Meanwhile, people who are trying to build serious muscle tell you to eat every couple of hours while also doing intermittent fasting.

But what are you actually supposed to eat if you want to stay healthy? What about if you are trying to build your muscles?

The first thing to remember is to eat unprocessed foods as much as possible. Unprocessed foods are natural and haven't been changed from how they were when they grew. To understand this better, look at the difference between eating an apple and eating apple jam. An apple can be picked off of an apple tree and eaten right away without being changed in any way. However, if you choose to eat apple jam, you are eating apples along with a host of other ingredients including sugar and preservatives.

When you stick to eating unprocessed foods, you won't be subject to consuming hidden calories or ingredients. This means you should avoid foods like fruit bars, cereals, frozen meals, bakery items, bacon, candy, and other foods like that.

Eating unprocessed foods is the first way to get your body in a healthy shape and ready to build muscle. The next thing you have to do is focus on your protein consumption.

Protein is important for building muscle because it helps ensure proper recovery of your muscles so you can make progress. Eating protein also helps you lose fat because it helps keep you full throughout the day so you eat less food. However, you might not need as much protein as you think. You only need .82 grams of protein for every pound of body weight that you have to build extra muscle.

The best way to consume protein is to eat whole protein sources with every meal, which can be things like milk, cheese, fish, chicken, yogurt, or eggs.

In addition to protein, you want to eat vegetables with every meal as well. Vegetables are low in calories and some actually make your body burn more calories to digest them than you gain when eating them. Try to have at least half of your plate full of vegetables. This will help you get the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs to stay healthy and build muscles. Not only do vegetables have vitamins and minerals that will help your body recover after lifting, they also contain fiber that will aid in digestion.

Also, by eating at least half a plate of vegetables with every meal, you will limit the amount of bad or unhealthy food that you consume. Some of the healthiest vegetables to eat if you are trying to build muscle are spinach, broccoli, kale, and cabbage.

You also want to include healthy fats in your diet. Because you’re probably lifting heavy weights about three times each week and mostly eating unprocessed foods, eating a little saturated fat will not lead to heart disease.

Foods like avocados and full fat yogurt and even olive oil contain healthy omega-3 fatty acids that your body needs to recover and help you build muscle. You should also turn to fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and tuna.

Finally, you have to include a lot of water in your diet. You sweat when you work out and you need to replenish those fluids in order to be able to have proper muscle recovery.

Dehydration leads to headaches, which make it more difficult to get up and go to the gym to train. The amount of water that you should be drinking depends on how much you are working out and how much you sweat.

Don't turn to sports drinks to hydrate you, stick to regular water. Monitor your body and get ahead of your thirst by drinking before you feel thirsty so your body is never deprived of water.

The diet you want to follow to build muscle is similar to a diet to maintain a healthy body, with just a bit more food than you normally would if you were not hitting the gym so hard. The important thing is to stay hydrated and make sure that you are eating the freshest foods available to you.