In bodybuilding, losing weight and gaining muscle are the two main goals that everyone wants to achieve. To achieve your objectives, you need to eat the right foods. In this article, we look at the eight best foods you should add to your daily diet to help you lose weight and gain muscle quickly. So, keep reading to find out.
Chicken Breast
Chicken breasts are among the best foods that can help you gain muscle fast and efficiently. Why? This food is very rich in protein. Every 85 grams (3 ounces) of chicken breast contain approximately 26 grams of protein. The best thing about protein from the chicken breast is that it is high quality hence making it great for building muscle.
This protein source also contains a lot of vitamins, such as Vitamin B and B6, which are essential for building muscle. Gaining these vitamins enables your body to function when working out or doing other physical activities. As a result, you build muscle quickly. Besides, chicken breasts can also help you reduce weight. It is because chicken breast is rich in protein, which enhances weight loss.
Eggs
Eggs are rich in healthy fats, high-quality protein, and other vital nutrients like choline and Vitamin B. The proteins in eggs contain amino acid leucine. The amino acid is one of the most common components of foods containing proteins and is essential for helping with muscle gain.
Vitamin B in eggs is also crucial as it helps with a variety of processes in the human body, such as producing energy. Therefore, eating eggs helps you get more energy, which enhances athletic performance resulting in better results, especially when it comes to gaining muscle.
You can also add eggs to your daily diet to help you with weight loss. However, for it to work effectively, you have to take them on a routine basis. For instance, eating eggs in the morning helps you lose some weight if you do it more often. It leaves you feeling full for more hours hence helping you avoid binging before lunch. That way, you eat less food during the day, thus helping you reduce fat intake, therefore, enabling you to lose weight in the long run.
Beans
There are many types of beans that you can add in your diet to boost muscle gains. Some of these bean varieties are pinto, black, and kidney beans. For every cup of any of these beans that you take, you get about 15 grams of protein, which is a significant amount to help you gain muscle.
Additionally, beans are very rich in Vitamin B, fibre, and high in magnesium, iron, and phosphorous hence making them an excellent choice to add to your diet. All these vitamins help you stay healthy and avoid many diseases, thus allowing you to gain muscle effectively.
The fibre in beans also helps you not to feel hungry faster after eating. That way, you eat little, and as a result, lose weight without starving yourself. Beans also have calories hence enabling you to get a lot of proteins without gaining more weight.
Salmon
Salmon is one food that is good for your overall health and in building muscles. Taking 85 grams of salmon helps you add around 17 grams of protein to your daily diet. You also get a significant amount of omega-three fatty acids and other vitamins that are vital in bodybuilding.
The protein and fatty acids in salmon help in boosting muscle health hence allowing you to see more results after training. The high-quality protein and omega acids content in salmon also help you lose weight as it contains fewer calories and helps you stay full for long.
Yoghurt
What makes yoghurt suitable in building muscle is the fact that it contains high-quality protein. Yoghurt contains whey protein, which is usually very easy to digest and casein, which takes longer to digest.
Taking yoghurts with both fast and slow-digesting proteins can help you increase your muscle gains faster. However, yoghurts differ as some contain more protein than others. For instance, taking Greek yoghurt gives you more protein than drinking regular yoghurt. So, adding Greek yoghurt to your daily diet will increase your protein intake by far. As a result, that will enable you to build more muscle. To get maximum benefits from drinking Greek yoghurt, take it after working out or before sleeping for its slow and fast digesting protein to make maximum effects.
Yoghurt also contains lots of probiotics that are beneficial in improving gut health and helping in weight loss. The probiotics in yoghurt help you boost metabolism hence allowing you to lose weight without much hustle.
Almonds
Taking a half cup of almonds gives approximately 16 grams of proteins. Apart from these proteins, you also get vitamin A, phosphorous, and magnesium all which are essential in gaining muscle and losing weight. Additionally, phosphorus enables your body to use fats and carbohydrates properly to produce more energy hence allowing you to train harder and get more results.
The high-quality protein content in Almonds is suitable for a balanced diet that helps your muscles recover faster. That way, eating almonds allows you to gain muscle quickly. Almonds are also rich in fibre, which enables you to avoid taking more snacks during the day that can cause weight gain. So, by helping you stay full for long, eating almonds allows you to lose weight effectively.
Avocado
Avocado contains lots of monounsaturated fatty acids, phytochemicals, potassium, and dietary fibre. Eating avocados helps you to lose weight as the fibre in it makes you full and you won’t feel hungry quickly after eating. Also, people who eat avocado tend to have a lower waist circumference, body weight, and BMI compared to those who do not.
Eating avocados every day will also help you reduce muscle cramps. Without muscle cramps, you can work out to your full potential hence allowing you to gain muscle more efficiently.
Quinoa
Quinoa is one food that contains a lot of carbohydrates necessary for effective muscle building. Eating about one cup of Quinoa will give you around 40 grams of carbohydrates hence giving you more energy to train and build muscle.
This food also has a significant amount of protein (about 5 grams). Taking Quinoa allows you to get protein and carbohydrates hence enabling you to get energy for training and protein to recover and make muscles grow bigger.
