Stop Bulking - it’s bad for you…
If you're anything like me, when you finally decided that it was time to start getting muscular gains, you probably opted for the bulking approach. This entails increasing your caloric and protein intake by a large amount, plus resistance training. A lot of people do this, and I don't blame them, but after having done some research I want to offer a different approach. I want to offer a more sustainable approach.
You know that in order to gain about 1 lb of muscle a person needs to consume 1,600 extra calories. That's pretty simple. People make mistakes though when they begin to scale these numbers, and then expect that they're going to see consistent results. Let me make it clear, you cannot simply consume 3,200 extra calories in one week, combine it with resistance training, and then expect that you're going to grow 2.2 lb of muscle exactly (the math checks out). As a matter of fact, study upon studies show that large increases in caloric intake are actually more harmful than they are productive. Why?
The reason is because when you increase your calories by a huge amount it doesn't matter if you're doing resistance training for 5 days out of the week (which is not recommended anyways) your muscles are only capable of growing a certain amount in a given time. If your muscles reach that threshold, all of your additional calories are going to be converted into carbohydrates and fats. If you're following along, what I'm basically saying is that you grow a disproportionate amount of fat compared to muscle when you do an intense bulk. When I say disproportionate, I mean so much that it doesn't make any sense.
I think that a lot of us realize this intuitively. I mean think about it, you always hear people say “I'm on the cut now”, or “we're in the bulk”. This suggests that people are aware that they're going to be gaining fat as well as muscle, so they orient their Fitness regime around either cutting or bulking.
So I began this article by suggesting that I can offer an alternative, and that's what I'm going to do now. Actually, I'm going to offer two. The first alternative is called Body Recomposition: when you simultaneously reduce fat and build muscle at the same time. It's a very simple process actually, that you can do by simply calculating your caloric maintenance, how much fat you want to lose in an amount of time, and how much muscle you would like to gain in an amount of time. If you would like to learn how to recompose your body use this link:
https://www.spartan.com/blogs/unbreakable-nutrition/body-recomposition
The next alternative that I would like to offer is more in line with bulking, as it's traditionally understood, but it's much less intense. This reduction in intensity is to your advantage because you'll easily be able to monitor your muscle gains in relation to Fat gains. Think like an economist: everything should be done marginally. Once you're in a surplus , you're building muscle if you're lifting weights, so be patient and intake less of a surplus so that you can maintain a lean physique while growing muscle. If you're impatient and want to grow as much muscle as possible, you are going to have to sacrifice a lot. You're going to be growing a disproportionate amount of fat compared to muscle, that you're going to have to burn off anyways… Isn't it better to just grow lean muscle? Of course, you must consider what your goals are, and what process you'd like to employ to reach them. Personally, however, I'm convinced that it's more efficient to marginally gain muscle and very little fat as opposed to the other way around. If you want a more detailed explanation, refer to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7jIU_73ZaM&t=59s
Luv,
Neo
