The ONLY 7 Foods & Supplements You Need to Build Muscle
& Don't Waste Your Money on These 11 Supplements
1. High Protein Foods
The 2 most important steps to build muscle fast are…
- Get stronger or break down your muscles every time you workout using
the progressive overload trick and then…
- Eat enough protein so your body can synthesize or use protein to rebuild
your muscles that are made up of protein into
bigger & stronger muscles.
Protein is the ONLY thing you can take that is going to actually build muscle.
- Even Steroids ONLY work because they help your body use more protein.
- Other foods & supplements ONLY give you more energy to lift heavier
weights, do more reps or
make your
muscles look bigger and they don't
directly build muscle like protein does.
- See 79 High protein foods but any animal food sources, nuts, seeds & beans are high
in protein.
- There are no superior protein foods or shakes. Protein is Protein.
Just get enough protein along with
progressive overload to build muscle.
Bonus: You'll actually
burn more fat when protein is at least 30% of your diet.
2. Protein Supplements
Protein supplements are only needed if you're having a hard time
getting all the protein you need in your diet to build muscle fromhigh protein foods
but supplement companies will do whatever they can to make you spend more money than you have to on protein
- for example…
- They'll try to make you buy separate pre-workout, post-workout &
nighttime protein products when
studies show there is no magic time to take protein for better results.
- They'll say you need over 1 gram of protein per lb. in an attempt to make you buy too much protein when
studies show you can build muscle
with only .64-to-.82 grams per lb.
- They'll say their brand or type of protein is superior when
studies like this &
this show that
PROTEIN is PROTEIN and as long as get enough of it in your diet you'll build muscle.
Recommend protein supplements
3. Water
4. Carbs (carbohydrates)
Your muscles mainly use carbs for energy so if you're not
getting a lot of carbs in your diet you may get to a point where it becomes tougher to build muscle because you wont have the energy to lift enough weight, do
enough reps and/or sets to
build more muscle with the progressive overload trick
- Carbs also force more water into your muscles making them look bigger.
- It doesn't matter how you get carbs but getting the
majority of your carbs from
sugary processed foods may cause you to gain belly fat.
-
See how many
carbs you need to build muscle but the amount of carbs you eat will
mainly depend on your workout performance and/or how much fat you're trying
to lose.
5. Creatine
Creatine gives your muscles extra energy to lift heavier and do more reps than you normally would
to help you build muscle faster because of
the progressive overload trick and Creatine like carbs also draws more water into your
muscles to make them look bigger.
How to use creatine
- Start with a 5-to-7 day loading phase where you take about 15-to-30 grams of creatine per day to quickly
pump your muscles up with the maximum amount of creatine it can store.
- Expect to gain 5+ pounds of muscle mass during your first 5-to-7 days mainly because
all the creatine you're taking will cause your muscles to absorb a lot of
water making them swell up.
- You can maintain the extra muscle mass & strength you gain after the
loading phase by taking 3-to-6 grams of creatine per day at least
3 days a week but…
- Don't stay on a loading phase for longer than
5-to-7 days because once your muscles are fully pumped up with creatine the excess creatine you take isn't used by your muscles and is literally pissed away.
- If you stop taking creatine You won't lose any of the muscle creatine helped you build but
after a month of not taking creatine your muscles will look a bit smaller
because your muscles are no longer pumped up with excess creatine & water.
Recommended creatine supplements
- Creatine monohydrate found in Optimum Nutrition Creatine is the best simply because Creatine monohydrate
was used in almost every study proving
creatine works.
- Other forms of creatine like ethyl ester, citrate, serum, & malate
haven't been studied as much or not at all plus creatine monohydrate is less
expensive.
- During your maintenance phase you may want to consider getting a protein
supplement having creatine in them like Carnivor
If you're unable to get creatine then make your own poor man's creatine by
getting enough water & carbs in your diet to get nearly the same energy boosting & muscle swelling benefits.
6. Fats
At least 15% of your diet needs to be fat (mostly
from saturated & monounsaturated fats) in order keep your testosterone levels high enough to build muscle.
You can get enough fat in your diet eating foods high in healthy fat like fish, nuts or using
Omega-3
or CLA
supplements.
7. Caffeine
Caffeine taken 30-to-60 minutes before your workout will give you an energy boost that'll help
you lift heavier weights & do more reps like
these guys who bench
pressed more in
studies like this
Caffeine Tips
- Don't use caffeine everyday
because you may develop a tolerance
or your body will get used to caffeine
within 1-to-4 days where you'll no longer get an
energy boost.
- Only use caffeine about 1-to-3 days per week or only before your
toughest workouts to avoid developing a tolerance to almost guarantee you'll
always get a caffeine energy boost.
- If you do develop a tolerance then you'll have to stop taking caffeine for at least 2 days (maybe even weeks or months) before you're able to
get rid of your caffeine tolerance.
Recommend caffeine supplements
- Caffeine tablets
like ProLab Caffeine 200mg Tablets
or any fat burners containing caffeine like
Lipo-6
or
Hydroxycut
are best.
- Energy drinks like Red Bull are okay but with only 100mg of caffeine it
may not be enough to give you an energy boost.
BONUS: Caffeine is 1 of the very few
supplements that you can actually take to burn fat faster (see
why)
It's ALL About Protein!

Again,
Protein is the ONLY thing you can take that will actually build more muscle AFTER you've worked out
using the progressive overload trick
Even steroids only work because they force your body to use
or synthesize more protein to build muscle faster &…
Everything else on this list helps you build muscle by giving you more energy to lift heavier weights, do more reps and/or sets (water, carbs, creatine and caffeine), makes your muscles look bigger (water, carbs, creatine) or makes it easier to get all the protein, carbs & fats you need (MRPs, protein supplements) so…
Do I Really Need Supplements to Build Muscle?
NO! Absolutely Not! You can build plenty of muscle with enough
protein, carbs, fats & water in your diet just like Steve Reeves pictured above who gained
lots of muscle mass before muscle building supplements even existed.
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