Bodybuilding: Muscle Gain and Body Fat
If you're anything at all like most bodybuilders, your ultimate desire is a simple one: To have an impressive, muscular physique with razor-sharp definition and the envy of everyone around you. You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded.
You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded as well. Because of the strong desire for this "ideal body", most people eagerly dive into their programs headfirst. Everyone is motivated to bulk up, but at the same time are afraid of putting on excess body fat.
To significantly gain muscle - and to add as much of it to your frame in as swift a period of time as possible - there is always the fact that you'll inevitably gain some extra body fat to go with it.
Unfortunately, that is just the way the body works, and if you want to get bigger, you're going to have to accept the fact that body fat will come along with the muscle gain.
In order to gain muscle size, you must consume a surplus of calories in order to support protein synthesis. However, there is no way to divert 100% of this caloric surplus towards muscle growth. A certain amount of it will always end up as stored body fat.
You first goal is for the most dramatic gain in the shortest time. To that end it's always better to focus first on muscle gain over a set period of time, followed by another period of time concentrating on losing the unwanted body fat.
Based on what we've covered so far, the goal of a bulking phase is simple: build as much muscle size as possible while minimizing body fat gains. Your goal during a bulking phase is never to LOSE body fat; it's only to gain as little as possible.
This can be accomplished in 3 main ways:
1) Make sure that your caloric surplus is limited to a precise amount. Because this surplus is what fuels muscle growth, it's tempting to eat too much in the mistaken belief that this will help you gain muscle tissue, but actually the only thing you'll gain with haphazard eating is body fat.
The general rule of thumb for muscle gain is to take 15-20% more calories than you need to keep your weight. If you are already within this range, there's no need for you to add more.
2) Make good food choices. Most of your food intake should be in the form of high quality lean proteins, healthy/unsaturated fats and natural, high fiber carbohydrates.
Don't just eat anything and everything; make sure you're concentrating on proteins, especially lean proteins, and keep an eye on your blood sugar. Also, avoid all those saturated fats.
3) Implement cardio sessions. While you don't have to push yourself too hard, having a few cardio sessions during the week is a good way to minimize fat gains during a bulking cycle.
Keep these sessions no more than 10-20 minutes long, sticking to high intensity/low duration forms, as these kinds of session have the advantage of not causing the same amount of muscle loss as longer duration forms.
Once you've achieved the amount of muscle size that you want, a goal which is completely up to you as an individual, it's time to move into a fat loss cycle. In this way, you can focus on stripping off the excess body fat gained during the bulking cycle, while still maintaining muscle size.
Simply remember that while bulking up, gaining at least some body fat is unavoidable. With this in mind, the key to keeping body fat down is to minimize the gain rather than trying to avoid it altogether, which is impossible. Focusing first on bulking up and only then on fat loss is the way to gain muscle quickly and effectively. - 17268
You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded as well. Because of the strong desire for this "ideal body", most people eagerly dive into their programs headfirst. Everyone is motivated to bulk up, but at the same time are afraid of putting on excess body fat.
To significantly gain muscle - and to add as much of it to your frame in as swift a period of time as possible - there is always the fact that you'll inevitably gain some extra body fat to go with it.
Unfortunately, that is just the way the body works, and if you want to get bigger, you're going to have to accept the fact that body fat will come along with the muscle gain.
In order to gain muscle size, you must consume a surplus of calories in order to support protein synthesis. However, there is no way to divert 100% of this caloric surplus towards muscle growth. A certain amount of it will always end up as stored body fat.
You first goal is for the most dramatic gain in the shortest time. To that end it's always better to focus first on muscle gain over a set period of time, followed by another period of time concentrating on losing the unwanted body fat.
Based on what we've covered so far, the goal of a bulking phase is simple: build as much muscle size as possible while minimizing body fat gains. Your goal during a bulking phase is never to LOSE body fat; it's only to gain as little as possible.
This can be accomplished in 3 main ways:
1) Make sure that your caloric surplus is limited to a precise amount. Because this surplus is what fuels muscle growth, it's tempting to eat too much in the mistaken belief that this will help you gain muscle tissue, but actually the only thing you'll gain with haphazard eating is body fat.
The general rule of thumb for muscle gain is to take 15-20% more calories than you need to keep your weight. If you are already within this range, there's no need for you to add more.
2) Make good food choices. Most of your food intake should be in the form of high quality lean proteins, healthy/unsaturated fats and natural, high fiber carbohydrates.
Don't just eat anything and everything; make sure you're concentrating on proteins, especially lean proteins, and keep an eye on your blood sugar. Also, avoid all those saturated fats.
3) Implement cardio sessions. While you don't have to push yourself too hard, having a few cardio sessions during the week is a good way to minimize fat gains during a bulking cycle.
Keep these sessions no more than 10-20 minutes long, sticking to high intensity/low duration forms, as these kinds of session have the advantage of not causing the same amount of muscle loss as longer duration forms.
Once you've achieved the amount of muscle size that you want, a goal which is completely up to you as an individual, it's time to move into a fat loss cycle. In this way, you can focus on stripping off the excess body fat gained during the bulking cycle, while still maintaining muscle size.
Simply remember that while bulking up, gaining at least some body fat is unavoidable. With this in mind, the key to keeping body fat down is to minimize the gain rather than trying to avoid it altogether, which is impossible. Focusing first on bulking up and only then on fat loss is the way to gain muscle quickly and effectively. - 17268
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