For anyone trying to add muscle, a high daily intake of protein is a must. You also want small amounts in regular intervals rather than all at once, as this gives you body a good constant supply. The amount of protein a bodybuilder should aim to intake daily is anywhere from 1 – 1.5grams of protein per pound of body weight. In this post I will give a sample meal structure for a day, which consists of a good balanced diet and a lot of protein.
Note that this is written for the hardgainer, and so will contain a lot of carbohydrates. If you want a low carb intake you can still follow this structure, but tweak it a little.
Breakfast is a very important meal because you have just woken up after a (hopefully) long 8 – 12 hour sleep in which you have given your body little or no protein or essential vitamins and minerals. For breakfast you could have a number of cereals, topped with nuts or bananas and a good amount of milk, but for this example I am going to recommend eggs for breakfast.
Eggs are a traditional breakfast food and can be served up in numerous ways which will keep the meal from getting boring quickly. I would recommend boiling or poaching them, because this will keep them at their healthiest (frying will add a lot of fat). There is no need to remove the yolk, as it will improve the amino-acid profile of your egg protein anyway.
Nutritional Information – 5 large boiled eggs
387 Calories
27 Grams of Fat
31.5 Grams of Protein
That’s breakfast out the way and you should wait three hours before your next meal.
Meal 2 is in between breakfast and lunch and will help keep your protein levels high. For this I would simply recommend a protein shake, with a few nuts and a banana. Although it’s not much of a meal it will give your body all the nutrition it needs to get through to lunch.
Nutritional Information – Super muscle and weight gainer (Protein shake) 100grams
371 Calories
4.7 Grams of Fat
50.9 Grams of protein
This hefty amount of protein should keep you going until lunch.
For lunch I would recommend going with some fish. Not only is it high in protein, but it also contains omega-3 fatty acids that can help boost your energy before any workouts you have planned for the afternoon.
Nutritional Information - 3oz Atlantic Salmon fillet
154 Calories
7 Grams of Fat
22 Grams of Protein
Only 3 meals in and we have already consumer 100 grams of protein! This is good going, now onto meal 4.
Our forth meal is to build up our protein levels to ensure when we start working out, or body is drowned in amino’s. This will allow the body to start rebuilding teared muscle fiber as soon as your workout is over (the quicker the fibers grow back, the bigger the gains). Take anything that will not inhibit your workout, maybe a protein shake, a few slices of turkey, and few cups or of milk etc. Since I haven’t stated an exact food to eat, I can’t give nutritional information, but we’ll say it’ll be around 20grams of protein.
A good dose of protein is imperative after your workout. My friend on told me there is “no point doing your workout” if you don’t take any protein after it. For this meal I usually just have a protein shake because I’m too tired to make anything else, but you could add some cheese and crackers because cheese is a good solid source of protein.
Nutritional Information – Super muscle and weight gainer (Protein shake) 100grams
371 Calories
4.7 Grams of Fat
50.9 Grams of protein
Our final meal of the day is going to dinner. You will need to intake a hefty dose of protein as this is what your body will use up for the next 8 hours while you sleep. For first course I would recommend some sort of meat, I went for beef as it’s something different to what we have eaten all day. For after I would recommend you intake foods with the slow-digesting protein casein. Casein gives a slow but steady supply of amino acids to your body and stops them devouring muscle tissue you want to rebuild. Sources of casein include skimmed milk and cottage cheese.
Nutritional information – 3oz beef steak
172 Calories
6.8 grams of fat
26 grams of protein
-1 cup cottage cheese
150 calories
zero grams of fat
28 grams of protein
And that’s your lot for the day! In total you have consumed 227 grams of protein. That very impressive and more than enough to help you see the muscle gains you deserve!
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