Friday, January 28, 2011

Protein For Muscle Building Needs

If your strength training program is geared toward adding more muscle mass it is crucial that you support it with the right eating plan. This does not mean indiscriminately piling on calories because the wrong types of food will just add fat rather than muscles to your body. You are even advised to complement your weight lifting with cardio workouts because as you increase lean muscle mass you also need to eliminate your fat. High protein content is basically needed for the right food plan for muscle building since the foremost requirement of the body for muscle building is protein. Information on the best kind of protein for your needs as well as the amount of protein you should be taking is important for you to gather.

For the body to be able to do the tasks of muscle repair and muscle building it needs to have a calorie surplus to work with, which means that you will have to eat more calories than you are using. By getting most of your calories from protein you can make sure that those extra calories will not be quickly converted into fat by the body. If you are into serious strength training and weight lifting, you should have a daily intake equivalent to 1.8 grams of protein for every kilo of your body weight. To arrive at your weight in kilos divide your weight in pounds by 2.2, then multiply the quotient by 1.8 to get your daily protein requirement. A person weighing 150 pounds would weigh 68.18 kilos and would have a daily protein requirement of 123 grams.

Tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine+cystine, phelylalanine+tyrosine, valine and histidine are the nine essential amino acids that the body needs to build muscles and are contained in complete protein. Most protein foods that have animal sources, such as beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, cheese, yoghurt and milk, are complete proteins. Even if you are a vegetarian, though, you can still have complete protein by combining incomplete plant proteins such as legumes and whole grains in one meal.

You have to be very discerning in making your protein food choices, though, because most complete proteins are not lean. To qualify as lean protein, the particular protein food should have only one to three grams of fat per ounce, or even less. Fish would be the leanest among the complete proteins and the fat content of coldwater fish is considered healthy fat. Poultry has to be skinned before cooking, though, and beef and pork cuts should have no no visible fat or marbling.

You can be sure of getting the right amount and type of protein for your muscle building needs by computing your daily protein requirement and taking only the leanest complete protein.

Over at the FitnessArmory.com, you can let our expert advice on fitness and equipment reviews help you create the perfect home gym but without all the huge costs. We have the exclusive reviews on all your favorite brands and models to help you get in shape, get healthy and look great. Recent product reviews include: Stamina 1205 Precision Rower, Stamina 55-1539 Therapy Inversion Table, Stamina 55-1610 E1000 Elliptical Trainer, Stamina 55-2065 Elite Elliptical Stepper. We invite you to stop by or drop us a line if you have any questions or need help with your fitness equipment selections.

Stamina 1205 Precision Rower