How lean should i be before bulking

It then amplifies the biochemical signals that ultimately result in muscle protein synthesis. And muscle protein synthesis, in turn, leads to muscle growth. Higher testosterone also increases your levels of growth hormone. This is another key hormone that leads to higher rates of muscle protein synthesis.

Getting lean and reducing your body fat also increases your insulin sensitivity. Increased insulin sensitivity means that your muscle cells are better primed to bind with insulin, open up, and initiate the growth process. Between its effects on testosterone and insulin sensitivity, getting lean ultimately causes your body to become more efficient at building muscle. This means that for every pound you gain, a higher percentage of it will be muscle, and a lower percentage will be fat.

You might as well take advantage of this fact and get lean before you focus on building size. Getting lean before getting jacked will always yield better long-term results. If you start by cutting down, then you will reach a lower body fat percentage way sooner. On top of this, building muscle takes a lot longer than cutting fat. Our bodies are simply not naturally capable of packing on mass faster than about half a pound per week at best! However, you can cut fat as quickly as one pound per week without risking losing muscle mass.

This means you can get lean a lot faster than it takes to get bigger. So, again, why delay the gratification of looking good now? A dirty bulk is what people would consider to be eating above maintenance calories with a very flexible approach to what they eat and the most part the food choices are viewed as junk food. There are people who will make several trips to Mcdonalds daily in order to increase their calories even though the macro breakdown of these foods are not necessarily optimal for building muscle.

A clean bulk would be one in which you eat certain foods that contain a higher nutrient density lean meat, rice, potatoes, leafy green veg, nuts and fish. A lean bulk basically means you are eating just enough calories over your maintenance amount to facilitate muscle growth whilst aiming to minimize any excess body fat being gained. A lean bulk certainly takes more planning and tracking to get right however it is likely the most beneficial strategy for body composition in the modern age when tracking your macros can be as simple as scanning the food into MyFitnessPal.

The first and arguably the most important rule to follow on a lean bulk is that the calorie surplus needs to be controlled and adjusted based on scale weight. The calories needed for a lean bulk needs to be within a kcal — kcal surplus of your maintenance calories. Taking a slow and steady approach is the best way to not only minimize fat gain but also track how your body is responding to the calorie surplus which leads into making adjustments based on scale weight.

Taking a daily scale reading upon waking and tracking it across the week will let you see how you are responding to your current calories. If however you are gaining 2lbs-3lbs per week or more then this is likely not going to be muscle mass and you will need to pull back your calorie surplus to reduce this rapid weight gain. For example…. In my experience, this is an excellent approach for most people to use, and it tends to be my default recommendation.

So, the specifics mostly come down to your own preferences for how you want your body to look and what body fat percentage is acceptable and comfortable for you. Bonus : If you want a free workout for building muscle or getting lean, you can check out My 3 Most Effective Workout Routines , pick the one you like best, and then start building your ideal body faster than ever.

This would obviously include anyone who is overweight or obese, as well as anyone who is above the ideal range for bulking that we just discussed. And like I mentioned a minute ago, exactly how lean you get before making that switch depends on your personal preferences.

In addition, some people will be able to build muscle while cutting. But even outside of a traditional recomp scenario, some people are capable of losing fat and building muscle at the same time basically, the fatter and less experienced you are, the more likely it is to happen, and vice versa. So, an intelligent weight training program will be needed during this time to take advantage of that possibility. Note: my Superior Fat Loss program contains the diet and workout I recommend for this purpose.

Let me start this section off by saying that there is really only one group of people that I think a recomp is going to be ideal for.

So, for the majority of people looking to lose meaningful amounts fat and build meaningful amounts of muscle, a recomp will be a bad option for making that happen. A recomp would not be a good option for people fitting this description.

A skinny-fat beginner could actually do the same if they preferred to. Reason being, the untrained state or detrained state in the case of those returning from a layoff that these people are in primes them for rapid improvements in terms of muscle and strength gains. And this, combined with the small amount of excess body fat they have, often leads to meaningful improvements in body composition during those initial months.

Once this recomp progress begins to stall, that would be the time to switch to bulking or cutting depending on what your body fat percentage and personal preferences are at that point. Don't waste another minute of your time searching for what to do. I've already done the research for you and created step-by-step plans that work. Select your goal below I Want To Build Muscle If you want to build lean muscle without gaining excess body fat, spending all of your time in the gym, using a diet or workout that isn't customized to you, or doing myth-based nonsense that only works for people with amazing genetics, check out: Superior Muscle Growth I Want To Lose Fat If you want to lose body fat without losing muscle, feeling hungry all the time, using stupid restrictive diets, doing hours of cardio, or struggling with plateaus, metabolic slowdown, and everything else that sucks about getting lean, check out: Superior Fat Loss Facebook Twitter Pinterest 1k SHARES ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jay is the science-based writer and researcher behind everything you've seen here.

As far as fat loss goes, you need a moderate caloric deficit. This deficit can be created through diet alone, which is usually my first recommendation. One of the perks of being a semi-fat beginner. Thanks for confirming this and also on your other blog about how to cut fat without losing muscle. And not to the point of obsession, but to give myself an idea of when I eat too much or too little.

I have used your beginner workout routine and have kept a small amount of cardio in the mix. The results are crazy noticable. I am losing fat, but my body is also changing in shape in a good way. I have also started measuring myself and the inches are coming off, but my weight is not dropping too fast, only at pounds a week. Just wanted to say thank you… I talk to people and the things they say about losing weight just kill me after I have started using your site.

Its amazing how little people know about their own bodies or are willing to learn. Thank you so much for your knowledge! You rock! Awesome progress Samantha! Depends on the exact approach. Deloading while cutting is no good yes? I have been without a deload for a at least 2 months, still progressing but my joints are almost destroyed. I can hear my shoulders while benching. What do? But if you want to deload while cutting, the solution is to temporarily come out of the deficit and go back up to maintenance for a few weeks while deloading.

What do you think is the optimal length of time for each cut and bulk cycle? On average, how many weeks of each should most people aim for? How long it takes for a person to reach that bulk end point will vary based on their diet and training program and their consistency and execution of it , genetics, etc. But there are other factors involved too. For example, personal preferences. And then of course there are just different approaches to it where shorter cycles of each e.

I found that after taking a break from workingout about two months , I find that my shoulders are extremely sore. Do you have any tips? Kinda like you were when you first started working out. I understand that gaining or losing weight is simply a calories in minus calories burned equation. But what would happen if those same calories as the three Twinkies were made up of chicken breast, broccoli and quinoa?

Create a caloric deficit. Get a sufficient amount of protein and essential fatty acids, and weight train correctly. So assuming all else training, calorie intake, protein intake, etc. Well, the Twinkie vs. If one wants to increase his weight by 10 lbs. Am I to understand that as long as the ratios of protein, carb, fat, are correct, that can be accomplished, regardless of source? Basically, you need a surplus to build muscle. Once that surplus is created, those extra calories can either go towards the building of that new muscle, or towards fat storage.

This is referred to as calorie partitioning. Genetics, the size of the surplus and your training program and execution of it are the major factors influencing it. Macronutrient ratios and timing and that stuff plays a role too.

And no matter how perfectly you do everything, some fat will almost always come along with the muscle gains. Thanks for the replies and explanations. Yes, my example of 10 lbs. The individual foods might be unequal, but you can easily adjust the rest of each diet to get the total macronutrient intakes to be exactly the same. For example, twinkies have more carbs and less protein than chicken.

So, subtract x amount of carbs from the diet containing the twinkies from other carbs sources of that diet and replace it with x amount of protein. One diet may have chicken for dinner, and the other might have a twinkie for dinner.

But, both diets can still have equal totals of X protein, Y carbs and Z fat for the day. AWorkoutRoutine is the best source of information on the Internet! It compares to no other, the zenith! I currently have a 6-pack. Very good article thanks! Keep the rate of weight gain slow and gradual which means avoid anything more than a small-moderate surplus and train your ass off. Since losing fat is the thing you want to do, do it.

Create a moderate deficit, get the rest of your diet right sufficient protein, etc. Is it possible to build muscles while cutting. My diet is very high in protein, some carbs and fish oil supplements. While every week it is going down 0. Meaning, I lost 3. While i do not notice any change in the size of my muscles, a lot of friends have told me that they noticed. Is it possible? A moderate deficit, sufficient protein intake and an intelligent beginner routine focused on progression will make it happen.

I think it could be just water weight or something. Also, one more question, what do you think about diet cole and Red Bull Sugar free during cutting, do they have any bad effects for reaching cutting goals? As far as the caffeine — a lot of people in the medical community have tried very, very hard for a very, very long time to prove some sort of negative effects from caffeine, and have failed epically. So go ahead, chug all the red bull you want personally, i find it gross and prefer coffee, but to each his own.

But yes, as long as your total calorie and nutrient intake remains what it needs to be, some diet soda or red bull is fine. Hey thanks for the reply. I always must start my day with coffee and I have another cup with the pre-workout, but I like to have a red bull every once and a while.

Why is it so important to achieve a sufficient level of leanness first before adjusting your plan and putting the focus on muscle growth? If you found this article helpful, make sure to sign up for your FREE custom fitness plan below Thanks for checking out my article! If you found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow on Instagram for more daily training and nutrition tips.