Five Foods to Eat for Muscle Building

When you're lifting weights, the stress often causes damage to the muscle fibers. This actually works in your favor as it helps to repair the muscles, while also initiating the growth of new muscle cells in the process, helping you build muscle mass. However, without the right nutrition, your muscle mass will get nowhere. You need a good mix of protein and carbohydrates for muscle growth and maintenance. Here's our pick of five foods powerhouses that help you build muscle mass.

Eggs

Eggs may have got the bad rap for their artery clogging tendencies, but researches have shown how cardiac disease and dietary cholesterol are not linked in most people, reinstating eggs onto the healthy food bandwagon. Interestingly, eggs also help in building muscle mass. The protein content in egg are seen to have the highest biological values. What this means is that even with a small quantity of protein that you get from eggs, you should be able to appreciate a considerable amount of benefits in the form of muscle-building, while the same results would require higher quantity of consumption with other sources.

Nuts

The reason why nuts should be an essential part of your diet if your looking to pack some muscle is that they have a good mix of fat, proteins and fiber. Each ounce of almonds or cashew packs over 150 to 170 calories, that can hep you gain muscle mass without padding your waistline. What's more is that nuts like almonds contain alpha-tocopherol vitamin E, anti-oxidants that can prevent free-radical damages post heavy workouts. How this helps is it enhances the recovery of muscles, and thereby their growth.

Lean ground beef

Beef has been a go-to food for muscle-building for many decades now. Beef contains zinc, B12 and iron that are absolute essentials to build muscle. Lean meat cuts such as loins and rounds can help you gain muscle mass without piling on calories. For every 100gm of lean ground beef that you consume you're taking in 27 gm of protein. Despite the stigma that there is against red meat, beef has been shown to enhance heart health and bring down stress and anxiety levels.

Salmon

Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein. The omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the breakdown of muscle proteins after your workout session, aiding recovery. The reason this is essential is because you can build muscle only when the rate at which you store new protein is faster than the rate at which the old protein is broken down by the body. If you aren't a big fan of eating fish, you could try some fish oil supplements.

Cottage cheese

Cottage cheese is composed of pure casein protein. When you consume it the blood amino acid levels in the body rise gradually and stay in the elevated levels for a longer period than other dairy proteins. In layman terms it is a protein that digests slowly, which is what makes it so perfect for muscle-build maintenance. The presence of live culture of good bacteria, helps in the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, thereby helping you grow stronger.