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Men who looking to bulk up often begin by bulking up for six months to a year and then do their cutting phase. It can often seem as though most guys think these two activities work hand-in-hand.

The truth is that when considering a bulking phase, men typically think about getting big. What often happens, though, is that they put on a lot of excess fat. They are actually “bulking up” by the sheer act of eating plenty of food. Remember that muscle-building does not result from eating. It happens as a result of working out. Thus, if you work out, your appetite naturally increases on its own.

Can You Bulk Without Getting Fat?

The outcome we really want is to gain maximum muscle and as little fat as possible; i.e., bulk without getting fat. Why just bulk up if most of it will consist of fat anyway?

Just recently, I happened to be speaking with a professional bodybuilder who was in the Arnold Classic. He told me that he had moved beyond the perpetual bulking to cutting to bulking to cutting cycle  and that he simply found it to be too difficult to maintain. This man had gained 25 or 30 pounds during the off-season or prior to a competition, and was now left with the daunting prospect of having to trim it all away.

I agreed with him, if for instance, he starts at 240 pounds and ends up at 250 pounds, or starts at 300 pounds and reduces to 250, he would wind up at 250 in either case.

Thus, it was much preferable for him to be closer to the goal weight and therefore have no need to worry about having to lose 30 or 40 pounds to get into shape. You have to realise that the thing which escapes most men is that their appetites will increase naturally as they begin to work out.

You will then start to eat slightly more because you will naturally feel more hungry. You will be burning more calories as you work harder. Then you start picking up and packing on pure muscle instead of extra fat. This is what occurs when men suck down gallons of protein shakes or eat tons of tuna fish and/or steak. If you fail to use those calories, they convert into fat.

The main objective

Your primary task is really just to monitor your hunger levels. I’ll now illustrate how this process usually works. In this example, we’ll just use calories:

Suppose you eat about 2,000 calories per day. When you begin working out, you might notice that you are kind of hungry and are becoming hungrier. It may seem that you just can’t satisfy your appetite. So you begin to eat naturally. You are not force-feeding yourself, but simply eating naturally because you are a little bit more hungry.

Now let us suppose that you are consuming 2,400 calories per day. What will happen in this case is that the extra 400 calories that consists mainly of carbs and perhaps some protein, will be fuelling your body during the day, throughout your work out routine, and again while your body repairs itself.

I always say most of your calories (about half), should come from complex carbohydrates. Another 30 to 35 percent should be protein, and the remaining 15% should be comprised of fats. What will happen is that the carbohydrates provide your body’s fuel during the day, throughout your work out, and continues fuelling the body’s repair process. Your protein intake will facilitate the synthesis and building of muscle tissue.

Carbs Are Important

This is what people fail to grasp: you are using carbs to fuel muscle repair. You are fuelling the repair process with carbohydrates and using proteins as muscle repair ‘building blocks.’

Carbohydrates are the fuel. This is the easiest way to visualise it, so rather than thinking about cutting, bulking, and all this other stuff, we want to look and feel good. It doesn’t matter if we weigh 200 pounds, 150 pounds, or 130 pounds. Our ultimate goal is to bulk without losing the six pack. Abundant muscle and just a little fat is best for both guys and gals.

This holds particularly true for guys who are thin, who were slightly overweight who have grown weary of dieting. They feel as if they are thin enough, but still want to improve their looks.

How to get rid of my gut? How to put on more muscle? The answer to these question is working out. You must work out with high intensity. You have to work out on a regular basis. You must work out intelligently. Doing this will start the extra calorie-burning process, enhance your appetite due to heavier work outs, which will then enable you to pack on lots of added muscle tissue.

Your body’s composition will be altered for the better, you will start to reduce the amount of body fat you have, increase muscle mass and start looking better — without going crazy with your eating.

Daniel Crews

ListedFit