Bodybuilding - Preventing Fat Gain When Bodybuilding
As anyone involved with bodybuilding knows, when you try to pack on the muscle mass, very often a good dose of fat mass is going to accompany it. This is definitely not what you want though because spending an extra two to three months after the muscle gain process is complete taking off all that excess body fat is not going to be fun Some bodybuilding athletes are okay with it, but the vast majority are not.
This means it's in your best interest to try a muscle building approach that is different - one that is targeted towards packing on clean, lean muscle, rather than just putting on as much body weight as you can.
If you are smart about your bulking process though, you can definitely control the amount of fat you add, you just need to put a little more effort into the planning portion of the bodybuilding program you're on.
Your Workout Days
On your workout days, you want to maximize the anabolic effects that are going on in your body by eating as many calories as you can when your body is most likely to use them to build muscle, rather than store body fat.
This means placing the vast majority of your surplus right around the workout period. If you think about this, isn't it smarter to give your body the calories while it's in the muscle building process, rather than feeding yourself so much hours once you're done and are sitting on the couch? At that point in time your body is going to be much more concerned with body fat gain than anything.
While you might enjoy the calories more while you're stationed on the couch watching another sit-com rerun, you're not doing your body any good. If you want to look good, you need to learn to eat for muscle building purposes, NOT taste-satisfying purposes. There is a big difference.
In order to gain a pound of body weight you must consume an extra 3500 calories total, therefore, to gain a pound a week, divide this 3500 calories by the number of days you are lifting. Yes, this is definitely going to be a lot of food on those days, but it's when you really NEED it.
Your Non-Workout Days
Now, in order to minimize the fat that's gained during this time, you are going to do the opposite on days you don't work out - bring those calories right back down to just under maintenance. This allows you to accomplish two different tasks.
First, it puts the body in a confused state. Is it getting more calories than it needs or fewer? Confusion, when it comes to bodybuilding and muscle gain, can be a good thing. Confusing your metabolism - good. Being confused in the gym - not good. You want to trick your metabolism into thinking that it shouldn't take the excess calories you fed it on training days and store it as fat, as it will need it for energy the next. This limits the fat gain you'll experience.
The second thing this approach does it makes the whole process easier to stomach. You try 4000-5000 calories each day and see how you feel. While it may be fun at first to eat that much food, it gets old - FAST. Backing down to a more comfortable intake on non-training days makes it easier for you to tolerate days when you really must stuff it in.
Keep in mind that you don't want to take the calories so low that you create such a deficit you hinder recovery, just so that you burn off a tiny bit of fat that may have been accumulated the day before. 200-300 calories below maintenance should do it.
So, next time you're thinking about kicking your bodybuilding sessions into high gear, keep this set-up in mind. Losing fat is not an enjoyable process, therefore reducing the need to do so is well worth your while.
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