Beginner Ectomorph Muscle Building Nutrition

You're generally lean, with a smaller frame and thinner limbs.

You have a fast metabolism and tolerate carbs well.  

​You're battle is usually trying to gain muscle/weight.

(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)

You've indicated that your experience level is on the lower end, so keeping it simple is the best idea.  You don't need to worry so much about calorie counting and tracking exact grams of intake for protein, carbs, fat, etc and should focus mostly on improving overall healthy eating habits.

The Ectomorph struggle is almost always trying to put on muscle - staying light and lean pretty much happens naturally.  You're focus will need to be on eating enough calories to sustain your training and daily activities without going into a deficit.  Since as a beginner the goal is to keep it simple, instead of trying to track the amount of calories you burn and the total calories you eat - the best way to measure a deficit is by hunger.  You should almost never allow yourself to feel "very hungry", you 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").


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, as an Ectomorph it will probably 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 - don't allow yourself to pass a 3-4 on a hunger scale of 1-5

​

• Try to follow the meal guidelines below as much as possible.  The goal here is progress, not perfection - so only make changes to your diet to meet these guidelines that you feel confident you can stick with and follow consistently, and progress from there.

​

• Try to 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.

• Obviously, to build muscle you need to be following an exercise plan in addition to getting proper nutrition.  Especially for Ectomorphs weightlifting programs are usually best while limiting cardio to  1-3 HIIT sessions/week.
  • ​Again, as you notice changes you can adjust accordingly;  If you notice you are no longer gaining weight but you are fairly confident you are eating enough, reduce the amount of cardio you are doing.  Vice versa - if you are starting to add muscle mass but notice you are also adding body fat, increase the amount of HIIT you are performing in either the duration or number of sessions/week.

For Men, at each meal try to eat/include:

• 2 Palms (measure with the size of the palms of your hand) of a Protein food
• 2 Fists of vegetables
• 2-3 cupped handfuls of a carb source
  • less is more when trying to drop weight
• 1 thumb of a fat source

For Women, at each meal try to eat/include:

• 1 Palm of a protein food
• 1 Fist of vegetables
• 1-2 cupped handfuls of a carb source
  • Again, Less is more when trying to drop weight
• .5 thumb of a fat source

If you are following an exercise/workout routine -  eat a meal 1-2 hours pre and post workout.

Superfoods:

Proteins:

• Lean Red Meat (Beef, Venison, Bison, Preferably Grass-Fed)
• Chicken (Ideally Free-Range and/or Grass-Fed)
• Salmon (Preferably Wild-Caught).
• Eggs (Ideally Omega-3 and/or Cage-Free)
• Plain Greek Yogurt
• Cottage Cheese
• Coconut Milk Yogurt
• Protein Supplements

Carbs:

• Mixed Beans
• Quinoa
• Whole Oats
• Sweet Potatoes
• Rice (depending on how/what you cook with it.  Preferably organic and/or brown rice.)

Drinks:

• Green Tea (or any Tea not sweetened artificially or with sugar)
• Sports Drinks (Such as a Pre/Post-Workout)
• Purified/Mineralized Water

Fruits/Vegetables:

• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Generally Any Coniferous Vegetables
• Carrots
• Mushrooms
• Mixed Berries
• Oranges
• Pineapple
• Grapefruit

Fats:

• Raw, Unsalted Mixed Nuts
• Avocados
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fish Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Flax Seeds
• Grapeseed Oil (Non-GMO, preferably Organic)

Herbs & Stuff:

• Garlic
• Ginger
• Turmeric
• Cumin
• Cinnamon

This list is by no means all-inclusive, but should give you an idea where to start and should serve as a guide for some of the best foods to include in your diet.

Muscle Building Training Info

Back to Nutrition