Muscle weighs more than fat. For this reason, the scale may not reflect your real progress as much as you expect it to do. People who take up serious fitness training sometimes report that although they lost several inches around the waistline, they only lost a small amount of actual weight.
But building muscle is not just about working out. A large part of it is about eating right and taking proper care of your body.
You Need Protein
Muscle is mostly protein, so it takes protein to make muscle. Good sources of protein include lean meats, eggs, milk, cheese and legumes. Egg whites are a source of nearly perfect protein for the human body. This is why competitive body builders used to drink raw eggs to bulk up, before there were protein powders and shakes. You should try to get one gram of protein for every pound of body mass. If you weigh 120 pounds, you should shoot for 120 grams of protein per day.
You Also Need Carbs
Carbohydrates are a primary source of energy to burn. If you aren't getting enough calories from carbohydrates, your body will use protein for fuel. So, you can only turn protein into muscle if you are making sure the body has enough fuel to burn as well. Healthy carbs come from fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
You Need a Steady Supply of Fuel
If you go for too long between without eating, your body will start burning internal resources to cope. When it does this, it burns muscle first, not fat. Thus, frequent small meals and healthy snacks are necessary to make sure the protein you consume has a chance to be converted to muscle.
It Takes Down Time
Many critical processes happy while you sleep. This is the body's time for maintenance. It takes a lot of work to build muscle. That work is not happening while you are doing other things. It happens when you are resting. Make sure to sleep a good seven to eight hours a night to help your body build muscle.
You Need Enough Water
The body is mostly made of water. When you fail to stay adequately hydrated, you interfere with many bodily processes. When trying to put on muscle, you need to get enough to drink before, during and after your workout. For every pound you weigh, you should be drinking one half to one ounce every day. If you weigh 120 pounds, you need 60 to 120 ounces of fluids daily.
Resistance Training is Key
In order to put on muscle, you need to engage in resistance training. Weight lifting is one example of resistance training, but it is not the only way to add muscle. Cardio workouts tend to add long, lean muscle and help with losing fat. They don't tend to add muscle mass. Cardio and resistance training are somewhat in conflict because they lead to different kinds of muscle being formed. To some degree, the body has to choose one or the other.
If you want to be fit, you need to put on muscle. Some ways to foster muscle gain include getting enough protein, healthy carbs, and water, plus eating frequent small meals and getting enough sleep.