Protein often gets all the credit when it comes to making gains, but fat is an important part of muscle growth, too.e. Eating healthy fats is important for absorbing essential vitamins and producing energy and hormones necessary for muscle growth. How Does Fat Help Build Muscle? Dietary fat protects cell membranes, the vital exterior of every cell, and sheaths surrounding nerves, per Harvard Health Publishing. It's also essential for muscle movement, blood clotting and inflammatory response, which helps the body repair from injury after training. Testosterone, a hormone that helps build muscle, naturally declines with age, Titan Rise per the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. And following a low-fat diet can decrease testosterone levels, making it harder to gain muscle. People AMAB who followed a low-fat diet had an average of 63 percent less testosterone than men who followed a higher fat diet, per a March 2021 meta-analysis in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Vitamin A: This nutrient is well-known for its vision-related benefits, but it's also particularly important as an antioxidant, especially during endurance training, per the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Vitamin D: You need fat-soluble vitamin D for normal muscle function - low vitamin D levels are associated with the risk of falls and muscle instability, according to a June 2018 Bone Reports study. Vitamin E: This vitamin can prevent muscle atrophy and promote muscle regeneration, per a July 2014 study in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, where researchers found that a vitamin E deficiency inhibits healing. This is important because muscle cells get membrane tears just from being used, and part of how muscle is built is from the natural tearing and repair process. Vitamin K: Athletes use vitamin K to help recover and strengthen muscles. But without fat in the diet to help its absorption, they may not get the benefits of vitamin K, even in supplemental form. A small July 2017 study in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine linked vitamin K2 to helping restore mitochondrial function and increasing the function of skeletal and cardiac muscle. If gaining muscle is your goal, getting around 15 to 20 percent of your calories from fat is ideal, according to a May 2014 report in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

So if you eat a 2,000-calorie diet, aim for 33 to 44 grams of fat per day. Fat is not all created equal and some are better than others when it comes to muscle building. Although most foods contain a combination of different types of fat, fatty acids are primarily divided into unsaturated, saturated and trans fats. Unsaturated fat is the healthiest type of fat - it's the kind of fat mostly found in plant-based foods and oils as well as fatty fish. Foods containing mostly mono- and polyunsaturated fats can improve blood cholesterol levels, which can reduce your risk of heart attacks and Titan Rise Nutrition type 2 diabetes, according to the Makey"

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