Macronutreints to gain weight and build muscle

Macronutrients play a very important role in building muscle and gaining weight. The main three are protein, carbs, and fats, but the most important for weight training purposes are protein and carbs.

Carbs – These are simple sugars that are in most types of foods. As we eat these carbohydrates our body is turning them into sugars and in turn using these sugars to generate energy. That is why you hear that a main sportsmens meal before any event is pastas and rice and things of that nature. Therefore we ourselves use carbohydrates to provide us with energy for our daily activities, and for our own exercises and workouts.

Protein – Protein is a major player when it involves building muscle, but in actual fact it helps in a number of other various activities around the body. But most importantly is helps towards generating new muscle tissue and repairing damaged muscles. If a loss of carbohydrates occurs the protein which is in our bodies will be used to generate energy. This will therefore make it abundant when needed to repair or grow new muscle tissue.

In evaluating this info you should have become to realize that our body cannot build muscle effectively without the use of both carbs and proteins. It is essential that our bodies has an adequate supply of both these macronutrients as we need energy to build muscle and we need the protein to rebuild our tissues after weight resistance and therefore build muscle, so any loss of either of these macronutrients would lead to an unsuccessful muscle gain program.

The general consensus of dietitians is in fact consistent with this view. In order to build muscle and gain weight, it is generally recommended to eat carbohydrate containing meals two hours before a workout (to provide energy), but immediately after a workout, to eat foods containing both carbohydrate and protein (so as to both provide energy and regenerate muscle).

The Best Weight Gain Supplements

A lot of weight gain supplements that are in the market do not work, there’s only a few that actually do. There are a few supplements that I have taken that I fully endorse, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of sales pitches around from big multi-million companies and people are falling for them and it needs to stop.You can search around the net or in the shops to find the best weight gain supplements for each goal you have, whether it be losing fat, gaining muscle, or gaining weight.

Some of the best weight gain supplements I’ve tried and have been successful with are:

DHEA - DHEA is an acronym for the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone.

In men 50% of testosterone comes from DHEA and it’s the most plentiful androgenic hormone that is produced by the adrenal glands. As you can see it’s very important to bodybuilders and athletes alike, women even get 75% of their estrogen from it, and it goes upto nearly 100% after menopause.

Your levels of DHEA are very high at birth, they drop through childhood, and peak to their highest levels during young childhood. After that the levels continue to drop throughout life. Luckily however this product is available in supplement form. As a building block hormone it is proven to help towards the production of several other hormones as well, and it’s been shown to help people lose weight, burn fat, and build muscle.

Using DHEA as a dietary supplement will help maintain adequate levels in the body and improve a person’s general well being. Medical professionals in America have discovered that DHEA levels in people who are depressed are lower than in those of a normal mental state, and when given DHEA supplements it reportedly improved their state of mind. There are plenty of good names for DHEA, some what I use and have used are; AST DHEA, Ultimate Nutrition DHEA, and High Power DHEA.

Protein – This supplement is one of the major nutrients responsible for growth and repair of muscles. People who lift weights and are undergoing heavy training will need more protein than the average person. Protein should be the number one nutrient taken for people who are trying to build muscle and gain weight.

There are several different protein sources you can buy, some of the best I recommend are whey, casein, and soy. Whey is well and truly the best protein available for the body as it utilizes it better than any other.

Some of the best protein brands I know are Best Isopure, Optimum Whey, and Met-Rx Whey.

Creatine – This for me is without doubt one of the best supplements for weight gain. It is a must for people who are weight training and are looking to gain strength, muscle mass, and also endurance.

Creatine is a naturally produced compound which is produced in our own bodies to help supply the muscle with energy. Why do we need an extra supplement? you ask. Well you need it because we don’t produce enough of it from whole foods on their own. It will increase endurance, overall power, and will also increase muscle size, so you can see why it is very useful to bodybuilders and people looking to gain weight and build muscle. It does these things by forcing water into the muscle cells, which forces the muscles to hold water within themselves instead of under the skin.

Creatine overall, is very safe and easy to use, and is one of the best weight gain supplements you can buy. It has definately served me very well over the years and it will continue to do so I’m sure. Some of the best brands for creatine are; Prolab Creatine, FSI Creatine, and High Power Micronized Creatine.

These are just a few of some of the best weight gain supplements that I have tried and use till this day. Please remember though, that there is no miracle cure, no magic pills, or no substitute for a good solid 6 meal a day diet and a quality training regime to gain weight or build muscle.

If the supplements are taken properly and often (which means consistently and not too much) then products like protein, creatine, and meal replacements will help you no-end in reaching your goals faster and more effectively than not taking them at all.

Delicious Weight Gain Dessert Recipe: Fudge

Your in for a treat today because I’m going to share with you one of dirty little secrets that I have never shared with anyone before. I’m talking about a delicious dessert that satisfies my sweet tooth and suplies me with lot’s of quality nutrients.

This dessert is a very healthy version of a peanut butter fudge. If you don’t like either the nuts or the butter, it’s not a problem because you can leave them out and just have a chocolate version which is just as delicious. Make sure you take notes of this recipe as there are certain ingreadients in this fudge that make it a lot more nutritional for you.

This fudge is not low calorie per se’, as I’m not a miracle worker, but it is full of essential healthy fats, protein, tons of antioxidants,relatively low in sugar, and it also contains a decent amount of fiber as well. I would really recommed this snack as it help curn your appetite, it fuels your muscles, fills your body with anti-oxidants, and it it stops that sweet tooth dead in it’s tracks. If your anything like me and you have a real temprimental sweet tooth then this recipe is worth its weight in gold.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup organic coconut milk (make sure you get the organic version as well, the watered down version of this is not going to cut it)
• 1 bar of extra dark chocolate that has at least 70% cocoa.
• 4-5 tablespoons of peanut butter or any other nut butter of your liking.
• 3/4 cup of raisins (which is totally upto you but it seems to go really well with it)
• 1/2 cup of whole peice almonds (also optional, but again, it’s really nice with them)
• 2 Tbsp of raw wheat germ
• 2 Tbsp of rice bran (you will probably have to visit a health stor for this)
• 1/2 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
• And last of all, a little stevia powder to sweeten it and add a bit more flavour.

Now lets get to the cooking part……

Start off by adding the organic coconut milk and the vanilla extract to a small pan and place on a very low heat. Now, break up the dark chocolate itno small chunks and add them into the pan. Add the nut butter of your choice into the pan with the stevia as well, and stir continuously until you get a smooth mixture.

Now thats down to  smooth mixture you can add the raisins, almonds, wheat germ, and the rice bran. Keep stirring until they are fully blended in with the rest of the mixture. When thats done you can spoon the fudge mixture into some waxed paper in a dish and place it in the fridge for around half an hour or until it cools and hardens. Remember to cover the mixture in the dish so that it does’nt dry out when cooling.

Enjoy small squares for dessert and for small snacks throughout the day. This is about as good as it gets for a healthy yet delicious treat!