It is an age-old adage that the more muscle you have, the more power and stature you are given. Every masterpiece is created with just the right tools, and creating a well sculpted, defined body requires the right ingredients for effective results. Dating back to Hercules, Odysseus, and Samson to our present day iron icons like Schwarzenegger, Ferrigno, Haney, and Coleman, the idea of the human body as a masterpiece still pulses strongly in our present day culture as evidenced by the media.

Some very thin and scrawny athletes, in their quest for more muscle, wish they could even gain a little fat to fill out their physiques; a situation I am all too familiar with. Unfortunately, the road to more muscle size is full of potholes, detours and back roads in the form of products that lead nowhere, supplements that promise the world and don’t deliver, and conflicting information wherever you look. In this article we will delve into the proper way to put on some additional weight to foster the growth of more muscle mass.

Athletes were under the impression that in order to bulk up their muscles they simply had to eat an inordinate amount of food. Bodybuilders are notorious for eating several pounds of meat and up to two dozen eggs daily. Fortunately we know better today. We know that high fat, high protein diets are unhealthy and do not promote lean tissue growth. It is true that you need to consume a high number of calories to increase lean body mass, but the recommendations about where these calories should come from have considerably evolved.

Energy Requirements
The process of building more muscle requires tremendous energy. The mechanical energy required to fuel exercises as well as the chemical anabolism of the muscle tissue itself can be quite large. In a 1997 study by Butterfield, et al it was shown that strength-trained athletes need about 20 calories per pound of body weight each day just to maintain their muscle mass. In the same study it was shown even more calories, 25 – 30 calories per pound of body weight, is required to gain muscle mass.1, 2 That would mean a 70kg man would have to consume somewhere between 3850 calories to 4620 calories to gain muscle mass. We will now look at where these calories should be coming from.



Carbohydrate Considerations
Getting the proper amount of calories is important in your efforts to gain muscle size. Equally as important is consuming the right kind of calories. Carbohydrates, stored in the body as glycogen, are the predominant energy source for muscle building exercises. The harder and longer you work, the more glycogen your muscles require. Once your muscles are depleted of glycogen you will have no more energy to continue your intense workouts.

Example

A 70-kg (154lb) man has carbohydrate reserves that total 2000 calories, which are stored as 400g of muscle glycogen, 100g of liver glycogen and 20g of glucose circulating in the blood. If this 70-kg man were 13% body fat, he would have 20 pounds of fat equaling 70,070 calories. That accounts for about 80% of the body’s fuel reserves, with the remainder stored in the form of protein. When the 400 grams of muscle glycogen are getting low, the energy required for continued activity must be liberated from the body's fat reserves. At this point the body begins to depend increasingly on its fat reserves and the blood glucose level falls to a fasting level. This usually stimulates the appetite, causing the individual to eat and to conserve precious fat reserves.

No matter how much protein or fat you eat, it will not be stored as muscle glycogen. The body will use up all it’s glycogen reserves before blood glucose levels fall to fasting levels and stimulate the appetite causing us to consume more carbohydrates. Therefore it is evident that the body's primary and preferred source of energy is carbohydrates. In order to sustain intense workouts to gain muscle you must continually provide the body with adequate calories in carbohydrates.

There are a few different ways to figure out your carbohydrate needs. The bottom line is that with at least 500 to 600 grams of carbohydrates per day, your muscle will stay packed with glycogen. One method is to base your intake on 3.6 grams per pound of body weight (8 g/kg). At 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates, our 70kg(154lb) man would need 554 grams of carbohydrates (2218 calories) from carbohydrates.


A second strategy for computing your carbohydrate intake is based on the percentage of total calories. If your total energy intake is below 4000 calories a day, then getting 70% of your calories from carbohydrates will ensure you maintain the muscle
power and endurance required to strength train. A lower percentage of calories can come from carbohydrates if the total energy intake is above 4000 calories, so long as you take in at least 500 to 600 grams of carbohydrates.

Protein Portions
Now that you have the muscles packed with the needed glycogen to perform your intense workouts, you are probably wondering "where’s the protein?" Protein is the basic building block for muscle tissue. In the Butterfield study, researchers found that during weight lifting those who ate enough calories required about 0.6 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight daily to maintain muscle mass. If the intensity of the exercise was increased to build muscle, the daily requirement went up to 0.7 grams per pound.

Based on a wide review of scientific data, current daily protein recommendations for serious strength trainers are about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight.3 This comes out to 92.4 to 123.2 grams of protein per day for our 70kg(154lb) man.

Once you have established your carbohydrate and protein requirements to help promote muscle growth, then all leftover calories can come from fat. Remember that anaerobic work like strength training requires carbohydrates as the primary energy source, so keep your fat at less than 25% of your total calories. Also to keep your heart healthy, make sure that most of your fat calories are from unsaturated fat sources.

Hydration
In addition, it is crucial to stay well hydrated. Good hydration is just as important for strength training as it is for endurance training. Your body requires at least eight 8-ounce cups of caffeine-free, nonalcoholic fluids a day. Make sure you go into your workouts well hydrated by drinking 2 cups of fluid 2 hours before exercise. During exercise, drink 4 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes. After exercise, replace fluid losses with 16 ounces for every pound of weight lost during your training. Keep in mind that the body is 60 to 70 percent water and your muscles are 75% water. Better hydration equates to grater gains in muscle.

There are no easy results. The tools to gaining muscle are timeless determination, diligence, a good diet, and a lot of hard work. "Stay away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the great, the truly great, make you feel as though you can become great too" Mark Twain.

Comments on this article? Please feel free to contact me at patrick@issaonline.com.


References

1. Manroe MM, Thompson J, Russo: Diet and Exercise strategies of a world-class bodybuilder. Int J Sport Nutr 1993:3(1):76-86
   
   
2. Kleiner SM, Calabrese LH, Fielder KM, et al:Dietary influences on cardiovascular disease risk in anabolic steroid-using and nonusing bodybuilders. J Am Coll Nutr 1989;8(2):109-119
   
   
3. Lemon PW: Do athletes need more dietary protein and amino acids? Int J Sport Nutr 1995;5(suppl):S39-S61