Balanced Nutrition Plan Will Work For Building Muscle

It’s safe to say that any well constructed, balanced nutrition plan will work for building muscle, provided you have a few key elements one hundred percent nailed.

However, it’s one thing for a diet to work, and another for it to be optimal.

Firstly, each individual is different, and what works for one may not work for someone else, so it’s important to recognize than an optimal approach may only go so far. That being said, it appears that the optimal meal frequency for building muscle is around every four to six hours.

There are numerous benefits to this feeding schedule, as it avoids many of the pitfalls associated with frequent meals and fasting.

If you’re in a meeting and it’s coming up to two hours since you’ve last eaten, there’s no need to bust out your Tupperware box full of chicken, rice and broccoli and start munching it in front of clients or work colleagues as you’d have to with the six to eight meals spaced two hours apart strategy.

Likewise those following fasting diets often can’t socialize around food. If you’re going out for breakfast, or even lunch, you often have to pass on food, and just sit there glumly drinking your water, or if you’re feeling slightly frisky your diet coke or black coffee with sugar-free syrup.

Eating every four to six hours also means you won’t ever feel bloated. You have enough time for your food to go down between meals, unlike with frequent eating, and you avoid the sugar-coma and pregnant belly that can come with big meals after a fast.

Considering many bodybuilders consume in excess of 5000 calories per day, getting all of these in during a four or five hour window after a fast can be nigh on impossible. To get the calories in without feeling like you’re about to explode often results in fasting bodybuilders downing bottles of soda, spooning butter out of the tub or demolishing whole chocolate cakes in an attempt to get their required calories down. Hardly the way to go about a healthy bodybuilding lifestyle now is it?

A more conservative schedule however means you’re probably just about hungry enough to eat another full meal after four to six hours, yet not so bloated you feel sick and wonder how on earth you’ll keep anything down, or so ravenous that you’ll eat anything in sight.

Having a steady supply of protein in the bloodstream and muscle cells is important for muscle growth. Eat too often and much of the protein will go to waste, and eat too infrequently and you could be in a catabolic (muscle wasting) state.

The number one most important issue in building muscle is your calorie intake, very closely followed by the macronutrients you eat, then comes quality of your food choices, and meal frequency finishes fourth.

That’s not to say that meal frequency isn’t important, as it does have a vital role to play, and if you want the best results, you’ll consider meal frequency very carefully. However to reach your goals you must first ensure you’re eating enough calories to support growth, but not so many you get fat, have a good balance of proteins, fats and carbs, and are basing your diet around healthy foods. Then think about meal frequency.