that in order to actually build more muscle than you currently have, you have to supply more calories than your body needs to just maintain its daily activities. If you don’t do this, you won’t have sufficient energy to put forwards to building that additional muscle, thus you won’t see progress.
One big reason many people don’t get the results they’re after as they start up on the goal to build lean muscle is because they aren’t consuming enough calories.
Let’s take a look at the foods that are going to make consuming more calories that much easier.
Nuts and Nut Butters
One of the single best foods for anyone who wants to build lean muscle is nut butters and regular nuts. Nuts are incredibly calorie dense with one cup packing in as many as 500 calories.
If you can simply snack on a handful between each meal you eat, that in itself may be enough to get you seeing some muscle gains.
Nut butters are also great when spread on bagels or smeared over a piece of fruit and will help boost up your calorie intake dramatically.
Dry Oats
Second, dry oats are another ‘must-have’ food for any muscle building diet. These are far better to eat raw than cooked when aiming to build muscle mass since they won’t be quite as filling nor will hold all the water they typically do when prepared.
Toss a cup of raw oats in a bowl, pour over half a cup of milk, and slice on a banana. You’ll have a 500 calorie breakfast in minutes.
Dry oats also work great when mixed with protein powder for a quick pre or post workout shake that’s ready when you are.
Beef Jerky
Third, since protein is a big requirement to build lean muscle mass, be sure to make use of beef jerky. It’s not all that filling but will supply a high calorie source of nutrition that your muscles need. The one thing to watch with beef jerky is that it is a lower sodium variety because that’s the one issue that you may run into.
While some sodium is fine in the diet, you do want to aim to maintain relatively moderate levels.
Salmon
Finally, the last muscle building food that you must take in to make your diet effective for muscle building is salmon. Salmon will help you build lean muscle mass since it supplies both protein and healthy fats, while also being more calorie dense.
If you can start replacing all the white fish you consume in your diet with salmon, you’ll be one step closer to seeing success.
So be sure that you’re keeping all of these foods in mind as you form your diet. If you want to build lean muscle mass, they all must be in the plan throughout your week.