Can You Obtain Lean Muscle Weight Without Getting Fat?

By Author: Jeffrey Wolf
Total Articles: 29
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There are two universal fitness goals - to obtain lean muscle mass and to reduce body fat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Building lean muscle mass is going to require you to take in a surplus of calories because, well, let's face it, you can't build lean muscle out of nothing (except of course you have some chemical).

REducing body fat on the other hand is going to require you to be in a negative calorie balance because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues.

Motivated to accomplish both goals at the same time is seldom a good method because more than expected you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

Most body builders will have to accept some fat gain when they are looking to gain weight, however how much fat gain they need to add is question. It is this variable that we are hoping to achieve.

Can you truly obtain weight without getting fat?

When adding lean muscle mass there are two approaches you can take.

Some take the approach of just consuming ...
... as much food as they can viable cram into themselves. Their life abruptly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they are under the idea that the more food that goes in, the more muscle synthesis that will go on.

This view is deeply flawed. The body can only assimilate so much muscle tissue at once and after it has done so, any remaining calories are clearly going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exclusion to the pronounce.

For those guys who are out there charming in five thousand or more calories per day, this is clearly going to be way more than they require and will product a considerable quantity of unwelcome body fat over a period of three to six months (how long most people will 'bulk' for).

The second choice is to adopt a more moderate method and only eat so many additional calories to help this muscle growth and that's it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous climb in body fat.

So that leads us to the next question you're probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be consuming?

You've probably already heard of the guy who claims he's added 20 pounds of lean muscle in the short timeframe of six weeks. While this may be a very uncommon occurrence among an individual who is new to body building, has insanely good genetics and utilized a superb workout and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are basically not open to be able to come even close to adding this much lean muscle tissue.

A natural fit individual can desire to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week - if he's doing everything correctly. If he doesn't have the greatest genetics or isn't feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at least two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren't going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes.

The higher your intake is, the more you risk putting on additional body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on lean muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your present body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.

It is always best to go by real world results because you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be consuming, but this does not mean that's going to be the exact number that will deliver results. Different people have different metabolisms that will respond to an rise in calories in various ways.

Remember that the more tolerant you are with your muscle gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding lean muscle mass and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained - which as I'm sure many of you already know, is not a pleasant experience.

Next time you decide you are going to buld up, take it slow. Not only are you much more likely to maintain a favourable appreance this way but your mind will thank you as well. Nothing kills confidence levels faster that seeing all muscle definition go out the window in a matter of weeks.