Bodybuilding: Muscle Gain and Body Fat
For most of the bodybuilding population, the eventual goal is nothing less than a strong, muscular physique with impressive, razor-sharp definition.
This desire for the perfect body makes many people dive headlong into an exercise regimen. Everyone wants to bulk up, and bulk up fast, but at the same time they're also worried about gaining the extra bulk of 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.
The reason for this is because in order to gain muscle mass, you have to consume a surplus of calories to support the necessary protein synthesis. The difficulty is that there's no way to ensure that 100% of all these extra calories go towards muscle growth. Some of it will inevitably end up as stored body fat.
As all bodybuilders know, in order to make dramatically change your appearance in the quickest amount of time, the most effective way to do so is to focus on gaining size. For a set period of time, gaining size will be your goal. Only then can your priority shift to focus on losing body fat.
You never want to lose body fat during the bulking phase. You simply want to gain as little as possible.
There are three primary ways to accomplish this:
1) Use your caloric surplus wisely. A caloric surplus is when you gain more calories than you burn. This is required for muscle growth, but simply gorging on food without a plan or exercise will simply earn you more body fat.
The generally accepted caloric surplus for supporting muscle growth is 15-20% more calories than is needed to maintain your weight. If you are consuming a caloric amount within this range, there is no need to go any higher.
2) Watch what you eat. You should be concentrating your diet on lean, high quality proteins, high fiber carbohydrates, and unsaturated, healthy fats.
Instead of thoughtlessly eating every food item at hand, be sure that you're primarily keeping to lean protein sources. It's also important to keep your blood sugar levels stable by choosing the right kinds of carbohydrates and avoiding large amounts of 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.
Stick to high intensity/low duration forms in the range of 10-20 minutes, as these types of sessions do not cause the same degree of muscle loss as longer duration forms do.
Once you've gained an amount of muscle size that you're happy with (and this is totally up to the individual), you can then shift into a fat loss cycle and focus on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.
The trick is to minimize it rather than try to totally avoid it, and you can do this with a reasonable diet and sensible exercise. - 17274
This desire for the perfect body makes many people dive headlong into an exercise regimen. Everyone wants to bulk up, and bulk up fast, but at the same time they're also worried about gaining the extra bulk of 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.
The reason for this is because in order to gain muscle mass, you have to consume a surplus of calories to support the necessary protein synthesis. The difficulty is that there's no way to ensure that 100% of all these extra calories go towards muscle growth. Some of it will inevitably end up as stored body fat.
As all bodybuilders know, in order to make dramatically change your appearance in the quickest amount of time, the most effective way to do so is to focus on gaining size. For a set period of time, gaining size will be your goal. Only then can your priority shift to focus on losing body fat.
You never want to lose body fat during the bulking phase. You simply want to gain as little as possible.
There are three primary ways to accomplish this:
1) Use your caloric surplus wisely. A caloric surplus is when you gain more calories than you burn. This is required for muscle growth, but simply gorging on food without a plan or exercise will simply earn you more body fat.
The generally accepted caloric surplus for supporting muscle growth is 15-20% more calories than is needed to maintain your weight. If you are consuming a caloric amount within this range, there is no need to go any higher.
2) Watch what you eat. You should be concentrating your diet on lean, high quality proteins, high fiber carbohydrates, and unsaturated, healthy fats.
Instead of thoughtlessly eating every food item at hand, be sure that you're primarily keeping to lean protein sources. It's also important to keep your blood sugar levels stable by choosing the right kinds of carbohydrates and avoiding large amounts of 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.
Stick to high intensity/low duration forms in the range of 10-20 minutes, as these types of sessions do not cause the same degree of muscle loss as longer duration forms do.
Once you've gained an amount of muscle size that you're happy with (and this is totally up to the individual), you can then shift into a fat loss cycle and focus on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.
The trick is to minimize it rather than try to totally avoid it, and you can do this with a reasonable diet and sensible exercise. - 17274
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