Best foods to build muscle for Women

Gaining muscle always seems to take the back seat to losing weight for women, but muscle can actually help in the quest for weight loss.

In fact, adding some pounds of muscle will improve your body composition- an important factor in determining your overall health.  While you are lifting weights your body is strengthening its bones, lowering your heart rate, and maximizing your lung capacity. 

The popular belief is that protein powder is all that’s needed to get ripped, but this is inaccurate (and unpleasant). 

ENERGY (CALORIES, IRON, AND B-VITAMINS)

The first thing to understand is that strict weight lifting does not require you to fuel up the way you would for a run.  There are some weight lifters who make it into an intense feat- moving from machine to machine and working so hard that their heart is racing and sweat is pouring by the end of just a few minutes, but this represents only a few of the many people who lift weights.

Casual (and I mean not deathly exhausting) weight lifting only requires a modest increase in daily calories because the majority of the hurt you are feeling is you pushing past the load-bearing capacity of your muscles.  So don’t use weight lifting as an excuse to have an extra helping at dinner.

Weight lifting can help with weight loss, but not in quite the way people have always said.  Adding muscle does not increase your caloric requirements drastically, but it does do some great things to reduce fatigue during the day- making your goals that much more achievable.

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED AS A WOMAN TO POWER YOUR WORKOUT?

Iron and B-vitamins are big-time nutrients for athletes.  Iron helps your blood deliver oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body.  Women have a higher requirement than men for iron (18mg vs. 8mg a day respectively) and are therefore more likely to be anemic. 

Iron-deficiency anemia can cut your workout short by reducing the oxygen carried from your lungs to your muscles. 

This means more pain, more fatigue, and a slower recovery.  B-vitamins also do their part by helping your body break down nutrients for energy. 

Eating foods high in both of these nutrients can give your body the oxygen and energy it needs to push through your workout, even when things seem their worst.

Iron comes in two types: animal and plant source.  Animal source iron is far more compatible with our intestines than plant source iron is, meaning that you need far less of it.

For example: spinach is a plant high in iron, but the body can use only about 5% of the iron listed on the label. 

Meats are the best iron source, but if you can’t or choose not to eat meat, you may consider supplementing your iron.  B-vitamins can be found in many meat, seafood, egg, and diary products as well as in whole-grains. 

The absorption of many B-vitamins is negatively affected by alcohol however, so be sure not to drink for at least 48 hours prior to a workout.

BONE HEALTH (CALCIUM, PHOSPHOROUS, AND VITAMIN D)

You may not think it, but weight lifting isn’t just a workout for your muscles, it’s a workout for you bones too!  For women, bone density and bone growth is mostly decided by the age of 25, long before anybody starts to worry about osteoporosis.

Fortunately, weight-bearing exercises like those that build muscle are a great way to trick the system and store more minerals in the bones while you can. 

When you lift weights you will be putting strain on your bones as well as your muscles, and it is important to eat foods that will help to repair both.

For bone health calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D are the three to look for.

Calcium and phosphorus are two minerals that aid in bone strength and vitamin D is the partner in crime that helps them get into the body.

Dairy products aside, high calcium foods include oranges, broccoli, almonds, beans, and dark leafy greens.  Phosphorus, like calcium, can be found in dairy products but is also common in beans and fish.

Vitamin D, as a fat-soluble vitamin, is found mainly in fish oil from fatty fish varieties.  An easier way to get your daily vitamin D is from the sun.

Fifteen minutes a day of exposure (without sunscreen) is just enough each day to get the Vitamin D you need.

RECOVERY (PROTEIN, VITAMIN C, AND ZINC)

To understand muscle building it is important to understand how muscle is built.  During intense exercise we tear some of our muscle tissue.

During the repair, the body adds more muscle over top, making you larger and stronger than you were before.  When you plan for your muscle-building workout you should be planning for wound healing.  There are three big nutrients that are needed for this: protein, vitamin C, and zinc. 

You usually need somewhere between 80 and 120 grams protein per day just to maintain your body in a resting state.  Building muscle requires even more.  Eggs have protein and many other nutrients; and don’t forget to eat the yolks.

The stigma surrounding eggs, that they raise bad cholesterol, has been mostly disproven.  Besides, about half of the protein in an egg is in the yolk!  Meat is also great, but choose carefully.  Go for cold cuts, lean meat, or fish.

If you enjoy beef you should start including lean cuts such as round, loin, shoulder, and chuck.  Beef is high in iron and zinc as well as protein.  Just remember that a serving is 3 ounces, or about the size of a deck of cards.

Nuts, beans, and alternative grains like quinoa are also high in protein.

Vitamin C and zinc are nutrients that aid in wound healing.  Vitamin C helps to re-build connective tissues while zinc is important for growth and cell replication.

Eating foods high in vitamin C and zinc can help speed up the recovery time between workouts. 

Vitamin C can be found mostly in fruits (oranges, grapefruits, and strawberries) and vegetables (bell peppers, broccoli, and Brussel’s sprouts). Zinc can be found in meat, seafood, and nuts- conveniently all high-protein foods!

10 AWESOME FOODS FOR WOMEN WHO WANT TO BUILD MUSCLE!

So here is the rundown- 10 awesome foods for women who want to build muscle! :

1. Oysters
2. Tuna
3. Lean Beef
4. Beans
5. Raisins
6. Leafy Greens
7. Oranges
8. Almonds
9. Broccoli
10. Eggs

Thanks for reading....please let me know your views , comments, tips and suggestions.

As always....take care of your health, be fit and healthy :-)

Guide To Build Muscle Mass Up Fast

Here is guest post from Sunny Dasu, who is fitness enthusiast, he shared his experiences in building body muscle mass. 

Are you trying to talk to your family doctor or physician or your gym friends to put on muscle mass? This post will give good understanding on Building Muscle Mass.

Hope you like reading and implement in your daily gym routine for better body muscle mass.

If you want to build muscle mass fast then there are certain things you are just going to have to do. Some people say they want to get a muscular physique but continue to do nothing about it. This guide is not for you, this guide is for people who are going to take action and get big. So, lets just cut to the chase shall we and fill you in on the essential steps needed to build muscle up fast. 

Here we go, how to build up muscles fast: 

1) Eat double what you would normally eat. Yeah I’m serious! Muscle mass doesn’t just appear out of nothing, it has to be built from the excess calories that you consume. If you have no excess calories then you can train all you want, but you ain’t gonna build muscle mass. So, eat double! Important times to eat are an hour before training, within an hour after training and before you go to sleep. 

2) Eat 5-7 meals per day consisting of: 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 20% fat. The amount of protein you eat per day should be equal roughly to one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Get your food from the following sources: carbs – pasta, rice, breads, protein – fish and lean white meat, fat – will come naturally in the foods you eat. Also of course, eat leafy green vegetables and fruit in your quest to build up muscle mass. 

3) Use the following exercises in your routine. These are without doubt the best to build muscle mass fast: Squats, Deadlifts, Benchpress, Pull-ups. 

These are all classic mass builders which stimulate muscle growth in more than one muscle as they are multi-joint movements. Ignore isolation exercises such as tricep kickbacks for now. 

4) Rest. Your muscles don’t grow in the gym. They grow after you have stimulated them in the gym when you are resting. So rest. Training twice a week is plenty for a lot of people to build up muscle mass. 

5) Train each muscle group only 6-9 sets in total. If you do more you risk overtraining which is going to stop you growing. If you want to build up muscle mass fast then train for just 45 minutes in the gym as hard as you can then get out eat and rest. 

6) Change your routine often. Your muscles will stop growing if they become too used to the same thing. Try a few things like: doing different exercises, using supersets, compound sets, negatives, reverse the order of your exercises, reduce the rest time between sets. You are only limited by your imagination, this is great advice if you want to know how to build up muscles fast. 

7) Do exercises with heavy weights in the range of 7-10 reps. This is ideal for stimulating muscle growth for size and to build up muscle mass fast. The last rep should be almost impossible or make you fail. your muscles won’t grow if you don’t push them. 

8) Always try to do better than your last workout, this means keeping a training log to record your workouts. Sounds boring but do you want to build up muscle mass or not. You need a goal to aim for each workout and your training log gives you that goal. Start using one today. 

As a quick summary: Train hard with variety, eat lots and often, rest more and grow! Repeat until your massive:-)

Thanks a lot for reading, Please share your comments /suggestions below, as always stay fit and healthy