Muscle Building Checklist

Calories

If you are lifting weights regularly with the intent to increase muscle mass, the most important focus point, the biggest rock, is ensuring that you eat more calories than you are expending. It is very hard for the body to create new tissue if it does not receive a consistent supply of extra building blocks. i.e., you need to make sure that you are eating enough and reaching a calorie surplus. 

Then, the next three focus points are simplified below in this graphic.

As always, nutrition advice should be individualised, but as a global guide, these three areas also need to be kept up. 

Lifting

Your lifting needs to be consistent, and a structured lifting program from an exercise physiologist or strength & conditioning coach will get you there in the safest most efficient way. To grow muscle, there needs to be an exercise stimulus, so a minimum of 4 sessions of targeted training would be sufficient in most cases. 

Protein Hits

This refers to eating 4 meals or snacks which contain enough dietary protein to trigger the body’s “muscle protein synthesis” response. Which happens when you eat roughly 30g of quality complete protein per meal/snack. If you want to get even more specific, it would be 0.35g protein per kg body weight. 

Generally, I like to advise that the 3 main meals hit the mark, and then one of the snacks during the day also reaches that 30g protein target. For example the snack might be a smoothie after the gym session, or canned salmon on toast during the day.

Eating & Protein Timing 

Eating every 3-4 hours will provide your body with a constant supply of energy, so that ideally it doesn’t need to go and use its reserves (potentially muscle). If you’re trying to put on muscle mass, you don’t want the body to have to access those stores. Therefore, focussing on regular eating (even on weekends) is a smart way to ensure that you are maintaining a positive energy and protein balance.