Bulking and Cutting Myth

In the muscle magazines you always hear about 'bulking' up then 'cutting' down before a contest, should you do this too?  NO!  NO! NO!  Do you have to get fat to gain muscle? NO!   Wild weight swings are not good for your body .  There is no reason at all that you cant gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time with good nutrition, weightlifting and cardio.  It is much easier (and healthier) to keep your body fat low year-round than it is to pig out for a few months and then have to diet for 4 months to get all the fat back off.   

Why not be ripped all the time rather than just one month a year?????  It's easier, better for your body, looks better, AND its easier - who likes dieting anyway.OK, here's the basic problem.  Most people who work out really hard can only expect to gain 5lbs muscle in a year, almost an imperceptible amount.  Adding muscle is a very slow process, its the dirty little secret of fitness that nobody is willing to talk about.  Americans spend millions on all kinds of products that promise to deliver more than this but all that happens is their wallets get lighter.   "How do I add weight?" is a question I hear all the time which shows how confused many people are.  Many people want to see that fast weight gain so they eat like pigs and fool themselves into thinking that its all muscle when if fact its mostly fat.  One day they wake up and find themselves stronger but fat.
Added weight can be fat or muscle, if you just want to weigh more then eat twinkies and skip the bodybuilding - its much easier.  If you want to gain muscle, there is no shortcut.  Hit the weights and use good nutrition.

A fairly widely agreed upon value for the amount of protein a bodybuilder should eat is 1g protein per pound of bodyweight per day, so 180g protein for a 180lb bodybuilder. Eating more protein than this will NOT build your muscles faster. Consuming more calories than you expend will NOT build your muscles faster either. What I find is that its people with really sloppy nutrition are the ones who claim that you have to gain fat to gain muscle, its because their nutrition is so aweful! Yes, if you get your protein from pizza and cheesburgers then you will go way over your caloric budget in order to get your required 180g protein and end up getting fat in the process!

So, how to gain muscle?  Workout with incredible intensity (but don't overtrain), sleep lots, and have proper nutrition.  Proper nutrition?  In a nutshell, here's what you need.  Protein every 2-3 hours from the moment you wake up till the moment you go to bed.  Total protein approx 1g per pound of bodyweight per day so a 180lb man would have 180g protein per day (30g protein per meal, 6 meals).  OK, that's only 720 calories but a 180 lb man needs 2700 calories a day to maintain weight (2200cals to lose a pound fat per week), what should you eat for those other 2000 calories?

Well, technically you could eat twinkies and a vitamin pill and you would be fine.  Several problems with that approach, first twinkies are not very filling (no fiber) and you would find you had to eat much more than 2000 calories of twinkies to feel satisfied which would make you FAT.  The best thing to eat for those 2000 calories are things that are high in vitamins and fiber, things like vegetables, legumes, fruits, and whole grains.  If you use these things for those 2000 calories you will find yourself so full that it would be easy to reduce by 500cal/day and thereby lose a pound of fat a week without affecting your muscle growth.

Note however that this only works with slight caloric reductions (like the 500cal/day reduction suggested above).  If you do a drastic caloric reduction, your ability to add muscle will be hindered - malnourished people cant add muscle.