Best Foods For Muscle And Strength (More Than Protein)

The best foods for building muscle and strength aren’t about one macronutrient. It’s the combination of protein, fats and carbs.

One thing we need to make clear before we continue is no matter how perfect your diet is, if you’re not training hard and progressively, you’re not going to build muscle.

No one has ever built muscle or increased their strength with diet alone.

Whole foods are always the best choice to build muscle as they contain more than just the primary macronutrient we’re looking for. They also have micronutrients we need, like vitamins and minerals.

If you are interested in losing body fat and adding muscle, please email me at 1shark1bite@gmail.com for information on my personal training services.

If you would like a set of Torrobands for yourself, here is my affiliate link so you can receive 50% off on your purchase https://sale.torroband.com/?affId=555B3E5D

Here is the link to FortisFight https://www.fortisfight.com/product-category/men/ and use my affiliate discount code FITAND50 at checkout for 15% off you next purchase on all of their apparel.

Check your testosterone levels from home. Just click this link http://trylgc.com/laurence and receive 30% off with code: LAURENCE30 I receive commissions on referrals to LetsGetChecked. I only recommend services I know and trust.

My Affiliate link to Lebert for their Equalizer bars and more; https://lebertfitness.com/?ref=FitAnd50 and use the discount code FITAND50 you will receive 20% off your purchase

Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/Fit-and-50-5...

My Amazon page link; https://www.amazon.com/shop/fitand50

Carbs provide us with the energy to train hard. When we eat carbohydrates, they get converted into glucose or glycogen. Glucose is used immediately for energy, and glycogen gets stored either in the muscle or as fat.

It's the fat part that scares many people, but the leaner you are and the more active you are, the more carbs you’ll want to take in.

If you have diabetes, are pre-diabetic, or are very overweight, you may want to limit your carbs, but those you do eat should be whole foods, like the ones I’m about to list.

Carbohydrates play an essential role in muscle recovery, replenishing the glycogen stores in the muscle, and as they’re drawn in, they bring in other nutrients that aid in recovery.

Oatmeal is an excellent source of carbs that provides lasting energy. It’s very satiating too. So for those who are striving to lose weight, it’ll help you feel full longer.

Oats also contain av-en-an-thram-ides which increases nitric oxide production improving blood flow. This is important because the more efficiently our blood circulates, the better it is at bringing nutrition into the muscle and removing waste.

Beans, and in particular black beans, are another great carbohydrate source. For those trying to limit animal protein, it contains a reasonable amount of protein

Black beans also contain many micronutrients like potassium, iron, zinc and magnesium

My last carb source was a toss-up between quinoa, rice, or potatoes. White potatoes are my personal favourite. And are high in potassium, even higher than bananas

If we’re low on potassium, we’ll experience muscle weakness and cramping.

Fats play an integral role in building muscle. A meta-analysis published in 2021 found significant decreases in sex hormones on low fat versus high-fat diets.

We tend to think of eggs as a protein because it contains a very digestible form, but it actually has almost twice the amount of fat as protein. Most of the fat in an egg is unsaturated.

The reason people fear eggs is because of the high level of cholesterol they contain.

Many studies have shown that there is no connection between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol levels. But if you have issues with high cholesterol, listen to your doctor and dietitian.

There may be a connection between cholesterol and muscle growth. They did a study on 49 people between the ages of 60 and 69 and found after 12 weeks of high-intensity resistance training and nutritional supplementation. There’s a dose-response between dietary cholesterol and gains in lean mass.

For unsaturated fat, salmon is a good source, again, we think of it as a protein, but it contains a bit more fat than protein.

A couple of great non-meat unsaturated fats are nuts like almonds, peanuts and walnuts. Avocado is a fruit that’s mainly unsaturated fat.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33741447/#:~:text=Conclusions%3A%20Low%2Dfat%20diets%20appear,to%20a%20low%2Dfat%20diet.
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-11-20
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16139284/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279303939_Dietary_cholesterol_and_cardiovascular_disease_A_systematic_review_and_meta-analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17921432/
https://mennohenselmans.com/cholesterol-anabolic/