The Importance of Protein to Build Muscle

There are many people that believe you can build big muscles just by going to the gym and pumping iron every single day. This will certainly make you physically stronger but won’t necessarily build big muscles.

That is because nutrition plays just as big a part as the training itself. You need protein to build muscle and lots of it. Protein acts as the muscle builder because it repairs the muscles and creates fresh muscle tissue.

Consuming carbohydrates gives you the energy you need and the protein to build your muscles. Now getting the right balance of these will no doubt take some practice and working out but it’s not as hard as you may think.

The first thing to do is work out your calorie intake as if you want to build muscle and gain weight, you will have to be eating slightly more calories than you are burning off. As long as you don’t go over the top with this you should be able to just build your muscle rather than gaining weight as fat.

You will need to be eating about 50% carbs, 40% protein and 10% fats in your diet. Try to stick to “good” carbs and avoid white potatoes, white bread, and white rice. Wholemeal bread and brown rice are better for you.

You can get your protein fix from lean meats, fish, chicken and protein shakes. It is important to eat protein immediately after you have finished training. That is the optimum time for the protein to start working.

Hopefully you now realise the importance of using protein to build muscle and why your diet is so vital to building big muscles.