"What is that in your bottle and what does it do?" We get asked this everyday when drinking our Xtend (BCAA, L-Glutamine and Citrulline Malate) during our workout. But how many times have you sat down at a restaurant and had people ask how that meal was going to benefit your workout tomorrow? Probably never.

We are here to tell you that it is not just the workout nutrition that fuels your training, but the many meals before training that enable you to get your pump on and attain the Holy Grail of Bodybuilding?Fat Loss and Lean Mass Gain!

In this article, Team Scivation will break down what it takes for your body type to get the results you need and exactly what to eat and what supplements to take. Keep reading to find out exactly what to eat to ensure that you get results!

Phenotypes
The term phenotype is defined as "The observable physical or biochemical characteristics of an organism, as determined by both genetic makeup and environmental influences." (Dictionary.com). One's body type/structure can be placed in three phenotypes:

Ectomorph: Naturally skinny, narrow bone structure, has a hard time gaining weight
Mesomorph: Naturally built, broad shoulders, can gain or lose weight relatively equally
Endomorph: Naturally heavy, wide bone structure, gains weight easily
There is a clear visible physical distinction between the three phenotypes, but what is not visible and often ignored is the biochemical and metabolic differences between the three phenotypes. Your phenotype will dictate the way you should structure your diet to gain lean mass. For example, mesomorphs and endomorphs need to eat less food than an ectomorph in order to gain weight.

In this article we will go over specific strategies people with each phenotype can use to prime their bodies for growth and optimize their performance for each and every workout, but first we will go over some basic diet principles that apply to everyone.

Insulin Control
Insulin is referred to as the "storage hormone" because its job is to activate transportation of nutrients (i.e. carbs and fat) into cells and to turn off the burning of nutrients.

When you eat carbs the pancreas secretes insulin, which signals cells to increase the uptake of glucose from the blood into them. During this time, fat burning is blunted. Therefore we want to control insulin levels to keep fat burning elevated. Keys to doing this are:

Eat 5-6 small meals per day: Large meals can create enormous an insulin spike, which can cause your body to store fat. Small meals create a much smaller, more controlled insulin release thus less fat storage and more fat loss.
Never skip a meal: We don't care if meal one was at the local buffet and you ate until you had to unbutton your pants. Do not skip your second meal! Keep the motor revving.
Eat good fat with every meal, especially carbohydrate meals.
Do not combine carbohydrates and protein alone, this elicits the highest insulin response. For example, a cup of oatmeal has a moderate insulin response but when you combine oatmeal with whey protein, you get a much higher response. If you do combine these, be sure to add a fat source.
Acidity Control
We are talking about controlling the acidity of your meals. Why is this important and how can it be accomplished?

Your body's pH level is slightly alkaline, with a normal range of 7.36 to 7.44. To maintain optimal health and results, you should attempt to keep your body in an alkaline state through diet.
An imbalanced diet high in acidic foods can make your body acidic. This can deplete the body of alkaline minerals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, making you more prone to serious health problems and potentially disrupting nutrient absorption.
Add fat to your meals! For example, when you eat a meal like oatmeal and egg whites, you are eating a very acidic meal. But when you put raisins and almonds in your oatmeal and have some steamed vegetables with it, you are lowering the acidity of that meal dramatically.
When you cannot add fat or vegetables to your meals, add two to five grams of L-Glutamine. This will lower the acidity of your meal to keep you in a more alkaline state.
What Are Some Alkaline Foods?
Vegetables
Asparagus
Artichokes
Cabbage
Lettuce
Onion
Cauliflower
Radish
Watercress
Spinach
Green Beans
Celery
Cucumber
Broccoli
Fruits
Grapefruit
Banana
Lemon
Tomato
Watermelon (neutral)
Nuts And Seeds
Almonds
Pumpkin
Sunflower
Sesame
Flax
Fats And Oils
Avocado
Hemp
Flax
Olive
Evening Primrose
Borage
Hydration Control
You should drink plenty of water everyday.
Try to drink at least eight glasses (or 64 oz.) of water per day.
Staying hydrated is a major key to growth.
If you are dehydrated you will not be able to perform in the gym. You will feel weak and sluggish and may even cramp up making it so you can't workout at all.
Staying hydrated should never be overlooked.
Quality Control
Choose fresh, wholesome foods over pre-packaged, processed foods.
Packaged foods are loaded with preservatives, especially sodium and saturated fats, and often have high amounts of sugars, such as high fructose corn syrup
You will be amazed at how fast you can lose fat just by packing meals from home rather than purchasing fast food or packaged foods. You also will save a lot of money!
Eat one to two fruit servings and three to five vegetable serving everyday.
Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
One serving of vegetables is one-half of a cup unless leafy. One serving of leafy vegetables is one cup.
Fruits and vegetables provide nutrient dense calories and healthy fiber.
Now that we have an understanding of some basic diet principles we will outline specific strategies ectomorphs, mesomorphs, and endomorphs can use to prime their bodies for growth and performance.

Ectomorphs
An ectomorph, often referred to as a "hard gainer", has a fast metabolism and needs more calories to maintain a given weight than a mesomorph or an endomorph. This elevated metabolism/increased need for calories could be due to a number of factors including resting metabolic rate (RMR), hormone levels (i.e. thyroid), insulin sensitivity, fat oxidation capacity, and the rate at which glycogen is oxidized.

Ectomorphs tend to burn through glucose (carbohydrates) very quickly. Because of this, ectomorphs will need to follow a high carbohydrate diet when trying to gain muscle.

The number one reason causing "hard gainers" not to gain weight is under eating. In most cases increasing your caloric intake will lead to weight gain. No one should ever say "I'm a hard gainer and that's that!" because in reality you just need to eat more.

It is possible for everyone to gain muscle no matter what their genetic predisposition may be, it just might be harder for some than others. Let's get into the diet strategies for ectomorphs to gain weight.

Simply put, you are going to have to eat a lot to grow! There is no way around that. The primary factor that determines whether you gain or lose weight is your caloric intake (how many calories you eat). If you eat more calories than you burn (hypercaloric diet) you will gain weight and if you burn more calories than you eat (hypocaloric diet) you will lose weight.

When you eat exactly the same amount of calories as you burn it is called a maintenance caloric diet. Ectomorphs trying to gain muscle need to eat a hypercaloric diet like anyone else who wants to gain weight.

A simple calculation to determine your maintenance caloric intake is to take your body weight and multiply it by 15; this gives you your total calories to be consumed each day. For example, a 200 pound person would consume 3,000 calories a day. Now this is a very basic way to determine your maintenance caloric intake.

A good starting point for ectomorphs is to set your calories to 500 calories over maintenance. Remember that you want to gain lean mass, not fat. It would be easy to gain weight by just eating junk food all day, but you would most likely gain a chunk of fat with the muscle you do gain. Instead I recommend eating good, nutrient dense foods. If you do not gain weight at 500 calories over maintenance then increase your calories more.

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