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Home » Diets that Work » Six things I learned about food while eating to put on muscle – Telegraph.co.uk

They say abs are made in the kitchen, so my recent efforts to build muscle as part of a 12-week body-transformation challenge meant I had to pay attention to my diet like never before.

Thankfully, someof the hassle was taken out of my hands because I used a food-delivery service, Fresh Fitness Foods, that brought tailored meals to my homebut anyone looking to bulk up for the first time should know that managing your nutritional needs doesnt come easy. Here's six things I learned...

Prior to working out, I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner without much thought, and had snacks here and there. I also drank alcohol occasionally, and felt happy to raise a glass at friends birthdays and during work outings.

That approach served me well, but it wont work if youre serious about bulking up. Instead, expect to register the exact calorie count and composition of every foodstuff you encounter (the MyFitnessPal app is good for this); to time your meals so they best support your training needs; and to be a bore at restaurants until you fully know your stuff. I found myself frequently asking about salad dressings (can I have it on the side?).

Also, spontaneous after-work drinks, should such a thing again prove possible over the coming months,will go out the window. If you want to make quick progress, its more likely youll start rationing boozy nights out (Ill be drinking at Steves wedding on Saturday, so cant during Robs leaving do on Friday).

This is short for macronutrients and details how much fat, protein and carbohydrates are contained in the food youre eating. The amount matters because youll need a finely balanced diet for your exercise regime to be truly efficient. Overall expect your knowledge of nutrition to increase dramatically, but try not to go on about it too much to colleagues and friends. Nobody else cares about what youve eaten that day.

It takes a lot of calories to bulk up, about 3,000 or so per day in my case. Thats an easy target to reach if youre downing milkshakes and pizza, but more demanding if everything youre eating is healthy.

In my case, Fresh Fitness Food delivered four pre-prepared, microwave-ready meals per day, plus one snack. A typical days delivery might include tonka and coconut yoghurt with fruit compote and sticky coconut rice for breakfast; citrus chicken with veg and quinoa for lunch; umami-spiced fish with stir-fried veg, noodles and miso for dinner; spiced chicken with Kerala vegetables and cinnamon-baked cauliflower and rice for my second evening meal;plus maybe some peanut butter fudge cups as a snack.

The meals were tasty, but eating so much felt laborious, particularly as my training regime progressed and I was supplementing deliveries with rice puddings, extra protein shakes and night-time almond-butter yoghurt. I was always full, sometimes uncomfortably.

For the 12 weeks of my routine, I was spending 50 per month on protein shakes alone. Fresh Fitness Food deliveries cost a minimum of 23 per day. On days away from home, I was buying pricey pre-cooked chicken breasts from supermarkets to eat on the go.

More generally, the supposed significance to my regime of every mouthful I was consuming meant that I placed more emphasis on ordering organic and high-quality meat and produce if eating out, which was invariably more costly. The only saving of note was down to cutting out booze, and there was also a bit of clawback due to sweets, chocolate, sugary drinks and takeaways being taken off the menu.

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Six things I learned about food while eating to put on muscle - Telegraph.co.uk

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Home » Diets that Work » Six things I learned about food while eating to put on muscle – Telegraph.co.uk