What exactly are you supposed to eat if you want to build muscles effectively?

Does anyone know what you should eat while working out in order to build muscles as effectively as possible?
I'm wondering because I seem to have bad luck with this, no matter what I eat there's almost always someone who claims it's "not good" or contains "worthless proteins" etc, and it's starting to become frustrating.

I used to drink a mix of milk, eggs and bananas after working out - I was 100% sure that this would be an awesome recovery drink, for obvious reasons - but it turned out not even that is ideal since raw eggs apparently contain bad proteins as well; and then I heard the same thing about black pudding (while eating black pudding before a workout :eep:).

I'm fairly new at this, by the way - I worked out a few times some weeks ago but now I'm starting over again.

Everything is bad for you :(

Ask Peegee

according to conflicting studies you are not allowed to eat anything.

you can either accept the first sentence as fact or dismiss it as gibberish and essentially work out for yourself what you are comfortable doing, and do that.

easy right?

there's 3 basic macronutrients to keep track of. fats, carbs, and protein. dietary fats and carbohydrates provide quick acting energy. protein allows your body to repair tissue - almost all tissue not just muscle.

you need some of all three in all of your meals. things like cholesterol and salt...i don't even factor it in my diet, but if you really wanted to, i suppose you can avoid cholesterol and counter the salt with fruits

eat a good mix of macros and don't eat too much of one over the other - it won't be optimum just because...well, you can only eat so many calories. so if you eat an ice cream you've gone over your calories but you still need 20g of protein. where is that going to come from? now you have to eat 80 more calories!

so to sum it up - 1) don't worry about the myriad information and 2) eat a balanced diet.

grade school teaching was correct. btw don't listen to the food pyramid of any country - they all suck.

edit: i've eaten raw eggs before but the current panic over salmonella compels me to ask you to reconsider. you can eat those things, just separately. i almost only eat boiled eggs now because it avoids having to coat a frying pan with oil.

It's pretty much as simple as lift weights and eat a balanced diet. The prevailing idea being eat plenty of protein and make sure you're actually eating more calories than you need to maintain your body weight.

Don't simply eat lots of protein and lift weights... Eat a balanced diet and work on your core - you'll find your overall strength and fitness will compliment your muscle gain over just working on having big arms and legs. And you'll also find when working on your core you are able to recover much faster.

If you can find protein shakes with magnesium, that aren't made to bulk you up, then try those within 30 minutes after a work out. The magnesium helps recovery, and has helped me a lot.

Just as a side note, I don't mean eat less protein, keep eating it. But don't let it just be a chicken and tuna diet.

Magnesium is brilliant for recovery. Doesn't taste real nice but mix it with stuff and it goes down fine.

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Originally Posted by Rostum

Don't simply eat lots of protein and lift weights... Eat a balanced diet and work on your core - you'll find your overall strength and fitness will compliment your muscle gain over just working on having big arms and legs. And you'll also find when working on your core you are able to recover much faster.

If you can find protein shakes with magnesium, that aren't made to bulk you up, then try those within 30 minutes after a work out. The magnesium helps recovery, and has helped me a lot.

Just as a side note, I don't mean eat less protein, keep eating it. But don't let it just be a chicken and tuna diet.

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Protein has to be eaten with complex carbohydrates to aid in absorption. Also as Rostum said, you cannot *just* eat Protein bc it's not very nutritious or high in calories (well protein has saturated fats sometime - but I said just protein). IF you were fool enough to just protein, it is 4 Calories per gram. So you would have to eat 500 grams of protein just to get your 2000 Calories, and you wouldn't get a good mix of nutrients doing it that way. Furthermore most people cannot eat more than say, 300g of protein. I can eat 250 for example (1000 Calories) and I'm bloated and annoyed by the end of the day.

Thank you, everyone. :)
Yes I'm very careful to make sure I eat balanced foods, I usually start the day with 2 portions of oatmeal, then I eat stuff like mackerel ♫, eggs, minced meat, yoghurt and potatoes - that should do quite well, right? :beer:
I'll keep in mind to eat magnesium after workouts as well.

not too many topatoes :o

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Originally Posted by Peegee

not too many topatoes :o

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Hah nope, not too many potatoes. :p

Actually I had another question on this subject:
do you know of anything high in protein that's good to eat right after a workout that will help building your muscles at that point?
I usually bring 2-3 boiled eggs with me and munch on those right afterwards since I've heard they are good when you want some quick extra proteins, but I would like some variety. :p

I typically make myself a protein shake after a workout: 12 ounces of milk, 2 scoops of protein powder, a banana and about 3 tbs of peanut butter.

BEEF

That's what my dad and some boxers I know eat. They eat that to gain fat. You can't get muscle without gaining fat.

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Originally Posted by Shiny

BEEF

That's what my dad and some boxers I know eat. They eat that to gain fat. You can't get muscle without gaining fat.

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QFT