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Diet for a week to gain muscle mass

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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In principle, as usual, theoretically everything seems simple and understandable, but as soon as it comes to making up the menu, problems begin. Fantasies, as a rule, last for 1-2 days, and then stupor. It is clear that no one will be engaged in making up the menu for us, and we will have to do everything ourselves. But again I would like to have at least a small example.

That's just such a primer, we now offer our readers. This approximate diet menu  for muscle mass, calculated for 7 days with a six-time meal:

Monday

1 breakfast  - buckwheat porridge with baked in the oven a piece of liver (there is a lot of protein in it, but you must not forget about fats), tea, toast with a piece of cheese

2 breakfast  - homemade yoghurt with pieces of fresh fruit

Lunch  - boiled pasta with chicken breast, salad of fresh vegetables with olive oil, fruit compote

Afternoon snack  - low-fat cottage cheese with a teaspoon of honey

1 dinner  - baked vegetables with a piece of boiled fish, green tea

2 dinner  - a tablespoon of peeled walnuts

Tuesday

1 breakfast  - oatmeal with jam, cocoa with milk, small bun

2 breakfasts  - 2 apples

Lunch  - pea soup with a piece of meat, Greek salad, berry juice

Afternoon snack  - yoghurt with muesli

1 dinner  - rice with fish stewed in gravy, a servings of sea kale, tea

2 dinner  - a glass of ryazhenka

Wednesday

1 breakfast  - 3-4 eggs omelet, tomatoes, green tea with toast

2 breakfast  - an orange, a couple of slices of brine cheese

Lunch  - ragout with beef, salted cucumbers, compote

Afternoon snack  - milkshake

1 dinner  - a piece of baked turkey with vegetables, a salad of fresh cabbage and cucumbers, green tea

2 dinner  - a small portion of cottage cheese

Thursday

1 breakfast  - beef chop with pearl barley, any vegetables, cocoa

2 breakfasts  - orange juice, a slice of brine cheese

Lunch  - buckwheat porridge with steam, cabbage, stewed with mushrooms, compote with a roll

Afternoon snack  - cottage cheese with raisins and prunes

1 dinner  - chicken breast, stewed vegetables, toast with not very fatty cheese (about 30-40% fat content), tea with mint

2 Dinner  - a portion of natural yogurt

Friday

1 breakfast  - scrambled eggs from 3 eggs with bacon and tomatoes, cocoa with milk

2 breakfast  - a small portion of syrnikov, cooked in the oven or microwave, jelly

Lunch  - a portion of borsch with beef, wheat porridge with meatballs in sauce, compote

Snack  - a mixture of dried fruits

1 dinner  - buckwheat porridge with stewed liver, salad from tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, tea with bergamot

2 dinner  - a small portion of cottage cheese, kiwi

Saturday

1 breakfast  - oatmeal porridge with steam chicken cutlet, a sandwich with cheese, milk

2 breakfast  - yogurt with honey or jam

Lunch  - pasta with mushrooms, a piece of baked beef, vegetable salad, compote

Snack  - a protein drink

1 dinner  - boiled rice, braised fish, caviar from courgettes, black tea

2 dinner  - a glass of whey

Sunday

1 breakfast  - scrambled eggs from 2 eggs, roast cutlets, cucumbers or tomatoes, cocoa with milk

2 breakfast  - light vegetable soup,

Lunch  - wheat porridge, meatballs with gravy, salad of fresh and boiled vegetables with canned mushrooms, kissel

Afternoon snack  - milkshake

1 dinner  - beef, stewed with beans, salad with fresh vegetables with olive or lean oil, green tea

2 dinner  - cottage cheese with raisins

We spent quite a bit of time to make a full menu, relying on which you can create your own, more interesting and appetizing. And those who have a weak imagination, can use the ready-made version of the menu of the protein-carbohydrate diet.

However, in that, and in another case it is necessary to work a little to calculate a suitable portion weight. We can not offer you a ready-made version, if only because each person is individual with his weight, height and physique. The frequency and intensity of training also vary, so that no general numbers of speech can go.

Sport is a load for the body plus following strict rules. And the development of menus and calculations of calories - this is just the charge for the mind, which gives a place to creativity. So we get a diversified development of personality, about which so many people write in smart books. But everything turns out to be much simpler.

General issues

By examining in detail the various dietary options for muscle mass, we focused mainly on useful and allowed products, considered what type of food they were, and even tried to make an effective menu with their use. But the banned products were mentioned only a couple of times, and even then casually. But how can you make a diet yourself, not knowing what products to include in the menu is not worth it.

So, what can not be eaten according to the diet for muscle building:

  • Any fatty meat (chicken, pork, mutton, duck), because together with the muscles will increase and the volume of fat cells,
  • Sweets and sweets, because they are a source of fast carbohydrates, whose excess energy is used to form a fatty layer,
  • Sweet pastries, cookies, cakes, pastries, because they contain a lot of fast carbohydrates and fats, but very little protein,
  • Various sausages, smoked products, canned food (this used to be the main weight of meat in them, but now it is solid fat and a bunch of different E),
  • Products made of white flour that promote weight gain (yes, not what you need),
  • Carbonated drinks, and especially sweet soda (not only does it contain simple carbohydrates, it is also stuffed with incomprehensible additives that do not contribute to quenching thirst),
  • Alcoholic beverages (well, this is not a sports food at all),
  • Different snacks (crackers, chips), convenience foods, fast food (as a rule, such foods contain a lot of fat and harmful additives that do not contribute to the growth of muscle mass),
  • Store fruit juices because of the addition of sugar and preservatives,
  • Fatty dairy products: cream, butter, sour cream, fat cottage cheese, whole milk of high fat content are products, the use of which should be limited to a greater or lesser extent because of the high content of fat in them.

Diet for a set of muscle mass does not apply to strict diets. Many of the above products can sometimes be included in small quantities in your diet, but in this case you will need to strictly monitor the number of calories per day and train hard.

Do not think that consuming foods rich in fat and carbohydrates along with protein, you risk not gaining muscle mass. No, the muscles will not go anywhere if the body receives enough building material and energy to build them. But whether their growth will be noticeable under the increased thickness of the fat layer, this is an interesting question.

The same is worth doing, if a few days after the start of the diet the athlete's condition worsened: fatigue, dyspnea, heaviness in the epigastrium, problems with the stool. Thus, hidden diseases can be manifested, which in any case is better to learn at an early stage of development.

According to those who tried to build muscle mass with high-calorie diets, they are an excellent addition to training, but without physical exertion it is a direct way to obesity, heart problems, gastrointestinal problems, etc. But you also need to train properly, paying attention to both strength exercises and cardio training. You need to train the entire body, and not individual muscles, otherwise the sports career can end sooner than it would be desirable.

Budget diet for a set of muscle mass

So it turns out that the formation of a beautiful relief - it's not cheap. Natural quality products, good baby food and effective protein cocktails, as well as classes in the gym, can not have a low price. And to take substandard oneself is more expensive.

The diet itself for the collection of muscle mass with careful study is far from being budgetary, especially given the current prices for meat, milk, eggs and many other natural foods. But athletes, bodybuilders and weightlifters need a lot to eat, so that the muscles began to grow, and in nutrition should be a full-fledged animal protein, rather than its cheap vegetable substitutes.

And even with all this, homemade food can not always satisfy the body's need for protein at high physical loads. And this means that to achieve a beautiful relief you will have to turn to the help of sports nutrition.

To somewhat reduce the cost of a diet for muscle growth, it is possible to replace some of the animal proteins with vegetable, yet peas are much cheaper than meat or fish. But you need to understand that in this case there is no need to expect a rapid increase in muscle. It will be necessary to be patient.

Meat protein is good, but very expensive. At the same meat can be replaced with fish, not inferior in content of animal protein. If the fish do not like it, then we choose meat cheaper. This is primarily chicken, from which you can prepare a lot of useful and delicious dishes. Slightly more expensive, but even more useful will be a turkey.

All the same it is unprofitable? Go ahead. Of relatively inexpensive products with a high protein content, you can isolate cottage cheese (the protein in it is almost 10 times larger than in the milk) and eggs or egg powder (these are the world's record producers of protein products). It is clear that one cottage cheese and eggs can not last long, but nobody prevents to include vegetables, fruits and berries in the diet (preferably unsweetened).

For example, cottage cheese is perfectly combined with cherries and currants, with the fruit and berries to add a little more, so that the dish has a completely new taste. And the eggs will perfectly go tomatoes. And depending on the color (red, yellow, pink, green, black) and taste (sweet or sour) tomatoes will depend on the taste of the resulting duo.

The cheapest variant of proteins is whey. You can drink this useful penny product instead of a drink, and it perfectly quenches thirst, so it will be useful after training. Fats such a drink does not contain, and therefore, there are no special restrictions in its use. By the way, whey protein contains many drinks from a series of sports nutrition. So, drinking a glass or two of the serum, you are unlikely to lose.

A cheap and very useful source of slow carbohydrates are grains. They can be added to soups and borscht, served as an independent dish or as a side dish, to make delicious casseroles on their basis. And even the most expensive groats (buckwheat) will be economically profitable, given how many times it increases during cooking.

Probably the most expensive part of the diet will still be protein drinks. But you do not have to drink them all day like water. The main thing is to do it regularly before training, and there will be an opportunity, and after it. It is important that the rest of the diet is full and the body does not feel hungry and does not spend its own energy reserves.

Fat diet for a set of muscle mass contains a little, so here especially and there is nothing to save. Add a little lean oil in vegetable dishes - and get the right percentage of fat in our diet. So in any situation you can find a way out. The main thing is not to despair, to train stably and to follow your dream unswervingly, then no crisis in the country will be a hindrance.

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