As a hardgainer trying to pack on muscle mass, few things are as important as your diet. You can crush the heaviest lifts and most intense workouts, but without feeding your body properly, your gains will stall. Most of us already know the basic formula – eat in a calorie surplus to gain weight. However simply eating everything in sight can lead to excessive fat gain. The quality and composition of your diet is crucial for building lean muscle.
In this definitive guide, we provide key diet strategies for optimal muscle growth based on teachings from famous bodybuilder David Laid. Whether your goal is to gain 10 pounds or 100, implementing these nutrition tactics can help you maximize your genetic muscle building potential. Let‘s get started!
Why Diet Is Essential For Muscle Growth
To spur muscle growth, you need to be in a positive energy balance where you consume slightly more calories than you burn. Without a caloric surplus, your body has no excess energy to put towards generating new muscle tissue. However, you can‘t just eat random excess calories and expect efficient muscle gain.
The composition and timing of your meals impact whether those calories get partitioned towards lean mass or simply stored as fat. Consuming sufficient protein triggers muscle protein synthesis and supports recovery. Meanwhile carbohydrates fuel your workouts and intense lifting. Dietary fat is involved in various processes including hormone production, absorbing fat-soluble vitamins, cushioning organs and more.
Furthermore, eating a diet lacking in micronutrients can hamper results. Vitamins and minerals serve as essential cofactors in biological processes influencing muscle growth. For example, deficiencies in zinc and magnesium have been associated with reduced testosterone levels.
So in summary – calories drive growth, macros determine body composition changes, and micros support biological functioning. Optimizing all three is necessary for exceptional gains!
Macronutrients Guide – Protein, Carbs And Fats
Let‘s break down optimal intakes for each macronutrient when bulking:
Protein
Protein tops the list of priorities when building muscle. Numerous studies among strength training populations suggest protein needs may range from 1.6-2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (or around 0.7-1g per pound) for maximal growth. Getting sufficient protein not only stimulates muscle protein synthesis, but helps counteract muscle breakdown that naturally occurs alongside intense training.
Aim to consume a protein-rich meal or shake both pre and post-workout to maximize rates of muscle protein synthesis. Furthermore, spreading out your protein evenly throughout the day provides your body with a constant supply of amino acids to support recovery.
Some top protein food sources include:
- Eggs
- Poultry
- Red meat
- Fish and seafood
- Dairy products like milk, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt
- Soy-based foods like tofu and edamame
- Protein supplements like whey and casein protein powders
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates get a bad rap, but they play crucial roles for muscle gain including fueling intense workouts and driving the muscle repair and growth process.
Aim for 3-5 grams of carbs per kg of body weight daily, primarily from complex sources like oats, rice, quinoa, potatoes, fruit and legumes. Save simple carbs from foods like white bread, sugary cereal, candy and soda for post-workout when they can help rapidly replenish muscle glycogen.
Time your carb intake appropriately around exercise for the best results – eat carbs before and after lifting to enhance performance and optimize recovery.
Dietary Fat
Don‘t overlook the importance of getting sufficient dietary fats when building muscle. Essential fatty acids directly stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Meanwhile fats from fish, nuts and olive oil provide calories needed to drive lean mass gains.
Aim for 0.5-1 gram of fat per pound of body weight when bulking depending on your genetics and carb intake. Focus on heart-healthy unsaturated fats from foods like salmon, avocadoes, nuts and seeds. Their anti-inflammatory effects can support your training capacity. Limit saturated fats from red meat and processed foods which may negatively impact blood lipids like cholesterol when over-consumed.
Meal Plan Examples For Optimal Muscle Growth
Putting these principles together, here is an example full day bulking meal plan providing roughly 3800 calories:
Breakfast:
- 3 whole eggs + 3 egg whites scrambled with 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1 oz cheddar cheese
- 3 slices whole grain toast with 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 cup Greek yogurt with 1 scoop protein powder, 1/2 cup blueberries
Lunch:
- 8 oz chicken breast
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice
- 1 avocado, sliced
- Veggies like broccoli, carrots etc.
Afternoon Snack:
- Protein shake
- Hummus with whole grain crackers or veggies
Dinner:
- 8 oz salmon
- 2 cups white rice
- Asparagus
- Fruit salad
Evening Snack:
- 1 serving trail mix with nuts, seeds, coconut
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- Tart cherry juice
This provides roughly:
- 390g protein (1.5g per pound for 260 pound male)
- 580g carbs
- 110g fat
Meals are balanced with protein, complex carbs, fiber and healthy fats and properly timed around workouts to optimize results. Mix and match different foods you enjoy eating while hitting your optimal macro targets for growth!
Nutrient Timing – When To Eat For Maximum Muscle Protein Synthesis
Simply hitting your macronutrient goals isn‘t enough – you need to properly time intake around exercise to fully maximize the muscle growth response, a concept known as nutrient timing.
Here is an evidence-based nutrient timing strategy for bulking:
Pre-workout:
Have a meal containing both protein and carbs 1-2 hours before lifting. Carbs help maximize strength, intensity and work capacity during exercise while amino acids from protein inhibit muscle breakdown. Good pre-workout meals include oats with whey powder, or a chicken sandwich with veggies.
Intra-workout:
Sip on a branched chain amino acid (BCAAs) or carbohydrate drink like Gatorade during your workout to supply muscles with energy, enhance performance and decrease muscle damage. Popular pre-workout supplements can also help in this regard.
Post-workout:
Consume another 20-40 grams of whey or other fast digesting protein along with simple carbs like white rice or fruit within 45 minutes after your final set. This further spikes MPS and rapidly replenishes glycogen to feed recovery. Combining protein, carbs and micronutrients like creatine enhances this response.
Throughout the day:
Continue eating mixed meals containing protein, carbs and fats every 3-5 hours to facilitate sustained muscle repair and growth.
Properly fueling around workouts potentiates the adaptations to strength training, taking your gains to the next level!
The Drawbacks Of "Dirty Bulking" And Why A Lean Approach Is Superior
Some extreme enthusiasts adhere to a "dirty bulking" method involving eating as much food as humanly possible from any source, regardless of nutrition quality. Sure, this can drive up scale weight rapidly – but most will be fat, not muscle.
Dirty bulks may involve daily fast food meals, limitless pizza and burgers, entire tubs of ice cream etc. The sheer excess of calories outweighs any negatives associated with those food choices. And while weight gain will occur, excess body fat accumulation on dirty bulks diminishes aesthetics, negatively impacts health, and may actually hinder long term muscle gains.
For example, one study compared body composition changes for participants overfeeding either 60% or 30% calories from fat. While both groups gained total body weight, those eating fewer fats gained over 3 times as much lean mass compared to the high fat group.
Furthermore, radically overfeeding promotes rapid weight gain which will require an aggressive cutting phase to ditch accumulated fat stores before resuming muscle building. This inevitably costs you hard-earned mass.
A smarter lean "clean bulking" approach focused on eating just enough calories in conjunction with proper protein intake, nutrient timing, weight training, and rest supports better body composition changes overall. Be patient during your growth phase – a rate of 0.25-0.5% of total body weight gained per week packed with muscle is realistic for most.
Additional Methods To Augment Muscle Growth
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Optimize Protein Intake: Consuming ample protein is key for muscle protein synthesis. But research suggests benefits may plateau beyond a certain threshold. One meta-analysis found 1.6 grams per kg of body weight (or 0.72 grams per pound) maximized gains from resistance training – more offered no added benefit. Spreading this intake over 4-5 meals ensured protein synthesis rates stayed consistently high.
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Try Supplementary Muscle-Building Foods: Certain functional foods contain compounds like nitrates, antioxidants and branched chain amino acids that can boost workout performance, enhance blood flow and reduce muscle damage. Research shows tart cherry juice, kefir milk, beetroot juice and pineapples may augment hypertrophy.
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Homemade Weight Gainer Shakes: Blending healthy calorie-dense ingredients like oats, nut butter, chia seeds, coconut and full-fat milk gives an easy way to pack extra usable calories for growth into your day. The scoops of protein powder provide the amino acids to build muscle.
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The Role Of Genetics: Your unique genetics dictate your natural muscular potential. Several gene variants influence satellite cell number and activity, determining hypertrophy capacity. Therefore your diet is just one piece of the muscle building equation – equally important is consistent, progressive overloaded strength training and ample rest. Manage expectations accordingly.
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Periodize Your Nutrition: Muscle growth occurs most efficiently during a "massing phase". But staying in perpetual caloric surplus inevitably leads to fat gain and diet fatigue over time. Periodically deload training, reduce calories to a maintenance level for a phase of lighter training, then resume intensified bulk training cycles. This allows your body to consolidate gains.
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Lifestyle Factors: Sleep, stress and more all influence your capacity to build muscle. Inadequate rest, high cortisol and life demands can potentially suppress strength and hypertrophy gains from diet and training interventions. Don‘t overlook these factors!
Helpful Tools And Tips For Implementing This Muscle Building Diet
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Use a TDEE calculator to estimate your maintenance calories, then add 300-500 calories to determine an appropriate surplus for lean bulking. Re-evaluate this every few weeks.
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Macro tracking apps like MyFitnessPal or MacroFactor make hitting protein, carb and fat goals seamless. Input your foods to see cumulative totals and remaining needs for the day.
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Buy a food scale – weighing portions is far more accurate than eyeballing or using measuring cups to track diets.
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Meal prep! Cook several days worth of meals at once hitting your macro numbers to support consistency with your plan.
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Have healthy calorie-dense snacks on hand (nuts, dried fruit, protein bars etc) when extra calories are needed to hit surplus targets.
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Take progress photos weekly. The scale can be misleading – photos will show if gains are actually muscle versus fat.
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Get bloodwork done related to health markers, testosterone etc. This can confirm diet adequacy or uncover potential deficiencies impeding your goals.
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Consider working with an accredited sports dietitian or nutrition coach familiar with gaining muscle to optimize and periodize your nutrition.
Remember, this guide just skims the surface of strategic dieting for maximal muscle growth. Entire books have been written on the intricate details and nuances involved! But applying these diet fundamentals as a natural weightlifter or bodybuilder can help stack the odds in your favor and let your genetic potential shine through.
Stay disciplined, train hard, recover properly and watch your body transform week-to-week until you reach your ultimate physique goals!