Intermediate Mesomorph Muscle Building Nutrition
The "Goldilocks" Body-type - You're generally athletic with a mid-sized frame.
You can build muscle fairly easily and can remain lean without too much extra effort.
Usually, you're focused on optimizing your performance or appearance.
(Note - If this DOESN'T sound like/represent you, you may need to go back and take a look at the questions again to get more appropriate recommendations for your true body-type)
As a Mesomorph, you are fortunate to have a body that will (generally) respond quickly to exercise and nutrition adjustments, so simply ensuring you are eating enough to keep yourself from getting too hungry and eating a good balance between protein and carbs while resistance training should yield good results.
With the main goal being to put on lean muscle, you should try to avoid feeling "very hungry", and should try to eat a meal when you start to feel about a 3-4 ("kind of hungry" to "ready to eat") on a scale of 5 (1 being "full" and a 5 being "holy s*** I'm ready to kill a buffet").
You've indicated that you have a fair amount of experience with managing your nutrition, so you should/will be focusing on tracking your total macro-nutrient intake and making sure you are eating to hit these goals each day. Utilize our Macronutrient Calculator for muscle building to get your recommended intake for each macronutrient.
The Key factors you need to focus on are:
With the main goal being to put on lean muscle, you should try to avoid feeling "very hungry", and should try to eat a meal when you start to feel about a 3-4 ("kind of hungry" to "ready to eat") on a scale of 5 (1 being "full" and a 5 being "holy s*** I'm ready to kill a buffet").
You've indicated that you have a fair amount of experience with managing your nutrition, so you should/will be focusing on tracking your total macro-nutrient intake and making sure you are eating to hit these goals each day. Utilize our Macronutrient Calculator for muscle building to get your recommended intake for each macronutrient.
The Key factors you need to focus on are:
- Try to follow a consistent eating schedule, whatever it may be (once every two hours, or only 2-3 meals a day) so long as you are as consistent as possible with the meal times.
- Since your goal is to gain lean muscle mass - while we like to offer you the freedom to eat when/how it works best for you, it may be too difficult to eat enough total calories to gain weight with only 2-3 meals a day. For that reason, it will probably work best to eat a minimum of 4 meals each day, and even up to 6 depending on your activity level and metabolism in order to eat enough to add muscle.
- As explained earlier - try to minimize how often you allow yourself to pass a 4 on a hunger scale of 1-5
- The meal guidelines listed below (for how much to eat) are simply starting points. Utilize our Macronutrient Calculator to determine what percentage of your diet should be coming from Protein, Carbs, and Fats and follow the included instructions/recommendations as much as possible, with at least a 80% compliance rate.
- Note - If you cannot/are unable/unwilling to follow/track your micro-nutrient intake consistently at least 80% of the time you may be trying to take on too much at once, or may not have enough reason/motivation to be successful with this degree of nutrition plan. I recommend you either go to out beginner muscle building recommendations or read our mindset information to help you focus on your goals and intentions.
- Include as much food as possible from the "superfoods" listed below.
- Eat until you feel around 90% full, if after a few weeks of following these recommendations you are not seeing any weight gain eat until you feel completely full and increase your overall daily caloric intake (increase the portion sizes slightly in each area or with just the protein and carbs).
- If you increase your food portions and notice you are putting on weight, but not necessarily muscle mass then decrease the carb portion and increase your protein intake
- As a Mesomorph your body will respond well when you increase your protein intake while maintaining carb ratios and exercising. It is also useful to track your LBM (Lean Body Mass) so you know if the weight gained is positive or negative - meaning, whether you are adding fat or muscle. Check out our tracking progress article for info on tracking your LBM.
- At worst, you should be looking to gain weight at a 1:1 ratio - meaning for every pound of muscle you gain you should see NO MORE than an extra pound of body-fat... and this isn't necessarily ideal unless you plan on doing a cutting phase after this. If you are seeing a 1:1, or worse (1.5:1, 2:1, fat to muscle, etc) decrease your carb intake by .25/lb of body weight. For example, .25 x 180lbs = 45, so you would reduce your carb intake by 45 grams and wait 2-4 weeks to see how the change is effecting your progress. Repeat this process until you are seeing a more desirable ratio of weight gain. If needed, supplement the caloric loss from cutting the carbs with an increase in protein and vegetable intake.
- After that it is worth noting that - for those who may be worried - it is completely possible to build lean muscle without increasing your body fat percentage, or at least without seeing a significant increase. It just comes down to tracking your progress and adjusting your nutrition accordingly.
For Men, at each meal try to eat/include:
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For Women, at each meal try to eat/include:
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If you are following an exercise/workout routine - eat a meal 1-2 hours pre and post workout.
Superfoods:
Proteins:
Carbs:
Drinks:
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Fruits/Vegetables:
Fats:
Herbs & Stuff:
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