Eating to Build An Athletic Physique

As soon as people decide they want to gain a bit more muscle, it often goes one of two ways! They either try for a few weeks, not really knowing if they are eating enough food, see no change and so consequentually give up. Or you get the other extreme where they get over excited and eat everything they can get their hands on, which is often not the most nutritious of choices and therefore balloon with extra body fat but not necessarily extra muscle!

Whichever way it goes, these people are normally missing the correct structure and knowledge to achieve the results they want - More muscle with minimal extra body fat.

So here are some key bits of information and tips to follow in order to succefully build a more muscular and athletic physique the right way!

1.How much weight should I be looking to gain and how quickly should I put this on?

A good guide for rate of gain is using the rule of 1% of body weight per month.This is slower than a lot of people might expect but the idea is to be gaining muscle and not just recruiting more body fat. The slower the better and for as long as you can to maximise your gaining phase.

2.How much extra food will I need to eat?

For most people a calorie surplus of around 200 Kcals is enough to build muscle           (alongside working hard at resistance training ). This may need to increase or decrease based around other factors including that individuals total energy expenditure and size etc but we can use the rate of gain as a good measure of making any adjustments to energy input.

3.Will I need to eat extra protein?

Protein needs are actually lower than most people expect when trying to build tissue. When we are in a surplus we have plenty of energy, so we don’t risk using protein as energy and losing some of our muscle tissue. We need roughly 1.5-2.2g of protein per KG of body weight, with the rest of our calories coming from carbs and fats. Too much protein can actually work against us, making us feel full and and thus making hitting our daily calorie intake more challenging

4.Carbs, carbs, carbs!

Carbs are our primary fuel source when lifting weights and resistance training and without them, we will struggle to build tissue! It is case and person dependent but roughly 3g per KG of body weight is a good guide as a minimum. Taking carbs intra workout can be a great way to help us hit a surplus using something like a multi dextran powder, with some pre workout to maximise the energy supply we have available to really push in the session and post to help restore the muscle glycogen stores.

5.Hydration

This is an easy one to forget but performance will decreases with as little as 2 % dehydration. This is because when well hydrated, muscle tissue contracts more effectively which means a higher intensity of workout, which means more potential tissue growth. If you’ve ever experienced cramps in  your session then this might be something to consider.

6.Creatine Monohydrate

To maximise your build phase you might want to consider taking 5g per day of this. Our muscles use energy in the form of ATP, and creatine helps recycle this in the muscle meaning there is more potential energy to be used and therefore the potential for more muscle to be built. It has almost no downsides with the majority of people noticing an increase in performance, however 1/5 people are thought to be none responders, so it’s worth logging your training and noting how you feel to see if you are benefiting from supplementation.

We hope you found these tips useful of how to start to match your nutrition to your muscle building goals and the quest for a more athletic physique!

However don’t forget, your nutrition could be absolutely perfect but without putting in the hard work and completing your structured sessions progressively…those muscles are not going to grow!

Have a great week,

And do what most people won’t!

Lizzie and Saul

One Percent Club