After you’ve put yourself on a good muscle building program, the next step is designing a diet that is going to get you adding pure muscle mass to your body.

This is usually the area people tend to struggle with the most, not necessarily for lack of effort, but because for some, it really can be quite hard to gain muscle weight.

Are you one of these people? Let me ask you this question. Have you stuffed yourself for days on end to only find out at the end of the week that the number on the scale has gone down? Frustrating, isn’t it? The reality of the fact is that for some guys, it is hard to gain weight. They try, and try, and try. Nothing happens.

It’s not that you aren’t giving it your all – you are, it’s just that it seems like your body is working against you.

Take comfort in knowing you aren’t alone. There are plenty of people who have this problem, BUT if you are smart with how you go about creating your diet, you can overcome your body and finally get that muscle mass you have been trying to gain for what seems like decades.

Here are the top muscle building foods you should be consuming on a daily basis.

-Steak

-Nuts

-Nut butter such as peanut butter, almond butter, or chocolate flavored hazelnut spread

-cottage cheese

-bagels

-pasta

-low-sugar granola cereal

-flax seeds/flax seed oil

-chicken breasts

-trail mix

-dried fruit

-dry oatmeal (eaten like regular cereal)

-whole eggs (include those yolk – three or four yolks per day, when trying to gain muscle can actually help to increase your testosterone production!)

-sweet potatoes

Here are the top foods you want to avoid. Not because they are not necessarily healthy, just because they will fill you up too fast and won’t give you enough total calories. Keep amounts to a minimum – just enough to give you the nutrients you need.

-lots of vegetables (while some vegetables should be eaten for nutrients, avoid large quantities)

-puffed rice cereal

-cooked oatmeal (again, a healthy choice, but if you eat it raw, you’ll get twice as many calories!)

-egg whites

-watermelon

-sugary candies (while calorie dense, these are empty calories and will send your insulin levels too

high – which encourages fat storage)

-low-fat products

-rice chips/crackers

-popcorn

So, have a look at your current diet and see how it stacks up. You should be aiming to eat every 2-3 hours if you are the type of person whose metabolism is running at an incredibly fast pace and as such, cannot seem to gain weight.

Remember, as long as you consume more calories each day then you burn off, you will gain weight.

When you couple this calorie surplus with a smart weight lifting program, you will gain muscle mass.