Gaining Muscle Without Getting Fat…
Guest Post By: Vince DelMonte
There are two common fitness goals – to gain muscle mass and to lose body fat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Building muscle mass is going to require you to take in a surplus of calories because, well, let’s face it, you can’t build muscle out of nothing (unless of course you have some chemical help going on).
Losing fat mass on the other hand is going to require you to be in a negative calorie balance because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues.
Striving to accomplish both goals at the same time is rarely a good approach because more than likely you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
Most weight lifters will have to accept some fat gain when they are looking to gain weight, however how much fat gain they need to add is questionable. It is this variable that we are hoping to influence.
Can you really gain weight without getting fat?
When adding muscle mass there are two approaches you can take.
Some take the approach of just eating as much food as they can possible cram into themselves. Their life suddenly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they are under the thinking that the more food that goes in, the more muscle synthesis that will go on.
This thinking is heavily flawed. The body can only assimilate so much muscle tissue at once and after it has done so, any remaining calories are simply going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exception to the rule.
For those guys who are out there taking in five thousand or more calories per day, this is obviously going to be way more than they need and will result in a considerable amount of unwanted fat weight over a period of three to six months (how long most people will ‘bulk’ for).
The second option is to adopt a more moderate approach and only eat so many additional calories to support this muscle growth and that’s it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous rise in body fat.
So that leads us to the next question you’re probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be eating?
You’ve probably already heard of the guy who claims he’s added 20 pounds of muscle in the short time frame of six weeks. While this may be a very rare occurrence among an individual who is brand new to weight lifting, has insanely good genetics and utilized an excellent training and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are simply not going to be able to come even close to adding this much muscle tissue.
A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week – if he’s doing everything correctly. If he doesn’t have the greatest genetics or isn’t feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at a measly two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren’t going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes.
The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.
Real World Results…
It is always best to go by REAL WORLD results since you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be eating, but this does not mean that’s going to be the exact number that will produce results. Different people have different metabolisms that will respond to an increase in calories in various ways. So as you go about your bulk, adjust according to the results you are getting.
Remember that the more patient you are with your muscle gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding muscle mass and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained – which as I’m sure many of you already know, is not a pleasant experience.
So next time you decide you are going to do a ‘bulking’ phase, take a slower approach. Not only are you much more likely to maintain a favourable appearance this way but your mind will thank you as well. Nothing kills confidence levels faster than seeing all muscle definition go out the window in a matter of weeks, so keep the weight gain under control so you don’t have to deal with this.
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About the Author:
Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteMuscle.com He teaches skinny guys how to get big muscles, without supplements, drugs and training less than before. |
25 Comments
Brad
Hi, just want to ask something about this statement:
“A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week – if he’s doing everything correctly”
If adding half to one pound of muscle a week, then a person could add about 26lbs to 52lbs a year (provided he is bulking whole year long). After a few years wouldn’t the guy be ‘THE HULK’?
What I want to say really is that gaining muscle is a way slower process after the ‘newbie’ gains and after a couple of years you should probably having a hard time even putting on 5lbs of muscle a year right?
Gaining 0.5-1lbs week after week isn’t really going to come true.
Jazz
Brad, that also puzzled me. I think I’ll have to agree with you judging from pure logic and personal experience.
Sam
Damn what can you guys not understand?
He said if you have PERFECT genetics and a PERFECT workout and a PERFECT nutrition you can gain 1pound of muscle a week.
Of course this is hardly feasible and of course by experience you never had that, that’s the point: showing you what is the maximum one can gain taking into account everything is PERFECT.
But because 99.99999% of us are not perfect ,we will not have 1pound of muscle gain per week.
Before trying to sound smart and contradicting Lee, learn the basic: reading
Jazz
I dont think anybodys perfect. Nobody is perfect. And there is not such thing as perfect. Its all in the head and how you see it – individually.
Caelan
Lee,
i was just wondering if i should cut first or bulk first. which order would give better results and is it possible for teens to bulk/cut.
Caelan
Brad
The statement is:
“A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week – if he’s doing everything correctly”
Sure don’t see “perfect genetics,training and nutrition there” or any other lines.
Nobody is perfect and so I am sure nobody could gain that kind of results of 1lbs of muscle per week. Muscle gains comes slowly and it diminishes. But no doubt everyone can slowly gain muscle mass and after a long period of time you will surely look different.
Mark
As I get older my body does not seem to react; or muscle gain comes
very slowly.What tricks can a 60 year old guy use to wake up his
testosterone and build muscle. Help me out mark
LEE kefy
ive always gained muscle and lost fat. metabolism bitch, but i really doubt you can gain 1 pound a week, id say most people would struggle for that fat let alone muscle think about it chyea?
Bali
I’d say an average individual with average genetics and reasonably good nutrition and workouts for the most part(stuff happens) can only gain about 10 pounds of muscle in a year. How Vince gained 41lbs in half a year baffles me. Those must be some genetics huh
Kohl
Yea Mon there are only 26 weeks in 6 months… if you have PERFECT genetics and a PERFECT workout and a PERFECT nutrition you can gain 1pound of muscle a week. That way, Vince Delmonte should only be able to gain a maximum of 26lbs in that short span of time… 41lbs?! That is unattainable and I doubt that the majority of weight training folks can achieve this.
BudWrx
Bali if you read Vince DelMonte No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain, in that program he tells us to eat massive amounts of calories like 1500,2000+ more (depending on a few things) and not playing it safe with the 500 extra a day, (but I cant say that other “supplements” weren’t used), id rather just eat to much get the best gains I can then work my ass off to loose the fat 🙂
leehayward
Muscle gains come in spurts. No body is going to grow non-stop week after week, month after month, and year after year… But during a growing spurt you can very realistically gain a pound per week.
For example, if you committed yourself 100% to a 12 week mass building phase with proper nutrition, training, etc. you could realistically gain 12 pounds of muscular bodyweight during that time. But obviously you wouldn’t be able to keep this up non-stop forever.
leehayward
If you are lower than 15% bodyfat then you can go ahead and focus on mass building. If you are higher than 15% bodyfat focus on losing fat first.
leehayward
Mark, the best thing you can do at this stage is to talk to your doctor and get your hormone levels checked. I can almost guarantee that in your 60’s you are low on testosterone, growth hormone, etc. and this can be corrected through doctor supervised hormone replacement therapy.
leehayward
The initial 41 pounds that Vince gained were from his “newbie” muscle gain growth spurt. He basically jumped into a well structured muscle building training and nutrition program right from the get go and that’s how he made such fast gains.
david
hey lee what advice would you give for endomorphs. These guys tend to put on fat easily and there isnt much info about bulking for these body types.
thx
leehayward
Just like was outlined in the article…
The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.
JJ
Not to take anything away from Vince or his kick ass workout programs, but we all know he did not gain 41lbs of lean muscle. He could have gained 41lbs but definately not all of it was lean muscle. I’m sure you would agree with this and must have seen Scoobys video on youtube referring to Vince.
colonell nelly
hi coach. colonel here…i siezed trainning lyk ayear ago and am resuming trainning this week. i used to do the 3 day session per week and used to do 3-4sets of 10 reps and i had really gained..since am resuming i need ur advice and please send me workout routines that will enable me pull uo more muscle during this festive season. thanks
Alex
I think that its also about the quality of calories u eat and when u eat them, i have been bulking for almost 10 months now and i have put on 44 pounds, and i only have 10,5% fat, so i think ill keep bulking for a while longer 🙂 its not been easy but im very pleased with it.
I think it all comes down to thinkin of food as a need and not as a pleasure, somewhere along the way you will get used to it, i simply dont eat sugar or anything with saturated fat and also try to not eat too much carbs, just pre and post workout.. i have to thank my coach of course for wonderfull workouts all the way, its a hardcore gym, mostly freeweights, no bs.
In terms of nutrition i have to thank both Lee and Vince for the incredible advice they give.. all my nutrition plans are from them !!
Congratulation on the amazing work and support..
Alex
I just forgot to make the math.. 10 months are 40 weeks.. 44 pounds makes more than a pound a week.. so Lee is quite right 😉
The problem with most people is that they slack on the nutrition, altough they dont want to admit it.. and also slack on theyr workouts.. you just have to take it to the limit every single time, no way around it..
i also make 2 cardio and 2 stretching sessions a week.. i like to keep it functional 🙂
JJ
Do you care to expand on your stretching sessions, as I was thinking of incorporating this into my workout plan. My flexibility is pretty crap, especially in my lower body.
Alex
I take real one hour stretching classes with a coach, not the usual simple after workout stretching 😉 in that hour you stretch every muscle, tendon or ligament in your body, i prefer doing it with an experienced coach then doing it myself, wich could lead to a bad stretching or even an injury..
I can tell you that sometimes it may hurt like hell but its quite worth it.. the results on my flexibility, muscle relaxation and even recovery are amazing !!
unfortunatelly i seem to be the only male doing that , at least at my gym, all the rest are women, wich tends to make it even easier 🙂
I also have swimming classes as my cardio, and being the most complete sport in the world you work all muscles and joint in your body, expand your lungs and breathing capacity, and the effect afterwards is like a massage, all the muscle aches seem to disapear after a swimming class.. also its a cardio with no injury possibility.. everyone should try it !!
Brad
One huge variable that plays a huge role in gaining muscle mass is genetics too. A genetic freak might get 20 lbs of muscle in 20 weeks while another person with crappy gene might not get even half of that. Some people will have 6 packs even though they eat rubbish all the time while others get fat.
So I guess in determining muscle gain/fat gain etc, genetics play a VERY huge role. I know everything else like nutrition and training plays a bigger role too, but when you are doing everything right already and you see yourself not gaining as well as others that could just mean your genes stink.
Alex
I absolutelly agree with you Brad, but i also think that that’s exactly the challenge.. trying to make a plan that works well with your genetics and goals.. more or less weights, more or less cardio, more or less calories, there are so many things you can use in order to make it up for different genetics..
You will have to agree that some people grow very easily, but then tend to gain a lot of fat too, and those people then tend to have a lot of trouble to lose it, while hardgainers will have an easy time gettin rid of the excess fat on their cutting phase 😉
The problem in dealing with genetics is present in every sport, and that is exactly what makes it so rewarding and challenging.
If it was easy there would be no pleasure about it..