As a teenager, you are growing and developing. It is more important now than ever that you eat the right foods in the right amounts. If you lift weights with the goal of adding muscle mass, your caloric and protein requirements will increase drastically. In fact, you may require as many as 3,200 calories every day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Knowing what you should eat and why is pivotal in designing a diet plan that will yield maximum muscle growth with minimal fat gain.
Protein Requirements
Protein is the primary nutrient you need to build muscle tissue. The USDA recommends that teens who lift weights eat as much as 0.8 g of protein for every pound of body weight. This can be an immense amount of protein, especially if you weigh 175 to 200 pounds. Whey protein is a popular protein supplement. Derived from milk, whey digests quickly, which allows for multiple servings throughout the day. Whey also contains a high amount of protein, weighing in at 24 g per serving.
Carbohydrates
Bodybuilders require an enormous amount of carbohydrates to assist them through their grueling workouts, and teens are no exception. Carbohydrates, when burned as fuel, can provide a quick and powerful burst of energy needed for high-intensity training. When your heart rate increases to 67 to 87 percent of its maximum rate, your body shifts into carbohydrate-burning mode, when as much as 85 percent of the calories burned are carb-based.
Balance
Regardless of whether you are a bodybuilder or a couch potato, you need a balanced diet that pulls from all six major food groups: grains, dairy, fruits, vegetables, meat and oils. You also need 13 essential vitamins just to function on a daily basis. It becomes increasingly clear that you need a healthy nutrition-packed eating plan.
Timing
A French study conducted in 2001 by Dr. Yves Boirie, head of the Human Nutrition Research Center of Auvergne, found that protein synthesis is most efficient if it is consumed steadily over the course of a day. Thus, if you wish to build as much muscle as possible, you need to eat your recommended amount of protein over several hours, rather than in one or two big meals.
Snacks
You require food on a regular basis throughout the day just to maintain a consistent level of energy. Any lull in eating can create a drop in metabolic rate, which is the rate at which you burn calories. The old idea that you need just three meals a day has been abandoned. Eating four or five small meals with healthy, high-protein snacks in between is now recommended.
References
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Estimated Calorie Requirements
- Harvard School of Public Health: Carbohydrates: Good Carbs Guide the Way
- UCLA Dining: Be A Protein Pro
- "The American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism": The Digestion Rate: Yves Boirie, et al: Feb 2001
- National Library of Medicine: Vitamins
- "National Center for Biotechnology Information": Quantifying Differences in the "Fat Burning" Zone and the Aerobic Zone: Daniel Carey: Oct 2009
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