When you’re coming up with a muscle building diet, there are really 2 questions you need to answer:
WHAT to eat and HOW MUCH to eat.
Makes sense, right?
Now as far as WHAT to eat, you can get as complicated as you want…
But the truth is, there are just 2 fundamental principles you need to stick to.
Muscle Building Diet Principle #1: Eat Real Foods
99% of the time, real, natural foods trump everything else—including supplements and foods that are highly processed and manufactured.
So for example: a steak is better than a protein bar, and a baked potato is better than potato chips.
Muscle Building Diet Principle #2: Stick To Your Macros
If your diet calls for eating 30% of calories from protein, make sure that whatever you eat…meets those macros pretty close.
Personally, I like to keep my macros pretty balanced. I aim for 30-40% for each. For example, on a workout day, I might eat 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates.
On a rest day, I might eat 35% protein, 35% fat, and 30% carbs.
It doesn’t have to be exact, it just has to be close.
The #1 Muscle Building Diet Mistake To AVOID
Following these 2 principles should help you to AVOID one of the most common muscle building diet mistakes, which is…
Using quote-unquote “bulking” as an excuse to eat junk.
Guys do this all the time.
They think, “Hey, I’m bulking…that means I can eat ice cream, and Doritos, and burritos, and cake…”
No. Remember Muscle Building Diet Principle #1: eat real, natural foods.
How Much Should You Eat To Build Muscle?
Ok, so now you have an idea of WHAT to eat.
The next question to tackle is: how MUCH should you eat?
And *this* is where I think a looot of guys go wrong.
I’ve seen SO many guys get FAT in the pursuit of muscle…it’s ridiculous.
We guys tend to think that if we want to gain muscle…we have to eat a MASSIVE amount of food. But that’s just not true.
Don’t You Need To Eat 5,000 Calories Per Day?
It’s easy to see WHY we get confused. After all, there are a lot of books and websites out there that CLAIM you have to eat 4, 5, or 6 thousands calories a day if you want to put on mass.
Now, this *may* be true for a MINORITY of people, like severe hard-gainers and professional athletes who are incredibly, incredibly active.
But for the average man or woman who works at a desk, works out maybe 2-5 times per week, and whose goal is to just to look their absolute BEST…
That’s way, way, way too much food.
Now, yes…if you eat that kind of diet you WILL gain WEIGHT quickly…
BUT you’ll gain a lot of unwanted bodyfat, instead of gaining lean muscle mass.
Which is what you really want…right?
How Much Do You REALLY Need To Eat?
So with that in mind, how much do you really need to eat?
I recommend starting with a small calorie surplus of about 200-250 calories per day. That’s NOT much.
That’s about one extra cup of oatmeal plus one scoop of protein powder per day.
In fact, if you don’t want to track calories…then do exactly that. Eat like normal, but add one extra cup of oatmeal (that’s half a cup of dry oats, which creates 1 cup of cooked oats) plus one scoop of whey protein powder per day.
Do that for at least a week or so. Preferably 2 weeks. Weight yourself regularly, and see how much progress you make.
If you gain ANY weight at all, it’s working. Keep doing it until you STOP gaining weight. Then add another 200-250 calories.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Now I want to set realistic expectations here.
Do NOT expect to see a TON of progress overnight. Because you won’t.
Building muscle is a slow process for the most part.
But as long as you track your workouts and your diet, it should be CONSISTENT progress.
You won’t make any big gains overnight, but keep it up and before you know it…
You’re going to look in your bathroom mirror and say:
Who is that JACKED fellow looking back at me?