What foods should I eat?
What foods should I eat?
Muscle building is not an excuse to consume vast quantities of junk food that is high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, nor should it include regular heavy nights out with copious amounts of alcohol, followed by a greasy takeaway on the way home.
While everyone is human and will engage in indulgences and while you can ‘get away with it’ more when you are muscle building, too much will simply hinder progress and lead to fat deposition rather than the gain of lean tissue.
The majority of the diet should be composed of:
- Low GI carbohydrates such as brown or basmati rice, granary bread, wholemeal pasta, quinoa, sweet potato and other starchy vegetables.
- Good quality, lean protein sources such as skinless chicken or turkey, lean fillets of beef, lamb or pork, oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, pilchards), white fish, eggs, pulses, and soya / tofu / quorn. It is best to oven bake, grill, roast or stir fry, rather than shallow or deep fry.
- Healthy fats from nuts, seeds, flax, oily fish, avocado and olives. These will ensure a good supply of poly and monounsaturated oils. Restrict foods containing a lot of saturated fat.
- Lots of fruit and vegetables. These are typically low in calories but packed full of vitamins and minerals plus other phytonutrients essential for the maintenance of a healthy metabolism, immune system, skin, nervous system… the list goes on.
- Low fat dairy products such as yoghurt, skimmed milk, lower fat cheeses (such as Edam or Brie), cottage cheese and quark.
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