What to eat to build muscle during strength training

If you want to rely on strength training to grow muscles efficiently, the core is to eat enough "reasonable caloric surplus + high-quality protein that matches your body weight + carbohydrates that match the training volume + an appropriate amount of unsaturated fat", coupled with enough trace elements. If any link is missing, even if you squat, pull and push every week, it will be difficult to grow muscles.

Two years ago, I took care of a young man who had just graduated. He weighed 76 kilograms. He followed the online guide and ate boiled chicken breasts and boiled broccoli every day. He only ate about 1,700 calories a day. After practicing for more than three months, his arm and leg circumferences did not change at all. He was sleepy and out of shape during training, so he later adjusted his total calories to 2,300 calories, kept his protein at about 130-150g per day, and doubled his carbohydrates. In the second month, he saw his arms tightening up his old T-shirt, and his body fat didn't increase much.

There is a lot of buzz on the Internet now about "high protein damages the kidneys". In fact, the score shows that for people with completely normal kidney function, eating less than 3g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day will not put any extra burden on the kidneys. I weigh 80 kilograms and eat about 200g of protein every day during the weight loss period. Every year, my kidney function is normal during physical examinations.； But if you have chronic kidney disease or renal insufficiency, you must follow your doctor's advice to control your protein intake, and don't follow the trend of eating a high-egg diet.

Many people always focus on protein when they first start training, fearing that they will gain weight if they eat too much carbohydrates. In fact, it is completely unnecessary. You think of muscle growth as building a house, protein is the bricks for building the wall, and carbohydrates are the wages paid to the workers. If you don’t give enough money, the workers will not even have the strength to move bricks. No matter how many bricks you buy, you can’t build a house. When I was trying to reach my limit weight, I had to eat close to 400g of carbohydrates a day. When I was training my legs, I could squat two more sets of 100kg. My muscles were stimulated and I gained weight much faster than when I just ate protein.

There is also the "half-hour golden window period after training" that was once rumored to be magical, but it has long been falsified by research. As long as you eat enough total calories and total protein for the day, eating 1-2 hours after training will not affect muscle synthesis at all. Sometimes I finish training after get off work I was catching the subway and it was almost an hour and a half before I got home. I cooked a bowl of buckwheat noodles with two eggs, and then grabbed two handfuls of ready-to-eat chicken breast shreds and sprinkled them in. It was warm and comfortable, and it didn't delay my muscle growth. There was no need to bite into a protein bar that was dry and choked, and it was still unpalatable after tormenting myself.

As for the "clean muscle building" and "dirty muscle building" that are so controversial now, there is no absolute right or wrong. Newbies who have just started training will have metabolic bonuses. They can gain 0.2-0.5 kilograms of pure muscle in a week. If you eat a little more liberally, it doesn't matter even if you gain some body fat. Muscles will grow quickly.； But if you have been training for a year or two, and your body fat rate is over 20%, and you still eat hamburgers and fried chicken to get calories, 70% to 80% of the weight gained in the end will be fat, and the probability of losing muscle during the later stage of fat-burning is very high. I had a friend who tried to save time and gain muscle in three months. After fat-burning for more than half a year, only less than 1 kilogram of pure muscle was left, which is equivalent to half a year of hard work.

In fact, you don’t need to have a strict muscle-building diet. Occasionally eat hot pot and barbecue to satisfy your cravings. As long as you consume enough average calories and protein for a week, your progress will not be affected at all. A diet that you can stick to for a long time is the most suitable for you.