The diet to increase muscle mass should include strategies such as consuming more calories than are expended, increasing the amount of protein during the day and consuming good fats. In addition to reinforcing the diet, it is also important to do regular workouts that demand a lot of muscle mass, since this stimulates the hypertrophy of the muscles.
It is also important to remember that to gain lean mass and lose fat mass at the same time, the consumption of sugars, white flours and industrialized products should be avoided, since they are the main foods that stimulate the production and accumulation of fat in the body.
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Consume more calories than you spend
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Consuming more calories than are expended daily is essential to increase muscle mass faster, since the excess calories, in conjunction with workouts, will allow the increase of muscles. To find out how many calories you need to consume per day, test on the calculator below by entering your data:
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Don’t skip meals
Avoiding skipping meals is important so that it is possible to reach all the necessary calories during the day, without stimulating possible loss of lean mass during a prolonged fast. Ideally, you should eat 5 to 6 meals per day, taking more attention with breakfast and pre and post workout snacks.
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Consume more protein
Increasing protein intake is necessary to allow muscle growth, being important that protein source foods are well distributed throughout the day, and not concentrated in just 2 or 3 meals. These foods are mainly animal-based foods such as meats, fish, chicken, turkey, cheese, eggs, and skim milk and derivatives, but protein can also be found in good amounts in plant foods such as beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, and chickpea. See protein-rich foods .
In addition to this, it may sometimes be necessary to use protein-based supplements such as Whey Protein and casein, especially used in post-training or to increase the nutritional value of low-protein meals throughout the day.
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Consume good fats
Contrary to what you imagine, consuming good fats helps reduce fat accumulation in the body and facilitates the increase of calories in the diet to gain muscle mass. These fats are present in foods such as: nuts such as peanuts, peanut butter, merey, cashew, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds; fish like tuna, sardines and salmon; olive oil; and seeds like sunflower, chia, sesame.
Throughout the day, these foods can be added to snacks such as recipes for fit ponques, whole-grain pancakes, yogurts, and smoothies; and they can also be included in main meals.
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Drink plenty of water
Drinking enough water is very important to stimulate hypertrophy, since for muscle cells to grow more water is needed to hydrate them. In case you do not have enough water intake, the increase in muscle mass will be slower and more difficult.
A healthy adult should consume at least 35 ml of water for every kg of weight. So a person who weighs 70 kg would need to consume a minimum of 2,450 ml of water per day, it being important to remember that industrialized or sugary drinks do not fall within this account, as are soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, juices and artificial teas.
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Consume at least 2 fruits per day
Consuming at least 2 fruits a day is important for the body to receive vitamins and minerals that promote muscle recovery after training, promoting faster regeneration and helping hypertrophy of muscle mass.
In addition to this, the vitamins and minerals present in fruits and vegetables are important for muscle contraction, to reduce the feeling of fatigue during workouts, to avoid cramps and to strengthen the immune system.
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Avoid sugars and processed foods
Avoiding sugary foods and processed foods is important so as not to stimulate the accumulation of fat in the body, especially since in the diet to gain muscle mass you already have excess calories. So to prevent weight gain from being fat, it is necessary to eliminate foods such as sweets, cookies, cakes, toasts, fast food, junk food, sausages, sausages, bacon, bacon, fried foods, cheddar cheese, ham, mayonnaise, tomato sauce and dressings in general.
These foods should be replaced by whole wheat bread, crackers and whole wheat cakes, cheeses such as curd, ricotta, cottage cheese, light mozzarella, eggs, meat and fish.
The foods to eat and the amounts of protein that can be included in the menu to increase muscle mass vary according to the intensity of physical activity, the size, weight, sex and age of each person, and can range from 1.5 to 2 g / kg / weight, being important to go to a nutritionist to carry out the individual calculation.
