One of the biggest myths for people looking to gain muscle is that they need to spend a lot of money on a fancy gym membership and lots of supplements. The truth is plenty of muscle can be built on a tight budget with the proper mix of exercise, diet and rest.

In order to build muscle you must get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. This means that if you weigh 145 pounds then you must make sure that you put a minimum of 145 grams of protein into your muscle building diet and nutrition plan. The good news for people trying to build muscle on a budget is that there are plenty of low cost sources of protein.

Whole Eggs have 7 grams of protein per large egg. Remember when trying to build muscle you must eat the whole egg including the yolk. The yolk by itself contains half the protein of the egg and since dietary cholesterol isn't connected with blood cholesterol it is okay to include eggs into your diet and nutrition plan. Eggs can cost as low as fifteen cents per egg.

A great low cost recipe for eggs in the morning is to cook three eggs over easy in a pan using non-fat cooking spray instead of butter. Place a couple of slices of beef steak tomato on a plate. Cover the tomato slices with some low-fat sour cream, place the three eggs over the tomatoes and top with low fat or non fat cheddar cheese. Serve with a slice of whole wheat toast on the side. This makes a great start to any day or a great snack at night. This meal alone will give you about 25 grams of protein and cost as little as $1.50 to make.

Canned tuna is also a great source of protein for budget-minded diet and nutrition plans. One can of tuna packs 40 grams of protein per can. Tuna can either be eaten alone or made into a tasty salad. A great thing to do with tuna is to add half tablespoon of light mayonnaise, two dill pickles cut into tiny pieces and salt and pepper to taste. After putting all the ingredients together you can serve it is many different ways depending on your carb needs. Tuna is great on whole wheat bread, as a salad topping or as a dip for whole grain crackers.

Ground turkey is another excellent source of protein for muscle building plans on a budget. An ounce of ground turkey has only 4 grams of fat and 8 grams of protein per ounce. An average meal made from ground turkey will be about four or five ounces meaning the protein consumed will be around 40 grams of protein per meal just for turkey. A pound of turkey often can be found for the low cost of $2.59 per pound or less.

There are hundreds of great recipes for ground turkey that will fit into any diet and nutrition plan for muscle building on a budget. Just think of ground turkey as you would ground beef. Anything ground beef can do ground turkey can do better and for those people looking to keep the fat off ground turkey has much less fat that ground beef. My favorite thing to do is add a pack of taco seasoning to the ground turkey and to make the taco turkey meat into burger patties. After cooking the taco turkey burgers they can be served with non-fat or low fat cheese, some salsa and a dollop of low-fat sour cream as toppings.

These are just three choices to include in your diet and nutrition plan when you are trying to pack on muscle with very little cost. Other choices are available, but these three are the least expensive of most options.