How to build midlife strength and muscles by changing what you eat

From keeping your immune system ‘young’ to protecting your heart and brain, strength training is just about the best thing you can do, fitness-wise, in midlife. And the good news is tweaking your meals can also help you lay down more lean midlife muscle (remember: we begin to lose muscle mass in our 30s, which leads to a slower metabolism, greater weakness and less mobility).

Unlike dieting for fat loss, where your primary concern is exactly how much you put in your body, your main concern when you’re eating for strength should be recovery. You get stronger as your body repairs itself from strength workouts, and so helping it along with the right sorts of food is one of the most important parts of the process. 

The way you eat to do this doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be something you aim to sustain over the long term, rather than trying out for a couple of weeks. That means focusing on principles over fad diets.

If you're looking to know how to feed those midlife muscles, read our body building hacks below.

Top tips for bulking

Eat protein at every meal

Exactly how much protein you should eat is a hotly-contested issue: ultra-focused gym-goers will point to studies suggesting that as much as 2g per kg of your own body weight every day is ideal for maximum muscle. It’s unlikely you need this much, but the NHS recommends at least 50g a day, and more won’t hurt if you’re aiming to lay down more muscle. 

A simple rule is to aim to include at least 15g of protein in every meal: this might mean switching your morning cereal for a couple of boiled eggs, switching your lunchtime sandwich to a tuna salad, or having some Greek yoghurt if your dinner was a pasta-only affair.

Don’t cut out carbs

They’ve been demonised as a source of weight gain, but carbs aid recovery (and, if you’re looking for it, muscle), so cutting them out entirely is likely to leave you sluggish and unmotivated over the long term. Rather than ditching them, rethink the kind you eat: highly processed or refined carbs, like the ones found in cereal, cakes and most snack foods, are easy to overeat and likely to spike your insulin, leaving you hungry. Where you can, switch them for complex carbs like the ones found in vegetables, wholegrains and legumes. 

Fuel up with good fat

Fat doesn’t have the bad reputation it once did – a chunk of your daily calories should come from fats in order to maintain hormone levels, while healthy fats lower inflammation within the body, improve your immune system, and boost health in general. Aim to get the good kind, from sources including nuts, olive oil, fish and (yes) avocado. 

Drink (a bit) less

You might have heard that alcohol is less than ideal for building muscle, but it’s worth understanding why before addressing your own intake. At least one study suggests that alcohol lowers the production of testosterone (in men, at least), while another shows that a bout of binge-drinking after a heavy resistance workout reduced protein synthesis, which is what builds muscle. 

However, both studies gave their test subjects what you might call an excessive amount of booze – and so, unless you’re extremely serious about packing on muscle or regularly sinking more than six drinks in an evening, it’s unlikely that you’re ruining any strength gains. However, alcohol has plenty of other negative effects and so cutting back is sensible. Aim to keep it under the NHS-recommended limits, and have at least two consecutive no-booze nights a week. 

Rethink your sugar intake

There’s no need to be puritanical about sugar if you’re training for strength, but there’s no real benefit to loading up on it either. For general health it makes sense to cut back: switch sweet treats for fruit where you can, and keep unhealthy snacks out of sight to reduce temptation. 

Stay hydrated

Dehydration leads to poor focus and lack of motivation, whereas proper hydration keeps all of your body’s key processes in line, allowing every metabolic function within the body to occur normally. You’ll get some hydration from hot drinks and food, but you should still aim to top up with water regularly – a (manageable) rule is a big glass when you wake up, and another one with every meal. 

Don’t worry too much about timing

Nutrient timing – when to eat to get the most benefit from your workouts – is still a hotly contested topic in the fitness world, but the digestible version is, unless you’re extremely focused on sculpting yourself into underwear-model shape, you don’t need to worry about it too much. The idea of the ‘protein window’ – the narrow sliver of time you had to get a hit of the good stuff after a workout before your gains were ruined – has been mostly debunked, so there’s no need to rush to get a shake after your workout. Similarly, there’s no real need to load up on nutrition ahead of a workout, though you might feel a bit sluggish if you strength-train on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. 

Learn to cook

The advice to ‘eat real food’ might seem glib, but it’s one of the best things you can do for your health. By eating fewer processed foods and more complete protein sources and vegetables, you’ll gain a host of health benefits that aren’t related to strength. Aim to expand your culinary repertoire just a bit – even if that means learning to make a better omelette – and you’ll never look back. 

This article is kept updated with the latest information.

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