What is the most anabolic food I can eat?

Flex, August, 2009 by Jim Stoppani

When it comes to keeping your muscles full, nothing beats lean beef, because of the many ways it works to build and keep muscle. First, the cholesterol in red meat drives testosterone, keeping your body in an anabolic state. If you cut out red meat for too long, you'll become weak and lethargic. It also has zinc, which further supports testosterone production.

Beef is a slower-digesting source of protein, which gives you a positive nitrogen balance and a steady trickle of amino acids into your blood. I often recommend that guys eat beef at night--instead of getting up to eat, so that their muscles are getting fed while they snooze.

It's also a natural, efficient, slow-acting source of creatine, which helps keep you stronger through heavy training, meaning you'll be more likely to hold on to that muscle. Your focus should be on 4%-6% fat ground beef or lean cuts, such as top round, bottom round and sirloin. In the offseason, spend a little more and have filet mignon.

Phil Heath is a great example of the benefits of lean red meat. In his offseason, we have him taking in three or four red-meat meals per day. That's the only way he's able to keep the weight on. If he stops eating those red-meat meals, he'll drop 10 pounds in a couple of weeks, easy.

This month, we pick the brain of the man who helps Phil Heath be Phil Heath, trainer Hany Rambod

For more tips from Hany, go to hanyrambod.com.

Edited by JIM STOPPANI, PHD