For those of you who have difficulty packing on serious muscle mass, the culprit may be your inability to eat enough. It’s simple math: Building muscle takes plenty of calories from protein, carbs and fat, and if you can’t consume enough, you won’t grow. This seems to be the downfall of a lot of younger guys, who burn way more calories than they take in. If this is you, good news – several supplements on the market today can help you increase your appetite and get more nutrients out of the food you eat. The following three products do just that, because the more you eat, the more you’ll grow.
Prunus Domestica
This may sound like some newly discovered herb, but it’s simply plum extract. Plum contains ingredients that stimulate the release of a hunger-boosting hormone known as a ghrelin, which signals the brain that you’re hungry and causes you to eat. By boosting levels of ghrelin, you can trick your body into thinking you’re hungry despite being well fed. What’s more, research shows that boosting ghrelin leads to higher levels of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), both of which are critical for stimulating muscle growth.
Choose: Take 1- 2 grams of prunus domestica before meals.
Ginger
Known scientifically as Zingiber officinale, ginger has been used for centuries to help relieve stomach problems such as lack of appetite, nausea, digestive spasms and indigestion. These are all problematic when trying to consume maximum food to gain muscle mass, so reducing these symptoms can help you eat more. In addition, ginger is also known to be a gastric expander – increasing the size your stomach expands to, which allows you to put down more quality protein, carbs and fat at each meal.
Choose: Go with about 150-250 mg of ginger before meals.
Digestive Enzymes
Not all proteins are used to build muscle; the majority actually provide specific functions within the body. One such function is to work as enzymes that catalyze chemical reactions. There are certain enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of proteins, and others that breakdown carbs and fats. Without adequate amounts of these enzymes, the food you eat won’t get completely broken down and you won’t get all the critical amino acids, sugar and fat for pushing muscle growth forward By supplementing with enzymes, you can breakdown more of the food you eat and get more nutrients out of each meal to build more muscle.
Choose: Take 250–500 mg of an enzyme supplement containing such enzymes as proteases, pepsin, lactase, amylase, lipase and pancreatin.
