The late “Iron Guru,” Vince Gironda once said that 80% of building muscle is nutrition. While I don’t agree with that exact percentage, I will say that what you eat is just as important as how you train, if not more so, when you are trying to gain muscle.
Many skinny guys often complain that they can’t eat enough or that they aren’t hungry. Other skinny guys come to the gym and tell me that they are eating a ton and wonder why they can’t gain weight.
When we sit down and add it up it turns out that they are only eating slightly more than 2300 calories a day. And that just aint gonna cut it.
Here three quick muscle building nutrition tips that will help you get down more calories, easily and quickly:
1) Eat foods that digest rapidly and cause very little gas or bloating. In other words limit your intake of vegetables and other fibrous foods for a short time while in a mass gain phase.
2) Eat a lot of white rice and other high glycemic index carbs. You know how you are hungry an hour after eating Chinese food? That’s from the white rice. And that’s a good thing when you are trying to eat more. White rice is absorbed rapidly and actually makes you hungry. So load up on it often.
3) Have a tablespoon or two of olive oil at every meal. A tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. If you have ten per day you quickly add an extra 1200 calories to your diet. Start slowly with a teaspoon per meal and work your way up.
4) Always carry raw, organic nuts with you. These are calorie dense, easy to consume rapidly and usually digest without issue.
