Building Muscle on a Healthy Diet

[Shroomdoctor]

Hello my friends,

I have struggled for quite some time now to figure this out, and maybe some of you can help me with that.

I am trying to build a healthy diet for myself. Research suggests something along the lines of Paleo. But at the same time I am trying to build muscle. This is something I really want and like to do, but getting the needed calories with a "healthy" diet seems extremely hard.

Does anyone of you had this problem and found a solution to honor both of these aspects?

[Charlotte]

I've been attending the gym, doing yoga twice a week eating one large plant based meal a day (nutritious most of the time) and I've just started building muscle for the first time in my entire life ?. 

What I'm trying to say is I've not necessarily been counting calories, just eating my one meal until I feel satisfied and also eating as close to nature as possible. Try not to over complicate it because you can easily get sucked in to all the muscle building hype. 

 

[Shroomdoctor]

What exactly do ya eat?  

The Gaaaaainz.

[Charlotte]

Exactly? Jesus ?

Have a look at a typical healthy vegan diet. I go for 80% healthy af with 20% being my wiggle room for frozen pizza or eating out etc. 

"The gaaaaaainz" ?

[Shroomdoctor]

I want to know every piece of brokoli you eat 

[Charlotte]

??

I buy organic as much as possible and drink shit loads of purified water. Literally follow Leo's 'how to shop for healthy food' and also read 'how not die' by Michael greger. He's the shiz. 

Me now...

[Sahil Pandit]

@Charlotte @Shroomdoctor Human Growth Hormone levels can increase 1300% in women and 2000% in men who exercise and re-feed after a 16 hour intermittent fast 

I am planning on doing this during Christmas break, i will keep you posted on the results! 

[Charlotte]

@Sahil Pandit oh please do! 

 

[Angelo John Gage]

In order to build muscle, you need to be in a calorie SURPLUS. So whatever caloric intake you are at now, you need to increase it by 10%. You could increase it higher but you'd gain more fat that way.

So say if you are eating 3000 calories a day, you will need to eat 3300 calories a day.

What diet you choose is irrelevant; what matters you must eat a minimum of 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Whether you go zero carb, low carb or high carb doesn't matter so long as the body has the amino acids and calories to build new tissue. Meta-analyses have been done that show protein is the determining factor for the success of diets both geared for fat loss and muscle gain. 

However, certain diets will make this more of a pain-in-the ass; example, doing this on a vegan diet will be difficult because the amount of veggies you'd have to eat to reach 200 grams of protein would be astronomical.  You could get around this by drinking protein shakes and make it happen, but typically people will do high carb/high protein diet, since glucose is the preferred fuel that the body likes to use to engage in intense lifting, which is what builds muscle.

Paleo is a made up diet, like many of these fad diets. Our ancestors at that time were constantly looking for food and were not huge and muscular. They didn't have access to avocados and all these other paleo-friendly foods which are marketed today, most of which are actually are farmed foods. Broccoli and veggies we eat today were genetically modified via farming them from their wild origin to be edible. Paleo has been debunked in this regard. It has been shown that human beings ate what their environment provided and many ethnic groups across the world have adapted to their regional resources. People who say carbs are bad have to explain why the Okinowans eat 85% carb (rice) and have the longest life spans; others who say fats are bad have to explain how the Inuit eat literally only fat and protein... If dairy is bad, they have to explain why European farmers evolved the gene to process dairy whereas Asian populations of the world, who did not farm cows, did not get this gene. 

So don't worry about which diet is 'healthy' or not; all diets are fine so long as you are active and are not in a caloric surplus too long which leads to fat gain, insulin resistance,  and diabetes. Essentially, you have to tailor a diet that your  body responds to. Some people like to eat paleo because they enjoy running on fats; others feel the need for carbs. There is no cookie cuter diet, so do what I did and try them all until you figure out what works best for you.

But aside from that, in you're unable to build muscle it is because you need to eat more calories.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Angelo John Gage

[Angelo John Gage]

@Sahil Pandit Intermittent fasting is not the best way to build muscle, but it is a great way to lose fat; mostly due to the fact that when you fast, your HGH does increase and it does mobilize fatty acids, but the HGH increase in a fasted state is there to PRESERVE muscle, not build it. You need to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle, unless you are totally an untrained newbie who is embarking on a body transformation for the first time, could do a full body recomposition simply by working out and eating as they were.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Angelo John Gage

[ZZZZ]

Building muscle and gaining weight are two different things. The easier of the two for me tends to be building muscle, as my metabolism is very high (and I assume yours must be too if you are even struggling with this/asking this question). Every pound of muscle takes much more energy to "feed" on a daily basis relative to fat, therefore it is possible to burn fat and build muscle at the same time and maintain your overall weight. This will then require more food to maintain the same amount of weight over time.

The posts by Angelo are all you really need to understand. A certain height and weight (BMI) will require a certain average number of calories to maintain per day based on your activity level. Just look up a "weight gain calculator" to figure out what this number is for you. If you exceed this amount of calories by about 500 per day on a weekly basis, I believe you can gain around a half pound to a pound a week. Lower fat diets will tend to put you on the half pound side of things. If you are like me, you will struggle to eat enough to EXCEED these calories and remain at maintenance levels. This will lead to the phenomenon I described above where you are replacing fat with muscle by working out without the calories needed to put on any additional weight.

Basic nutrition is all you need to know to maintain your "healthy diet" during this process. Lean protein sources will be your friend if you want to "clean bulk," but fattier foods tend to be more calorie dense. Peanutbutter, steak, chicken, milk, fish, eggs, nuts, potatos, etc. are all natural things that you probably consider healthy which are also great for weight gain. Just research those foods and you should be well on your way. Personally I skimp on the vegetables occasionally since they tend not to have very many calories, but it is important to remain as balanced as possible if you can.

Edited November 27, 2018 by ZZZZ

[Angelo John Gage]

here's a calculator that will give you a ball park estimate for you and give you a break down in macronutrients as well (on the bottom of the page)

https://tdeecalculator.net

 

your "TDEE" is Total Daily Energy Expenditure; meaning, how many calories you burn during the day.

[Hello from Russia]

You dont' need to be in caloric surplus to gain muscle although it helps due to better envieronment for anabolic hormone release. All you need it is to give your muscles enough stimulus to grow (By doing exercising) and positive nitrogen balance (more protein gained than lost) - that's it.  
Calories are mainly used for body fat % regulation , they have almost nothing to do with building muscle. Weight !=Muscle. You can just get a bunch of fat by going into surplus and not exercising enough. I really don't recommend dirty balking. You don't need it in the first years of your Gym career. You'll grow just fine being on deficit or maintance.
Stop deluding people.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Hello from Russia

[Angelo John Gage]

I already stated above that  'newbie' or first time lifter, can pull off a total body recomposiition at maintenance because they will simply partition their nutrients differently than they were before and the new stimuli will cause muscle growth, but this doesn't happen after the first time again.

From his first post, it implies he has been trying for a while and it has failed. He is no newbie, so he needs more calories. Judging by his picture, he  is an ectomorph who has a fast metabolism, a 'hard gainer' type that definitely needs more calories if he wants to grow any new tissue.

So unless you are a newbie, like I stated, you need a caloric surplus. And no, you cannot gain new muscle in a deficit, but simply spare losing what you have. IF there is any new muscle hyperplasia in a deficit, you won't see those cells grow until they are fed and there is muscle hypertrophy

[SoothedByRain]

Lentils. Chickpeas. Chia Seeds. Potatoes and Dark Green Veg. One giant arse bowl and three glorious feasts daily.

[Outer]

On 11/27/2018 at 8:23 AM, Shroomdoctor said:

But at the same time I am trying to build muscle

Lift stuff up and put them back down.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Outer

[Dan Arnautu]

@Charlotte No diet is best. One year keto is best, another year paleo is best, another year vegan or carnivore is best and then the cycle repeats. It's just marketing. Don't get caught up in it. Every diet works. Some just work better with certain body types than with others.

Also, substitute the word diet with nutrition. Diet is something you do once and then you yo-yo back to your previous condition. Proper nutrition is something that you integrate into your lifestyle and it doesn't change much after you set it properly.

What calorie problem do you have specifically?

[Charlotte]

@Dan Arnautu I totally agree. I used the term diet for shroomdoctor to research. 

Calorie problem?

[Outer]

On 11/27/2018 at 9:23 AM, Charlotte said:

What I'm trying to say is I've not necessarily been counting calories, just eating my one meal until I feel satisfied and also eating as close to nature as possible.

If you're just eating one meal and you're not eating like very calorie dense foods its hard to get enough calories to maintain an active lifestyle.

[Charlotte]

@Outer From personal experience, I'd have to disagree ?‍♀️ like I said, my portion sizes are large, I eat until I'm full.