Romy
Ever wonder how to gain muscle while losing fat and looking awesome? Well if body composition is of interest to you or you’re planning on competing in a bodybuilding competition, you’ve probably tried every way possible to manipulate your body fat while increasing muscle mass. You go through endless “bulking” cycles followed by “cutting” cycles. While this may seem beneficial for elite athletes, it may not be the best for beginners.
Choosing a physique goal
Before you step foot in a gym, or commit to any eating plan, make sure you have a goal in mind. What’s the point of walking around aimlessly without a plan and using various machines because they look cool? When a goal is not set this is usually what happens and 9 times out of 10 it does not result in any progress.
According to many scientists and trainers including Alan Aragon (look him up), there are roughly five main physique goals in terms of body composition.
1.Rapid weight gain (with acceptance of substantial fat gain)
2.Muscle gain with minor emphasis on fat loss
3.Maintenance
4.Fat loss with minor emphasis on muscle gain
5.Rapid weight loss (with acceptance of substance muscle loss)
Due to the growing popularity of fitness forums, websites, and social media, many beginners are always posting the question of whether they should bulk or cut. They end up following goals 1 and 5 which may be their biggest mistake. Since they are new to fitness they want whichever method will give them the highly coveted six-pack. But they probably should focus on goal 2 and try to gain as much muscle as possible.
On the other hand, an obese person should probably focus on goal 5 because they want to just lose weight. However, they may want to try doing some strength training like bodyweight or machines to build some muscle putting them into goal 4. When strength training is added to a regimen it allows for more sustainable results because it places muscle where the fat would be and allows the body to burn more calories at rest than normal. If someone is underweight, they would probably think to follow goal 1 and try to gain as much weight as possible regardless if its fat or not. But as with the overweight example, goal 2 might be the best way to go. So you gain the weight, but don’t end up becoming overweight then having to lose the added fat.
How much Fat should you expect to Lose?
For the purpose of simplicity, let’s assume all weight lost is fat and not muscle mass. Based on client observations and not statistical research, most people will lose the following amount of weight each month:
Obese individuals will lose about 4-6% of their bodyweight
Moderately overweight individuals will lose about 3-4% of their bodyweight
Average individuals will lose about 2-3% of their bodyweight
Lean individuals will lose about 1-2% of their bodyweight
Extremely lean individuals will lose about 0.5-1% of their bodyweight
Let’s make some vivid examples of what all these numbers actually mean
Example 1 – Obese individual who weighs 300 pounds will lose about 5% (15lbs/6.8kg) of their total weight in the first month of a weight loss program.
Example 2- Moderately overweight person who weighs 200 pounds should be expected to lose about 4% (8lbs /3.6 kg) of their total weight in the first month of a weight loss program.
Example 3- An average weight individuals weighing 180lbs should be expected to lose about 3% (5.4lbs/2.5kg) of their total weight in the first month of a weight loss program.
Example 4- A lean individual weighing 170lbs shouldn’t try to lose more than 1% of their total weight in order to preserve muscle. In a month of a weight loss program they should be expected to lose 1.7lbs /0.7kg.
Example 5- Unless there is a certain circumstance that an extremely lean individual weighing 165lbs is on a fat loss plan they should not do so because it is guaranteed that they will lose lean mass. The only way to do so without burning muscle would be to stay on the low-end of the spectrum and lose about 0.5% of their total body weight (0.8lbs/.38 kg) per month.
Basically, the leaner you are the harder it is to preserve muscles while on a low-calorie diet coupled with a high intensity workout routine. So if these examples are broken down by week and following a more practical approach:
Obese people should lose 3-4 lbs a week, overweight people should lose 1.5-2lbs per week, average people should lose 1lb per week, lean people should lose no more than 1 lb per week, and an extremely lean person should lose no more than 0.5lbs per week.
Keep in mind that these numbers are not factual and just made for example but based on where you are in terms of body fat and fitness you can determine which category you fall under.
There’s no point in saying how much fat an individual should lose without spending some time explaining how much muscle they should gain as well.
Muscle Gains & Unrealistic Expectations
Keep in mind that the media makes people think that they can gain muscle magically like it happens overnight. This leads to the common misconception that women shouldn’t lift weights because they’ll get bulky, or the guy who says “Well, I don’t want to get too big.” If only this were true…
Remember that just because you’re following a healthy diet and training hard, not every pound gained is muscle mass. People see that they gained 8 pounds in a month and think that they added all muscle; unfortunately, this is not how the body works.
The amount of muscle someone gains is related to the amount of experience (in years) they have, training intensity, protein turnover, and hormone function.
So according to experience and observations here’s what the numbers look like when it comes to lean body mass gains.
A beginner ( <2 Years of CONSISTENT Lifting Experience) most likely will gain about 1.0 – 1.5% of their total body weight each month. For example, a 140lb male will gain 1.4 -2.1lbs of muscle per month.
Now if that same person were a little more experienced (2-4 Years of CONSISTENT Lifting Experience), they are more likely to gain about 0.5 – 1.0% of their total body weight each month. This equals about 0.7 -1.4lbs of muscle per month.
Finally a well experienced lifter ( >4 Years of CONSISTENT Lifting Experience) is honestly going to gain very little, roughly 0.25 – 0.5% of their total body weight. So the same 140lb male who has been training hard for 6 years and eating well will only see gains of about 0.35 – 0.7 lbs of muscle a month.
Here’s a table to visualize what was just stated:
Now also remember women have about one tenth of the amount of testosterone as men so they are likely to be at the bottom end of the spectrum.
Now let’s talk science; according to Sareen Groper’s textbook Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism,” protein turnover is the net gain from the metabolic processes of protein synthesis and protein degradation.” It is correlated the a person’s total body mass. The research shows that daily protein turnover in humans is about 4.6g /kg of bodyweight. So let’s use the previous example of the 140lb male (63.6 kg) [let’s use 60 for easier calculations].
He will turnover of 276g of protein daily. About 30% of this is considered “muscle protein” so 82.8g probably will go towards muscle gains. Now roughly 80% of these gains will be lost through metabolism and catabolism.
From the total (276g), 82.8g (30%) goes to muscle protein. The current total gain is 82.8g of muscle. According to science 80% of that is lost from just as a catabolism induced training (weight lifting), leaving you with 66.24g of protein lost. Now subtract that 66.24g from the total 82.8g of muscle gained which comes out to 16.56g net muscle. In order for it to make sense for most of you let’s make a conversion: there are 454 grams in 1 pound; so if we convert 16.56g = 0.4 lbs muscle gained. Let’s say this is over a year hoping all factors remain exactly the same. This is only in a perfect and stable environment with perfect eating, training, and hormonal conditions. Now for females, for purposes of this example, let’s say you only achieve half of this leaving you with a net gain of 0.2lbs of muscle a year.
So who said you’ll get huge and bulky from lifting again? Or the guy who doesn’t want to get “too” big. Naturally building huge muscles takes years of dedication, training and loads of calories and if you’re like 98% of most people this isn’t your goal.
To summarize: For effective mass building you need to
Consume an excess of calories
Increase anabolism and decrease catabolism
Increase protein and nutrient turnover
Stimulate muscle tissue through intense and efficient training
Volume the cells within the muscle tissue
Target Body Weight & Measurements
A common question many people have is “How to calculate my target body weight and bodyfat percentage to reach a goal?” So now that you see realistic goals you can start by making weekly and monthly plans.
Read this article to calculate bodyfat percentage. Body fat calculation is one of the most inaccurate measurements but as long as you are consistent with one form of measurement, you can just keep track of the trends. Here’s a chart from Alan Aragon’s research review on how to calculate your target body weight.
Once you calculate this, a third of the work is done – all you have to do is follow a proper plan to implement it.
Tune in next week for PART 2 of this 3 PART SERIES to learn how to manipulate nutrients and hormonal balance along with a proper meal plan and training program that will work for your goals and body type.
The post Lean Bulking Part 1: How to Gain Fat & Lose Muscle like a Pro appeared first on RippedNFit: Exercise, Nutrition, Lifestyle & Online Fitness Community.