July 23, 2004

Weight Gain Diet – Tips To Building Leaner, Bigger Muscles

Unhealthy weight gain is rather easy to do and most of us have at one time or another gained a few unwanted pounds. However, a healthy controlled weight gain diet, for those individuals who are weight lifting and bodybuilding, is not as easy as it may sound.

For every website on weightlifting or bodybuilding, there are weight gain diets available. Presented in a variety of different formats, each weight gaining diet offers their own version of the types of foods and supplements you should be taking.

Make sure that before you follow one particular diet, you see your doctor and discuss your goals. This will ensure that your health and nutritional needs are taken care of before you embark on a journey to change your body.

As with any weight gain plan it is important to eat and eat properly. You essentially need to consume more calories than you burn. However, eating more food does not mean consuming anything and everything. You need to focus on eating foods that will enable you to gain lean muscle mass, rather than fat.

To begin with, six meals a day is a good start. Incorporate foods such as steak, chicken, fruit, milk, vegetables and cheese. If at all possible it is best to use only organic foods as these provide whole food nutrition without the addition of pesticides and animal feed hormones.  All of these foods contain important vitamins and proteins, which enable you to gain weight in a steady, healthy manner.

A Regular Workout Routine Supports A Healthy Meal Plan

Along with any serious weight gaining meal plan is the combination of working out a minimum of three times a week. In order to get results, you need to work out hard one day and recover the next. Attention should be placed on bigger, harder exercises such as squats, dead lifts, chin-ups, and military and bench presses.

These exercises are the ones that will turn those extra calories into muscle, rather than store them as fat. Each time you work out you should be adding a little more weight so that you strengthen the muscles you’re building and not build up a level of tolerance instead.

In order to ensure that you are on the right track with your muscle building diet you should be weighing yourself at least once a week. Make sure that you weigh yourself on the same day each week and at approximately the same time. This will ensure consistency when tracking how much weight you’ve gained. It is also vitally important to get your body fat tested regularly so that you can be sure that the weight you are gaining is actually muscle and not fat.  The percentage of body should be going down or staying the same as the weight scale starts to read higher!

When it comes to weight gain, anything more than one or two pounds a week is considered unhealthy; therefore, keep a journal of the foods you’re eating, the weights you’re lifting and how much you have gained to ensure that you are doing things in a safe and healthy manner.

One other important weight gain tip is to drink plenty of water. You should aim to drink at least a half-gallon of water a day and even more if you can. Water is essential to providing your body with energy, which you will require to gain weight.

In conjunction with drinking lots of water, you need to get plenty of sleep. With all the strenuous lifting you will be doing, it is necessary to give your muscles the rest they deserve. A well-rested body will perform much better in the long run.

Everyone’s body reacts and works in different ways; however, if you are on a gain weight diet that has been approved by your doctor, or a nutritionist, then you are well on your way to getting that body you have always dreamed of. With a little bit of discipline and a whole lot of healthy eating, you can safely lose body fat, gain more muscle and lift harder. In the end, you will have increased your lean muscle mass and adopted a healthier eating style too!

About The Author:
Angela Lanci Zaurrini is a talented and successful freelance writer. Her various writings provide relevant information and wonderfully researched resources for body builders and sports enthusiasts. She is a young and yet experienced educator who earned her B.A. and teaching certification through Simon Fraser University, Canada. She continues her passion of sharing knowledge through her numerous writings and educational articles.

By: Angela Lanci Zaurrini
http//www.a1-weight-lifting-equipment.com