What to Eat When to Eat and Why for Muscle Mass

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Foreign. Hey, this is JJ Virgin. Thanks so much for joining me. This is Ask the Health Expert. In each episode, I put the power of health in your hands and share ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut, detox, and lots more so you can look and feel better fast. If you'd rather watch the video, hey, I did put on my makeup and do my hair, so check it out on my YouTube channel. Foreign.

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What's one thing that can be a total game changer for your health? Ready? Lean muscle. Lean muscle has a ton of benefits. It can make you look and feel.

Fit, helps you burn fat, balances your.

Blood sugar, and it's mission critical to for healthy aging. But don't you wish you could just blink and make it happen on your body? Yeah, me too. But if you want to build muscle, you have to commit to it in your gym and in your kitchen. And if you're looking for what to do in the gym, check out my video on the best workouts for lean muscle. Because in this one we're going to focus on your food. So by the end of this video, you'll have the fast track on how to eat to help you build lean muscle mass. Hey, it's jj. If you're trying to build muscle, what should you eat, when should you eat and why? Let me let the not so secret answer about what to eat slip right out of the gate. It's protein. But what protein and how much? Well, the amount of protein you need is slightly different for everyone. It's going to depend on your lifestyle, your genes and your goals. But still, there are some must haves that you'll want to make sure you include in your meals. And we'll get into those. But first let me say that it's not just about what, it's also about when. New research is showing that when you eat the right amount of protein at the right times, it's better for your overall health and it's the best way to gain muscle and lose weight. And that what when Combo is also important because if you're just focusing on weight loss, you could be losing muscle too. And that actually wrecks your metabolism. So you could end up gaining weight in the end. So make protein the first thing you put on your plate to build muscle and maximize fat loss. When you start with protein, protein first, some amazing things happen. All right, let's get into how much protein is enough. And there's a range here your floor. The absolute lowest amount you should be getting is a half a gram per pound of ideal body weight. And that's every single day. But really you should be getting more like 3/4 of a gram to 1 gram per pound of ideal body weight. Now in the perfect world, we would be talking about your body composition. Here that is how much of your body is fat free. Mass versus fat Mass. Because what we really need to be focused on is, is maintaining or better yet increasing fat free mass. If you lose weight and you're losing fat free mass, that is a bad thing. Now if you're a woman, the average body fat range is 25 to 31% of your total weight. But you know what that is? That is average. And you don't want to be average. You want to be in the optimal range or the fitness range. So that's more like 21 to 24%. Now if you're younger or very athletic, it can be as low as 14 to 20%. And for men, your average is 18 to 24% of your total weight. But again, we are not shooting for average here on this show. Right? You're going to shoot for the fitness range which is 14 to 17%. And if you're an athletic guy, it'll be more in like the 6 to 13% range. Now whether you're a man or a woman, if you're above the averages I just gave you, you're considered metabolically unhealthy. So you're going to want to jump on the information I'm giving you here right now, like as in today. By the way, if you're wondering how to figure this all out, my favorite scale is the Tanita Bioimpedance Scale. That's T A N I, T A. Ideally get one that also tells your visceral fat, that's the fat around your organs. All right, back to protein. I recommend more than one gram of protein and even up to one and a half grams of protein per pound of ideal weight. If the demands on your body are really high, like if you're under tremendous stress, if you're really trying to build muscle, if you're injured and healing, or if you're ill. But if none of that's the case, you don't need to go overboard every day. Because if you get too much protein, just like too much food, you can't use it. Guess where it's going? Stored as body fat. Okay, so now once you figure out how much, here's the what. If you're eating animal protein, the good news is it's going to give you all the essential amino acids your body needs. But remember, you are what you eat ate, meaning not just what you eat, but what you what you eat ate too. So choose wisely. This means pasture beef and not corn fed cows. Think of them as the white bread of beef. And choose wild salmon rather over farm raised. Again, think of these factory farmed animals and seafood as junk food because the difference in their fatty acid profile compared to that of a wild or pastured animal or seafood basically turns a healthy option into an unhealthy one. Now, if you're a plant based eater, but you probably know you really have to focus on getting enough protein without overdoing the fat or carbs, right? So you're focusing on plants, but we got to really focus on the protein within them. If you're relying on beans, lentils, seeds and nuts and things like that, you're going to get a lot of carbs and fat just to get enough protein. Case in point, one, chicken breast has the protein of 4 cups of quinoa. You'll go way overloading on your carbs. So let's talk about the best options for each preference. Whether you're a animal based eater or plant based eater. A good way to get enough protein when you break your fast is with the loaded smoothie. And here's the deal with breaking your fast. The most important meal of the day, your mom was right, is breakfast. Whether breakfast happens at any 8am or noon when you're breaking the fast, you really want to make sure that you are getting protein. It is super key, critical. It's going to trigger something called mtor and that's going to help you build that muscle. How much should you have there? The baseline there is going to be 30 grams. I want you to shoot for 30 grams in that first meal and if you can get up to more like 40 or 50 depending on your overall needs for the day, even up to 60. Great.

Super important.

So here's how I do it. I'm going to always start with a loaded smoothie. Remember I call them loaded smoothies because I'm loading them up with all sorts of great stuff, protein, fat and fiber. So I can hit the trifecta for blood sugar balance and satiety. But I'm going to load first with protein. So I either use my plant based or my paleo protein powders. I put that in first and that's going to get me at least 20 grams of protein. I now add in my collagen as well to grab another 10 to 11 grams of protein. And, and I've been even sneaking in more by using good karma flax milk with added protein. So right there and then I'll throw in usually some freshly ground flaxseed meal and a little bit of a slightly green banana. So I've got my fiber, fat, protein and I've got in there at least 40 grams of protein. Very easy way to go and a great way to have that protein after your workout. Now let's talk about my top animal based proteins. And each of these have 7 to 8 grams of protein per ounce, depending on of course, the specific source. Remember, if something's got more fat, it's going to have less protein. Right? So number one, clean lean meat. And what does that mean? Grass fed and grass finished. All meat eats grass, so we got to make sure that it's grass finished. Also wild caught fish like salmon. Salmon's a two for one, right? Because it's got those great omega 3 fatty acids. It also has some incredible antioxidants called astaxanthink, organic pastured chicken, organic pastured pork, and of course wild game and shellfish. All of these can be great sources of protein. And the next one, if you're not intolerant, pastured eggs. One large egg has about 6 grams of protein. You also get nine essential amino acids and vitamins D, B12 and B2, which are critical for energy metabolism. But again, you got to see if you're intolerant to eggs or not. And, and then if you aren't, these can be a great option. So what about dairy? Another one, if you're not intolerant and if you're not intolerant, you're going to do grass fed, organic full fat and do things like yogurt. Right? We love to do the yogurt. You can also do cow's not cow's milk, goat milk and sheep milk if you cannot handle the cow's milk, which is what I do now for some of my top plant based proteins. Now, number one, of course, protein powder. Here's what I'm going to tell you about. If you're doing only vegetable protein, only plant based protein, you're not going to be able to get enough purely from food alone. Protein powder is going to become your really, really good friend. So I'm going to spike your diet with protein powder. I have a great all in one protein powder from a pea base. I'm going to have you spike your diet with that. So we ensure that you get the protein you need. And that's where you start with that loaded smoothie and nail it right right from the start because the bumper breakfast and dinner and it might be that.

Those are the only two meals you.

Have, are the places you really want to hit that protein heavy. Now what else? We've got almonds, other tree nuts, they have about 4 grams of protein per ounce. Remember, they also come With a lot of fat, healthy fats, but you still got to count it. Quinoa is about 4 grams of protein. And a half of a cooked cup comes with a lot of carbs. We got to count those. Chia seeds are another one. I love chia and flax. So about two tablespoons you're going to get four grams of protein in chia. For flax, two and a half grams of protein in two tablespoons. Again, remember, those come with a lot of fat and a lot of fiber. These are all good things. But when you're really trying to get the level of protein you need, you can see that you're going to have to be very judicious when you're doing a plant based diet. And again, spike with some protein powder. So beans and legumes, lentils, peas, beans. They're going to range from 8 to 12 grams of protein per half of a cup cooked. And then gluten free oats. They have about 6 grams of protein in a cooked cup. Again, as you see this, you're thinking, wow, okay, six grams of protein in a cup of cooked oats, that's going to give me a lot of carbs. So you have to really pay attention.

To the plate here.

When we're putting the protein in from plant based, you have to go, how much do I have to count into the fat category? How much do I have to count into the slow, low carb category so you don't overload those to ensure that you get enough of your protein. So the way I teach you to build your plate again, remember, protein first on your plate, that's where you start first, protein first. Once you've done protein and depending on what you've done, if it's an animal based, you'll see if you need to count some fat servings. If it's plant based, do I need to count some slow, low carbs or do I need to count some fat servings? Once I've done that, my next thing to add on non starchy vegetables. And remember, I want you eating 5 to 10 servings of non starchy vegetables a day. Right? And those are things like peppers and deep green leafies. I'm kind of hooked on arugula right now. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, you know those things. Half a cup cooked, one cup raw, then we're getting at each meal two to four servings of healthy fat. That's about, you know, big tablespoon of almond butter or olive oil, 5 to 10 nuts. So with the healthy fats Again, if you're doing plant based, count it. If you're doing things like wild salmon, you'll get a fat serving too. So think of meat, for example. If you're eating meat and you're having six ounces of wild salmon, you got a serving right there. Let's look at slow, low carbs because again, if you're doing quinoa, if you're doing legumes, you're going to count that into the slow low carbs. I have people at each meal eating anywhere from 0 to 2 servings of slow low carbs. Not a ton there. And again, we maintain our protein build around that. First add your non starchy vegetables and then you play around with carbs and fat, really depending on what works best for you. All right, I'm going to walk you through a simple meal to give you an example because I just loaded a lot on you. So let's say you start out with salmon and we did some wild salmon. Let's say we did 6 ounces there, so you probably got somewhere around 40 ounces of protein and a serving of fat. Then we did say a cup of broccoli. We put a little bit of ghee there or maybe a little bit of MCT oil. We got another serving of fat and we did a half a cup of wild rice. Again, we could put a little ghee or a little, a little bit of MCT there. Between the two of those, maybe we have one serving of fat. Then we're going to do two cups of salad, maybe more. Lots of arugula, cucumbers, all sorts of great stuff. Put a little extra virgin olive oil there. Depending on how much. We have three to four servings of fat right there. Do you see how we added the fat up between the salmon? Between putting maybe a little ghee or extra extra virgin olive oil or MCT on our broccoli and wild rice between the extra virgin olive oil on the salad. And then we got a little slow, low carbs from the wild rice. One serving between the broccoli and the salad broccoli. A cup of that cooked is 2 servings. 2 cups of uncooked veggies. 2 servings. So we got 4 servings of veggies as well. How easy was that? Right? Super easy. That is a typical dinner for me. Now, plant based, let's say we start with a half a cup of lentils and a half a cup of quinoa. And then we add one and a half ounces of chopped walnuts. Maybe we add a little nutritional yeast like 2 tablespoons, that adds protein if you can tolerate it. And then a cup of roasted Brussels sprouts, maybe with a little coconut oil or MCT. From that, we got 34 grams of protein. We got 4 grams of fat and two, I'm sorry, four servings of fat, two servings of starchy carbohydrates. See, right there though, like, we are at our fat max, we're at our starchy carb max to get to that amount of protein. So we have to be really vigilant as a plant based eater. If you're eating plants plus, your body doesn't assimilate that protein quite as well. It's not as complete, right? So now here's a tip. You want to make sure that all of this great protein is actually getting metabolized and utilized. So if you are over the age of 35 or under any kind of stress, and my guess is it's yes, both, you may want to add digestive enzymes because that's just about the age ours start to naturally decline. This can make a big, big difference. And one final bonus for building muscle other than protein, something you can do more of to improve your muscle strength and your overall health really, is to drink green tea. I mean, how amazing is that? And easy to do in between meals. So there was a study founded by the National Institute of Health's national center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and found that the polyphenols in green tea. Check this out. Improved muscular strength and bone mass in postmenopausal women with osteopenia. That's the beginning of osteoporosis. I mean, that is huge news. Plus, we know it also can help you drop body fat and improve insulin sensitivity. So drink up on the green tea. I do. At least 32 ounces a day. All right, so let's talk the timing of when you eat. Does the timing matter for developing muscle mass? Well, it actually can. And as you know, like, timing can be the difference for everything. Now, the current thinking with protein researchers is that protein is more bioavailable to your muscles if you divvy up your requirements as meals throughout the day, rather than trying to get all of your protein in one giant steak at dinner, you're not going to make the most of the protein you eat. If you do it that way, your digestive system gets overloaded. Your muscles can't do the muscle protein synthesis of all of that. So you're going to want to divvy it up. And really what you want to focus on is Your biggest, most important meals for protein are your first meal and your last meal, right? That's for really helping trigger mtor. But then to get your overall amount of protein divvied up between all of your meals, but hit heavy on the morning and the and the evening. Now, if you're working out to build muscle, it's a little bit of a moving target as far as timing goes. And the research is kind of all over the place. But there is some interesting research showing that if you eat protein after you work out, it's actually more important than eating it before you work out. And what I look at here is this. If you can get up in the morning and go work out heavy, lift heavy weights, right? And then eat afterwards and get a good hit of protein, 30 grams or more, ideally even more, you're going to help with that muscle protein synthesis and you're going to trigger that mtor. But if you can't get a heavy workout in because you're hungry and it's lowering your workout, then maybe do a little something, you know, an hour before. If that helps you work out harder. You're still, the harder you work out is going to be more important. So don't sacrifice the quality of your workout to go in fasted. That's important. And overall it's going to be getting that protein in each day that's going to be the most critical. But remember the morning and evening rule because what they're really seeing is that first meal is really the place to make sure you're getting in minimally, 30 grams of protein, minimally. I really love using a smoothie after resistance training because remember, to build muscle, what are you going to need to do? Lift heavy weight. Now that heavy weight could be your own body weight, it could be using a trx, it could be using weights, but it needs to be hard. It needs to feel like as you get towards the end, you can't keep going, right? So you're going to lift heavy weights and then you're going to eat at least a 30 gram bolus of protein, probably more. And remember your overall protein needs for the day. You're looking at your total body, your ideal body weight. You're looking at that and going, I'm going to get somewhere between 0.75 and 1 gram per pound of ideal body weight, maybe even a little bit more if I'm really in a building cycle. And then I'm going to divide that. All right, now why are we doing this? Lean muscle is everything for having a really high quality life. Like think about it, you know, and I love what Dr. Peter Ortia is talking about. He talks about the centenarian decathlon. And if you want to live to 100, you don't want to live to 100, you know, like debilitated. You want to live to 100 strong. And so in order to do that, you have to think of what am I going to want to be able to do in my 80s, 90s and 100, I'm going to be able to want to carry groceries upstairs, pick up my great grandkids or great, great grandkids, run around after the dog. Right? So you got to train for that now. So you got to keep yourself strong and prevent all that decline that comes with losing muscles you age. You do not have to lose it. Remember, the the use it or lose it is so true. And by the way, it is never too late to start. In fact, 40s, 50s, you can be totally putting on muscle. So this is your time. If you're listening to this, you go, I'm not doing resistance training. What an opportunity for you. All right, thanks for joining me. And for those of you who don't know me, I'm JJ Virgin. I'm a four times New York Times best selling author and a fitness hall of famer. And I have other great videos for you to help you build lean muscle. One on boosting the impact of your exercise, another on the best exercise to build lean muscle, and even one on how to make sure you're not over exercising. So check those out on this YouTube channel. I know they'll help you get healthy and stay fit. See you next time. For more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetojay.com thanks again for being with me this week.

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