You've probably heard that most bodybuilders and athletes work in two phases called bulking and cutting. First, you focus on building strength and size or consuming more calories than your body burns throughout the day. And then you try to get rid of an extra fat by cutting calories while maintaining lean muscle mass. In this lesson, I will teach you everything you need to know to successfully bulk up by adding muscle mass and maintaining a relatively low level of body fat over a period of several weeks. So why do you need a bulking plan anyway? The logic behind a well designed bulking plan is simple.
In order to force your body to grow more muscle tissue and a very little time, we need to lift heavy and consume extra calories. Basically, all successful bulking guides rely on these two factors. If your workout is too light, meaning not enough weight and too many reps per set, or you simply don't take in enough calories, even hitting the gym five times a week. get you any results, complete beginners and exception to this rule because they can often lose weight and build muscle at the same time, since their body reacts extremely well to the new training stimulus and builds muscle faster than experienced lifters. The more muscle you have though, the more difficult it becomes to add more without any extra calories. Okay, so how do you died during a bulk, you will find tons of bulking meal plans on the internet, some good and many bad.
The good ones all follow more or less the same pattern. First you calculate your TD, then you add a certain percentage to your TD to get the ideal calorie count for your book. And then you reach this calorie count by eating mostly healthy foods. Let's look at all these steps individually. I already showed you how to calculate your TD in an earlier lesson. So we will skip this step and if you don't remember simply go back to that list.
Next, you want to add a certain percentage to your TD to get the ideal calorie count for your book. This part is probably the most controversial part of any bulking program. Some gurus will tell you to lean bulk and in only around 10 to 15% of additional calories to your TD to avoid getting any unnecessary fat in the process. Others will tell you that this number is too low and your metabolism will most likely speed up and you raise such a tiny surplus. So who is right? As often in life, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
It is true that the human body has a limit of calories and can put towards the process of muscle growth. consuming more calories than that won't speed up muscle growth, but it will make you fatter. However, most skinny guys were super skinny guys mine a little extra fat and will also have an easier time losing it afterwards. It is also extremely time consuming to maintain a lean bulk over several weeks having to perfectly track your calories all the time. This is why in my personal bulking program, I prefer to eat around 500 calories more than normal, which is around 20% of additional calories to my TD. That way I make sure to give my body enough energy to build muscle, even if my metabolism were to speed up.
New planning is also easier that way because 500 calories equals more or less to an additional meal. how large your daily bulking calorie count has to be, really comes down to how your metabolism reacts to more food, and how you feel about tracking calories in gaining unnecessary fat. If you're skinny and simply want to get bigger, don't be afraid of eating a lot. You won't get fed overnight and have plenty of time to counteract should your body fat percentage rise too quickly. If you have a normal metabolism and feel that a small surplus is enough, then 250 extra calories a day will probably be enough. Smaller surpluses also work better for women who generally have lower TDs and would gain fat a lot more quicker with 20% extra calories.
Now in Step three, you want to reach this calorie count by eating mostly healthy foods. We already talked about quality sources of protein, carbs and fats before so just make sure to not go crazy during your bulk by eating nothing but pizza and ice cream.