Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is one of the most important things. In today’s world, with the number of unhealthy options floating about the journey becomes harder. In this battle of fast and easy takeout options versus healthy prepared meals, the former often takes precedence. To trigger the perfect balance between an active lifestyle and healthy living is very hard. People often tend to forget that staying healthy does not necessarily constitute being thin and losing weight. To be strong and fit, you must gain muscle as well. Gaining the right amounts of muscle not only burns fat but also makes your body appear much leaner and firm. To achieve that you need to hit the gym a few times a week. However, only working out is not the key to gaining muscle! Proper forms of nutrition need to be balanced, along with working out to achieve the results. Well, we have broken down some options for you to have to maintain a healthy muscle gain with time.
Plan Your Meals And Know Your Body
For any sort of weight loss/weight gain journey, the key to achieving it is to plan your meals. The reason for this is that by planning certain meals can make you aware of the things you are putting in your body. This way, you can keep track of the calories and nutrients that you have set for the day or even the week. Many people tend to do their meal prep throughout the weekend and fully prepared for it for the coming week. It helps them save time, and when the next day rolls around, you are already sorted for it.
The most important thing when doing your meal prep is keeping the check on your ratios. Especially when you are aiming towards gaining healthy muscle, you need the right nutrients.
Use the right ratio of nutrients.
Whatever you put inside your body is what is going to burn out and produce energy. If you put in the right ratios of nutrients in then, those are going to go the extra mile and help you in achieving your goals. There are different types of bodies that people have ranging from, ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph. The ectomorph body type is one that is usually slow to gain weight. The endomorph body type is the one that has a slow metabolism, but a faster development of muscle mass and fat deposits whereas the mesomorph body type is the very athletic one and tend to gain rapid success while aiming to build muscle. So it is important to understand your body type and plan your meals according to it.
The ectomorph body type needs to take nutrition that focuses on a high-intensity carbohydrate intake to build muscle mass. The endomorph body types need to take more protein their diet while constricting their carbs and fat intake. It needs to balance it out by taking a carb-filled diet during the day and increasing good fat and proteins later in the day. Creating these kinds of meals that are eccentric to your body type and keeps your micro and macronutrients in check is very hard. However, with meal plans, you can now order your meals according to your needs and have custom tailored meals right at your doorstep. There are a variety of options available that suit everybody and that too at very reasonable prices.
What To Eat For Breakfast
After determining your true body type with a period, the next most important thing is to determine your nutrients. Not all bodies require the same amounts of nutrients and food to maintaining a healthy muscle gain. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it lays bases on the progress of your whole day. Choosing the right options that carry the perfect balance of energy and nutrients also makes it a tough job. Every morning do you constantly feel the struggle of deciding and choosing what you want to eat? Sometimes with your same routine, you tend to get bored very quickly of even the food. Trying to make something that carries both flavor and value is something tough. Thinking and creating new things can be very challenging also.
Look for a perfect breakfast
The perfect breakfast options for those of you who are looking to gain muscle are very simple. Your muscles also need recovery form workouts, especially if you are an early bird and tend to go to the gym in the morning. You need to look for options that are easy to buy, make and consume. A very good option is Greek yogurt. The protein content for Greek yogurt is very high and also provides fiber to give you strength. The best thing about Greek yogurt is that you can build on many variations for it thus making it unique each time. You can mix it up with oats, honey, chia seeds or even fruits and you will get a new result each time. You can even refrigerate it overnight for the next morning, and it will give you a pudding-like texture that is both yummy and extremely healthy to eat.
Another easy peasy option for breakfast is EGGS! You know this is one food item that is fully packed with nutrients. From it’s inside yolk to its outer whites, each layer of this food is truly full of protein and goodness. For an active and healthy muscle gain, try to take your eggs hard-boiled. That way, all the benefits of the egg are packed inside without any additional fat. You can even make a scrabbled egg to mix things up a bit, and that too can help in building steady muscle. You can even throw in some tomatoes and mushrooms to the whole mix to give you a touch of flavor that will give you good food and taste.
A Suitable Meal For Lunch
A very important thing that many people often forgo when on their journey of healthy muscle gain is lunch. Many people who are busy working or doing other things tend to ignore lunch. This not only deters your muscle gain journey but also deprives your body of the correct number of calories. Taking the correct nutrients for your lunch will help in adding towards a healthier muscle gain. It keeps your metabolism running that in turn will burn the right amounts of fat. Also choosing store-bought food for your lunch options is not a suitable solution in the long run. Sometimes store-bought items contain high amounts of fat, which can deter your muscle gain and increase fat production. Try to work on your lunch meals also like that way you know what you are putting in your body.
Keep lunch light
Try to keep your lunch very light! Look for options that are both wholesome and full of proteins. The best way of gaining muscle is to eat the correct amounts of proteins in different forms. Look for simple options rather than ones that are high on carbohydrates. Opt to go for proteins like tuna fish and salmon. You can even use some whole wheat bread and go for a tuna sandwich. It will be the perfect balance of protein and fewer carbs to keep you going through the rest of your day. These can give you an immediate boost in omega 3 fats, which contribute to building muscle strength. Go for clean and light options that leave you full.
Focus on Salads and fresh fruits
You can also go for salads that are fresh, crispy, healthy and oh so yummy. Change up your lunch with a variety of different salads that range from avocado tuna to chickpea radish and sumac shrimp. Use a mixture of vinegar and olive oil to season your lunch salads to avoid any store-bought high-calorie dressings. These are very good for your health overall and apart from steady muscle gain these help in many other issues. It can keep your blood pressure in check and do not affect your blood cholesterol in a very harsh way at all. Try to go for fruits like cucumbers that have high water content. These foods fill you up in a very good way without affecting your calories and fat intake at all.
The Proper Nutrition For Dinner
As the day ends, the energy levels also tend to drop down low for many people. Dinner being the last meal of the day, you need to make sure it carries all the nutritional value that your body requires at that time of the day. Eating a full wholesome dinner can also improve your sleeping cycle. If you go to sleep on an empty stomach or very less food, you may risk sleeping disorders also. You need to take in the given calories by eating more for muscle building food. This way, your body is also healthy while it works through to achieving your goals of muscle gain. You need to maintain a certain quota of protein, carbs, and fats each day to ensure that the whole process is going smoothly.
Focus on whole proteins
For dinner, try to go for options whole proteins. You can choose from a variety of lentils to meats to change things in your routine. From chicken breasts to other options, make sure your dinner is fibrous. Each serving of chicken breasts that is a total of 3 ounces contains up to 26 grams of good quality protein. Apart from that, these meats also contain B vitamin action and B16 that are crucial for people who tend to work out regularly. They help your body in functioning properly and fill any loses in muscles that might be caused by working out over time. All these minerals add up and aid in making your muscles recover and gain strength in every way possible. Try to choose options for beef and chicken that is lean and is aimed at increasing the muscle mass rather than too many calories.
Beans and many other options like cottage cheese and brown rice are good options for dinner when concentrating on muscle gain. All these food contain good carbs that aid your muscle health to improve — eating brown rice hours before your exercise schedule can make your body ready and repair it from the wear and tear it has endured. It allows your body o exercise even harder and gives it room o stimulate muscle growth. Beans are also high in magnesium and phosphorous which is key to conserving overall muscle physique. They even prevent you from several diseases. The amounts of amino acids that cottage cheese carries are essential for muscle building. Take your items in moderation, and you will see a change.
What To Avoid
When working on building muscle, it is very important to look into things that you must avoid. When you are trying to eat healthily, sometimes, you are so focused on eating what is right that you often ignore to look at the things that you need to avoid. Whereas you are permitted to take poultry, grains, dairy, beans, etc. there are a variety of food groups that you are to avoid as well. There are many categories of food groups that can hinder your muscle gaining process. It is best to understand those fully and then avoid them at all costs. Firstly apprehend the complexities of those certain foods so that it can help you in understanding better. These can severely affect your progress and might even increase your blood sugar, which is bad.
Avoid alcohol
You need to avoid alcohol at all costs. The reason for this is that what alcohol does to your body is quite bad. It gives you added liquid calories that neither fill you nor leaves your stomach feeling satisfied. To counter that you have to eat more that further adds more calories to your daily intake. This, in turn, can negatively affect your muscle-building activities and might increase fat gain. If this is consumed in access, it can severely be bad for health overall. Having a glass of wine occasionally can be fine and sometimes necessary to let loose but making it a habit can be a problem. It also blurs your ability to stay active and attentive. So it is best to try to avoid alcohol overall, especially when you are focusing on your weight loss/weight gain journey. It can pose to do more harm than good.
Avoid sugar intake
Also, try to avoid added sugars. Trust me one this all types of added sugars are your enemies. They not only hinder your progress but also set you back in terms of evolvement. There is the food group that caries plenty amounts of calories with few to none levels of nutrition. Items like candy, soda, cookies and many more are the ones that can destroy your progress and health. No matter how tempting they are, fried food is a big no. Apart from increasing fat, they can cause high amounts of inflation in your body that can even lead to heart diseases.
Conclusion
Preserving an active lifestyle that focuses on overall health and muscle gain is not that hard. You need to be consistent and dedicated through the process to make sure everything works. Patience is the key to hard work, so opt for healthy meal options and keep your workout routine consistent. It is the only way that can ensure that you meet your goals. Whether its weight loss or gain, maintaining your muscle health is very important. It is an essential aspect of healthy living in our lives today.
