Calorie Restriction That Could Be Harnessed to Extend Healthy Lifespan in Humans

Decades of research has shown that limits on calorie intake by flies, worms, and mice can enhance life span in laboratory conditions. But whether such calorie restriction can do the same for humans remains unclear. Now a new study led by Yale researchers confirms the health benefits of moderate calorie restrictions in humans — and identifies a key protein that could be harnessed to extend health in humans.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on SciTechDaily
Yale University - February 20, 2022
Edited for content and readability - Images sourced from Pexels 
Source: DOI: 10.1126/science.abn6576

Our Takeaways:

  • The study observed the impact of calorie restriction to the immune and metabolic systems.
  • The thymus was analyzed – This is a gland that sits above the heart and produces T cells, a type of white blood cell and a part of the immune system. The thymus ages at a faster rate than other organs.
  • Results found that the thymus glands in participants with limited calorie intake had less fat and greater functionality after two years of calorie restriction.
  • Calorie restriction also reduced a specific protein gene PLA2G7 (a gene that impacts inflammation). Suppressing this gene in a different study protected aged mice from inflammation.

The research was based on results from the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) clinical trial, the first controlled study of calorie restriction in healthy humans. For the trial, researchers first established baseline calorie intake among more than 200 study participants. The researchers then asked a share of those participants to reduce their calorie intake by 14% while the rest continued to eat as usual, and analyzed the long-term health effects of calorie restriction over the next two years.

The overall aim of the clinical trial was to see if calorie restriction is as beneficial for humans as it is for lab animals, said Vishwa Deep Dixit, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Pathology, Immunobiology, and Comparative Medicine, and senior author of the study. And if it is, he said, researchers wanted to better understand what calorie restriction does to the body specifically that leads to improved health.

Since previous research has shown that calorie restriction in mice can increase infections, Dixit also wanted to determine how calorie restriction might be linked to inflammation and the immune response.

“Because we know that chronic low-grade inflammation in humans is a major trigger of many chronic diseases and, therefore, has a negative effect on life span,” said Dixit, who is also director of the Yale Center for Research on Aging. “Here we’re asking: What is calorie restriction doing to the immune and metabolic systems and if it is indeed beneficial, how can we harness the endogenous pathways that mimic its effects in humans?”

Dixit and his team started by analyzing the thymus, a gland that sits above the heart and produces T cells, a type of white blood cell and an essential part of the immune system. The thymus ages at a faster rate than other organs. By the time healthy adults reach the age of 40, said Dixit, 70% of the thymus is already fatty and nonfunctional. And as it ages, the thymus produces fewer T cells. “As we get older, we begin to feel the absence of new T cells because the ones we have left aren’t great at fighting new pathogens,” said Dixit. “That’s one of the reasons why elderly people are at greater risk for illness.”

For the study, the research team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine if there were functional differences between the thymus glands of those who were restricting calories and those who were not. They found that the thymus glands in participants with limited calorie intake had less fat and greater functional volume after two years of calorie restriction, meaning they were producing more T cells than they were at the start of the study. But participants who weren’t restricting their calories had no change in functional volume.

“The fact that this organ can be rejuvenated is, in my view, stunning because there is very little evidence of that happening in humans,” said Dixit. “That this is even possible is very exciting.”

With such a dramatic effect on the thymus, Dixit and his colleagues expected to also find effects on the immune cells that the thymus was producing, changes that might underlie the overall benefits of calorie restriction. But when they sequenced the genes in those cells, they found there were no changes in gene expression after two years of calorie restriction.

This observation required the researchers to take a closer look, which revealed a surprising finding: “It turns out that the action was really in the tissue microenvironment not the blood T cells,” Dixit said.

Dixit and his team had studied adipose tissue, or body fat, of participants undergoing calorie restriction at three time points: at the beginning of the study, after one year, and after two. Body fat is very important, Dixit said, because it hosts a robust immune system. There are several types of immune cells in fat, and when they are aberrantly activated, they become a source of inflammation, he explained.

“We found remarkable changes in the gene expression of adipose tissue after one year that were sustained through year two,” said Dixit. “This revealed some genes that were implicated in extending life in animals but also unique calorie restriction-mimicking targets that may improve metabolic and anti-inflammatory response in humans.”

Recognizing this, the researchers then set out to see if any of the genes they identified in their analysis might be driving some of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction. They honed in on the gene for PLA2G7 — or group VII A platelet activating factor acetylhydrolase — which was one of the genes significantly inhibited following calorie restriction. PLA2G7 is a protein produced by immune cells known as macrophages.

This change in PLA2G7 gene expression observed in participants who were limiting their calorie intake suggested the protein might be linked to the effects of calorie restriction. To better understand if PLA2G7 caused some of the effects observed with calorie restriction, the researchers also tracked what happened when the protein was reduced in mice in a laboratory experiment.

“We found that reducing PLA2G7 in mice yielded benefits that were similar to what we saw with calorie restriction in humans,” said Olga Spadaro, a former research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. Specifically, the thymus glands of these mice were functional for a longer time, the mice were protected from diet-induced weight gain, and they were protected from age-related inflammation.

These effects occurred because PLA2G7 targets a specific mechanism of inflammation called the NLRP3 inflammasome, researchers said. Lowering PLA2G7 protected aged mice from inflammation.

“These findings demonstrate that PLA2G7 is one of the drivers of the effects of calorie restriction,” said Dixit. “Identifying these drivers helps us understand how the metabolic system and the immune system talk to each other, which can point us to potential targets that can improve immune function, reduce inflammation, and potentially even enhance healthy lifespan.”

For instance, it might be possible to manipulate PLA2G7 and get the benefits of calorie restriction without having to actually restrict calories, which can be harmful for some people, he said.

“There’s so much debate about what type of diet is better — low carbohydrates or fat, increased protein, intermittent fasting, etc. — and I think time will tell which of these are important,” said Dixit. “But CALERIE is a very well-controlled study that shows a simple reduction in calories, and no specific diet, has a remarkable effect in terms of biology and shifting the immuno-metabolic state in a direction that’s protective of human health. So from a public health standpoint, I think it gives hope.”

What’s the difference between sugar, other natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners? A food chemist explains sweet science

A quick walk down the drink aisle of any corner store reveals the incredible ingenuity of food scientists in search of sweet flavors. In some drinks you’ll find sugar. A diet soda might have an artificial or natural low-calorie sweetener. And found in nearly everything else is high fructose corn syrup, the king of U.S. sweetness.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on The Conversation
Kristine Nolin (Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Richmond) - January 5, 2022
Edited for content and readability - Images sourced from Pexels

Our Takeaways:

  • Glucose is the most basic sugar and is mostly made by plants. Fructose is a sugar from fruit. Galactose is a sugar in milk. Table sugar comes from Sugar Cane.
  • High fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch, then treated with a second enzyme to convert some of it into fructose. Generally, high fructose corn syrup is roughly 42%-55% fructose.
  • Natural Non-sugar Sweeteners – These are food additives such as stevia and monk fruit, as well as natural sugar alcohols. These molecules aren’t sugars, but they can still bind to the sweet receptors and therefore taste sweet.
  • Artificial Sweeteners are produced in labs and factories and are not found in nature.

I am a chemist who studies compounds found in nature, and I am also a lover of food. With confusing food labels claiming foods and beverages to be diet, zero-sugar or with “no artificial sweeteners,” it can be confusing to know exactly what you are consuming.

So what are these sweet molecules? How can cane sugar and artificial sweeteners produce such similar flavors? First, it is helpful to understand how taste buds work.

Taste buds and chemistry

The “taste map” – the idea that you taste different flavors on different parts of your tongue – is far from the truth. People are able to taste all flavors anywhere there are taste buds. So what’s a taste bud?

Taste buds are areas on your tongue that contain dozens of taste receptor cells. These cells can detect the five flavors – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. When you eat, food molecules are dissolved in saliva and then washed across the taste buds, where they bind to the different taste receptor cells. Only molecules with certain shapes can bind to certain receptors, and this produces the perception of different flavors.

Molecules that taste sweet bind to specific proteins on the taste receptor cells called G-proteins. When a molecule binds these G-proteins, it triggers a series of signals that are sent to the brain where it is interpreted as sweet.

Natural sugars

Natural sugars are types of carbohydrates known as saccharides that are made of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. You can imagine sugars as rings of carbon atoms with pairs of oxygen and hydrogen attached to the outside of the rings. The oxygen and hydrogen groups are what make sugar sticky to the touch. They behave like Velcro, sticking to the oxygen and hydrogen pairs on other sugar molecules.

The simplest sugars are single-molecule sugars called monosaccharides. You’ve probably heard of some of these. Glucose is the most basic sugar and is mostly made by plants. Fructose is a sugar from fruit. Galactose is a sugar in milk.

Table sugar – or sucrose, which comes from sugar cane – is an example of a dissacharide, a compound made of two monosaccharides. Sucrose is formed when a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule join together. Other common dissacharides are lactose from milk and maltose, which comes grains.

When these sugars are eaten, the body processes each of them slightly differently. But eventually they are broken down into molecules that your body converts into energy. The amount of energy from sugar – and all food – is measured in calories.

High fructose corn syrup

High fructose corn syrup is a staple of U.S. foods, and this hybrid sugar sweetener needs a category all on its own. High fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch – the main carbohydrate found in corn. Corn starch is made of thousands of glucose molecules bonded together. At an industrial scale, the starch is broken into individual glucose molecules using enzymes. This glucose is then treated with a second enzyme to convert some of it into fructose. Generally, high fructose corn syrup is roughly 42%-55% fructose.

This blend is sweet and cheap to produce but has a high calorie content. As with other natural sugars, too much high fructose corn syrup is bad for your health. And since most processed foods and drinks are packed full of the stuff, it is easy to consume too much.

Natural nonsugar sweeteners

The second category of sweeteners could be defined as natural nonsugar sweeteners. These are food additives such as stevia and monk fruit, as well as natural sugar alcohols. These molecules aren’t sugars, but they can still bind to the sweet receptors and therefore taste sweet.

Stevia is a molecule that comes from the leaves of the Stevia redaudiana plant. It contains “sweet” molecules that are much larger than most sugars and have three glucose molecules attached to them. These molecules are 30 to 150 times sweeter than glucose itself. The sweet molecules from monk fruit are similar to stevia and 250 times sweeter than glucose.

The human body has a really hard time breaking down both stevia and monk fruit. So even though they’re both really sweet, you don’t get any calories from eating them.

Sugar alcohols, like sorbital, for example, are not as sweet as sucrose. They can be found in a variety of foods, including pineapples, mushrooms, carrots and seaweed, and are often added to diet drinks, sugar-free chewing gum and many other foods and drinks. Sugar alcohols are made of chains of carbon atoms instead of circles like normal sugars. While they are composed of the same atoms as the sugars, sugar alcohols are not absorbed well by the body so they are considered low-calorie sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners

The third way to make something sweet is to add artificial sweeteners. These chemicals are produced in labs and factories and are not found in nature. Like all things that taste sweet, they do so because they can bind to certain receptors in taste buds.

So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved six artificial sweeteners. The most well known are probably saccharin, aspartame and sucralose – better known as Splenda. Artificial sweeteners all have different chemical formulas. Some resemble natural sugars while others are radically different. They are usually many times sweeter than sugar – saccharin is an incredible 200 to 700 times sweeter than table sugar – and some of them are hard for the body to break down.

While a sweet dessert may be a simple pleasure for many, the chemistry of how your taste buds perceive sweetness is not so simple. Only molecules with the perfect combination of atoms taste sweet, but bodies deal with each of these molecules differently when it comes to calories.

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

Written by Daniel Preiato, RD, CSCS on February 2, 2021 — Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M.S., NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Healthline

Edited for content.

When looking to gain muscle, it’s no secret that exercise and proper nutrition are key.

Additionally, numerous factors contribute to the rate of muscle gain, including your training experience, sex, age, and the type of exercise you do. As such, you may wonder how much muscle you can really gain in a month.

This article covers how much muscle you can gain in a month, including how to get started and supplements that may be worth taking.

How much muscle can you gain?

In most cases, gaining muscle is a slow, gradual process, and it can take years rather than months to see sizeable results.

That said, beginners and some intermediate lifters may be able to see small changes after just a few months of intense training.

Though it’s nearly impossible to determine exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, some studies can give you a good idea.

One study in 30 college-aged men with previous training experience observed a 23% increase in vastus lateralis size — one of the leg muscles — after 6 weeks of purposeful resistance training.

However, it’s important to note that this muscle growth was largely attributed to increases in water and glycogen stores, which is the stored form of carbs.

Similarly, one small older study observed a 5.6% increase in muscle size after 21 weeks of strength training in 8 non-strength-trained athletes, while 8 strength-trained athletes experienced less growth.

This suggests that trainees without prior strength training experience have a greater potential for muscle gains than athletes with training experience. What’s more, your genetic makeup may also mean you respond better to muscle growth stimulus.

While data is limited on exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, these studies suggest that short-term muscle growth is modest in natural athletes.

Summary

Though data on the specific amount of muscle you can gain in a month is limited, select studies suggest that new trainees can yield noticeable muscle gains in less time than those with resistance training experience.

How to get started

When looking to gain muscle quickly, there are a few factors you can focus on to get the most efficient results for your efforts.

High intensity resistance exercise

Arguably, the most important factor is to focus on high intensity resistance exercises in the 8–12 rep range.

These include compound movements like variations of the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, snatch, and clean and jerk. These work multiple muscle groups at once, thus improving exercise efficiency and stimulating muscle growth.

In addition to compound exercises, include various isolation exercises to target specific muscle groups. Unlike compound exercises, isolation exercised target one muscle group at a time, providing maximal stimulation and growth potential.

While cardiovascular exercise is important for overall health, it does not play a major role in muscle gain.

Ultimately, it may be helpful to consult a certified trainer to help you put together a suitable exercise program.

Proper nutrition

Another significant component of gaining muscle quickly is proper nutrition.

For the best results, it’s recommended that you eat 10–20% more calories than your metabolic rate, which is also known as your total daily energy expenditure. This means consuming slightly more calories than you burn, as gaining muscle is an energy-expensive process.

This is often referred to as bulking and sometimes accomplished using a “clean” or “dirty” approach depending on your dietary choices and dedicated time for the process.

In addition to a calorie surplus, it’s important that you ensure a sufficient protein intake of 0.7–1 gram per pound (1.6–2.2 grams per kg) of body weight, as protein serves as the major building block of muscle.

You may want to seek advice from a registered dietitian for further nutritional guidance.

Summary

Two important factors when looking to maximize short-term muscle gains include high intensity resistance exercise and proper nutrition that prioritizes a calorie surplus and adequate protein.

Different populations

One of the main factors in the rate of muscle gain is your training age, or how long you’ve been training.

Two other important factors to consider are age and sex, which can also greatly affect muscle building.

Beginners

When just getting started with strength and hypertrophy (muscle building) training, you have great potential for muscle growth.

This is because training is a new stimulus, and as your muscles are worked, growth occurs to prepare them for future training.

That said, muscle growth is still limited during the initial stages of resistance training, while most of your strength gains are due to neural adaptions. This means that as you train, your brain gets better at recruiting muscle fibers to contract during a particular exercise.

Therefore, if you’re a beginner to resistance training, you’re unlikely to see any sizeable muscle gains in your first month of training, even if you’re gaining strength.

Intermediates

After training consistently for at least 1 year and grasping the fundamental movements, you move toward the intermediate phase of training.

This tends to be where trainees spend the most time, with some never progressing onto the advanced phase.

During the late–beginner and early–intermediate training phase, you have the most potential for muscular growth, as you have moved past the neural adaptation phase.

At this point, you can proficiently perform most movements and stimulate significant muscle growth.

Advanced trainees

The advanced phase of training takes a significant amount of time and effort to reach, usually at least 2 years for even the most gifted athletes.

At this point, most trainees have achieved most of their muscle and strength gains, and new muscle mass is hard to come by.

Progressing as an advanced trainee often requires advanced training techniques that provide maximal muscle stimulation.

Even in the best-case scenario, natural advanced trainees may not see more than a few pounds of muscle gain per year.

Men

In general, men have a few advantages over women when it comes to gaining muscle.

According to both older and new research, men tend to have larger, more numerous muscle fibers, allowing for overall bigger muscles and increased strength potential.

What’s more, men have higher levels of testosterone, the major circulating male sex hormone that’s responsible for male characteristics like muscle development, body hair, and deepening of the voice.

Considering these factors, men tend to gain more muscle than women over a month’s time.

Women

Women are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to quick muscle and strength building due to genetic and hormonal differences.

That said, women have an advantage over men when it comes to exercise fatigue and recovery, as they’re often able to handle more exercise volume and recover quicker.

This is mainly due to higher levels of estrogen, one of the primary female sex hormones, which is thought to have a protective effect on skeletal muscle.

Thus, although men may gain muscle at a faster rate than women, women appear to recover from exercise more efficiently, potentially allowing them to handle more training volume over time.

Older adults

Muscle and strength loss, also called sarcopenia, is one of several factors associated with the aging process in both men and women.

Fortunately, resistance training has been shown to slow, or even slightly reverse, this effect in older individuals.

While the rate of muscle gain tends to be slower in the aging population, improvements in muscle strength and functional mobility are still seen. This stresses the importance of following a regular exercise regimen that includes resistance training as you age.

Summary

The rate at which you can gain muscle varies greatly between populations, with beginners and intermediates seeing significantly more progress than advanced trainees.

Do supplements help?

During your quest for muscle gains, various supplements may enhance your results.

While many supplement companies claim their products can help you pack on muscle quickly, only a few types of supplements boast extensive scientific backing.

Here are the muscle-building supplements with the most scientific support.

Protein powder

Protein powders are the isolated form of various types of protein, including milk proteins like whey or casein or plant proteins like pea or brown rice.

When looking to promote muscle gain, getting enough protein is essential, as it provides the building blocks of skeletal muscle.

Experts recommend getting 20–40 grams of a high quality protein, meaning protein that contains all essential amino acids and is easily digested, within 2 hours of resistance exercise to maximize muscle gains.

While protein powders are not necessary, they can serve as an excellent tool to help you meet your daily protein needs, especially if you have trouble reaching them through your regular diet.

Creatine

Creatine is another highly researched supplement shown to promote muscle gains by increasing exercise capacity during high intensity training.

It plays a vital role in the phosphocreatine system. This system provides energy for muscle contractions that last less than 15 seconds, such as when you start sprinting or complete a heavy lift.

Creatine is found in foods like salmon and beef, but supplementing with it is an easy way to maximize its stores in your skeletal muscle and may be a worthwhile strategy when you’re looking to promote muscle gains.

HMB

Beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) is a metabolite — an end product of metabolism — of an essential amino acid called leucine. It has shown some promise in promoting muscle and strength gains when combined with resistance training.

Supplementing with HMB appears to increase muscle protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown, leading to gains in muscle mass. However, these benefits have mainly been observed in new trainees and the elderly.

This means that HMB may be worth trying for those who are new to resistance training, as well as older adults looking to retain muscle mass, but not for those with resistance training experience.

Summary

While numerous supplements claim to boost muscle mass, only a few are backed by research. The main ones include protein powders, creatine, and HMB.

The bottom line

How much muscle you can gain in a month varies greatly depending on factors like your sex, age, and training experience.

While select populations can see noticeable muscle gains in just 1 month, achieving significant changes in your body’s musculature takes effort and time — often several years rather than months.

To maximize your muscle gains, follow a consistent, high intensity resistance training program, stick to a proper diet that includes sufficient calories and protein, and consider taking select supplements.

It’s best to consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting an intense resistance training regimen, especially if you have any underlying ailments or injuries.

Eat to Build Muscle – Foods and Diet Plan

The Bodybuilder’s Diet: 8 New Rules of Muscle Building

Pure gains.

By Jeff Csatari

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Men’sHealth

Edited for content

You can crank out heavy squats and curls until your quads and biceps scream for mercy, and still you can’t seem to build the muscle you want.

What’s going on?

If you’re struggling to grow muscle despite your dedication in the gym, your problem most likely isn’t your workout, but rather your diet and lifestyle.

Building muscle is a complex science. It’s a coalescence of your lifting, your nutrition, your hormones, and your rest. So, let’s assume you’re doing everything right in the gym—following a good program and pushing yourself hard. Keep it up.

But now let’s focus on the other stuff. Are you getting enough protein and calories? Are you supporting your endocrine system properly? Are you getting quality sleep? Tweaking these crucial variables will result in the kind of muscle that fills out a T-shirt—and then some.

“Nutrition is the cornerstone in building lean muscle,” says nutritionist and exercise physiologist Jim White, R.D. “If the protein isn’t there, it’s not going to help your muscles grow. If the carbs aren’t there, you’re going to feel sluggish. If the fat isn’t there, it’s going to affect energy levels and overall health.”

In short, it’s time to master the soft art of building hard muscle—meal time. Your diet needs to be strategically choreographed to accelerate the repair-and-grow process that follows that strenuous workout session you’re so proud of.

White knows the right formula. A former skinny athlete, he was a self-described “hard gainer,” frustrated by his inability to grow bigger and stronger and run faster. Then he took a hard look at his crappy diet: He ate like a bird. Rarely touched fruits and vegetables. He gravitated toward sugary processed junk.

His nutrition training opened his eyes to his problem, and he changed his body and his life. He started eating six meals a day, increasing his daily calories to 3,500 and began experimenting with different percentages of macronutrients until he found the sweet spot.

Suddenly, his energy skyrocketed, making his time in the gym more productive. Now he’s jacked—he added 70 pounds of lean muscle and saw huge strength gains. The guy who struggled to bench 65 pounds can now press 295.

White shares his story of total body transformation and the plan that got him there in the new book Men’s Health Best Meals for Muscle. Here’s a sample of White’s muscle building plan, below. To finesse your own massive growth spurt, grab a copy of Best Meals for Muscle; it’s full of White’s expert advice and tasty, easy-to-cook meals with the right macronutrient mix to fuel your transition.

1. Eat More Protein

The actual process of growing muscle, when cells rush in to rebuild your torn-down muscle fibers, happens not in the gym but after your workout, when you rest. And the composition of what you eat before and after you stress that muscle can mean the difference between building up the muscle or destroying it.

Making sure you’re eating enough protein is of paramount importance for two reasons:

1. Proteins deliver the amino acids that form the building blocks of muscle. When intense weightlifting breaks down muscle protein synthesis provides the proteins needed to repair that muscle and spur it to grow bigger.

2. Your body also looks to proteins to supply amino acids for producing hormones like insulin and human growth hormone, which can further drain protein reserves. A higher protein diet ensures you have more than enough to go around and shifts your body into an anabolic mode, one that builds tissues rather than breaking them down.

While the recommended daily allowance for protein is less than half a gram per pound of bodyweight, you should double that to a gram per pound of bodyweight to build muscle. That’s the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

So, for example, a 160-pound man should try to consume 160 grams of protein a day in order to fuel muscle growth. One hundred sixty grams of protein looks like this: 8 ounces of chicken breast, 1 cup of cottage cheese, a roast beef sandwich, two eggs, a glass of milk, and 2 ounces of peanuts.

2. Consume More Calories

If you’re weight training to bulk up, don’t eat like a guy who’s trying to lose weight. Growing a pound of muscle requires about 2,800 calories. That means you may have to overeat to consume enough calories to build size.

In fact, in some studies, researchers found that lifters with the greatest gains in muscle were the men who were the biggest eaters. White’s plan calls for boosting your calories to 3,000 a day. That’s a lot of food to consume in three squares, so White recommends you . . .

Eat Every 3 Hours (roughly)

By spreading your calories out over, say, six meals spaced about 3 hours apart, you’ll avoid that full-belly feeling that can make you sluggish, and you’ll ensure your muscles get consistently stoked with protein and carbs. Your body needs a constant supply of macronutrients and micronutrients to operate properly, especially when it is being taxed by intense exercise.

Shoot for about 30 grams of protein per meal. That’ll get most people into the proper range for muscle growth.

Get the Right Mix of Macros

Protein is critical, but it shouldn’t be a soloist when you’re orchestrating a plan for building mass. The other macronutrients, namely carbohydrates and healthy fats, influence muscle growth, too. By getting your macro ratio right, you can expect to see your gains skyrocket and avoid adding body fat even with the increase in calories, says White. Best Meals for Muscle makes hitting that holy grail ratio of 50 percent carbs, 25 percent protein, and 25 percent fat easy by translating it into ideal meal examples (and recipes) you can use to fuel your day.

Hydrate for More T

Exercise-induced dehydration slows your motor neurons. Not only will you feel fatigue sooner during a workout than you otherwise would, but your performance slips as well.

What’s more, a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that dehydrated weight lifters produced more of the stress hormone cortisol, while reducing the release of testosterone, the body’s best muscle builder.

Find Your Whey

Right after your workout, drink a whey protein shake that delivers about 25 grams of protein per serving. Whey digests more quickly than other types of protein, so it hits your muscles faster. Whey protein also has the highest concentration of the branched-chain amino acid leucine, which is required for protein synthesis.

Have a Banana Before a Workout

Or some Greek yogurt. Or a low-sugar sports drink. All are rich in electrolytes, which help your muscles contract. Exercise depletes electrolytes fast. Be sure you don’t run short and cramp up.

Time Your Meals

If you’re serious about packing on more muscle, get serious about being more disciplined about when you eat. You can start by creating a meal plan and sticking to strict meal times. Begin refueling shortly after you wake up and stop eating three hours before going to bed. Remember, your body repairs and builds muscles as you sleep. Eating just before bed can disrupt your sleep and throw a monkey wrench into that crucial repair process.

Men’s Health Best Meals for Muscle is full of ready-to-serve meal plans and recipes that take the guesswork out of feeding your muscles the right amounts at the right times.