Diet for gaining muscle and mass can be really challenging since you need to implement a lot of changes into your daily rhythm in order to maintain it.
And still, you have to somehow manage to fit it all in without affecting your daily schedule, why? This is because if you do not, you will soon give up thinking this is all too difficult to take.
We all have different obligations during the day whether it is a job, school or something else and you should plan your diet so it goes together in harmony with the rest of your day.
You can not take the diets of bodybuilders and fitness trainers as a reference because fitness is their job, they only workout and eat and are dedicated to that to the maximum. We simple mortals have to do things differently adjusting our diet to our selves and that is not a very easy task.
When you decide to start with a diet for gaining muscle you should focus on doing so without piling up too much fat instead of trying to melt it. If your goal would be to lose fat that would limit the choice of food you can eat considerably which could result in you quitting really quickly.
If on the other hand, you focus on gaining muscle mass there is a much wider choice of food you can eat.
Two Important Factors
When composing the perfect diet for you it is important that you consider two factors which are time and money.
It is unrealistic expecting a beginner to spend a lot of money on expensive supplements.
Also, people in general, do not have enough time to prepare 5 meals a day but then again no one said mass and muscle gaining is easy.

Your diet should have two principals. First, add to the number of meals you consume during the day. Second, increase the calories. This goes for calories in general as well as the calories you gain from protein.
This kind of diet should give you the wanted increase in muscle mass without disturbing your personal balance during the day.
Is Only Working Out Enough For Gaining Muscle And Mass?
The answer is NO. No matter how hard you train you will not gain any muscle mass if you spend more calories than you consume during the day.
Do not increase your daily intake of calories drastically. That would only result in gaining fat. Instead of that aim for 15-20 % more of what you usually have. You should get these calories mostly from protein and food rich in protein such as eggs, meat, and cheese.
If it is more convenient for you, you can use artificial proteins. Your daily intake of protein should be at least 2.5g on one kg of the body weight.
You should also pay attention to complex carbs like rice, potatoes and brown bread.
How Many Meals A Day?
Regarding the frequency of meals, everything gets a little bit complicated.
Actually, the more meals you can have during the day the better, but not everyone has the time to eat six or seven times a day.
Nevertheless, you should try and eat at least five times a day for multiple reasons.
One of the most important is that when you eat five times instead of three you will manage to consume more calories which is the main goal in this diet.

The second reason for more meals a day is very obvious and it is concerning the intake of protein. If you have only three meals a day your body won’t have a consistent flow of amino acids and with no amino acids no muscle growth.
When you are eating five to six times a day this flow is constant and regardless to say you will for sure have a higher protein intake. The third reason for having more meals is that more meals a day equals faster metabolism and that means more muscle.
How To Achieve It?
It is not as hard as it seems if you make a basic plan of what you will eat.
For example, breakfast could be:
- 100g of cereal
- 300ml of milk
- 3 eggs
Snack:
- one banana or an apple
- 30g of almonds of hazelnuts
- protein powder with milk
Lunch:
- 200-300g of chicken breasts
- one large potato
- salad with olive oil
Snack after workout:
- Protein shake
Dinner:
- 200-300g of steak
- 50-70 g of rice
- salad
Snack before bed:
- 200g of cheese
- 3 egg whites
- 30g of almond or hazelnuts
This is just an example of what you could eat but if you prefer brown bread instead of rice then you can eat bread. Maybe it would be more convenient for you to make a tuna sandwich instead of having chicken and rice.
If you do not have enough time to prepare the meals you can always use protein shakes and power bars as a snack. Sometimes in order to eat the number of calories, you planed you will have to improvise, otherwise, you will never make it.
If you are eating fast food go for roasted chicken breast with a salad, also if you are at a restaurant order some roasted meat with potatoes, rice, and salad.
Do not allow yourself to become a slave of preparing food. Make bigger amounts of food keep it in the fridge and simply heat it up when you plan to eat it. That also goes for the sandwiches, prepare a few at a time.
One last thing, about cheating when you are on a diet. Even professionals cheat when they are on a diet. But actually this is not a big deal especially when you are aiming to gain mass.
Couple of hundred calories from cake and chocolate from time to time cant harm you, it can only benefit you. So if you get that feeling that you absolutely can not live if you do not eat that piece of cake or a chocolate bar, go for it, just make sure you do not overdo it.