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Healthy Meal Plan for Muscle Toning

Aug 21, 2011 | By Paula Quinene
Healthy Meal Plan for Muscle Toning
Photo Credit Blue Jean Images/Photodisc/Getty Images

Healthy foods are essential for toning your muscles and losing the fat that makes you look flabby. Such foods optimize the calories you eat with plenty of nutrients. Carbohydrates fuel you while protein provides the amino acids necessary for muscle toning. Unsaturated fat keeps you satisfied and enhances the health of your arteries. Fiber keeps you full on fewer calories while vitamins and minerals enhance oxygen delivery and muscle contraction.

Calories

The total calories you need every day to tone your muscles depend on whether you are male or female. Men exercising to tone their body should consume about 41 calories per kilogram of body weight while women should consume 37 calories per kilogram body weight. For example, if you are a 130-lb. woman, divide your weight by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms. At 55 kg, multiply your weight by 37 calories for a total daily intake of 2,183 calories.

Meal Frequency

Eating small meals every two to three hours maintains a steady blood sugar and energy level. This means your metabolism is at an optimal level and you have the energy to lift weights and do cardio. Divide your daily caloric requirement by six meals to determine the number of calories you should consume at every meal. For instance, using your intake of 2,183 calories and dividing that number by six, each meal should be about 363 calories.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are found in the obvious grain products like bread, rice and pasta, providing fiber, vitamins and minerals. However, there are also carbohydrates in fruits, vegetables, dairy products, beans, nuts, seeds, peas and lentils. Carbohydrates can be classified as fast-digesting or slow-digesting, depending on how quickly they are absorbed into your bloodstream and cause your blood sugar to spike. Healthy meal plans for muscle toning must consist predominantly of slow-digesting carbohydrates. Slow-digesting carbs have a minimal impact on raising your blood sugar and include whole wheat bread, cooked spaghetti noodles, apples, oranges, skim milk and all-bran cereal. Forty-five to 55 percent of the total calories you eat in a day should be from carbohydrates. For instance, if you eat 2,183 in a day, 982 of those calories should come from carbohydrates; dividing 982 by 4 calories per gram of carb gives you about 245 g of carbs per day.

Protein

Protein is found in plants and animals containing muscle-enriching minerals like calcium, magnesium and iron. Animal protein has all the essential amino acids your body needs; your body is unable to produce essential amino acid so they must be consumed through your diet. An active individual needs of about 1 ½ to 2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight or about 20 percent of total daily calories to repair, rebuild and grow muscle tissue. Choose from lean meat, lean poultry, fatty fish and low-fat or fat-free dairy products. Combining brown rice with beans, seeds, nuts and eat ensures you consume all the essential amino acids if you prefer non-animal sources protein. To calculate your protein intake, multiply 2,183 by 20 percent, then divide by 4 calories. At 59 kg, you need about 109 g of protein.

Fat

Fat is classified as unsaturated, saturated and trans fat. Twenty-five to 35 percent of your calories every day should come from fat with less than 7 percent from saturated fat and less than 1 percent from trans fat. Unsalted nuts, olives, avocado and fatty fishes like salmon and mackerel are excellent sources of unsaturated fat. Healthy fats keep your arteries clear so your muscles receive a sufficient amount of oxygen and nutrients. Calculate your fat intake at the low end of the range by multiplying 2,183 calories by 25 percent then divide by 9 calories. At 59 kg, you need about 60 g of fat.

References

Article reviewed by Helen Covington Last updated on: Aug 21, 2011

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