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Wanting to gain muscle and not fat? You’re in luck – because in this video, I cover why you’re not building muscle, and more specifically, go through 4 bulking mistakes that are slowing your gains and increasing the amount of fat you’re putting on.
The first mistake is not being lean enough before starting a bulk. As your level of body fat increases, you become less efficient at building muscle and as a result, grow less muscle. Secondly, if you’re not lean enough when you start your bulk, you’re likely going to have to commit to a longer diet after to “reveal” your gains and lose the body fat you do have. Thirdly, you’ll also just end up in a position where you aren’t willing to commit to your bulk for as long as you’d need to build enough muscle as there will be some body fat gained in the process, so you want to be in a position where there is room for some additional body fat gained, without you feeling uncomfortable.
When lean bulking, you want to start lean – if you have a substantial amount of body fat to lose, do this first before bulking. I go through this in more detail in my skinny fat to toned video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXBD0gAXYo)
The second next mistake is gaining too much fat compared to muscle when bulking up. What a lot of people believe when it comes to bulking is that the more food you stuff yourself with, the more protein you have, the more gains you’ll make in the process. This is only true up to a certain point.
Beyond the slight surplus you need in food, the extra food that you take in will start to contribute significantly more to fat gain instead of muscle growth.
I’d recommend implementing a small to moderate surplus of around 10-20% above your maintenance calories.
The last common bulking mistakes is not being patient enough. Building muscle is a very slow process, slower than fat loss, and visual changes are even slower to see, and often you won’t see them until you enter your dieting phase after the bulk. During your bulk, it’s inevitable that you’re also going to put on at least a bit of fat throughout the process, which can “hide” the added muscle that you gain and make it visually seem as if you’re not progressing.
This often then leads people to go back to dieting too soon and not making any progress. Instead, understand that it takes several months and even years when you’re more advanced to put on any noticeable muscle, which is why you must commit to bulking up for an extended period.
When it comes to how to lean bulk properly, you need to be patient, trust the process, and track as much data as you can along the way so that you know when you veer off track and can adjust accordingly.
Often our ladies will spend at least a good half of the year in a building phase before dieting, and once dieted, we’ll enter them into another building phase to continue building on muscle, because it does take time, and improving your body composition, having more muscle mass and less body fat will take a few rounds of building and then dieting.
I hope this was helpful for any of you who have been wondering how to bulk and build muscle without putting on body fat, even whether to bulk or cut first.
Let me know in the comments where you’re at with your journey, are you looking to bulk soon or cut?
Lots of Love,
CZ xx