The Top Ten Low-Budget, Muscle-Building Foods

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2. Ground Beef (and a tip to make it leaner)
It's not as pretty as a nice steak, but ground beef certainly gets the job done when it comes to building muscle on the cheap. It has 6-7 grams of protein per raw ounce, fat content that varies depending on the leanness, and a price that is sometimes lower than two dollars per pound.

For those worried about the saturated fat content, here is a trick to make fatty beef much leaner. Brown the meat and dump it into a colander in the sink. You can eliminate some of the grease in this first step by pouring it out elsewhere. After you have done this, turn on the faucet and run water over the beef for a few minutes. Toss and turn the beef within the colander while the water runs over it to cause the fat to strain out. Finally, if you want to eliminate a little bit more fat, lay out paper towels on your counter and pour the beef onto them. The towels will soak up what little grease is left from the straining process, giving you much leaner beef than what you started with.

3. Whole Milk

Dairy products often get a bad rap in muscle-building discussions, but whole milk has long been a standby weight-gaining food for bodybuilders. It has 8-9 grams each of protein and fat per cup, and the price is usually around three dollars per gallon (16 cups). This is an especially good food for skinny guys that have trouble bulking up.