What Foods to Eat and Avoid to Burn Fat and Gain Muscle?

Certain foods work better than others when it comes to burning fat and gaining muscle. Here is an in-depth look on the various foods that may or may not help you with achieving your muscle growth and fat loss goals.

Carbohydrate Sources
Processed breakfast cereals are never a good idea. Even flavored oatmeal is not that healthy due to its high sugar content. You are better off going with instant oats and flavoring them with artificial sweetener and fruit, or even better, just fruit. Barley cereal is also a very healthy choice of breakfast food.

The great thing about a healthy breakfast cereal is that it will be rich in complex carbohydrates. These are the long-lasting carbs that leave the body with a constant flow of energy. They are not immediately converted into fat. Not only that, but they help with reducing hunger and cravings throughout the morning - an accomplishment that many really need to make when trying to lose a lot of weight.
Some other healthy sources of carbohydrates include whole grain and whole wheat breads, rice, and green, leafy vegetables.

Fat Sources
Fat intake is important, but it's something that many people mess up. Fatty steaks and pork chops are not the way to go. Healthy fats can be consumed through eggs, fish, skim milk, low-fat cheese, almonds, walnuts, and other healthy nuts, and organic peanut butter.
Make sure to avoid getting any fat through junk food, processed meals, and pastries, and switch from margarine to butter or cooking oil!

Protein Sources
Protein is usually a nutrient that is hard to mess up - most sources of protein are good. However, one important thing to note is to avoid breaded meat like the plague! Breaded meat is full of unnecessary carbohydrates and it takes up calories that could have been used in a much more efficient way.
Some examples of great sources of protein include fish, lean meat, non-fat mozzarella, natural soy beans, eggs, yogurt, nuts, and seeds.

What's In Your Diet?
Ask yourself that question.
Now answer it.
Think about the nutritional values for each of the foods that you listed. If you have to, go to the cupboards and actually read them. Are they all quality sources of their high-numbered nutrients or are they just full of unhealthy nutrients?

It's easy to make a list of which foods are healthy and will help you with gaining muscle and losing weight. But the truth is that both of these come down to what your entire diet consists of - you can't lose weight if you're eating 5,000 calories a day and you can't put on muscle if you only get trace amounts of protein each day either.

Re-assess your diet and then begin adding in some of the healthier sources of nutrients in place of the foods that you were previously using, which shouldn't have been a part of your diet in the first place.

Robin Reichert is an AFPA certified personal trainer, NASM youth exercise specialist, Beachbody coach and freelance writer specializing in health and fitness. She has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Science in natural health. Her services include both in-home personal training and online fitness coaching. To find out more about the Beachbody coaching business or some of Beachbody's most popular fitness programs, such as P90X or Insanity, you can visit her blog and/or website at http://www.robinsonestopfitness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robin_Reichert