December 12, 2019

The best way to build muscle without getting fat

Der beste Weg Muskeln aufzubauen ohne fett zu werden

If you want to gain more than just weight and are interested in how you can build muscle without putting on body fat, then this could be just the article for you.

4,500 kcal - every damn day.

I wanted to build muscle and this was exactly what a bodybuilding magazine told me to eat.

To make a long story short - it didn't work well. I quickly learned how uncomfortable it is to (fr-)eat like a barnstormer and even though I was certainly gaining weight, it was hard to tell how much of it was fat.

All I saw in the mirror was more and fat around my midsection, which made me question the old bodybuilding adage "eat big to get big".

Bulky maybe - but also a mass of fat...

Many years have passed since then and today I am older, wiser and much fitter - and I have understood how muscle growth is linked to calorie intake and fat gain. Here's my conclusion: you can build muscle while minimizing your fat gains - and more importantly, you should do just that.

As you'll see shortly, the traditional method of building mass is not only exhausting, but also counterproductive. Ultimately, you'll build muscle more efficiently in the long run if you focus on making low-fat gains rather than simply stuffing yourself with everything you can eat.

This article will show you why and how you should do this. Let's get started.

Do you have to "eat a lot to get muscular"?

"If you're not building muscle fast enough, start by drinking a gallon (about four liters) of milk every day." You often read this in bodybuilding magazines, but I've never tried it because my digestion would run amok with that much milk.

The idea behind this approach is simple:

If you're not building muscle, then you're probably not eating enough
If you're not eating enough, then a gallon of milk a day (which is about 2,400 extra kcal) will take care of that problem

This misguided strategy has its heart in the right place, but can't see the forest for the trees. In reality, depending on various things including your appetite, the amount of food you really need to effectively build muscle may not feel like very much.

In other words, you don't necessarily need to eat a lot to build muscle - you just need to eat enough. You may be wondering how much is "enough". To find the answer to this question, we need to take a look at how calorie intake affects muscle growth.

How does calorie intake affect muscle growth?

Please note that I'm talking about how calorie intake affects muscle growth - not protein intake. Yes, you need to consume enough protein, which should not be news to anyone trying to build muscle, but many people don't realize that you also need adequate amounts of calories.

Your body burns a certain amount of energy every day, which is measured in kcal (one kcal is the amount of energy it takes to heat 1 kilo of water at 1 degree Celsius atmospheric pressure). This amount of energy or calories is also referred to as the total energy expenditure over the course of a day.

If you supply your body with less energy through food than it consumes, you will generate an energy (or calorie) deficit, which will lead to weight loss over time. Such an energy deficit will also reduce your body's ability to build muscle protein, which will slow or stop your muscle growth (1).

The physiology underlying all of this is quite complex (2), but to make a long story short, when you restrict the body's energy supply, it goes into an energy saving mode where certain bodily functions are prioritized over others.

Building larger muscles is not essential for survival and requires some energy, which is why muscle building is quite low on this priority list. In addition, a calorie deficit can reduce levels of anabolic (muscle-building) hormones and increase levels of catabolic (muscle-degrading) hormones (3, 4), which can cause a shift from muscle building to muscle loss.

And this is precisely the reason why it is commonly believed that you cannot build muscle and lose fat at the same time (which is not entirely true, as we will soon see).

This is also the reason why women can lose their periods if they reduce their calorie intake too much while dieting (5). In a state of energy deficit, their body can neglect the non-essential and energy-intensive process of menstruation.

So if we want to build muscle as quickly as possible, what do we need to ensure in terms of our calorie intake? That's right, we need to make sure we are not in a calorie deficit, which is independent of our other nutritional protocol.

Whether you're following an intermittent fasting lifestyle, cyclical carbohydrate intake, flexible dieting or whatever, if you're in a calorie deficit most of the time, you're going to struggle to build muscle.

What does this mean in terms of actual calorie intake? You're about to find out.

How many calories do you need to eat to build muscle?

What's the easiest way to make sure you're eating more calories than you're burning each day? Stuffing truckloads of food into you, right?

Well, that's what many mass-building programs recommend. After all, it's virtually impossible to be in a calorie deficit when you're stuffing over 4000 kcal into yourself every day. In this respect, such enormous overeating can help you build muscle...at least for a while. However, this approach has fundamental problems...

A large calorie surplus is no better for building muscle than a small calorie surplus, but will result in far more fat gain

Eating 30% more energy than you consume is no better for building muscle than simply eating 10% more calories, although you will build significantly more fat with the larger calorie surplus.

And if you build up too much fat too quickly, this will do far more than just ruin your well-toned appearance....

Building up too much fat accelerates fat storage and can even slow down muscle building

The fatter you are, the easier it is to get fatter and stay fat. There are several reasons for this:

As body fat percentage increases, insulin sensitivity decreases (6). Insulin is a hormone that transports nutrients into the body's cells. When the body becomes resistant to insulin's signals, its ability to burn fat decreases (7), the likelihood of weight gain increases (8) and protein synthesis is suppressed (9).

The bottom line is that the better your body responds to insulin signals, the better it can do many things. This includes building muscle and preventing an increase in body fat.

In addition, as body fat levels increase, testosterone levels decrease while estrogen levels increase (10). Testosterone is the key driver of muscle growth (11), while high estrogen levels promote fat storage (12), which should make the disadvantages of this scenario quite clear.

As you can see, excessive fat storage during mass gain is a triple whammy of failure:

It hinders muscle growth
It accelerates further fat storage
It makes it even harder to lose the excess fat after the bulking phase

Unfortunately, the disadvantages of a "dirty" mass-building phase lead many exercisers to throw the baby out with the bathwater and shy away from any calorie surplus. This is also a mistake, as calorie surplus is an effective tool for maximizing and optimizing muscle gain.

You just need to approach it the right way:

1. maintain a moderate calorie surplus in the 5 to 10% range during the bulking phase

This should allow you to gain 0.5 to 1 pound per week, which should be your goal if you are a man. Women should aim for about half of this.

If you have just started training with weights, then you can easily double these numbers during the first few months of training, but after that they should settle into the above range.

2. don't ruin this with huge cheat meals or cheat days

One of the biggest mistakes I see many exercisers make during the bulking phase is massive overeating. A few really excessive days per week during the mass building phase is enough to double or triple your rate of fat gain.

3. if you are a man and have a body fat percentage of over 15%, reduce this to around 10% before mass building. If you are a woman and have a body fat percentage of over 25%, then reduce this to around 20% before mass building.

This is ideal for several reasons:

- It maintains insulin sensitivity and hormonal balance
- It allows you to maintain a calorie surplus for many months before you need to reduce your body fat
- It saves you from long and grueling diets

4. end the build-up phase and start reducing body fat when you reach a body fat percentage of 15 to 17% as a man or 25 to 27% as a woman

You should not try to lose fat slowly. Instead, do everything you can to lose fat as quickly as possible in a safe and healthy way.

5. juggle your bulking and dieting phases in this way until you have built up the amount of muscle mass you want to achieve

If you are like most people, you will eventually reach a point where you are satisfied with your overall muscle mass and development.

At this point, the goal is to get lean and stay lean while training hard and addressing the weak points in your development. A cyclical calorie intake works very well for this.

What you should do if you're not gaining weight

I mentioned above that the goal during the bulking phase should be to gain 0.5 to 1 pound per week. But what should you do if you are gaining less weight or not gaining weight at all?

Assuming you are following an effective training program and getting enough rest and recovery, the solution to this problem is quite simple:

Eat more

If you are building strength but not gaining weight and muscle, then you are simply not eating enough. By increasing your calorie intake slightly, you will bring it into the range that is ideal for your body when it comes to building muscle.

Of course, you shouldn't just arbitrarily increase your calorie intake. Here's a better approach:

1. keep your protein intake in the range of 2 to 2.5 grams per kilogram of body weight

There is no need to increase your protein intake further.

2. increase your daily calorie intake by 100 to 150 kcal by increasing your carbohydrate intake

In other words, this means that you should consume an additional 25 to 35 grams of carbohydrates every day.

3. repeat step 2 if your weight is still the same as before after 7 to 10 days

Keep doing this until you are gaining weight at the desired rate.

I should note in this context that some people need to eat very large amounts of food to gain weight steadily. I'm talking about guys or men who weigh 70 kilos and need 4000 kcal or more per day to gain half a pound of weight per week. These people are also known as hardgainers.

In this case, it is not effective to achieve the necessary calorie intake by increasing carbohydrate intake alone. In such cases, I recommend limiting your carbohydrate intake to 6 to 7 grams per kilogram of body weight and starting to increase your fat intake instead.

What about building muscle and losing fat at the same time?

Build muscle and lose fat...at the same time. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Why shouldn't we be able to do this? Well, some say this is wasted effort, while others say you need to follow "special" forms of exercise and diet to do this. Still others say that this is only possible with steroids.

Ultimately, they are all wrong.

Building muscle and losing body fat at the same time - also known as body recomposition - is not out of reach even for natural exercisers. It is possible, it does not require esoteric knowledge or any pharmaceuticals.

However, there is a catch. Whether you are able to do this depends on your body composition, your training experience and other factors.

To make a long story short, let me say this:

If you've just started training and are training intensely, then this will probably be possible.
If you are an experienced natural exerciser who has already built up a significant amount of muscle, then this is unlikely to happen.

Conclusion

The method of rampant mass gain followed by a diet phase, which is often recommended, does not work - or at least is anything but optimal.

The whole thing works as follows:

Eat like a barnstormer and build up some muscle mass and lots of fat.
Diet and (hopefully) lose all the fat - and probably all the muscle you've built up.

Ultimately, you'll end up back where you started.

But it doesn't have to end like this. Follow what you've learned in this article and you'll have a completely different experience. You will build a significant amount of muscle with minimal fat gain and you will lose nothing (or almost nothing) but fat when you diet.

So after each cycle of building and dieting you will be a little more muscular, leaner and stronger than before. Repeat this often enough and you will achieve the body of your dreams.

References:

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/the-best-way-to-gain-muscle-not-fat/

By Michael Matthews

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