Eating the right foods for a healthy and balanced diet is an essential part of building muscle, increasing strength, and boosting stamina. Many people focus solely on improving their workout routine and lifting heavier weights for maximum effects, but without specific nutrition rules, you can really hold back your body’s potential muscle gain.

Nutrition “Don’ts”

DON’T Eat Too Much or Too Little
Eating too much means that your body has no use for the excess food and stores any additional calories as fat which can be a lot harder to shift which is why eating right amounts of fat, carbs and protein keeps fat off and muscle on. Eating too little limits your muscle building potential as well and eating a balanced diet not only helps you bulk up but also increases strength so that you can increase muscle mass.

DON’T Overload on Sugar or Fat
Too much sugar is converted into body fat, and too much fat is hard for the body to digest. Balance is yet again an essential part of keeping your body lean. Trying keeping your fat intake to about 15% of your daily calorie intake and always look at food nutrition labels to make sure that your sugar consumption isn’t higher than it should be or you won’t notice much muscular improvement.

DON’T Forget to Eat Balanced Meals
Balanced meals are the key to a healthy diet and fitness plan. With a good amount of balance, you can give your body the nutrients it needs to burn fat, gain muscle and give you the strength you need to do a quality workout.

Nutrition “Do’s”

DO Have Plenty of Protein
Protein is vital for gaining muscle and also helping muscle recovery so if you are hitting the gym 5 times a week, then you need to ensure that your diet is full of enough protein to support your muscles and give them strength. Be sure that your primary source of protein is coming from food and not from a huge white tub of plastic. You can get a good amount of protein from low fat foods such as fish, egg whites and poultry but you can also get a more concentrated amount of protein from the right supplements too.

DO Keep a Food Diary…err I mean “Journal”
Keeping a food journal or ‘log book’ is important for noting any changes that may need to be made within your diet. It is just for you to use and look at and you need to be completely honest about what goes in there. When writing your daily foods down, also note if you went to the gym that day and also note special events such as holidays or parties which may have affected your diet. When you notice trends developing, you can make fast changes to improve.

DO Take Supplements
Supplements can work with your diet to increase your muscular potential as much as possible. It can be especially effective to take supplements which are designed to do a range of things for your body, such as help you gain muscle mass, get definition or even promote recovery. Getting all of your nutrients from food alone is extremely difficult and also ridiculously expensive. Whichever you pick, make sure that they complement your diet and workout routine correctly.

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