Fat Loss 4 Idiots Opinion

Sunday, March 15, 2009

When it comes to building muscle, junk food isn't good enough

By Jon Cardozo

I'm sure you've heard it many times before: if you want to build muscle you must increase your calories. This is because the body needs to get materials to build muscle from your diet.

It's actually pretty simple when you think about it. If you want to remain at your current weight, then you simply need to try to eat the same number of calories that you burn on any given day. There are many great calculators on the Internet that can help you determine how many calories you need.

Having said that, not just any calories will do. Don't think you can eat whatever you want and still gain large amounts of muscle. Unfortunately, you'll have to be more selective in your nutritional choices and may even have to give up some of your favorite foods.

You can't expect to build muscle if your diet consists primarily of fast foods like chips, French fries, and cookies. Remember that you need a significant amount of protein to build your muscle, as well as carbohydrates and healthy fats.

You have probably heard of the dangers of hydrogenated oils, or Trans fats. Well, these won't help you build muscle at all, and over time they actually increase your chances of heart disease. Sure, you can probably get away with a little bit, but you want to be careful. You want to be healthy and you're also trying to build muscle, so treat yourself like a world class athlete.

Foods high in refined sugar will also hamper your muscle building efforts. Excess sugar only has three possible outcomes in your body: it is burned immediately as fuel, it is stored as glycogen in the liver and the muscles, or it is converted to fat.

When you eat large amounts of sugar, the third outcome is inevitable. This is because your body cannot store very much glucose at one time, and you're unlikely to burn it all off if you are using high amounts of sugar.

If you want to maximize your muscle gaining efforts, stick to whole nutritious foods like lean protein, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Stay away from the junk food, and you'll be doing your muscles a favor. - 17269

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