Weight
Gain – Nuts and Bolts
About 50% of the adult population in Westernized cultures are experts in weight gain: the problem is that most weight gain is unwanted, uncontrolled obesity. For those of you who are working hard to gain the right kind of body weight, the challenge is to increase your caloric intake without compromising your health. Choosing the right foods takes some basic nutrition know-how, and some careful planning to balance your diet to match your muscle building goals.
In general, the diet composition for weight loss and for weight gain should basically be the same in terms of the percentage of fat, protein, and carbohydrate and should follow the same rules in terms of limiting excess sodium, sugar and low-nutrient foods. With a good eating plan for building muscle, it is quite possible (and less costly) to get all the protein you need from foods, rather than from supplementation. In a weight gain plan, your calories are going to have to increase above what you need right now to maintain your weight, and will need additional adjustment for the large increase in calories burned in vigorous work out programs. If you’re choosing foods wisely, you’ll be increasing your protein intake as well as carbohydrate and fat, and typically, this increase will be enough to cover additional protein needs in bodybuilding. The main advantage of supplementing with protein powders is convenience – it’s a quick and easy way to get high quality protein, but it lacks the additional benefits that whole foods have. Whenever possible, I advocate whole foods as your key source of nutrition, and avoidance of concentrated sources of individual nutrients that can throw off the natural balance of what the human body actually requires.
When it comes to adding
calories to your diet to gain weight, your choices of protein foods should be
those that are high quality (animal or a proper mix of non-animal proteins) that
are also low in fat. In contrast to some popular low-carbohydrate diets that
emphasize consumption of protein foods that are also very high in fat (like
steak, regular hamburger and high fat dairy products), a good diet for body
building should include lean, low fat protein sources such as low fat or non fat
dairy products, low fat soy protein foods, poultry without skin, egg whites
instead of whole eggs, and fish and other seafood. While these protein sources
are much lower in calories than high fat protein sources, there are two key
benefits of choosing low fat animal foods instead of high fat types:
How much protein should you have?
Well, this is of course a huge, heated debate in the fitness field, but there is certainly an increased need for protein whenever the body is subjected to the physical stress of muscle building exercises. Once again, when you follow a carefully planned diet that emphasizes the right balance of foods from all sources, with the right amount of calories for your particular needs, you should be able to get your protein from whole foods. While additional supplementation may make it easier to add calories into your diet, it is not typically necessary, and is largely overdone. The actual grams of protein needed for a muscle building program depend upon your body weight and the extent of your exercise program, and will be in line with the total amount of calories you need.
When should you have protein?
Basically, if you want to have protein and calories available for building muscle, you should have good sources of high quality protein spread throughout the day. And, in order to fit in those extra calories comfortably, you’ll need to eat quite often, about every three hours or so throughout the day. While this may sound like a dream come true for those who battle obesity, eating beyond your own body’s good sense of fullness can be quite a challenge! Fitting in those smaller, more frequent meals and snacks between work-outs takes some careful planning, some level-headed choices, and determination to choose the highest quality nutrition to meet your needs.