Your body works just like any machine, but then it also perpetually refurbishes itself. At all times during each day, it keeps breaking down its own tissues and replenishes them with new ones that it creates from the combination of foods you eat and reconditioned material it salvages from other tissues.

Irrespective of how old your bio-data depicts you are, your constituent parts are much younger. Do you know, even your bones reconstitute themselves every 10 years or so? By that analogy, your muscle cells with an average age of 15 years old are much younger than your actual age.

Complete Nutrition Guide To Get Best Results From Workout

When you work out, it causes the protein in your muscles to break down and build up muscle-tissues faster than it does normally. As a matter of fact, when someone works out with an aim to become more impressive than he or she is now, the out-and-out purpose is to make that protein to turn over.

Ways To Build Bigger Muscles

Following are the two techniques to do that.

(i) The first method is to intake more protein than you presently do. Protein, by and of itself, is anabolic. It tends to be stored and get build-up in your muscles.

(ii) The second method is to work out in a manner that unsettles your muscles and drives them to retort by growing stronger and bigger.

What Is The Best Way To Gain Muscles?

I recommend a combination of both. That is a diet richer in high quality protein (including whey protein powder) along with a good strength-training regimen. This combination method is the oldest, proven, and only non-pharmaceutical technique to accomplish that goal. Read on for all the information you need to know about how much protein you should eat, and when.

How Much Total Protein Should You Eat In A Day?

According to a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 2007, it was learned that muscle size enhances by 0.2 percent in a day during the first 20 days of a strength-training schedule. This growth is over and above the high rate of muscle-protein breakdown that’s occurring concurrently during work out.

This elucidates why a person who’s just beginning, or returning from a long gap, requires more protein than the one who’s been working-out for years without a break, and who is at or near his or her genetic upper limit for muscle strength and muscle size. But I have found that it’s usually the beginner who’s least likely to concern about his or her diet, and so is at risk of not taking in as much protein as he or she should.

How much should be that? A good aim is 0.75 grams of protein per pound of body weight in a day. For a guy who weighs 150 pounds, it needs to be about 112 grams.

How Much Protein At A Time?

Let us first understand what protein synthesis is? It’s a process that extracts protein from food that you eat and transforms it into muscle tissues. Just imagine protein synthesis works like a lamp. It’s either on or off. When you intake 20 to 25 grams of high-quality protein, it switches on. But don’t mistake, with more protein at a time doesn’t improve the response, same as like using more force to a light switch won’t make the room brighter.

When To Eat Protein?

Most people have a tendency to stuff in their daily protein intake needs in a meal or two. What they go for is a low-protein, high-carb breakfast (a bowl of cereal with milk), a moderate-protein lunch (a turkey sandwich), and then backload a high-protein dinner, including a big portion of meat or fish. But according to a study by the Journal of Nutrition in 2014, you convert more of the protein from your meals into muscle tissues when you spread out protein intake evenly at each meal. Further the study pointed out that protein synthesis was 25 percent better in participants who got 30 grams of protein in each of three daily meals in comparison to the ones who got the same total amount but had most of it at dinner.

According to another study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, it was observed that the participants who ate at least 20 grams of protein six times a day shed body fat and augmented lean mass, with or without workout. They were provided with a protein supplement within an hour of waking up, no more than two hours before going to bed, and every three hours in between.

If you feel six meals are too many, then you have at least 3 protein-rich meals per day, particularly in the initial stages of a new workout plan. Protein synthesis will max out about 16 hour after-training, and will stay raised for up to 48 hours. Protein breakdown will also be elevated for 24 hours.

What does this imply is that every meal matters! If you’re training 3 or 4 times per week, your body will as a consequence remain in the process of building new muscle each hour of each day, and also in the mode of breaking down muscle at a higher rate at least half the time.

Pre And Post Workout Protein

For regular long time trainers, who work out consistently, protein synthesis touches its peak much earlier – about 4 hours after-workout—and also comes again to its baseline levels sooner. So the protein you intake immediately before and post your training becomes more crucial.

Muscles Gain By Protein Supplements

As per a study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published in 2012, the scholars put together information gathered from multiple studies analyzing protein and strength training. They noted that the ones who ate protein supplements built 2 additional pounds of muscles in 12 weeks’ time in comparison to those who didn’t. It was concluded that persons who work out consistently need the pre- and/or post-workout protein supplements critically to maximize results.

Workout Nutrition – Window Of Opportunity

The “window of opportunity,” is the period when your muscles are most able to receive and use protein. As per a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, this period normally is about 3-5 hours. Preferably, you should ideally intake a protein-rich meal 1 ½ hours prior to workout, and another as soon as possible within 1 hour after you finish.

And the ones who train in the morning before breakfast have a narrower window. As per a textbook, Dietary Protein and Resistance Exercise published in 2012, protein synthesis slackens by about 15 to 30 percent when one is sleeping. Therefore if you train early in the morning before eating, you should have a post-workout meal as soon as possible.

Best Protein Source Options

Different types of food provide different combinations of amino acids – the so called building blocks of protein. Leucine is absolutely the most essential of the 20 amino acids for building muscles. It requires about 2 to 3 grams of leucine to pick up the full anabolic effect from a meal.

A normal-size serving of any meat or poultry has at least 2 grams of leucine. (A serving size is just about the size of your palm.) Three eggs, two glasses of milk, a piece of fish, or a cup of yogurt provides you about 1.5 grams. A cup of cottage cheese or scoop of whey protein (25 grams) contains nearly 3 grams.

And for those who prefer plant foods, soy has the maximum leucine. A cup of soybeans contains about 2.3 grams. Beans and lentils are next in line with 1.2 to 1.4 grams per cup. A 1/4^th   cup serving of nuts or flaxseeds has near about 0.5 grams.

Do You Need Carbs And Fat To Gain Muscles?

The carbs plays an important role in building muscles. Whereas carbs before workout provides an easily accessible energy source, and the carbs post workout not only helps replenish that energy, but also helps produce insulin, a hormone that shoves nutrients into storage – in this case, ushering protein to your muscle cells. On the contrary, fat is slower to digest, and so put a damper on the responses of key hormones.

About a decade ago, it was believed to eat carbs but avoid fat in your pre- and post-training meals. This was all based on the wrong notion that to help your body you need to keep things as easy as possible. But, your body is smart enough to manage the things. Here’s what we now know:

(i) If you are having a desk job and sit for long hours before and/or post workout, you don’t require pre-workout carbs for energy. You have enough in stock in your body.

(ii) If you’re not doing more than one strenuous training a day, you have plenty of spare time to replenish your energy supply. Your normally scheduled meals would be able do the job.

(iii) However, as per Dietary Protein and Resistance Exercise it is definitely beneficial to combine protein with carbs in a post-workout meal or supplement. It would cause a slightly better protein synthesis.

(iv) Now regarding fat, I don’t see a cause for concern either way.

(v) If you’re eating and training with an aim to look better than you do now, what matters is total calories intake more than the particular composition of the calories, or the particular way you intake them.

(vi) To get lean and muscular, you need to have enough proteins and a low-carb and low-fat diet with different combinations of meals and snacks.

Total Fitness Tips In Nutshell

1. For those who are working out for strength and size will have the best results with 0.75 grams of protein per pound of body weight in a day. For a guy who weighs 150 pounds, it needs to be about 112 grams. This daily intake almost certainly is the most important aspect in your pursuit to gain muscle fast.

2. Protein synthesis works best when you distribute your protein intake over 3 or more meals, instead of having most of it in a single meal. Aim for at least 20-25 grams of high-quality protein in each meal to maximize protein synthesis.

3. Strength training bump up protein synthesis for up to 48 hours in new trainers, or the ones restarting after a long gap, and nearly 24 hours in the regulars who are working out consistently.

4. Since protein synthesis slackens down while you sleep, it’s suggested you eat something soon after waking up.

5. The “window of opportunity” surrounding a workout is about 4 to 5 hours. So aim to have a protein-rich meal 1 ½ hours prior to training and another immediately after to get the best results.

6. Include carbs in your after-training meal to improve the results.

Please share your thoughts – what are your tips on What And When To Eat To Build Muscle?