Lean Bodies Consulting

Ok, so we’ve established answers to the following questions in the first three parts of this series so far:

1. Would I have to do a bulk?

2. How long would I bulk for?

Alright, how about some practical steps? We’re not going to get into the training aspect of this right now as it’s a rather varied topic, so we’ll just keep the focus on nutrition - which really is what will be the final determinant of gains. By that I mean, I don’t care how hard you’re training, if you’re not eating enough to support muscle growth, you’re not going to be gaining size. Period. (exception to the rule - newbies and those new to ‘effective training’)

To go back to another point made in one of the previous posts - expect to gain at least some bodyfat. If you expect to stay lean, expect to stay the same. I’ll give you a few case examples:

1. I was emailing back and forth with a client prospect who has been solely focused on muscle gain for many, many months. She works with another trainer. In our communications, she ended up sending me her pre- and current ‘bulking’ pictures for review. First thing I noticed? Nothing. Literally, I couldn’t tell a difference at all. I asked her what the difference in weight was. The answer? One pound. I believe this was over the course of about nine months. ONE POUND. Now, it’d be great if there was some massive recompositioning here but there wasn’t - no visible changes. I questioned her on this and she said her trainer wants to her stay lean while gaining size.

The results show how effective that strategy is.

2. A client of my own who I worked with for a little over a year. We did a few cut/bulk cycles and yes she gained some body fat during the bulks. But she had a great mindset for all of it (vital necessity in my opinion) and had the big picture in front of her the whole time. The numbers will make my point for me.

November 19/07
Weight - 110 lbs
Waist - 30 1/4
Hips - 33 3/4
Thighs - 17
Chest - 31 1/2
Arms - 9 1/2
Calf - 10 1/2

Contrast that to her final biweekly:

September 16/08
Weight - 109.4 lbs
Waist - 24 1/4
Hips - 33 1/4
Thighs - 17 3/4
Chest - 32 1/4
Arms - 10
Calf - 11

The most glaring point there is that she weighs basically the same as her starting weight - but her waist is 6 inches smaller. Now that’s a recomp.

A successful bulk is obviously determined by the results gained - hopefully you’ve added some muscle and not too much fat. It’s fine to gain, gain, gain, but if you end up the same bodyweight and the same bodyfat - basically you look the same as you did pre-bulk - it doesn’t seem like you did very well. Now if you end up the same bodyweight, but you’re even leaner (see Case #2 above) then you definitely had a successful run. Gaining 20lbs only to lose 20lbs and look no different - that’s not a good bulk.

How much do I need to eat?

Enough!

You need to definitely have more energy coming in than going out. Again, insufficient food intake = no gains. Look around the gym - most people there are trying to gain some muscle, get stronger, etc. Are they? They appear to be working pretty hard and yet, a year from now, chances are they’ll look no different. Something isn’t working. Could it be what they’re doing/eating outside of the gym? Could it be that they train hard for 45 minutes (trying to bulld muscle?) and then they hop on the elliptical for 30 minutes PWO (trying to get the cuts?). It doesn’t work.

So how much food? I generally recommend that you start at an assumed maintenance intake. I say assumed because all of the predictive equations are just estimates. They’re not going to necessarily be 100% accurate, but it’s a starting place for us. If you’re not coming off a hard diet, around 15x total bodyweight is a good ball part. Pay attention to results though - if you’re gaining (beyond water and glycogen) then clearly this is not maintenance. If you’re coming off a hard diet, start a bit lower as metaoblism will be slightly depressed. Stay there for two weeks and reassess. Did the scale go up? Go down? Stay the same? Adjust accordingly. Assuming you were at maintenance, start adding calories. Again, we’re trying to avoid getting too sloppy so take it easy and just systematically raise them. Start at 10% above maintenance, stay there for a bit, and reassess. What’s happening? Nothing? Add another 10%. You basically continue to add calories until you start to see an upward trend on the scale, but not so quickly upward that it’s clear (in the context of expected rates of muscle gain) that you’re gaining too much fat per given pound of weight gain. If you are gaining too much fat, scale the calories back a bit. It’s all about a simple outcome based approach. Base your adjustments on your results.

I’ll touch on macros next time.

I have to interrupt the bulking series for a bit of randomness today.

1. There’s a personal trainer at my gym that I would like to fire … and I don’t even work there. In fact, I’d like to fire all of them. Have you ever noticed that very few - if any - clients of the average gym PT ever look any different? Ever? How about the fact that they don’t even look like they train themselves half the time? And to the clients, why don’t they clue in … that it’s not working?

Back to the guy I want to fire. Nice guy I’m sure and he’s got a pretty good physique … from the waist up. You see, I’ve never, ever seen him train legs. Ever. So then, how can a person who doesn’t train legs, teach someone how to squat? I’ll tell you how - they can’t!

Better than that - he has them squatting on the Smith Machine, with the sissy pad. Then he makes them put their feet out in front of them, and he makes very certain that those knees don’t pass the toes - you know, to prevent her patellas from exploding and cracking the mirrors. He’d get fired for that I bet.

But you know, I can almost look past this because hey, it’s really common, sad as it is. But this one girl, she looked like she was folding in half - like a lawn chair, and a cheap one at that. I wish I could put it into words. I might have to get Laura to video tape me in the gym trying to duplicate it. On her descent, she wasn’t just going down, she was practically buckling - at the neck, the lumbar, everything. All the while the PT is watching those knees and saying how good she’s doing. Fired!!!!!

If you can’t squat properly yourself, you can’t teach someone how to squat.

2. Do you ever stop and just watch people in the gym? What the heck? Sometimes you have to wonder what muscles they’re trying to train during some of their lifts. They turn concentration curls into a full body, compound exercise.

People would have far more effective workouts if they stopped and focused on training their muscles, as opposed to just lifting weights. Most of us are not powerlifters so check your ego at the door. We’re concerned with more than just getting the weight up. We’re concerned with development. And to that end, it’s all about rep quality. Make every inch of every rep of every set count. Think of your workouts as contracting your muscles against resistance. Make your reps count.

3. Kipping Pull Ups bug me.

I was going to keep going on my next point - retarded contest prep methods but I’ll save that for the next rant. (but I’m writing it now while I’m in this mood. )

Continuing on with the answers to the following questions …

How long should I bulk?
How long do I have to bulk?

The first ‘it depends’ answer was to counter with the question of how much muscle do you want to gain?

To that we add the following:

2. How much muscle do you gain when eating in a caloric surplus and how much fat you gain when eating in a caloric surplus - or basically your muscle-to-fat-gain ratio. This basically refers to one’s partitioning ability - simply where the extra calories go. Does it wind up in muscle cells or fat cells? Ideally all of it would go to muscle, but sorry, not gonna happen. You might as well accept it now.

Now ideally at least more of the extra calories are partitioned towards muscle than they are towards fat. What affects this? First and foremost, genetics. Some people simply partition more calories towards muscle than others do. The less fortunate partition more calories towards fat cells than they do muscle. So on the one hand you might have someone gaining more muscle for a given weight gain and some gaining more fat than muscle (sucks!) for a given weight gain.

So we have things like the aforementioned genetics, higher-than-normal testosterone levels and other optimally ranged hormones (lower cortisol responses, healthy thyroid levels, etc) as well as good insulin sensitivity in the muscles.

Scientists refer to something called the p-ratio when discussing the partitioning of calories. The p-ratio is again, largely influenced by genetic factors and varies little within a person. Diet, training, etc (basically lifestyle factors) have the potential to influence it about 5-15% - not very much.

So, that tells us there’s not a lot you can do to shift your own innate muscle-to-fat-gain ratio (or even your fat-to-muscle-loss ratio when dieting) beyond the relatively small (yet hardly insignificant) effect nutrition, training (and drugs) has on it.

So we obviously get that diet and training should be on point during a bulk. From a dietary standpoint, you obviously need to be certain you’re eating enough to sustain not only the growth of new muscle tissue but the maintenance of it as well. This is one of the biggest pitfalls of those seeking out more muscle - they don’t eat enough. You can’t build a house out of sweat people. No raw materials? No muscle. Ample caloric intake is the biggest factor to be aware of.

Training of course is important as well, but the supporting growth factors - hormones, caloric intake, etc. - determine how much you can gain and support. Training is just a stimulus. Many think that because they’re training heavy and hard, the muscle is just going to come as a result. Again, it’s just a stimulus - if the supporting growth factors are not there, it’s just not going to happen.

Ok, so this ties into the next point:

3. How much fat are you comfortable gaining? This is going to be determined by one, how much over maintenance you’re eating and two, the aforementioned muscle-to-fat-gain ratio or how well your body partitions extra calories. For those with better partitioning ability, more of their new weight is going to be muscle and less is going to be fat, so they’re probably going to have an easier time of it. For those less fortunate, it’s going to be a different story. They’re going to gain more bodyfat for a given weight gain. How much are you comfortable with gaining? Remember, you’re going to gain some. Expect not to and I guarantee you that you’re going to look exactly the same at the end of your bulk.

These three points are really the determining factors of the length of your bulk - how much muscle do you want/need to gain, how much muscle/fat do you gain when consuming calories in excess of maintenance (a requirement), and how much body fat are you comfortable gaining along the way.

More next time …

So in the previous post about bulking we touched on what determines whether or not you should consider doing a ‘bulk’ (I really dislike this word by the way), or not.

Again, let me just say to drive the point home, that bulking is not an excuse to get fat, get sloppy, etc. The point to a bulk is to simply gain muscle - obviously. However, a free-for-all caloric onslaught is a quick way to unnecessary fat gain.

I get asked questions like these quite often:

How long should I bulk?
How long do I have to bulk?

My previous answer was a simple, ‘it depends’, and the truth is, it does. How long a person bulks is going to be influenced by a number of things:

1. How much muscle do you want to gain? Clearly this is going to one of the big determining factors. The more muscle you need or want, the longer it’s going to take. To put that into context, the following are some generally accepted average rates of muscle gain for both males and females:

Males
Year 1 - 20-25lbs
Year 2 - 10-12lbs
Year 3 - 5-6lbs

Females
Year 1 - 10-12lbs
Year 2 - 5-6 lbs
Year 3 - 2.5-3lbs

You can see two things from the above quite clearly:

1. Males obviously have the potential to gain at a quicker and more substantial rate, all else being equal. (women averaging out to half the gains of males)

2. Muscle growth is a very slow process.

Don’t believe the hype behind those who say they’re packing on pounds and pounds of muscle - and staying lean at that - month in and month out; at least not drug free. They’re not. They may be packing on the weight, but I guarantee they’re gaining more fat than they should be. Yes, there are some who can gain at a quicker rate than others, but the above represents the average.

Now 10-12 lbs in a female is going to result in a very significantly improved physique, no question about it. Noel gained 11lbs of competition weight in one year, and the results were very obvious. So much so that it helped take her from an ‘also ran’ to a top contender.

But take a look at that - 10-12lbs of muscle sounds awesome doesn’t it? But look what it averages out to - about one pound per month. Doesn’t seem very significant anymore does it? But the reality is, it is.

More next time …

I get asked a variety of bulking-type questions a lot – mostly from females – so I thought I’d just cut and paste a question and answer it here for reference. My opinions here would not be gender specific, applying both to males and females.

Q: Still tossing around the idea of doing a figure competition. Would I have to do a bulk and how long would I bulk for?

A: Ok, just to put some context to the term ‘bulk’ here, it simply means eating at a caloric intake that is above your assumed maintenance calorie requirements for an extended period of time – with the obvious goals of adding some size and strength to your physique. It is NOT an excuse to get sloppy.

To address the first question – would you have to do a bulk? This is entirely dependent on three primary things:

1. What do you look like now relative to what a figure competitor (or whichever your goal physique is) generally looks like? For some, it will be obvious that yes, you definitely need more muscle if you’re going to hope to be competitive. Competing isn’t just a fat-loss contest. Good competitors have well developed physiques with strategically emphasized muscle groups (lats, delts, etc) in addition to carrying contest-levels of body fat … and yes, the developmental aspect takes time.

2. Do YOU want more muscle? What are your own goals and preferences for your physique? Some people like the idea of being more muscular than they are now; some people don’t. It comes down to your goals first and foremost. Only you can determine if you want more muscle.

3. Are you willing to gain a least some body fat? Or, are you presently lean enough right now that you can stand to gain a little body fat and not lose your mind?

To the issue of how long, the short answer is ‘it depends’. But that’s about as helpful as well, not answering the questions at all. I’ll be back to answer that question tomorrow.

A conveniently timed blog post from Lyle McDonald adds more to what I’ve been harping upon for the last few posts about hunger, expecting it when dieting, and fat loss.

One quote in particular:

There are other adaptations, folks often decrease their activity levels (conserving energy), fat burning goes down and fat storage goes up, appetite often goes up so that people eat more when food is made available. In common parlance, this is often referred to as the ’starvation response’ and, yes, there is something to it. Unfortunately, it’s basically the price that has to be paid for losing body fat to any significant level. People talk constantly about avoiding the starvation response and things of that nature but the only way to avoid it completely is to never lose fat.

set-points-settling-points-and-bodyweight-regulation

I’ll put up a bit more on refeeds at a later time, but for the time being I wanted to show what my most recent one looked like to give you an idea.

Starting weight Thursday morning - about 213lbs.

My food for day included (I’m just grouping it all together as opposed to breaking it up into meals)

8 egg whites
9 oz of chicken
1 1/2 scoops whey protein

I think that was it for direct protein.

55g oatmeal + 70g berries (non-refeed meal, as I decided to bump it up a day after I’d already eaten Meal 1)
4 toasted Cinnamon-Raisin bagels with low-sugar raspberry jam
6 toasted English Muffins
8 blueberry Nutrigrain bars
5 Breyer’s Ice Cream Sandwiches
1 large container of Black Cherry yogurt
3 1/2 oz sweet potatoes
12 Raspberry fruit bars
1 big bowl of cereal w/ 1% milk

That put me at around 1100g of carbs.

Now, some people have far more elaborate and exciting looking refeeds - which you can find on the Lean Bodies Fitness forum, (Amy would be one good example of someone who probably can put together a pretty wild refeed - keep watching her blog), but I like to keep it simple with minimal planning and preparation.

Today? 220lbs. Looking full and really vascular today. I am expecting a good leg workout today. Refeeds are like rocket fuel.

Now we’ll see how quickly I can drop back down to 213. I’m guessing by Monday, maybe Sunday.

Saw this on another fitness-related blog and had to post it. Only a few words, but they carry a very big message.

2 days can erase 5!

I hope the message there is clear - weekends can kill your fat loss.

And another important point while I’m at it:

Nibbles and extras can also ruin your fat loss. In isolation they might not mean much and can be classified as ‘little’, but little + little + little is no longer little. In the end, these little nibbles here and there DO in fact add up and CAN put the brakes on your progress.

Be mindful of what goes in your mouth.

So everyone seems to be talking about the recently published diet study where low carb vs low fat diets faced off to determine what, in the end, is superior.

I had planned to comment on this one myself, but this morning I came across a blog post by Craig Ballantyne, that encompasses my thoughts pretty well. So, in light of that, I’m just going to copy and paste his comments here.

A new low-carb vs. low-fat diet has come out, and the Dr. Atkins camp is claiming victory, although the low-fat camp of Dr. Dean Ornish is crying foul.

I often hear how well someone did all day long, but then while making dinner they snack on upwards of 500 calories of their kid’s treats, or other processed carbohydrates they have lying around the house. The little things can add up to big time problems.
So take a good long look at everything you eat. And all of this can be avoided if you follow rule #5.

My bottom line? They both work. Barring some basic truths and requirements - correctly set calories for YOU, adequate protein and omega-3 fat intake, both low carb and low fat diets can and do work.

Newflash!

I just wanted to point something out about nutrition and training with the end goal of fat loss. (and I emphasize fat loss since that’s what we’re concerned primarily with; not just losing ‘weight’ for the sake of losing weight …. right? RIGHT?)

You know, the only way for nutritional strategy to work for you is if you actually follow it. Make sense? I sure hope it makes sense.

You can’t expect a diet, no matter how well designed it is, to work, if you don’t follow it - whether that means changing it in such a way that you’re eating too much, not eating enough/skipping meals, secretly cheating and eating off plan too much, etc.

Same goes with exercise - if you have a plan you’re following, follow it. Don’t go adding 2 hours of extra cardio when it’s completely unnecessary. and arguaby stupid.

And then when you do all that (the deviations that is), don’t stop and think your plan, whatever that may be, doesn’t work. It’s you that doesn’t work.

A plan is useless without execution.