Angie Asche. Angie Asche MS, RD, CSSD owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition and author of Fuel Your Body. Combined with strength training, foods like Greek yogurt can help build muscle, a nutritionist said.
Muscle-building diets should include meals rich in protein and calories, like salmon, she added. Foods like walnuts, which have Omega-3s, can reduce inflammation and soreness after a hard workout. While no one food will make you stronger, there are some foods that can aid in the process, according to the sports nutritionist Angie Asche.
Asche, the owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition, told Insider that in addition to strength training, eating protein-rich, higher-calorie foods aids muscle growth. Protein is made up of amino acids, which the body breaks down and absorbs to build muscle tissue, Insider’s Rebecca Strong previously reported. Your body then needs a surplus of calories, Asche said, to fuel the muscle-building process.
Foods like full-fat Greek yogurt and salmon are rich in calories and filled with protein, Asche told Insider. Avocados and tempeh are great protein-rich vegan alternatives, she added. Full-fat Greek yogurt is packed with calories and blends well with smoothiesFull-fat Greek yogurt is a great muscle-building food because it’s calorie-dense and protein-rich, Asche said.
According to Healthline, 100 grams of full-fat yogurt has 61 calories and 3. 5 grams of protein. She said the recommended amount of protein for an active person trying to build muscle was 1.
6 to 2 grams per kilograms of body weight (1 kilogram is about 2. 2 pounds) a day. The number of calories someone on a muscle-building diet consumes depends on their height, weight, age, level of activity, and fitness goals, she said.
Experts generally recommend eating 10 to 20% more calories than your body needs for muscle growth. The full-fat version of yogurt has more calories, as well as healthy fats, Asche said, which helps the body absorb nutrients, regulate hormones, and reduce inflammation. Greek yogurt is also incredibly versatile, she said, and can be put into foods like smoothies as a way of getting more calories and protein in a ready-to-eat form.
Avocados are a calorie-dense vegan optionAsche recommends avocados as another calorie-dense food that can be added to a variety of meals. There are about 250 calories in one medium avocado. Asche said she puts them on sandwiches and eggs to add some calories and fats to her meal.
Avocados are also a great source of vitamin E and fiber, she added. Fatty fish are full of protein and can reduce inflammationFatty fish like salmon, sardines, herring, and halibut are another great source of protein, Asche said. They’re full of Omega-3 fatty acids, which can help reduce inflammation when strength training, she said.
Omega-3s are also an essential nutrient that the body is not able to make on its own and have been shown to help prevent heart disease and stroke, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. These fish are also packed with healthy fats, which bulks up the calorie content, Asche said. “Gram per gram, fat has twice as many calories as carbs and proteins, so that kind of helps get your calories up without sitting down to a large plate of food,” she said.
Tempeh is more calorie-rich than other vegan optionsAsche said tempeh is a great protein source for vegetarians and vegans who want to build muscle because it has more protein than other nonmeat options. It’s also a higher-calorie food than other protein-rich foods like chickpeas or black beans, she said, so you don’t have to eat as much of it. According to Healthline, 1 cup of chickpeas is about 269 calories, while a cup of tempeh is about 315 calories.
An added bonus of tempeh is that it’s fermented soy, Asche said, which means it has bacteria called probiotics that live inside our gut and help us digest food. Nuts are a protein-filled snackNuts are a great snack to have when you’re trying to build muscle because they’re high in protein and calories, Asche said. An ounce of nuts typically contains 173 calories.
The sports nutritionist said she recommends walnuts because of their high calorie count and Omega-3s. The flavor is also not overpowering, so walnuts can be added to smoothies and yogurt for extra calories and protein, she said. But Asche said that eating a wide variety of nuts would give you the greatest nutritional benefit.
For example, almonds are rich in magnesium, while cashews are a good source of zinc. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/foods-to-build-muscle-sports-nutritionist-advice-diet
