Nutrition for Lean Muscle

As important as it is to exercise, it may be even more important to watch what you eat. It is not so much of what you eat, but how much you eat, when you eat, and how often you eat. If you eat low in calorie snacks between meals, you will not be as hungry during normal meals, causing you to eat less then you would have without the snacks.

Eating five or six smaller meals a day, rather than three large meals, is said to increase your metabolism. An increase in metabolism should help you burn calories when you are exercising. A small meal may be a bowl of whole-wheat cereal with one percent milk for breakfast. For a mid morning meal, you could have a cup of cottage cheese. Your whole day continues like this, with small, yet healthy meals.

The problem with low protein, low calorie, low fat, low anything diets is that when you are working out, or even performing everyday activities, your body does not have anything to get energy from in order to burn off fat. Foods that are high in protein or calories give your body energy, which is important if you are trying to increase your metabolism. Smoking and drinking don't help if you are trying to lose weight because they make your body hungry, one because you are not aware of how much you are eating, or two because your blood pressure and pulse increase, and they too need nutrition to keep them down.

If you are careful about what you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat, your muscles should become healthy and lean. It is also important to note that skipping meals does not help you loose weight, but gain weight, because when your body does get food it stores it as fat because it does not know when you ate going to eat again. Instead of skipping meals, eat lighter meals, more often. Muscle, however, is not going to grow by it's self, proper training will help your body develop muscle. Instead of telling you to eat less, I will tell you to consult your doctor about diets that are healthy, yet allow you to eat normal food, or find a planned out routine diet that lets you eat five to six meals a day.

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