Unexpected Foods that Build Muscle

Although there are some unexpected foods that build muscle, the basics of building muscle remain the same: increase your quantity of quality protein taken on a daily basis and workout with weights or perform body weight exercises to strengthen and develop your musculature. Avoid bad foods (junk food) that offer no nutrition and spike your insulin and make sure your caloric intake is sufficient to meet your needs without being too high to cause fatty weight gain.

Unexpected Foods that Build Muscle

These fundamental rules override anything else (for natural muscle gain, at least…). That is not to say however that other foods don’t offer benefits at the micronutrient level and for variety and optimization of muscle gains you might want to look at these unexpected foods that build muscle.

1. Apples. Apples provide us with a whole range of health benefits. They can also help in muscle growth because they contain a higher level of ursolic acid than other foods. Ursolic acid can help to concentrate the level of IGF-1 in the blood. IGF-1, or Insulin-like Growth Factor-1, consists of 70 amino acids and is most prevalent during the years of puberty. It promotes protein synthesis and encourages the body to burn fat as a source of energy. Best of all from the point of view of muscle gain is that IGF-1 causes our cells to split (hyperplasia). With a nutritious diet and regular training those extra cells can then be developed in size and strength. Once we reach adulthood our muscle cell number is otherwise fixed.

2. Ginger. Again, like apples, ginger offers a diverse range of health benefits. With regard to building muscle, the first thing to note is that ginger helps to burn calories. Fair enough, this isn’t building your muscle as such, but in order to look ripped you need to lower your body fat percentage and ginger will help you achieve this. It can also help reduce muscle soreness by as much as 25%. This aids in recovery and allows you to hit the gym harder. Best of all, it is a strong anti-estrogen food and tests on lab rats have shown that it increases their testosterone production level by double. You may need to look at a supplement here to get the full benefits (unless you really like eating ginger…).

3. Holy Basil. This herb is great for improving the circulation of testosterone in our bodies. Testosterone is obviously vital in making significant strength gains but unfortunately it can become bound up in times of stress. Holy basil helps to unbind that testosterone and make sure it is circulating in our bodies at a higher rate. Holy basil is therefore also great if you are going through a stressful period.

4. Green Tea. Regular readers will already know that this comes up a lot. I have previously mentioned that green tea is just about the best thing you can put into your body for innumerable health benefits. It can help us in our quest for a better physique by increasing our testosterone level for one to two hours. Taken before a workout therefore a cup of green tea can grant us the ability to lift more for longer while also reducing muscle soreness and promoting a quick recovery (allowing you to lift more for longer…and so the cycle repeats itself).

Why am I Fat?

Why am I fat? It's a depressing question for someone to have to ask themselves but one that is better confronted early rather than later when a myriad of health-related issues can arise (beyond just egocentric image issues).

I am just going to look here at the very basics of this issue. Different people react in different ways to different stimuli and what makes one person fat may not have the same degree of effect on someone else. Stress, for example, can cause weight gain by slowing our metabolism, altering our blood sugar level and / or increasing our cortisol level which affects our ability to lose weight. But what creates stress for one person may not be the same for another.

So yes, the issue can become a complex one and I am sure an informed reader can raise various points to further complicate the matter.

Why am I Fat?

The most basic consideration is calories in vs calories out. How many calories do you consume on a daily basis compared to how many calories you use in the same period of time?

A calorie is a scientifically created term that allows us to measure how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celcius. In more simple terms, calories in indicates how much energy we draw into our body by eating and drinking while calories out gives us a figure of how much energy we use in our day to day life.

We all use calories to do things as simple as breathe and digest food. Running uses more calories than walking. Athletes use more calories than average as they use more energy. Depending on one’s age, sex, height, weight, level of activity and other factors, we all need a certain number of calories to either gain weight, maintain our weight or lose weight.

So, in theory if a person needs to consume 2000 calories a day (the average for an adult male) and he meets this caloric target, he should neither lose or gain weight if all other factors remain the same. If he raised his caloric consumption to 2500 a day then over a period of time the excess food (represented by excess calories) would be converted into fat and stored as such, causing weight gain and a loss of muscle definition.

On the other hand, if the same man reduces his caloric intake from 2000 to 1500 then in this case he would begin to lose weight as his body begins to burn stored fat (and possibly muscle as well, depending on the actual food consumed).

Here’s the thing though. While you can start with a daily maintenance level of 2000 calories, if you consistently consume say 2500 or 1500 calories a day then given enough time these new levels will become your maintenance levels. Therefore in order to gain or lose weight you will have to make your calculations from your new maintenance level.

This is a basic answer to the question Why Am I Fat?, but also very important to understand. In many cases losing weight (or bulking up to build muscle) may not be any harder than varying your caloric intake. Note though that different foods provide different nutritional values. There may be little to no difference calorie wise between a glass of whole fat milk and a glass of coke but the nutrition provided by both beverages is vastly different.