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7 High Protein Foods to Build Bigger Muscles

By: Richard Black

While the two are related, the amount of time you spend doing workouts for your muscles is not necessarily the way to build bigger muscles. Though you clearly need to work out if you expect your muscles to grow larger, if the size of your muscles was solely based on the time you spent using them, then marathon runners, cashiers and bus boys would easily have the largest muscles.

Muscle growth is about repetition with resistance and nutrition. The first stage the workout is what provides your muscles with their initial size. As you perform repetitions with heavy weights, your muscles start to expand because new muscle cells are making your tissues expand.

However, once your workout is over, those new muscle cells start to slowly die because your body has used up its nutrition. This causes that same muscle growth to start to contract. That is why the sooner you can heal those cells by eating foods high in amino acids (proteins) the more of the cells you can save before they die, because amino acids are the key ingredient towards healing dying cells.

Foods That Are High In Amino Acids

These foods should be eaten as quickly as possible after a workout. In addition, it is best not to eat foods with fat, as that slows digestion and allow more cells to die, causing the muscle to contract again.

1) Eggs

Eggs are very high in protein and an easy ingredient to add to your meal. However, they are not always ideal because egg yolks can be high in fat, which will slow down digestion.

2) Dairy Products

Like eggs, there are a number of different dairy products, including cottage cheese, milk, and yogurt, that you can quickly eat after your workout and receive a decent amount of protein. Also like eggs, however, make sure that these products are low in fat to aid digestion.

3) Whey Protein

You can often find these in the form of shakes or drink mixes. The protein from whey is also ideal for muscle growth and you can have 30 grams of whey or more in a single drink mix.

4) Tofu

Tofu is very high in protein. The protein is not quite as effective as whey protein in building muscles, but there are far more things you can use tofu in, so if your post workout meal is your dinner, tofu may be a better option than whey protein.

5) Fish

Fish is very high in protein, generally low in fat, and has a lot of other beneficial ingredients for your health. It has almost no carbohydrates as well, though carbs are beneficial for other post-workout purposes.

6) Chicken

Like fish, chicken is high in protein and very healthy. Stay away from fried chicken, however, as the oils significantly impair digestion.

7) Beans

For those that are looking for a more fun way to improve the post-workout protein intake in their diets, beans have a variety of different ways they can be cooked for maximum benefit. They also can be added to almost any meal in the form of kidney or garbanzo beans.

After your workout, the sooner you can eat foods that are high in protein the more muscle growth you are likely to experience. Remember, it is not necessarily how long you workout, but also how quickly you can save your newly created muscle cells from fading away.

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Richard Black helps people learn about the fast muscle building at his website on muscle building tips.

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