Many people looking to gain muscle weight can become very confused when they read and hear all of the conflicting information that's spread on TV, magazines, the internet, and diet books.
One of the most misunderstood techniques is the low carb diets that have been very popular in the last several years.
The popular belief lately is that sugar (carbohydrates) should be kept to moderate to low levels in your eating, even if you are trying to build muscle mass and / or gain muscle weight.
The reason for this is because of the recent popularity of low-carb diets, such as The Atkins diet, The Southbeach diet, The Zone diet, etc.
Even in bodybuilding magazines all of a sudden everyone and their mother is recommending to keep carbs in your diets almost to a minimum.
Well, the misconception that sugar is somehow "evil" and will cause you to get fat, raise your bad cholesterol, and even lose your "insulin sensitivity" is based on several MYTHS that have been passed around by the media and "monkey see, monkey do" nutrition and exercise "gurus".
One of the main misconceptions is that eating carbs will cause a sharp rise of insulin in your blood, which supposedly causes your body to store fat.
A lot of this is based on the incorrect belief that you should avoid eating "high GI (glycemic index)" foods, and to mainly get most of your carbs from "low GI" foods.
Basically, the Glycemic Index is a chart that was developed years ago that measures how much of a rise in insulin a certain food causes in the blood once digested.
To put it simply, the higher the GI number is, the higher and quicker it makes your insulin rise.
(For some odd reason that's NOT based on any real, conclusive evidence. People seem to think that raising your insulin levels is "bad").
Well, in 1981, researchers at the University of Toronto were the first to accurately notice that "simple" carb foods (having a high GI) actually produced a smaller increase in blood sugar than most "complex" (or low GI) foods (everyone today thinks the opposite is true, of course based on what they read in the latest "how to gain muscle weight" article)!
In fact, eating table sugar (sucrose) actually causes a smaller increase in blood sugar than eating foods such as baked potatoes and whole wheat bread.
Foods containing added sugars do NOT have a higher GI than foods containing naturally occurring sugars.
In fact, you really can't count on the "GI" much at all!!!
Why?
Because the Glycemic Index does NOT take into account the differences in variety, ripeness, processing, or cooking foods, which have a huge impact on how that particular food affects your insulin levels, even if you are trying to gain muscle weight.
Also, the fat content of food also has an affect on insulin: foods that are high in fat have a lower GI, like peanuts, which only have a GI of 14.
In addition, there some foods that have a high GI number, but don't affect your insulin levels at all........like carrots!
Carrots have a GI of 95 (which is pretty high), but don't try to tell me that you'll get fat, get diabetes, etc., from eating carrots!!!
Bodybuilding magazines, supplement companies, and the internet spread myths to all of us seeking to build muscle mass, only leading us to NO RESULTS!
I guarantee you that if you are desperately trying to gain muscle, if you go on a low carb diet, not only are you not going to build any muscle weight, but you are actually going to get smaller than what you are already are.
If you are trying to eat your way to a leaner, more defined, more sculpted you, there is NO NEED TO BREAK DOWN YOUR EATING DOWN TO ALL KINDS OF RATIOS or PERCENTAGES.
Regardless of what type of foods you eat and in what combinations, "IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE CALORIES"!
Showing posts with label how to gain weight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to gain weight. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Whole Foods vs Shakes For Muscle Gain
After many years of spending hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars, after getting sick on them, and after seeing NO KIND OF RESULTS from them, many have finally realized that they are WORTHLESS.
Yet, many are still confused if the supplements that are sold as "Meal Replacements", "Weight Gainers", "natural supplements", and "amino acids" have some good use in substituting for some WHOLE FOODS.
Surely you see them in just about every other page in every-single bodybuilding / fitness magazine. Everyone at the gym uses them.
Go to any grocery store and they have them there too. Yes, even you have probably used them and / or are using them right now.........
Shakes and supplements.
Many different "meal replacement" powders and shakes, also known as RTD's, are sold as being a substitute for a real, whole food meal.
The makers claim that they are "just as good, if not better, than eating a real meal".
They claim to have higher amounts of protein, lower amounts of sugar, and add in ingredients such as BCAA's, Glutamine, Creatine, HMB, CLA, so on and so forth.
They claim that your muscles need a high amount of this and that, and that you can't get those from just eating the right foods. .....
That's what the makers claim.
First off, no supplement that is out on the market right now will build any kind of real, permanent muscle on your body, none!
Not creatine (which makes you gain nothing but "water weight"), not glutamine, not HMB, not NO2, not any one of them.
If you are skeptical, perform a test on yourself:
For one month, don't change anything about your training routine or your eating habits.
Measure your arms, your chest, and your waist with a measuring tape and fat calipers.
Take one supplement, and only one. Use it for that month.
Then take your measurements again.
I guarantee you that your measurements will reveal that your arms or chest didn't get any bigger or vascular, regardless of what the weight scale says.
Yes, some people report gaining 8-10 pounds of weight after one week of using creatine, but are those 8-10 pounds muscle? No!
They are made up of water and / or fat. The measuring tape and fat calipers will reveal that to you.
So, when a meal replacement shake or powder advertises that it is better than eating whole food because it contains all of these extra "muscle building ingredients", don't be fooled.
Even if it actually contains those ingredients, they don't work anyway!
Second, meal replacements claim to have a certain amount of protein grams, carb grams, and fat grams.
Well, lately there have been several analysis done on many popular supplements, and it has been discovered that many of them do not contain the amount of ingredients as printed on the label!!
Just a while back a report was written that a popular "protein bar", that claims to taste like Snickers, contained up to 7% less amount of protein than the label claims.
And it contained much more sugar than stated.
Many of these makers "skim" on the ingredients to bring the cost down of making those supplements, while lying on the nutrition labels, just to make a bigger profit!
Third, the price.
A meal replacement powder can cost you up to $3.00 PER PACKET, while it would probably cost you $1.00 or less if you were to eat the same amount of calories from real food.
I don't know about you, but I rather keep my money in my pocket.
Fourth, and probably the most important out of all, is that powders and shakes contain many ingredients that are down-right harmful to your internal body.
In order to make these "meal replacements" into powders and to be able to be stored for long periods of time (for shipping and sitting on the store shelves), many chemicals and preservatives must be added.
What do you think happens when you are constantly putting into your body foreign chemicals and preservatives, substances that are not from nature.
Your body does not handle well those types of unnatural substances.
Instead of making you gain muscle, all you will get is a BLOATED STOMACH, DIARRHEA, and EVEN FAT, since your body doesn't digest it well.
How many times have you drunk a protein shake and 30 minutes later you start to get "gas"?
That's your body's way of telling you that it cannot handle that shake.
Also, "meal replacements" DON'T contain vital nutrients that are a "must-have" if you want to grow a healthy physique, such as vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes, etc.
These powders don't have any of those things.
Don't believe me, read the nutrition labels.
On the contrary, whole foods are natural, they contain all of the vital nutrients that your body requires to get big and strong, they are much less in price, and they won't cause you to go running to the nearest toilet.
Without a doubt, if you want to gain muscular weight, forget about those disgusting-tasting meal replacement powders and shakes, and eat real whole foods, just like our ancestors did back before the supplement industry came along with all of their lies.
Yet, many are still confused if the supplements that are sold as "Meal Replacements", "Weight Gainers", "natural supplements", and "amino acids" have some good use in substituting for some WHOLE FOODS.
Surely you see them in just about every other page in every-single bodybuilding / fitness magazine. Everyone at the gym uses them.
Go to any grocery store and they have them there too. Yes, even you have probably used them and / or are using them right now.........
Shakes and supplements.
Many different "meal replacement" powders and shakes, also known as RTD's, are sold as being a substitute for a real, whole food meal.
The makers claim that they are "just as good, if not better, than eating a real meal".
They claim to have higher amounts of protein, lower amounts of sugar, and add in ingredients such as BCAA's, Glutamine, Creatine, HMB, CLA, so on and so forth.
They claim that your muscles need a high amount of this and that, and that you can't get those from just eating the right foods. .....
That's what the makers claim.
First off, no supplement that is out on the market right now will build any kind of real, permanent muscle on your body, none!
Not creatine (which makes you gain nothing but "water weight"), not glutamine, not HMB, not NO2, not any one of them.
If you are skeptical, perform a test on yourself:
For one month, don't change anything about your training routine or your eating habits.
Measure your arms, your chest, and your waist with a measuring tape and fat calipers.
Take one supplement, and only one. Use it for that month.
Then take your measurements again.
I guarantee you that your measurements will reveal that your arms or chest didn't get any bigger or vascular, regardless of what the weight scale says.
Yes, some people report gaining 8-10 pounds of weight after one week of using creatine, but are those 8-10 pounds muscle? No!
They are made up of water and / or fat. The measuring tape and fat calipers will reveal that to you.
So, when a meal replacement shake or powder advertises that it is better than eating whole food because it contains all of these extra "muscle building ingredients", don't be fooled.
Even if it actually contains those ingredients, they don't work anyway!
Second, meal replacements claim to have a certain amount of protein grams, carb grams, and fat grams.
Well, lately there have been several analysis done on many popular supplements, and it has been discovered that many of them do not contain the amount of ingredients as printed on the label!!
Just a while back a report was written that a popular "protein bar", that claims to taste like Snickers, contained up to 7% less amount of protein than the label claims.
And it contained much more sugar than stated.
Many of these makers "skim" on the ingredients to bring the cost down of making those supplements, while lying on the nutrition labels, just to make a bigger profit!
Third, the price.
A meal replacement powder can cost you up to $3.00 PER PACKET, while it would probably cost you $1.00 or less if you were to eat the same amount of calories from real food.
I don't know about you, but I rather keep my money in my pocket.
Fourth, and probably the most important out of all, is that powders and shakes contain many ingredients that are down-right harmful to your internal body.
In order to make these "meal replacements" into powders and to be able to be stored for long periods of time (for shipping and sitting on the store shelves), many chemicals and preservatives must be added.
What do you think happens when you are constantly putting into your body foreign chemicals and preservatives, substances that are not from nature.
Your body does not handle well those types of unnatural substances.
Instead of making you gain muscle, all you will get is a BLOATED STOMACH, DIARRHEA, and EVEN FAT, since your body doesn't digest it well.
How many times have you drunk a protein shake and 30 minutes later you start to get "gas"?
That's your body's way of telling you that it cannot handle that shake.
Also, "meal replacements" DON'T contain vital nutrients that are a "must-have" if you want to grow a healthy physique, such as vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, enzymes, etc.
These powders don't have any of those things.
Don't believe me, read the nutrition labels.
On the contrary, whole foods are natural, they contain all of the vital nutrients that your body requires to get big and strong, they are much less in price, and they won't cause you to go running to the nearest toilet.
Without a doubt, if you want to gain muscular weight, forget about those disgusting-tasting meal replacement powders and shakes, and eat real whole foods, just like our ancestors did back before the supplement industry came along with all of their lies.
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