Successfully building muscle isn’t just about spending time in the gym, it’s actually an all encompassing way of life as any bodybuilder will tell you. Another key part of adding muscle for example is what you eat, which can make all the difference between progressing or staying the same.

First of all you need protein to build muscle. The reason this works is that your body actually uses protein to rebuild itself, almost as though you are recycling animal meat to become your own skin, tendons and muscle. When you train you make tiny ‘microtears’ in your muscle fibres which your body marks out as needing to repair. It then uses protein to do this and makes them a little bit thicker to prevent future damage, which is the basis for hypertrophy AKA muscle growth. This is why you cannot grow without protein and the more you consume the better. Some sources claim that for true muscle bulk you need to eat a gram of protein for every pound of weight, but this is actually excessive unless you want bodybuilder type proportions. This is also the reason that you should consume protein immediately after working out, while your body is searching for the protein to make the repairs.

There are variations within different types of protein however and each source contains a host of different amino acids, the building blocks of life, which the body uses for various different jobs. If your body needs an amino acid that you don’t have in you blood stream you’ll be doing yourself damage which you can’t fix by adding the acids later. For this reason then you need to make sure you get all 22 amino acids as often as possible when you eat your protein. Unfortunately only eggs contain all these acids (not even protein shakes do) and so unless you’re eating lots of eggs you should try and consume at least two different protein sources at a time.

Protein also differs in its ‘biological value’, which refers to the amount of available protein your body can utilise and absorb. For BV or absorption rates, meat sources are definitely preferable to plant sources, with whey protein, eggs and fish being particularly good.

You also need to keep an eye on how lean your meet is to try and avoid taking in too much fat that can create a layer of fat cells over your hard earned muscle. To avoid this a general rule is that the whiter the meet the less fatty it is, so tuna, chicken and pork are preferable to beef or lamb.

So by consuming high quality protein in large quantities you can ensure that your time spent in the gym isn’t wasted. As the old saying goes, ‘you are what you eat!’

Mack LeMouse

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