How to bulk without gaining too much fat

How do you bulk without getting fat?

To bulk without gaining much fat, eat a small calorie surplus of about 5 to 10 percent above maintenance, gain slowly at about 0.25 to 0.5 percent of body weight a week, eat enough protein, and follow a training plan that gets progressively harder. Then check your weight trend every few weeks and adjust the surplus.

Some fat gain is a normal part of building muscle, and trying to avoid it entirely usually means not gaining at all. The aim of a lean bulk is a better ratio: more of each pound you gain should be muscle, and less of it fat you will want to lose later.

Why a big surplus mostly adds fat

Muscle can only be built so fast, and the limit is set by training and recovery, not by how much you eat. Once you eat enough to support that rate, extra calories have nowhere useful to go, so they are stored as fat. The old advice to eat everything in sight works, in the sense that the scale goes up, but much of the gain is fat.

This shows up in research. In an 8- to 12-week study of elite athletes by Ina Garthe and colleagues, a group eating about 600 calories a day more than a group eating as they liked gained more weight and much more fat, while their gains in lean mass were not significantly different. In the short term, the extra food mostly bought extra fat.

How big should your calorie surplus be?

A review of bodybuilding nutrition by Juma Iraki and colleagues suggests a surplus of about 10 to 20 percent for newer and intermediate lifters, and less for advanced ones. If your priority is keeping fat gain small, start at or below the bottom of that range: 5 to 10 percent above maintenance, or 150 to 300 calories a day for most people, about the size of a glass of milk and a banana. You can always add more if the scale does not move.

• Less than a year of consistent lifting: around 10 percent, or a little more. Muscle comes fastest at this stage, so a larger surplus is put to use.
• One to three years: around 5 to 10 percent.
• Several years of serious training: 5 percent or less. Progress is slow, and a large surplus mostly adds fat.
• Worked example: a 25-year-old man, 5 feet 10 inches and 165 pounds, who lifts four days a week, has a maintenance of about 2,700 calories. A 10 percent surplus puts his target near 2,950 calories, which works out to roughly half a pound a week.

How fast should you gain weight on a lean bulk?

The same review recommends gaining about 0.25 to 0.5 percent of body weight a week for newer and intermediate lifters, and less for advanced ones. For a 165-pound person that is 0.4 to 0.8 pounds a week, or roughly 2 to 3.5 pounds a month. If you are gaining a pound or more a week after the first few weeks, the surplus is almost certainly too big.

Expect a quick jump at the start. In the first week or two of eating more, the scale often rises by 1 to 3 pounds because your muscles store more glycogen and water and there is more food in your gut. That is not fat. Judge the rate from about week three, using weekly averages rather than single weigh-ins, the same way you would in a calorie deficit.

How much protein do you need to build muscle?

Around 0.7 grams per pound of body weight a day (1.6 grams per kilogram) covers most people. A large review of protein studies in lifters by Robert Morton and colleagues found that the benefit to muscle gain leveled off at about that intake. Going up to 1 gram per pound (2.2 grams per kilogram) gives you a margin and does no harm for healthy adults.

Spread it over three or four meals of 25 to 40 grams each. Protein is cheaper than most people expect: eggs, milk, lentils, canned fish and chicken thighs cost far less per gram than bars and shakes. Our guide to cheap high protein meals ranks the staples by cost.

What to eat on a lean bulk

A lean bulk does not need special foods, just a little more of normal ones. If your appetite is the problem, calorie-dense foods that are easy to eat help more than another chicken breast. Each of these adds roughly 100 to 200 calories, and two of them cover most surpluses:

• A cup of whole milk: about 150 calories and 8 grams of protein.
• A banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter: about 200 calories.
• An extra half cup of cooked rice or pasta: about 100 calories.
• A tablespoon of olive oil on vegetables or in a pan: about 120 calories.
• A small handful of nuts, about an ounce: about 160 to 180 calories.
• A quarter cup of granola on yogurt: about 120 to 150 calories.

Training decides where the calories go

A surplus without hard training is just weight gain. Train each muscle group at least twice a week, take most sets close to the point where you could not do another rep, and add weight or reps over time. If your main lifts are going up from month to month, the extra food is being used.

Sleep matters more than most supplements. Adults need at least seven hours a night, and short sleep makes training and recovery worse. Keep cardio too: a few sessions a week help your heart and appetite and will not stop you building muscle.

How to adjust a lean bulk and when to stop

Use two signals: your weekly average weight and your waist measured at the navel once a week. If the weight is rising at your target pace and your lifts are improving, change nothing. If your waist is growing quickly while your lifts stall, cut the surplus by 100 to 200 calories. If the scale has not moved in three weeks, add 100 to 150.

Most lean bulks run for a few months. When you are ready to stop, move to maintenance for a while rather than jumping straight into a deficit, using the same steps as going from a deficit to maintenance in reverse.

In BiteTracker, set a goal weight above your current weight and the calorie calculator adds a small surplus to your target. When your target sits 200 to 500 calories above your estimated burn, the weekly report reads your plan as a lean bulk and compares the weight you gained with the gain it projected.