Building A Better Breakfast

Better Breakfasts for Building Muscle

The biggest consideration to make when trying to gain muscle is your food intake and what types of food you are eating. While your activity level and genetic factors all have a slight input, you have to concentrate most of your efforts on your diet. But despite what you may have been led to believe, fats are still okay to include in your muscle building meal plans. Often times, if you do it right, you can fight off the fat by eating the right types of food, and by eating them at the rights times and intervals.

BREAKFAST.

Have you ever heard the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”?

Of course you have because everyone has at some point or another.

But there is a good reason this saying is so popular…It’s true! Skipping breakfast is possibly the biggest of all mistakes to be made if you wish to gain muscle, keep fat levels low or get into any half decent shape at all. Eating breakfast will kick start your metabolism and provide you with the energy you need to start the day as you mean to go on. Breakfast is literally the ‘fast breaker’ and your body begins to slow down it’s metabolism after going 6 to 8 hours without food. You want to grow? Your best not skip breakfast!

So what does a typical muscle building breakfast consist of for the Muscle Cook?

My muscle building breakfast always consist of protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats – note the word healthy here! Protein is the main muscle building nutrient and you need to consume this in order to extract those vital amino acids. Too many people skip the protein in their breakfast with just a cereal bar. Don’t be one of them.

PROTEIN. Many bodybuilders use egg whites to get their protein into their diet, although this can be a little on the time-consuming side if you were to crack each egg to get the whites out of them. If you also have kids to feed or a job to get to then you can buy your egg whites in a carton – Eggwhites in cartons are much less messy and readily available. Cottage cheese and protein powder are both good choices too as they pack in the protein without throwing in too much fat. Protein powder can be a quick way to make some delicious oats, one of my personal favourites.

CARBS. The next thing to do is get the complex carbohydrates in. These are vital for energy especially when burning more calories and requiring more to build and repair muscle tissue. Eating complex carbohydrates rather than the simple ones such as processed bread is the best way to go. You should eat beans and whole grains which release their energy more steadily and avoid giving you a sugar rush which is only really beneficial post workout.                            

HEALTHY FATS. Healthy fats are perfectly acceptable as well when it comes to eating for muscle gain or even fat loss. The key is to choose healthy fats such as olive oil, natural peanut butter, nuts and low amounts of whole eggs.  Just be careful with oils as it is easy to go over your required fat calories per meal if you use too much.

FIBER. Fiber should also be found in your breakfast as this keeps your digestive system moving effectively. An effectively moving digestive system will be more able to digest food and remove toxins. By being able to digest foods better you will also keep glycogen receptors more receptive to the caloric surplus you take in on a muscle building diet.

Your body is dependent upon the food you supply to it and a better breakfast really does mean a better body. Don’t think about a junk food breakfast and skipping it is always completely out of the question.

It might take some practice and some planning in advance. Just like lifting weights, you must get used to the calories in the morning and taking the time to actually eat. Treat it like you should be treating your weights. It’s a good routine to adopt!