Lean Bulking: 5 Ways to Gain Muscle Without Getting Fat

Winter is my favorite time of year. Why?

Because it's bulking season. You know – eat, lift, eat.

Guys love bulking season, but most make the same huge mistake (no pun intended).

What's the mistake? They become fat.

In their attempts to gain muscle, they eat everything in sight which leads to excessive fat gain. You cannot force-feed muscles to grow. It does not work that way.

So, after the typical 6 months of bulking, they need to diet for 6 months to lose all that fat they gained. During those 6 months of dieting, they lose most of the muscle they gained–if not more.

Back to square one.

So, what's the solution to building muscle without getting fat?

Well, I came up with 5 of them.

Implement one or all of them at once.

5 Ways to Gain Muscle Without Getting Fat

1 – High/Low caloric intake days

I love this strategy. It's simple. It works.

The idea is to eat a high amount of calories on your weight training days and a low amount of calories on your non-weight training days.

Your body needs more calories for energy and muscle building when you train.

I would recommend consuming 500 calories over your maintenance on your high days and consuming your maintenance on your off days.

This strategy will help you keep the fat gain at bay.

2 – Get lean first prior to starting your bulk phase

Yea, yea, yea, I know you want to get big.

But, you gotta listen–the leaner you are, the more likely your body will add muscle versus fat.

Conversely, the fatter you are, the easier it is for your body to gain fat.

If you are a man, get under 10% body fat before you start bulking and never ever let yourself get above 20%.

If you are a woman, get under 20% body fat before you start bulking and never ever let yourself get above 30%.

3 – Cyclical Bulking

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You bulk for 3-6 months, get fat, then cut for 3-6 months and you end up looking the same as you did when you originally started 6-12 months ago.

This is known as “traditional bulking.”

I don't know about you, but the hardest part for me is psychologically having to cut for 3-6 months.

That sucks.

I had to do it when I competed in my bodybuilding contest.

It's a long time to be miserable.

I've got a better idea–cyclical bulking.

Focus on building muscle for 4-8 weeks then follow that with a short cutting phase of 1-2 weeks.

Each bulking cycle will leave you with a little fat to burn off in those 1-2 cutting weeks.

Shorter cutting weeks leads to less muscle loss.

Plus it's easier psychologically to only have to diet 1-2 weeks at a time versus 3-6 months.

4 – Consume the majority of your daily carbs around your weight training sessions.

You can stick to the traditional 3-6 month bulking phase if you want. Try consuming the majority of your carbs immediately after your weight training sessions.

Your body craves carbs post-workout. Carbs will be stored as glycogen which is a source of energy for your muscles. Your body will not store carbs as fat post-workout.

Carbs are beneficial post-workout. This is the only time I recommend consuming simple sugars as well.

Implementing this eating strategy will help you pack on muscle without getting fat.

5 – Perform your damn cardio

I fall victim to neglecting my cardio during bulking season. I mistakenly think that cardio will “burn up my muscle,” or something ridiculous like that.

Let's say you burn about 700 calories a week performing cardio. That's not a lot. Probably like 3 moderately intense 30 minute sessions. That adds up to about 3,500 calories a month or 1 pound.

That's 1 pound of fat less that you do not have to diet off once you start your cutting phase.

So, if your bulking phase is 6 months, you will start your cutting phase with 6 pounds of less fat than you normally would have had you neglected your cardio sessions.

So, do your cardio when bulking.

Ok, so forget about traditional bulking. It's dead. You need to start bulking smarter. Think about gaining muscle while minimizing fat gain.

You'll thank me when summer rolls around and all the fat guys are sweatin' bullets because they have to drop all that fat that accumulated during their dirty bulking phase.

You, on the other hand, will be able to coast to single-digit body fat.

5 Quick and Easy Lunch Ideas

Lunch may be your most important meal

by Brian St. Pierre, CSCS, CISSN

Lunch is definitely one of those meals where people often have the best intentions, but things often go awry.

If you don’t prep and pack your lunch in the morning for the day, and instead, rely on your ability to make good decisions when you are starving and faced with multiple opportunities to stray from your usual intake, you are in trouble.

While some people do have an iron will, resist the temptation and make good choices, that is not most of us! This is where packing your own delicious and healthy lunch can come in and prevent that from ever being an issue in the first place.

Since time is always an issue, here are 5 quick lunch recipes that you can make in 10 minutes or less before you head off to work and take with you.

One quick note is that many of these recipes call for pre-cooked chicken breasts, as this can be a HUGE timesaver.

In a large Pyrex dish, cook chicken breasts that have been cut in half (so they are half as thick) or chopped at about 350°F for approximately 20 minutes, or until done. To retain moisture, cover dish with tin foil. Season these breasts to taste with sea salt, garlic powder, Montreal chicken seasoning, or anything you like prior to cooking.

Read more.

How to Consume More Protein Without Supplements

Food supplements can be very expensive. Whey protein powders are all the rage. They're made from milk, are easily digestible, and hit the bloodstream very quickly.

However, they are fairly expensive.

For the guy or gal who wants to build quality, lean muscle mass, the typical guideline is to take in at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, preferably 1-1/2 to 2 grams in a mass-building or bulking up phase. Without breaking the bank (and all the banks seem to be broken right now, yes?), you can consume this much protein only by consuming a ton of milk (see these two articles, “Gallon of Milk a Day” program and GOMAD), beef, poultry, fish and… …the incredible, edible EGG.

How to Consume More Protein Without Supplements

Eggs are a complete protein, containing all the “essential” amino acids, and provide about 6 grams per egg. As far as food goes, eggs offer the highest “biological value” protein there is (this is a fancy way of saying that the protein is easily assimilated by the body). In short, eggs are a MUST HAVE menu item! Especially if you're laying off on the expensive supplements. But how do you eat enough eggs to make a difference? Hard boil them.

Here's How to Hard Boil an Egg

• Take a dozen eggs and a really big pot mostly filled with water.
• Place your oven on high. Put in the eggs and bring to a boil.
• Once the water is boiling, cook the eggs for 10-12 minutes.
• Then, pour out the water, replace with cold water and let stand for 15-30 minutes.
• Refrigerate.

Now, you can eat these just as they are (without the shell, of course) or you can add them to virtually anything, like salads, sandwiches, and as additions to your meals and snacks.

If you're trying to add weight, eat them whole and eat 2 eggs with every snack. That will get you 6 eggs a day, or an extra 36 grams of protein per day.

This, in effect, replaces about one protein shake a day.

Of course, your snacks ought to add up to between 20 and 30 grams of protein (depending on body weight), so you'll have to supplement with milk. Lots of it!

In fact, to get to 20 grams per snack, you'll have to eat 2 eggs plus one 8-ounce glass of milk.

All other things being equal, you can replace 3/4 of a cup of milk with each egg while on the GOMAD program. Which means that you can really cut back on your milk consumption! (This is a good thing, for the most part.)

Alternatively, you can keep drinking your gallon of milk a day PLUS the eggs and you'll gain more weight than ever before. If you do spring for some whey protein powder, you'll be even farther ahead of the pack.

In the “old days,” trainers like Vince Gironda prescribed dozens of eggs a day for his pupils during their mass-building phases (3 to 6 weeks at a time, tops, plus every 4th day, go to a regular diet — see Cycling for more information on this important concept). Eggs seem to have an extraordinary anabolic effect on the body, increasing growth hormone production, and driving your gains like crazy. A few notes:

• Eat the whole egg. Don't throw anything but the shell out.
• Space your meals to be 2 hours or so apart.
• If you do use food supplements, invest in digestive enzymes. Eating more than a couple eggs a day gives a lot of people some serious gas problems. The aid in digestion is worth the money. Your co-workers will thank you, too.
• Don't fall for the “organic” nonsense with eggs. There is no proof that there is any difference between eggs produced by chickens in pens, free range, no hormones, or “extra hormones.” I have this theory: Chickens fed growth hormones probably pass those hormones to their eggs and consequently to those who eat them.

I do believe you can make serious gains without supplements. However, like anabolic steroids, you can “get there” faster with supplements.