ABS

“The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow”

If you wish to build huge muscles without gaining stubborn fat, you’ve reached to the right place pal! This guide consists of exclusive information that I have procured through my bodybuilding experience. On following some very simple steps and understanding some basic rules in the guide will let you build a physique you were dreaming of till now.

In this guide, you’ll find

• The ultimate combination of massive strength work, higher-rep, muscle building exercises, and even cardio to enhance your muscle building without gaining fat.
• The ultimate four models that’ll highlight how muscle fiber you can build naturally.
• Ways to build lean muscle with minimum fat gain.

Hint:- Avoid the dirty junkies, Follow a modest caloric surplus, and stick to the step-by-step plan we outline instead.

I would urge you to motivate yourself before reading this blog, generate a bit of boost, pump yourself with some pushups or bicep curls whatever BECAUSE this is going to be the most essential blog you’ll ever read on how to build lean muscle without gaining the extra stubborn fat.

MY EXPERIENCE!

Let me take you back to the time when I was 33 and 73kg. I was already consuming 3000 calories is looking forward to taking another 2500 calories. I was enslaved of the dirty-bulk and the seafood diet. I ate everything! And made a commitment to devour everyday calorie no matter what!

The conception behind all this pathetic activity was “the more you eat, the more muscles you build,” which was absolutely wrong!

I relentlessly wanted to be stronger, bigger, muscular and healthier. I changed my physical routine completely. I stopped playing basketball and football and focused only on eating stuff and lifting heavy weight.

But very soon, after following the above-mentioned strategy (the more you eat the more you build muscles) I felt extremely sick! My stomach ached. From drinking so many dairy-based proteins shakes I discovered I’m lactose intolerant (from my DNAFit test). I remember I spent my whole winter break in the doc’s office trying to see what is going on with my gut, and why I kept on farting! MY GUT HURT!

However, I was making progress; I was achieving what I was looking for; after a few months, I weighed around 85kg

But, the problem was that, instead of being healthy, lean and strong, I felt and looked like a crap.

And I had recognized that I’ve made a big mistake! But, the point is that I was not alone in this.

After a little research, I got to know that, most of the skinny guys make the same mistake; trying to gain too much weight as quick as possible.

Here’s what you should learn from my experience

Don’t be deceived by flashy ads and absurd promises. You’ll end up being a fat ass having man boobs than bulging biceps.

You can do better than this, you should do better than this and it all starts with setting practical expectations on how much muscle you can get build without getting fat.

You need to take into the account the physical possibility before setting up any goal. Here’s what I mean “an average guy shouldn’t expect to eat, train and look like a stage-ready bodybuilder.

FORGET THE SCALE WEIGHT (The most Prior and the most important)

Here’s the thing; both the anxious bulkers and those struggling to lose weight obsess over scale weight are wrong!

Keep in mind that our goal is to build lean muscle, not weight!

The great Vince Gironda says “If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, what difference does it make what the scale says?”

The mirror is the best judge you meet every day, not the number on the scale.

To all the folks who wish to build big ass muscle and look great, it’s all about getting lean first. The ideal is 10% body fat or lower. Achieve this and you will competently build more muscle, ultimately, end up in looking great!

Be realistic about your goals and expectations if you are a skinny-limbed dude.

Can you really expect to build the body of an NFL running back? An average 5’-6” – 6’-0” guy weighing 165-185 lbs with 8-12% body-fat looks much better and muscular than the guy weighing 200 lbs with 15% (or more) body-fat.

I would urge you guys to ‘take measurements’ instead of looking at the scale. Note down measurements of your chest, waist, arms, thighs etc. every two weeks. Take a few snaps of yourself too to track your progress.

You see, the scale seldom tells you the full story. However, the fusion of measurements, snaps and the scale portrait a clear picture.

Before setting any goals, you should consider the following;

Many folks see the professional athletes on the social media or on magazine covers and decide, “This is the kind of physique I want, and that’s how I wanna look like!” Here’s the thing, it’s great to set pro examples and inspirations, there is no problem in that, but you must understand the following three aspects that make these individuals a little different.

• THEY ARE COMPLETELY INTO BUILDING THEIR BODIES. Everyone has got priorities in life, you must have too. The pros in this race are completely focused on eating, sleeping and training their bodies to be in great shape. This is the kind of luxury most busy men and women with a 9-5 job, lack.
• Most of the People I know from the bodybuilding industry use Performance-enhancers.
• Let me get this straight, most of the professional athletes and bodybuilders are genetically superior. They are the exception, and shouldn’t be the expectation of yours. Trying to equalize genetic outliers is a mug’s game. Never do that!

However, still, the question remains i-e “how much muscle can you build naturally without getting stubborn fat?”

HOW MUCH MUSCLE YOU CAN BUILD.

You are the average person with a family and obligations outside of eating, sleeping and flexing your muscles. Here are some of the leading models from the reliable authorities to explain how much muscle you can gain.

MODEL NO. 1 ALAN ARAGON

A renowned researcher and author named Alan Aragon who runs the famous “Alan Aragon Research Review” has formulated a model that provides a clear-cut breakdown of the maximum rate of muscle gain. Here it is!

For Example; George is 25 years old person who hasn’t seen dumbbells since high school. Let us say that he weighs 140 pounds.

An Year Later

140lbs x .0125% = 1.75 pounds per month = 21 pounds per year.

If George takes sufficient calories, works-out 3-5 times per week, and sleeps 6-8 hours every night, then he might gain about 21 pounds in a single year.

Two Years Later

161 lbs X .0075% = 1.2lbs per month or 14 pounds in a year. George is still gaining at a remarkable rate and showing great progress.

Three Years Later

175 lbs x 0.0037 = 0.65lbs of muscle per month, or 7.7 pounds in a year.

This puts George at the maximum weight of 182 or 183 pounds. Obviously, he might continue to gain muscle after this, but it will be slow as compared to the previous years.

The bottom line is that the potential of your muscle to grow decreases each year you train. Progress slows and tops out around 40-50 pounds of lean muscle total.

MODEL NO. 2; The Lyle McDonald Genetic Muscular Potential Model

Another renowned author and researcher professionally known as the head honcho at” Body Re-composition” has got the same views and agrees quite much with the Aragon’s model.

The rate of lean muscle growth slows down dramatically as you continue to train for a longer time. There’s a cap of 40-50 pounds of lean muscles for men, just like Aragon’s model. The cap for ladies is approximately 20 pounds. Your age also plays an important part. A 30-40-year-old adult will struggle to gain as fast as compared to the 18 years old dude with the raging bull’s testosterone.

According to Lyles, “After seeing a pro bodybuilder stepping on stage at 260 pounds or more and shredded, the idea that a natural may top out at 180-190 pounds of lean body mass (if that) can be disheartening.

Of course, to the general public, an individual at a lean 180-190 pounds is still pretty enormous.  It’s just that compared to the absurd size of a pro bodybuilder, it seems absolutely tiny. But it is a reality.”

The bottom line is that there’s a heck of a chance, you can look your best between 165-185 lbs, but not at the size of a professional. Lyle’s model shows us that our muscle growth gets slower and slower as soon as your initial training starts. So, according to this model males can expect to gain 35-50 pounds only if they start lifting at their hormonal peak in young adulthood without any drugs. The females, about half of that.

Lastly, people with bigger overall bone structure and bigger joints may have a significant genetic hormonal advantage to gain lean muscle as compared to the other skinny-limbed folks.

MODEL NO. 3; The Casey Butt Equation

Casey Butt, a Ph.D. is a body sculptor and a professional natural bodybuilder who’ve studied the body structures of thousands of bodybuilders and weightlifters to calculate the maximum muscular potential for steroid-free lifters.

His formula is quite complex and is based on the idea that bone structure plays a vital role in defining how much muscle an individual can gain. He formulated an equation, which takes into the account the measurements of your wrist and ankles and determines how much lean muscle you can gain.

The equation goes like this;

Seems terrifying right?

Without getting into the depths, the bottom line is that if you are a skinny small jointed person, like most hard-gainers you simply cannot gain or build muscle as compared to thick jointed people.

And the reason for it is that bigger jointed people have the support to build more lean muscle. Devastating right? But, you don’t worry if you are a smaller jointed person. Your muscle gains may end up dramatic and you’ll appear more muscular than your scale weight shows.

MODEL NO. 4 THE FRANCIS HOLWAY IN THE SPORTS GENE

This model, similar to the Casey Butt’s model, relates the muscular potential to bone structure. Just “like a muscle, bone responds to exercise and repeated stress.”   The repeated stresses amplify your bone’s ability to carry more muscle.

Stronger By science explains, “In measurements of thousands of elite athletes from soccer to weightlifting, judo, rugby, and more, Holway has found that each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of bone supports a maximum of five kilograms (11 pounds) of muscle. Five-to-one, then, is a general limit of the human muscle bookcase. The limit for women is closer to 4.1 to 1.”

The bottom line is that you can build bigger and denser bones to carry bigger muscles through repeated training. So, there is a possibility of getting a bigger frame through heavy lifting and training, irrespective of how much muscle your frame can support.

MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL

We get the three key points above;

1. The longer you train naturally, the potential to muscle growth decreases. And, you can never have new gains forever.
2. How much muscle you can build depends completely upon your bone structure.
3. There is a limited rate of growth of muscles.

Wish to know exactly how much muscle you can build and how fast? Read below.

If you are a skinny dude then don’t use the “I’m skinny hard gainer” as an excuse. Just as I said, you can still build an impressive body!

Always focus on what actually matters;

• Training with much efforts and consistency
• Sticking to a strict muscle-building diet
• Getting enough sleep for the recovery

 

But please!

SAY GOODBYE TO THE DIRTY BULK

Among the all the dumb fitness conceptions, the classic “dirty bulk” is the one that is extremely stupid. That’s just a proclamation due to too much competition. In the classic dirty bulk, you’ll end up in devouring all the crappy fast food and weight gainer shakes like it’s going out of style. It is based upon consuming more calories to gain as much size as possible. And guess what, you’ll gain plenty of muscle, but, much of it will be fat! What’s the point in bulking if you look like a fat ass?

You would definitely want a bigger chest, arms and muscular legs, not squishy love handles, saggy tits and a beer abdomen.

Why should you always avoid the classic dirty bulk? Here are the 5 main reasons for it, suggest what to do instead to get jacked, stay jacked and live happily ever after.

Presenting you the 5 tremendous fuck ups.

• Consumption of too many calories
• Fat Hyperplasia ( This is bad )
• Reduction in Insulin Sensitivity
• Development of Pathetic habits
• Rushing

CONSUMPTION OF TOO MANY CALORIES

To be honest, you don’t need that much amount of calories to build muscles. That only works with the heavy lifters who are on a boatload of steroids, not the average guys. Those guys are consuming around 5000+ calories per day.

Keep in mind that our body can only gain so much muscle with its natural growth mechanisms at work. By consuming around 300 – 500 calories above maintenance would be enough to gain lean muscle, excluding fat.

What are the “above maintenance calories?” Think of it as taking 1 – 2 protein shakes and a banana or two per day. That would be your “Above maintenance calories.”

Not interested in bananas? An extra sweet potato and a chicken breast each day could also work.

FAT HYPERPLASIA

Your body increases the number of fat cells your body needs for survival mechanism when you overeat. This is what we call a Fat Hyperplasia that makes it very difficult to get rid of fat going forward. What is alarming here is that these kinds of cells can never be destroyed; you can only make them smaller.

When you follow the “dirty bulk” program, you become fatter. It will make your body to store extra fat in the future. Furthermore, it will make it extremely hard to get rid of the unwanted fat in the future.

REDUCTION IN INSULIN SENSITIVITY

Your body, all the time is either burning the fat or building the muscle. And the main switch behind this is none other than “Insulin.”Insulin keeps on triggering protein synthesis, which means when you’re sensitive to the insulin it will make your body to effectively burn the stored fat and convert your food in to energy. In short, it restrains the breakdown of protein and transforms amino acids into your muscle.   

Insulin is one of the extremely powerful muscle-building hormones. But, the problem is that most people are quite undiplomatic to insulin, making them insanely impossible to build lean muscle without adding an extra tire with themselves.

You’re continuously pulverizing food to your body, when you follow a dirty bulk, ultimately, forcing insulin to work double-time. This triggers three main problems.

1). Fatigue to the digestive system by giving it no break. This will make quite difficult to digest the food you are taking in.

2). Eating consistently, especially the carb containing meals will spike your insulin repeatedly. In order to enhance the lean muscle gain without getting fat, you’ll need to spike your insulin strategically.

3). When you’re on a dirty bulk, you’re more likely to gain fat. This results in a lot of consequences like decreased levels in insulin sensitivity, eventually, making it harder to lose fat and build lean muscle.

The best option is to follow a clean diet plan what fits your own genetics.  The progress will be the best and it is a good way to build lean muscle without gaining the unwanted fat.

DEVELOPMENT OF PATHETIC HABITS

It is true that devouring mass gainer shakes and drinking a gallon of milk every day would increase your scale weight. But, if you don’t look like how you want to look like in the mirror, then the scale doesn’t matter at all.

You don’t need to say “I’m bulking bro” and eat like a spoiled six years old kid. You need to keep your eyes on your goals and understand that you shouldn’t be developing habits that may harm your body. Be the long game player.

RUSHING

Remember that, there’s a limit to how swiftly you can build muscle. More food doesn’t mean you’re building more muscle. Try to eat slightly more calories than you need, and that’s it, you are good to go. So, the bottom line is that there is a limit to the amount of muscle build at any particular time.

THE KEYS TO BUILDING MUSCLE WITHOUT GETTING FAT

In building lean muscle without getting fat, time and consistency is the main key!

Here’s how it’s done. You need to assign to a strict 3-6 month program and not a month of bulking, followed by the month of cutting.

Keep in mind that the muscle building process is slow. Assume it like gaining 2-3 lbs of muscle MAX per month with proper diet, training and rest.

Stick to the program and follow the below-mentioned things.

Here’s the list.

• Eat For a small Caloric Surplus
• Eat Everything Clean
• Eat Good amount of Protein and Relatively Good amount of Carbs
• Time Your Carbs
• Get a “Diet Week”
• Lift Heavy ass weights and Get a Pump
• Do the Accurate Kind of Cardio
• Lose redundant Fat Before You Bulk

 

1. Eat For a small Caloric Surplus

In order to keep your body weight level, you need to have a proper calorie intake. You have to eat above 400-500 calories to build good muscle. This strategy or diet plan is quite far from “the eat everything” diet that leads to gaining excessive amounts of body fat.

Question; How many calories should you eat? An answer with the simple equation is given below.

Bodyweight (lbs.) x 16 + 500 calories

So, for instance, 160 lbs x 16 + 500 = 3060 calories

What it shows that a 160 lbs dude would need around 3060 calories to build lean muscle. This number isn’t for everyone, remember it. You need to calculate this for yourself; chances are that you’ll need a little extra or less. DM if you have any questions.

You can also keep an eye on your calories with an app like “MyFitnesspal.” Be consistent with your diet plan. If you’re not noticing an increase in your weight, then be flexible, eat a banana or try drinking muscle building shakes.

Keep in mind that your body should be having more calories than you burn. Go for a slight small caloric surplus which will give your body a fuel to build muscle while restraining fat.

2. Eat Everything Clean

To be honest, you don’t need dried chicken breast and broccoli all day; there is no need to haul food containers in a cooler. However, devoting your afternoons crushing Baconators would turn you into a fat slob.

Who cares how big you are if you and your body doesn’t feel healthy. Be careful with it or else you will fail very soon in the game.

You should look for sources and the amount of protein in your foods. You can consider foods having an excess of:

PROTEIN: – Provides building blocks for muscle by producing amino acids. Eat one of the following with each meal.

-lean beef, seafood, wild game, chicken, turkey, bison, eggs, and venison.

Baked or grilled is your best bet.

FATS: – They are very important for strong hormone levels.

You’ll acquire some of your protein-containing foods. Also eat nuts, avocado, and some oils like coconut and olive oil.

CARBOHYDRATES: – Carbs are important for energy generation and discourage the breakdown of muscle tissue for energy. lessen or eliminate refined crap and most white foods, such as flour and sugar. (Rice is an exception.)

The greater part of your carbs should come from rice, potatoes, squash, oats, barley, quinoa, 100% whole wheat bread, fruits, and vegetables. These foods provide a boatload of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants for both health and performance.

3.  Eat Good amount of Protein and Relatively Good amount of Carbs

You require both protein and carbs to maximize the muscle building process. The quantity of protein you require to build lean muscle is often considerably overstated.

You only need .82g/lb. -1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Simple.

This means a 160lb man needs 131g-160g of protein per day.

Can you have more? Sure, but according to the 2011 study, Phillips and Van Loon found that .82g/lb. of body weight to be the upper limit of protein synthesis. In simple words, eating more protein won’t make any difference regarding how much muscle you build.

And, what about the carbs?

Everyone’s skipped on the low-carb bandwagon at some point. These diets work quite well for fat loss but not for building muscle.

Here’s what the problem is.

Carbohydrates are protein thrifty. This means eating carbs will secure your body from breaking down stored muscle tissue to provide energy to fuel your day.

This means consuming a moderate-high carb diet helps you maintain the lean muscle you’ve already built rather than breaking it down for energy.

In addition to that, your workouts will also suffer due to a low carb diet.

You’ll be sluggish and have terrible pumps. You’ll end up flat and disheartened, not pumped and jacked.

Carbs are your friends. They’ll spare the muscle you have, improve your workouts, and help drive nutrients into your cells to maximize lean muscle gains.

For Proteins, Eat .82g/lb. -1g/lb. of protein per pound of body weight, or 131-160g for a 160-pound person.

For Carbs, Eat 1.5-2g of carbs per pound of bodyweight to maximize lean muscle or 240-320g per day on workout days.

4. Time Your Carbs

If you want to build muscle without the filthy fat than you need to control one stubborn bastard hormone: insulin.

When you consume carbs, insulin is secreted and your body sets into a storage mode. That’s ideal for building muscle. But you don’t need to be always in storage mode or else you’ll put on fat.

What’s the solution? Cycle your carbs to manage insulin so you can put up muscle and burn fat on demand. Here’s a more simple way to carb cycling.

On work-out days, consume more carbohydrates throughout the day. Eat oatmeal in the mornings, faster-digesting carbs like rice after your workouts, rice at lunch, and sweet potatoes in the evening. To put up muscle you’ll need to enhance insulin all over the day.

On off-days, keep carbohydrates relatively lesser; such as 1-1.5g/lb. of body weight. Move most of your carbs into the afternoon and evening. This confines number of insulin spikes all over the day, aiding fat burning, preserving insulin sensitivity, and gives you sufficient carbs to build lean muscle.

As a plus, moving your carbs into the evening encourages the release of serotonin, a precursor to melatonin to enhance your sleep.

5. Take a “Diet Week”

To make the most of lean muscle while preventing fat gain you can cycle your calories to preservation for one week every six to eight weeks.

This assists you in three ways.

• A break to the digestive system. By dialing back a few hundred calories you’ll give your body time to restore.
• Improved insulin sensitivity. The more sensitive your body is to insulin the better you’ll be able to reduce fat gain.
• A much needed mental break. Eating to put up muscle is a tiring job. This break gives you the mental firepower to restore your form and come back full-speed.

What To Do:  

Multiply your bodyweight (lbs) x 16, so a 160-pound person would eat 2560 calories for one week. Then ramp your calories back up. You’ll feel revitalized, should be a little leaner, and ready to take over another sprint.

6. Lift Heavy ass weights and Get a Pump

Or else, try to do the following.

Use Compound Movements: wish for more results in a smaller time? Go for the big lifts.

They’ve been around for a long time. And the motive is quite straightforward: They work preeminent.

Lower body: squats (all forms), deadlifts, and lunges

Upper body (chest): bench press, dumbbell bench presses, dips

Upper body (shoulders): barbell shoulder presses, single arm dumbbell press, push press, seated dumbbell shoulder press

Upper body (back): barbell rows, cable rows, dumbbell rows, pull ups/chin ups, lat pull downs.

Use a variety of rep ranges: If you are going to build ‘lean’ muscle, you need diverse rep ranges to improve your potential to get stronger and improve your capacity to build muscle. What this indicates is that you need to be strong enough to lift heavy ass weights for a higher number of reps, and added volume.

Lift Heavy: Train yourself vigorously and be stronger and stronger. Your muscles necessitate what we call ‘mechanical tension’ to increase You’ll turn on more muscle fibers, which helps you get leaner and fatigue those muscle fibers to grow quicker. Get stronger on the blend of exercises with rep schemes like 5×5, 6×3, 4×6, or our favorite: the Minimalist Muscle pyramid rep schemes. 

Get a Pump: Do you feel the crazy swell (expansion or pump) in your arms after biceps curls? This is the pump, a vital constituent to building muscle.

Pick any work out and do 3-5 sets of 8-16 reps with 45-60 seconds of rest.  Lifting hard with no full rest will bestow you the muscle building pump.

Create Muscular Damage: Do you still remember the soreness after hitting legs for the first time in months, or heck, years? This is muscular damage. This kind of activates your body to send nutrients to the tear areas so they get back bigger and stronger. Use 1-2 high-rep finishers like high-rep goblet squats or bodybuilding methods for instance drop sets to finish your workouts.

7. Do The Accurate Kind of Cardio

Ignoring all cardio when you’re trying to build muscle paves the way to add fat and get out of shape. Only cardio can do but not the old one.

You should go for a walk every day. Take 15-20 minutes after dinner and go for a stroll. If your phone tracks steps, go for 8,000 steps a day for in general health.

Take 10-15 minutes twice per week and focus and execute some form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

8. Lose Redundant/Unwanted Fat before You Bulk

One of the best-kept secrets of building muscle while minimizing fat is “to get lean first.”

Surplus body fat works just like an organ pumping out vicious cytokines which increase chronic inflammation and cortisol.

Sadly, cortisol also counteracts and slows down the function of testosterone, mounting fat and making it near to impossible to build muscle.

Additionally, the more body fat you have the more likely you are to be insulin resistant. This means your body will have one hell of a time breaking foodstuff into utilizable energy for training and building lean muscle.

So here’s what you should do. If you’re a man and can’t see a spec of abdominal definition, 15% or so, or a female above 21% body fat you need to lose fat first.

If you don’t? Sure, you can gain 11 pounds, but 7 of them will be fat, not muscle.

Take 8-10 weeks and diet down first. It could be the most powerful way to build muscle instead of fat.

The Final Word On Building Muscle Without Getting Fat

There’s a limit to how much muscle you can naturally build. Your bone structure, habits, and training experience will all play a role.

You can’t expect to be the size of pro bodybuilder. In fact, it looks like you can expect to gain about 30-50 pounds of muscle if you’re a guy and half of that as a female.

But above all else, your habits in the kitchen, in the gym, and your consistency with both are what determine your results.

The good news? You’re now in control And you can do better.