Hey,

Eating way above your maintenance calories will always add more fat than muscle! Every time!

I have suffered a lot due to that. The word ‘bulk’ seems so bulky to me that it automatically means to ‘eat a lot’!

Well, do you know this: “You are not what you eat, but what you assimilate and digest.”

Are you sure the 200 grams of protein that you are eating is contributing to adding slabs of muscle mass to your frame?

Or maybe, your body only needs 120 grams for growth, and the rest is converted into fat. Or maybe, your digestion is impaired, and your body is not able to digest the protein properly, and this is putting extra stress on your kidneys to filter all the nitrogen waste.

The supplement industry has been brainwashed into thinking that more protein equals more muscle! Have pre-workout proteins, have post-workout proteins, take BCAA’s, oh and don’t forget your glutamine! They have scared us.

So many of us fear losing muscle that we have our protein drinks right beside where we work out so that the moment we are done with our last rep, we need to gulp down that acid-processed whey isolates, which are probably made from grain-fed cows.

Timing may be an important factor for professional athletes, as they want to use every advantage to beat their competition.

But for people like you and me, if we just take care of our overall protein intake (where you don’t need more than 1.6g/kg of BW) and eat that amount in 1, 2 or 3 meals or whenever we feel hungry and not when others want us to!

The other thing to take care of when trying to ‘bulk’ or, should I say, gain muscle is to eat at least 25% of calories from healthy fats.

Fats are super healthy for you when you are trying to gain weight. These fats play a very important role in our physiology, and they also keep you full for a longer period of time.

Related Article: 5 Functions Of Fat In The Diet

Eating carbs is not a problem at all. You can eat up to 40–50% of calories from it if you want to, or you can cut it down to about 20%. It all depends on what your body is genetically predisposed to.

I know I do well when I eat no more than 300 grams, even when I am on a lean bulk. Just make sure that your carb sources are complex in nature, like brown rice, potatoes, quinoa, etc and not refined. Fruits are ok, as the simple sugars in them are released slowly due to the added fiber in them.

The last part of the equation is your veggies. You need micro-nutrients.

Muscle building is a very complex process that requires vitamins and trace minerals to complete. And if you don’t have your veggies, especially the green ones like broccoli and spinach, it hinders the muscle-building process. I would recommend you eat at least 1 lb+/day of raw salads every day.

On the exercise front, you really need to work hard to stimulate your muscle. Most people don’t have the drive or intensity to push heavy weights. Sure, one can do ego lifting on a leg press machine by using up all the plates in the gym, but when it comes to doing barbell squats, deadlifts, standing military presses or even weighed pull-ups, most people shy away!

So this, my friend, is the ‘healthiest’ way to bulk.

I have gained 40 lbs or so. But it has taken me a long time due to the mistakes I made, but now, I have corrected them, and most of my gains have only come in the last few years, and I ain’t stopping before I gain another 20!

I applaud you for this reading this, as educating and empowering oneself is the first step in achieving anything in life.

All the best!