USN Advice:
Nutrition Tips - Calorie Density for Muscular Immensity
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The secret
to packing on pounds of solid muscle mass is simple: For the
most part, the types of foods you eat on a muscle-gaining program
are the same ones you should eat all the time, whether you
want to lose, gain or maintain - you just need to eat more
of them. "Just eat more" is
easier said than done, however. It seems like you're constantly
shopping, cooking and eating. Sometimes preparing food and eating
it can seem like a full time job! One way to make gaining weight
and forcing down all that food less of a chore is to choose foods
(or supplements) with a HIGHER CALORIE DENSITY.
By doing so, you can get more calories in the same amount of
food.
All proteins and all carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram
and all fats have 9 calories per gram, but not all foods have
the same number of calories per unit of volume. Let me explain:
Imagine for a moment, two measuring cups (the kind you have
in your kitchen) and notice the amount of space in each container.
Got it? Now visualize the two cups side by side; one filled with
chopped cucumber and one filled with raisins. Each cup now contains
exactly the same VOLUME of food, right? But
did you know that the cup of raisins has 37 times more calories?
That's right! The cup of cucumbers contains 14 calories, while
the cup of raisins contains 520 calories. If cucumbers and raisins
both have four calories per gram, then how could this be? The
answer has to do with calorie density. The cucumbers have a lower
calorie density because they have a higher fiber and water content.
The calories in the raisins are more "concentrated."
And that's the secret to getting enough calories to gain weight:
choose calorie-concentrated foods.If you learn which foods are
nutrition dense and calorie dense, you can use this information
to help you gain lean weight more easily than ever before.Fibrous
carbohydrates and vegetables such as lettuce, asparagus, cucumber
and broccoli have very low calorie densities because your body
can't absorb the caloric content of fiber. That makes veggies
an excellent choice when you want to lose body fat. Before competitions,
bodybuilders usually reduce or remove high calorie simple sugars
and starches from their diets and replace them with fibrous carbohydrates.
(Goodbye bagels and pasta, hello broccoli and asparagus!)
On the other side of the coin, the low calorie density of most
vegetables is the very reason that they don't help you gain weight.
Think about it; you would have to eat a wheelbarrow full of lettuce,
cucumbers or spinach before you consumed enough calories to make
the scale budge at all! It's wise to always include vegetables
in your diet (because they're good for you), but you won't get
enough calories to gain weight from veggies alone; you have to
eat lots of high density foods or you'll be fighting an uphill
battle.
So now let's look at some "calorie-dense" foods
that can help you pack on the pounds:Simple carbohydrates such
as fruit have higher calorie densities than vegetables because
simple carbs are more concentrated and have less fiber. Fruit
juice is even more concentrated than the fruit itself. A medium
sized orange contains about 60 calories. A glass of orange
juice has about 160 calories. Fruit and fruit juice, therefore,
make great additions to a weight-gaining program.Taken to the
extreme, concentrating and refining carbohydrates results in
empty calorie products like white sugar and white bread. Although
these are calorie dense foods, they have little or no nutritional
value. Don't add nutritionally void foods to your diet just
for the sake of more calories - it's the quality and nutritional
value of the calories you want, not just the quantity. You
should look for foods that are high in calories that are unrefined
and as close to their natural form as possible (the way they
came out of the ground).
Complex carbohydrates (starches) such as whole grains, pasta,
cereals, beans, yams, potatoes and rice also have higher calorie
densities than fibrous carbs. A typical restaurant sized serving
of pasta contains 800-1000 calories. Obviously, pasta and other
complex carbohydrates are great foods for gaining weight.Ok,
now that you know what carbs to eat, let's talk about fat. Fat
can also have a major impact on the calorie content of foods.
Fats have more than twice as many calories per gram than carbohydrates
or protein (9 calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram), so
foods that are 100% fat have the most calories per volume. Olive
oil, which is pure fat, contains 1920 calories per cup. Any food
that has a lot of fat in it will have a high calorie density.
Peanut butter, for example, has 1600 calories per cup; Cashews
have 780 calories per cup.
I'm not suggesting that
you start devouring French fries, cheeseburgers and sausage
every day for the sake of gaining weight - if you do, you'll
gain weight all right - right on your belly or backside! Your
diet should always be low in fat (15-25% of your total calories),
but not all fats are bad. It's the saturated fats like fried
foods, butter and tropical oils that you should avoid.In small
amounts, unsaturated, "healthy" fats are not only good
for you, but they can help you gain weight more quickly than
if you didn't eat any fat at all. Just one tablespoon of flaxseed
oil and two tablespoons of peanut butter would add nearly 500
calories to your daily diet and you'd hardly notice that any
extra food was added.
Protein foods that contain some fat will also be higher in calories.
4 oz of Chinook salmon has 262 calories and 15 grams of (good)
fat; 4 oz of Haddock has 137 calories and only 1 gram of fat.
Because of the higher calories and the essential fatty acids
(good fats), cold water fish like Salmon are another great addition
to a weight gain program.The best proteins for gaining muscle
are the lean ones like chicken, lean beef, egg whites, turkey
and fish. Lean cuts of red meat like round or flank steak are
excellent for gaining weight. Avoid fatty cuts of beef, as well
as pork, sausage, bacon and whole milk products because they
contain large amounts of artery-clogging, unhealthy saturated
fat.
I'm a huge believer in always choosing whole foods over supplements
whenever possible. However, it's not easy to eat whole foods
5 or 6 times per day if you have a busy schedule. If you have
a hard time getting enough calories from food, then you should
consider using a weight gain or meal replacement product because
drinking your calories is a lot easier than eating them.Meal
replacements are usually powdered products that you mix with
water, milk or juice. You can also increase the calories further
by adding peanut butter, flax oil, fruit or your other favorite
ingredient and mixing up the whole concoction in a blender.
Don't just blindly follow
the instructions on the container. One thing that most people
don't realize is that you need to customize your supplement
intake to your exact calorie needs. Just because the package
says there are "1000 calories per
serving" doesn't mean that's how many you need. Adjust the
serving size to fit your own diet.For example, if you need 3000
calories to gain weight, that breaks down into five 600-calorie
meals or six 500-calorie meals. There's no need to shovel down
1000 calories at a time just because the label says so - that's
only going to make you fat.
Some products were designed as meal replacements for fat loss
programs. These usually come in individual serving packets, they
have about 280-300 calories per serving and they contain more
protein than carbohydrates; this way, they fit into the guidelines
of a low carbohydrate, high protein, fat burning diet. These
products are not as cost-effective when you're trying to gain
weight. 300 calories is not enough for mass-building meal. If
you decide to use this type of product for weight gain, you'll
need to mix it with a calorie containing liquid like juice or
skim milk to bring the calories up to 500-700 (or whatever your
diet calls for).
When you want to gain muscle,
you'd be better off choosing a product that was specifically
designed for that purpose. These "weight
gainers" are much more concentrated in calories and contain
more carbohydrates.Using mostly carbs (sugars) and skimping on
the protein is a dirty trick that supplement companies use to
make a product cheap to manufacture. Read the labels carefully
and avoid any product that is mostly sugar with very little protein.
A good product will have approximately one part protein for every
two parts of carbohydrates and small amounts of fat. For example,
a drink mix with 40 grams of protein, 80 grams of carbs, and
2 grams of fat would provide almost 500 calories. If you wanted
even more calories, you could mix the powder in skim milk or
juice instead of water.
So, let's summarize your strategy for quickly
and easily adding more calories to your diet:
Continue to eat the same healthy foods you always eat, but
simply eat more of them.
Choose foods with a higher calorie density. You could eat
broccoli and salad until your face hurts from chewing so much,
but you still won't get enough calories.
Eat plenty of starchy
carbohydrates including whole grains & cereals,
pasta, potatoes, yams, beans, rice and oatmeal.
Don't be afraid of
adding a little bit of fat. Keep your diet low in fat overall,
but add in some of the healthy "good" fats
(such as flax oil, olive oil, or a couple tablespoons of peanut
butter) and you'll gain weight more quickly.
Just because you're trying to gain weight doesn't mean you
have a license to eat anything you want. Go for nutritional
value as well as calorie density; avoid saturated fats, sugar
and processed junk foods.
If you can't seem to get enough calories from food, then
a meal replacement or weight gainer supplement can make your
life a lot easier. Adjust the serving size to fit your calorie
needs and make sure the product has a good protein to carb
ratio.
Don't be afraid to drink a lot of your calories in the form
of low fat/skim milk, juice or supplements/shakes.
Well, that's it! Follow these strategies diligently and you'll
gain pounds solid muscular weight more easily than you ever
have before without having to chain yourself to the refrigerator!
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