Firstly, be clear that resistance training is the most important factor for muscle gain, not nutrition.
Basic guidelines for muscle gain are:
Muscle stimulating training - weights
Effective protein, 3-5 serves each day, roughly every 3-5 hours, with 20-40 grams of protein each time
Enough Calories so that your body weight is increasing at a rate of 1-2% each month
That’s muscle building simplified.
Here is a video explaining how to set calorie and macronutrient targets for muscle gain using the FNC Diet Builder.
So check back with the PROTEIN article to ensure your meals are effective.
Check the PLANTS article to ensure you are hitting those minimums for health.
Keep a base of nutrition that reflects protein and plants, mostly whole foods and build 3-5 meals as a lifestyle which you can nail each day.
Your appetite will likely be a limiting factor for your goal and you may need to track your intake and over-ride your fullness signals at some times. Maintain that base of great nutrition but after that you may need to add some calorie-dense foods, some liquid calories and add on regular desserts to allow you to consume enough calories to grow.
Some fat gain is a reality of a muscle gain goal, however aiming to maintain that rate of 1-2% growth in body weight per month, whilst maintaining your training and noticing increases in strength are boxes to tick so that the majority of weight gain is likely to be muscle.
Along with scale weight and your training progress, you could also monitor your waist measurements and take progress photos to keep an eye on your body composition and compare those to the progress on the scales.
Not too many filling foods
Feeling full can be a limiting factor and eating too much food volume may actually negatively impact your progress. Imagine trying to increase your calories for your goal when all you are eating is lean protein and plants. People you know with a fat loss goal will be aiming to reduce the foods that you should look to add on top of your base nutrition. It’s basically the opposite, when appetite is limiting, look to add calories through sauces, liquids and calorie dense foods.
Planning Muscle Gain phases
Nutrition for muscle gain is about being in a calorie surplus that results in the weight gain rates we’ve described for as long as you are comfortable. Some body fat gain is a reality of a muscle gain goal and that’s fine, you’ll likely find the fat loss part of the goal much easier. However don’t plan too many mini-cuts.
Our suggestion is to plan a muscle gain period for at least 12-16 weeks before planning a possible mini-cut after that time, lasting about 4 weeks. We say possible, as you should only do them if you want to reduce body fat a little. If you are increasing in size and love that way you look, you may not need to think about a mini cut until later down the line.
When it is time for a mini cut, 4-8 weeks is a good aim, with a calorie deficit of about 10-20%. During that time keep up protein up, maybe even increasing protein just a touch and keep your training consistent. When it comes to maintaining muscle in a diet, it’s all about training, then protein.
Non-Tracking for Muscle Gain
Ideally, for muscle gain, learning to track your calories/macros can help to ensure you are ticking all the right boxes and are hitting a high enough calorie aim to be driving your body weight up. However if you don't want to track your Calories & protein, try this approach.
Set a regular base of protein, plants, whole-food carbs & fats which fill you up at each meal. If you aren't growing - add some more Calorie dense carbs & fats until you start seeing that scale number creep up.
