Free Muscle Building & Health

Even if you are working out and doing some weightlifting, you will also need other things in your life that will help make the work of building more muscle mass easier on you. There are a number of things that you can do to help build your muscle, of course one is the weightlifting and resting properly but there are different foods that can help you as well. This is key in helping you gain the muscle you are looking for.

You need to understand that your muscles are 70% water and 20% protein. So to build muscle you will need extra water, you will need more energy and you get that through the right carbohydrate intake and then you will also need additional protein. So if you work out you are going to require more calories and protein than the person who doesn't work out. In fact you should eat at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight that you have in order to add muscle. You also need to increase your calories by eating more high protein food, complex carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits and fats.

The meats you eat are important because they provide you with the amino acids that are needed to help build muscle. The protein you get in meat is of high quality and it will ensure that it is used by your body to build the tissue you need for muscles and that it's not used as energy. Meat like beef, turkey, fish and chicken are all extremely high in the protein your body needs.

Of course trying to figure out which meats to eat can sometimes be a challenge. When you eat beef and pork you will be getting a higher fat content and this might not be what someone might be looking for, especially if they are only wanting to add a little bit of lean muscle. So instead they might want to eat chicken and turkey instead. This is not to say you can't eat beef at all, just limit it to twice a week.

Milk as we all know is a great source for our bones but it's good for helping to build your muscle mass as well. Eight ounces of milk contains 20 grams of protein, but of course there are those who are lactose intolerant so they should take a shot at drinking soy or rice milk instead. The protein however is a lot lower in these two than in milk, so you would have to drink more of it.

Don't forget about eggs. They have the highest quality of protein out of any food that offers protein. One large boiled egg has 6.29 grams of protein and nearly 60% of that is in the white of the egg. So it's not surprising that a lot of weightlifters eat a lot of egg whites.

You need to also make sure that you get the right amount of complex carbs because they are necessary in building muscle, especially lean muscle. The foods in this category would be whole grain breads, pasta, rice, oatmeal, peas, beans, corn, potatoes and yams to name a few. This also will help keep you full and you won't be as tempted to eat a bunch of junk foods.

It's always very important that before you go off adding any type of new supplement to your regular diet that you do your research on whatever it is that you are considering. It doesn't matter if it claims to be the safest thing in the world, it does not mean there aren't side affects and you should be away of them. That is no different with whey protein. If you are planning to add this to your diet to help you to build more muscle, you need to know that there are side affects.

Number one thing you should know about whey protein and that it is not good for those who are lactose intolerant. If you are wanting to use this protein you will need to make sure that you get whey protein isolate and not just whey protein. This is because the isolate will contain less than 1% lactose, which is the sugar in milk. Regular whey has about 6%, which may not be too much for some but if used in large doses it could bother someone who is lactose intolerant.

Another important thing to note is that no matter what kind of protein that you are considering adding to your diet it is not good for your body to absorb an over abundance of it. If you have too much protein in your body your kidneys will not be able to hand it and there are two things that could happen if your kidneys are unable to process too much protein.

1. Too much protein and the inability for your kidneys to process it can cause your blood to become acidic. Your blood should never be above the 7.0 range on the pH scale. So, when this happens your body tries to correct this by releasing calcium into the blood so the calcium can pick up the byproducts of the protein in your blood turning the blood pH back to neutral where it should be. This all sounds fine and dandy until you realize that you now a bunch of little pieces of calcium floating around in your blood that needs to be gotten rid of. And where does that go? Right back to the kidneys and suddenly you have, you guessed it, kidney stones.

2. The other thing that can happen if you have too much whey protein is that you can go into what is called ketosis. No matter what you have heard about ketosis, know this, it is really bad on your kidneys. Your body will burn off fat to use as energy but you end up starving your body for the carbohydrates it needs. People also cause more problems when they add protein shakes to the mix and cause the body to become confused and doesn't know what to do anymore. Your body will begin to get confused about whether to take care of carbs or fats.

Just remember that it is simply very important for you to check with your doctor and do research before you add any kind of supplements to your diet. It's always better to be safe than sorry.