How Muscles Grow

• After heavy exercise damages your muscles, they are repaired by satellite cells, which surround the muscle fiber and fuse together. The satellite cells rely on the amino acids that make up protein. The resulting muscle is larger. By combining the right type of exercise with the right amount of nutrients, you can stimulate your body to gain muscle. The best way to build muscle is to do heavy resistance exercises and eat a healthy diet.
  
  

Determine the Right Amount of Protein

• For people who want to gain muscle, the health advisory committee at UCLA recommends a daily intake of 0.8g of protein for every pound of current body weight. Too much protein can lead to serious health problems, such as dehydration or even kidney failure. Too little protein and your body will not have the nutrients necessary for sustained muscle growth.
  
  

A Healthy Diet

• UCLA recommends a balanced, healthy diet. They say that this will provide all the protein your body needs. For example, you can follow the U.S. government's Food Pyramid, which offers a healthy, mixed diet that incorporates all the sources of nutrients that every body needs. Also, people hoping to gain muscle should be sure that 10 to 35 percent of their daily caloric intake is from healthy protein sources, such as lean meats, fish, chicken, eggs, nuts, soy, beans and nonfat dairy.
  
  

Animal and Plant Sources of Proteins

• Proteins are made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks used by the body to repair cells. Nutritionists split the amino acids we use into two groups: non-essential and essential. The body can produce non-essential amino acids on its own. But essential amino acids must come from our diet. Because animal proteins provide all the essential amino acids, nutritionists call them "complete." Plant protein sources (with the exception of soy) are called "incomplete" because they do not provide all of the essential amino acids. For this reason, it is important to vary your diet and incorporate as many healthy sources of proteins as possible, especially if you are a vegetarian.
  
  

Protein Supplements

• Your body needs protein to build muscle. But although some protein supplements market themselves as supplying surplus protein that the body can use to build more muscle than ever, this is untrue. Once you surpass the amount your body needs, the additional protein becomes useless and, in some cases, dangerous. UCLA recommends that people rely on healthy, natural protein sources, not protein supplements. In the event that you do need to add some protein to your diet with a powder, UCLA recommends adding nonfat dried milk powder, whey protein powder or soy protein powder. They recommend avoiding expensive, designer protein powder supplements.