Want to build muscle? Start recording everything you eat! One of the fundamental principles you need to remember as you begin to grow muscle is that your body must have enough raw materials with which to build new muscle fiber.
While weight training stimulates your muscles to grow, that new muscle has to come from somewhere.
In the beginning of your weight gain program, it is especially important that you write everything down.
After a while, you'll probably begin to get a feel for how many calories a particular food has.
You may even be able to make a good estimate of the grams of protein or carbohydrates in your favorite foods.
However, as you're starting out on the road to build muscle, it is critical that you record all of your meals so you'll know exactly where you stand at any given moment.
If your progress halts or slows down (that is you're no longer building muscle), the problem is either with your training or with your meals.
Don't assume that you simply need to lift more weights, however.
You should use a metabolic calculator to determine how many calories you need to eat, and then you can compare this to your food journal to make sure you are on the right track.
How do you know if you're getting enough food to build muscle? Well, you should be gaining at least 1 to 2 pounds per week, and you should have some way to measure your fat percentage to make sure you really are building muscle! That is where your weight lifting comes in, of course.
Lifting heavy weights will challenge your muscles and stimulate muscle growth.
Writing it all down is essential because you have to know your starting point if you're ever to reach your goal.