Which foods are great to gain more energy and muscles?

[luqqzr]

My goals are eating more healthy to have more energy in life and furthermore gaining more weight through muscles, so I'm trying to eat as many proteins as I can. I go to the gym about three times a week and I've been going for 1.5 years now. I am 21 years old, 6 ft tall and weigh 176 pounds. I think my goal is to gain like 15 more pounds.

After eating salads with vegetables only, I feel that great energy, that's why I'm eating those more often now. They do not contain proteins but I know salads are still very important for me. I like eating nuts without salt, drinking my protein shake, eating pizzas and yeah...

I'm trying to stop eating (or drinking) addictive and useless sugars like in milk chocolate or coca cola. The same for salts, for example in doritos. I like to eat/drink more sugar from fruits as they tend to give me more energy too and surely are a great replacement for sweets. If I drink something sweet, it's a smoothie, besides that I'm drinking much water.

But now I'm asking you guys, what do you eat/drink that does wonders to you? What can you recommend?

[outlandish]

Sounds like you're mostly eating really well and heathy! Get rid of that shitty junk food you're already aware of being a problem. Pizza isn't the best food either but some is fine, moderation is key. If you're looking to gain, as you know you need to eat more, and more, along with continued workouts, and make sure the food is quality!

Sweet potatoes, brown rice, legumes, dark green leafy vegetables, eggs (in moderation), berries, peanut butter are all really great healthy sources of nutrition. I eat a lot of white rice, whole grain breads, (plain) yogurt, pasta too - stuff that doesn't get medals for being optimal nutrition, but I really like to eat and feel good in my body.

Maybe you can increase workout 4-5x per week, and/or add some cardio (running, swimming, cycling) in there? Doing cardio can make your gains come more slowly, but they will be better gains with more muscle less fat, plus it's super healthy for your mind and body to hit that side of fitness. 

[Iksander]

Try free range eggs and some high quality steaks. High protein foods are great for energy levels. It's good that you eat a lot of salad and vegetables.

[pluto]

Fruits will give you the cleanest energy, protein will help build muscles.

[SFRL]

Eat a lot. And work out a lot. 

Eat as clean as possible. The less processed the food the better. 

Avoid empty calories as much as possible. 

[Lister]

@luqqzr No oil, that includes coconut oil and olive oil. No fats, except a small handful of nuts and a couple of tbsp of ground chia or flax seeds. No salt, no sugar, that includes coconut sugar and date sugar. No animal products. Not too much fruit (2-3 pieces per day). No coffee (teas are ok in moderation).

I'll explain why.

The oil, fat, salt, sugar, all animal products and the caffeine in coffee have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system by way of inhibiting your body's ability to make a gas called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is basically what opens your blood vessels up and allows oxygen to be carried around the bloodstream and nutrients to enter your cells. 

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-increase-nitric-oxide

Cholesterol from animal products thicken your blood and make it sticky. The saturated fats from both animal and plant fats and trans fats raise the number of small LDL (a subtype of cholesterol) particles, which are the dangerous type because this is what gets into the artery walls. The LDL gets stuck in these walls and oxidizes (goes off) and then is attacked by your own immune system, which creates inflammation and causes arterial plaques to form. These plaques are what cause artery blockages and eventually cardiac events. 

Saturated fats also impair the bodies ability to take up glucose into its cells. Advanced stages of this is called insulin resistance and later on type 2 diabetes. 

So all of these things contribute to energy loss and not being able to build good quality muscle. 

You might also consider getting a full spectrum blood test done to test your nutrients stores in your body. Deficiency or insufficiency can cause energy loss and other problems. These tests are expensive, so shop around for a good one.

Lastly, you don't really have to worry about getting a lot of protein. We actually need very little, but the important part about protein is getting all of your amino acids in one day (not necessarily in one meal). So make sure that when you eat your nuts that you eat a variety of nuts, and that you eat enough calories and a wide variety of foods. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, are all good sources of low fat protein. Eat a lot of green leafy vegetables with some balsamic vinegar. Rotate your grains and keep up on eating the salads (salad contains a lot of protein and omega 3).

Another thing that I do on a daily basis is I drink a cup of carrot juice. This is super helpful for energy as carrots contain huge amounts of vitamin e (which is hard to get) and vitamin a as beta carotene. So I never have to worry about vitamin a because whatever my body doesn't use after conversion from beta carotene to vitamin a it uses the leftover carotene as an antioxidant, which reduces inflammation further. A nice way to drink carrot juice is with a little bit of apple and ginger thrown in. 

If you can, eat your 2-3 meals within an 8 or 9 hour window. This is called time restricted eating and does wonders for endurance. 

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Lister

[Sahil Pandit]

@luqqzr Smoothies, shakes, and juices.

Smoothies - there are tons of recipes you can make, while adding a healthy protein source.

Shakes - supplement these for some meals a couple times a week.

Example: Banana shake! 2-3 bananas, some almond milk, cinnamon, and a hand full of almonds. (serve chilled) This shake makes me feel amazing for 3-5 hours. ESPECIALLY if i'm in a fasted state.

Juice - Make your own juice. A LOT of juices from the store have extra sugar added to them. 

I usually drink a small amount of apple juice after a long run. It tastes heavenly right after a hard workout! 

[SgtPepper]

Meat, eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, and seeds (ie. pumpkin, chia, sunflower) for protein, energy, nutrients.

[Angelo John Gage]

This depends on your metabolism. Are you an ectomorph who can burn off anything they consume?

If you want to gain muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus; typically people People increase their calories by 10% to 'lean gain' or 20%+ for a more aggressive approach if they want to bulk up faster, but don't care about gaining fat which they can burn off later.

I suggest starting with a 10% increase. IF you're not in a caloric surplus you will not build new muscle. New muscle cannot be formed without a surplus, no different than fat cannot be lost without a deficit.

 

[Not me]

@Lister Love it! I was gonna say the same things. Almost all nutrition scientist agree that mostly plant based diet is the healthies and best for energy. 

 

@luqqzr For more energy I would recommend Ari Whitten’s work. He has a great program and lots of free stuff as well to help you get more energy. You can ask me if you want to know more. I’ve read a lot of his stuff. Combine this with a good diet and you are gonna crush it.

[Michael569]

Most of all you have to eat regularly and in caloric surplus if you are to grow muscle ,because hypertrophy is on the very bottom of your body's priorities unless a severe stress and significant change in environmental conditions demands a rapid growth of additional muscle mass but that would not be reflected in bigger biceps, more like broader chest or tights and more efficient oxygenation of muscle tissue. 

So eating right, regularly in excess with around 2g of protein per kg of bodyweight. Whether you get the protein from plant or animal source is a personal choice but a good balance is probably wise. There are no miracle meals. Protein powders are a good additiona but your primary source needs to be the food. 

Secondly unless you put a lot of mechanical stress on the muscle , the diet won't do it. That means at least 5 days lifting heavy weights. 

[Hellspeed]

Saturated fats and cholesterol.

[Ibn Sina]

There are 3 kinds of muscles, striated muscles, smooth muscles and cardiac muscles. By body building you are concerned about the striated muscles. They are voluntary muscles, on microscopic observation it has striations, light and dark bands. The light one is made up of of actin and the dark one is made up of myosin. There is cross linkage between the actin and myosin which happens in the normal state. In other words, contraction happens no energy is supplied. That is why in dead  people there is hardening of the muscle. It takes energy to release the muscle from contraction. But you know, in alive people, ATP is being taken out from the muscle  during contraction and that causes the head of the thick filament to get exposed hence there is muscle contraction, in alive people energy is required to take out the ATP from the non contracted muscle and muscle contracts but in dead people there is no energy , no ATP in muscle so by default nothing is preventing the sliding of the head of the thick filament into the thin filament, making contraction happen which is Rigor Mortis.

In short, eat proteins, because muscle is made out of protein, and the thickness of the muscle depends on the number of cross linkages between the thick (Myosin) and thin(actin) filaments which happens by the breaking down and regeneration of the muscle fibres which is done in exercise.

[RendHeaven]

SALMON!

[GreenWoods]

oatmeal