Build muscle and stay lean with our four-week meal plan.
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Listen up, ladies! It’s time to get over the “low cal is best” attitude toward eating. Sure, it makes sense — to lose weight we need to create a caloric deficit. But if you’re looking to stack on some lean mass and ramp up your strength goals, you’ll have to bump up your food intake on a daily basis. Don’t let this scare you — when done right, you can maintain the lean look you worked all summer for while building muscle and eating more than you ever imagined.
So why is the thought of adding calories to your diet so cringeworthy? Because calories in vs. calories out has been ingrained in us since the dawn of time. This has made us fear eating too much in an effort to avoid unwanted weight gain. The reality is, to build muscle, we need calories. You heard that right. Eat more to reach your fitness goals faster. Skimp out and you’ll end up burning the candle at both ends, leaving you with a sluggish metabolism and at risk for overtraining. But we’re not talking any kind of calories. We’re talking lots of lean protein, moderate complex carbs (yes carbs!) and a moderate amount of healthy fats. Throw in some fruits, veggies and a few delicious recipes and we have a meal plan!
Here’s how it works: Pair this four week meal plan with your fave mass building workout program. If there’s a protein you’re not fond of or if you want to take the vegetarian route, simply swap it for the same portion size of something you do like; the same goes for carbs and healthy fats. Stick with lean protein sources and high-fiber complex carbs rather than high-sugar, simple carb sources.
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Esta historia es de la edición Sept/Oct 2017 de Oxygen.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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