The ONLY 7 Foods & Supplements You Need to Build Muscle
& Don't Waste Your Money on These 11 Supplements
1. High Protein Foods
- Your muscles are made up of protein. After you break down your muscles working out with the progressive overload trick,
- Eat enough protein so your body can synthesize or use protein to rebuild bigger & stronger muscles.
Protein is the ONLY thing you can take to actually build muscle.
- Even Steroids ONLY work because they help your body synthesize more protein.
- Other foods & supplements ONLY give you more energy to lift heavier weights, do more reps or make your muscles look bigger.
Nothing else directly builds muscle like protein does → 90 High protein foods
Bonus → You'll 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 from high protein foods
There are no superior protein foods or shakes. Protein is Protein. Just get enough protein along with progressive overload to build muscle.
3. Water
- Water makes up 80% of your muscle mass. If you're dehydrated by only 2.9% you'll lose a lot of muscle size & strength → Make your muscles look bigger without lifting weights
- Not drinking enough water makes it harder for your body to synthesize protein for bigger muscles.
4. Carbs (carbohydrates)
Your muscles mainly use carbs for energy. Not getting enough carbs may make it harder to have enough energy to use progressive overload or lift heavier weights, do more reps and/or sets to build muscle.
- Carbs also force more water into your muscles making them look bigger
- It doesn't matter how you get carbs but avoid these bad carbs to prevent belly fat.
- See how many carbs you need to build muscle
5. Creatine
Creatine gives your muscles extra energy to lift heavier and do more reps. This indirectly helps you build muscle faster because… Now you're able to progressively overload your muscles with more intensity than you normally would.
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. This pumps 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. Creatine causes your muscles to absorb a lot of water.
- Maintain the extra muscle mass & strength 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. 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.
- You won't lose any muscle if you stop taking creatine but… Your muscles will look a bit smaller without creatine because there's no excess creatine & water pumping them up.
Recommended creatine supplements
- The Creatine monohydrate (found in Optimum Nutrition Creatine) 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.
Carbs are a poor man's creatine → You get nearly the same energy and they draw water into your muscles to make them look bigger
6. Fats
At least 15% of your diet needs to be fat (mostly from saturated & monounsaturated fats) for higher testosterone levels
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
BONUS → Caffeine is 1 of the very few supplements that you can actually take to burn fat faster (see why)
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. He gained lots of muscle before muscle building supplements even existed.
More Tips