Gain Muscle With Hard Work And More Total Calories

 
Question: "My client wants to gain muscle mass. What should I tell him to eat?"

by Nanci S. Guest

Many people, especially those who strength train or participate in power sports, are told that eating lots of protein or taking protein supplements will help them gain muscle weight. Can sitting on the couch eating protein all day, create muscle? No!

The true secret to building muscle is training hard and consuming enough total calories, including sufficient protein, to support this growth. The successful weight-gaining diet provides the nutrients necessary to synthesize muscle protein as well as the energy (carbohydrate and fat) to train hard to stimulate this muscle growth.

DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

Theoretically, to gain one pound of body mass per week, one must consume an extra 500 kcal per day (3,500 kcal=1 pound). (Some individuals are "hard gainers" and may require up to 1,000 extra kcal/day to gain one pound/week. This is most likely due to a predetermined genetic weight that manipulates an individual's metabolism to maintain a certain weight.)

These extra calories must be in excess of what is needed to maintain current weight. The total energy from these calories should be derived from all three macronutrients - carbohydrate, protein, and fat.

The body uses dietary protein for muscle protein synthesis but if enough total calories aren't consumed, the body's protein stores are used for energy, and muscle gain is limited.

Carbohydrates are essential to fuel intense workouts (to stimulate muscle growth), and both fat and carbohydrates provide energy for the body to "grow" more muscle.

Individuals wanting to increase their muscle mass should maintain their current macronutrient ratios - carbohydrates 55%-65%, protein 12%-15%*, fat 20%-25% - but need to eat more total calories. (*Note: Increased calories automatically increases protein intake).

Daily energy and macronutrient requirements to gain one pound per week:

• daily calorie needs: approximately 20% more than current intake
• daily carbohydrate needs: 6-10 grams/kg bodyweight/day
• daily protein needs: 1.6-1.8 g protein/kg bodyweight/day
• daily fat needs: approximately 25% of total calories (mostly from healthy fats such as peanut butter, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, fish, etc.)

EXAMPLE

A 70kg (154 lb) male wants to gain 10 lbs. If he is committed to a well-designed strength-training program and is diligent about calorie intake, he can expect to gain approximately one pound per week. Realistically, 3-5 of those weeks may result in little or no gain; therefore, he can expect to achieve his goal in 13-15 weeks.

• Daily calories: currently 3,000 kcal/day x 20% = 3,600 kcal/day
• Daily carbohydrate: 8 g carb/kg x 70 kg = 560 g carb = 2,240 cal. carb = 62% cal. carb
• Daily protein: 1.7 g/kg x 70 kg = 119 g protein = 476 cal. protein = 13% cal. protein
• Daily fat: 25% x 3,600 total cal. = 900 cal. fat = 100 g fat

TIPS FOR BOOSTING CALORIES

• Eat three meals every day. Get up in time for breakfast, don't skip lunch, and that dinner actually needs to be prepared and eaten.
• Eat three snacks every day. Snack at mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening. Always have snacks with you; keep energy/protein bars and trail mix in your car, gym bag and desk.
• Drink higher calorie beverages. Instead of diet soda, coffee or tea, choose 1% or 2% milk (add milk powder, Ovaltine or Carnation Instant Breakfast), 100% fruit juice and sports drinks.
• Choose calorie-dense foods. Eat potatoes, corn or peas instead of celery and carrot sticks. Choose a banana or cranberry juice instead of an apple or orange juice. Snack on raisins instead of grapes. Granola is more calorie-dense than puffed rice. Read food labels for the serving size and the calories, and make it a habit to routinely choose higher-calorie foods.
• Expand the size of your meals. Include some starchy food (potato, rice, pasta, bread, cereal), fruits and vegetables, and a protein source (chicken, leanred meat, fish, tofu, peanut butter, legumes, eggs, cheese) in each meal. Add healthy fats, such as 2-3 teaspoons of margarine or salad dressing, or a handful of nuts/seeds to each meal for extra calories. FTC

Nanci S. Guest, M.Sc., C.S.C.S., owns Power Play: Nutrition, Fitness, Performance in Vancouver B.C. Since 1995 she has provided the general public and athletes of all levels with nutritional counseling, personal training and sport conditioning. She conducts seminars for sports teams, athletic groups and guest lectures at local colleges. This fall she begins teaching sports nutrition at the University of British Columbia. Visit her at www.powerplayweb.com.

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