Post by Troyster on Aug 10, 2004 12:18:03 GMT -5
Much of this is my opinion, from experience, so take it as you will
First off, for those who are new to the concept, "bulking" means to "build up" or "put on" muscle with less concern or emphasis placed on looking lean (we'll get into why this is done below). "Cutting" means to diet down and remove all the fat from your body to show your muscle definition.
Why bulk?
First there are a couple things to consider. This is a very important concept to grasp if you want to gain size (be that fat or muscle) you have to eat more calories than it takes to maintain a certain size. In other words, if you wanna' be big, you have to eat big. If you wanna' be small, eat small. For the most part, WHAT you eat will affect what type of mass you will put on.
One of the age-old proverbs is "all things in moderation"... well, if you want to be a "moderate" person, this is true; if you wanna' be BIG, this is BS
The human body is more capable of packing on muscle while it's slightly "chubbier". Why this is, I don't know, nor do I care I only know this is a fact and you'll find lots of research on the web. I'm not a scientist, so the question of WHY doesn't interest me, only the fact that it's the case. In addition, as you gain muscle, you will gain a certain degree of fat. It comes with the territory.
Now, I want to make clear right here that I'm talking a few lbs of extra weight. Many of us BBers get carried away with it and use it as an excuse to get plain old fat (I'm bulking). That's not what I'm talking about, what I MEAN is a few extra lbs in the offseason (this is also important before you do a "cutting" diet) will allow you to build muscle much quicker and much heavier.
What's the way to bulk?
Increase your calories but in a smart way. I read too many nonsense posts about eating everything in site from Mac D's to pints of icecream. That's just silly.
If you're serious about putting on some muscle mass, here's my suggestions (note that there are many ways to approach this with bulking diets -- I'm not going to get into diets, there are a few different methods a few of us use here and we'll save that discussion for other threads -- these are just some guidelines) -- these apply to both cutting and bulking, for the most part:
- whether you're bulking or cutting, you have to start looking at eating differently, you have a specific purpose now in eating. Remember that eating, even on a cutting diet, for bodybuilding will seem like massive amounts of food. Because the food is generally "clean" you have to eat so much more of it to get enough calories (thus, you're getting more building materials into your system for your body to work with).
- Eat every two to three hours to split up the food across the day over six meals, or more if that's what you need to do to get it all in.
- Prepare your meals in advance so you're never faced with the question: what should I eat? That should never be a question, if you're really committed. When it's time to eat, just eat.
- Like training, you have to stop asking yourself how you "feel" about it and just "do" (or "eat" in this case ).
- Stop thinking of food in terms of the general public... as something good, comforting, satisfying, etc. and start thinking of food in terms of building materials for your goals. Not taking in the proper materials, in the proper amounts = not reaching your goals... how bad do you wanna' get there?
- whatever your diet approach, buy a scale, use it and record what you ate. It's the only way to make adjustments.
You've heard the term "lean bulking"? That's what this is... it doesn't mean you keep dieting and you get big, it means you eat lots and sacrifice a bit of leanness to get big and pack on muscle.
Cutting
Here's the most important concept to grasp with cutting... hope you're listening cause most people don't get this, and I work with a lot of people... No matter what condition you're in, how much you've lifted (or not), no matter how fat or small you are, you can get ripped -- even if you've never been in a gym. The general public seems to think that the more you work a muscle, the more it "shows" so therefore if you see a "ripped" person, they have been working out like crazy... I'll say it again, this is not the case.
Dieting alone will reveal your muscles. How big they are will be determined by how much you've been in a gym... did you grasp that? Abs, for example, look the same on a person who's never worked them as they do on a bodybuilder (yes, of course the bodybuilders are bigger)... what I'm getting at here, is that each muscle has a specific shape. Most people can't see that shape cause it's covered by water and fat. But it's there. It was there from birth. What we do as bodybuilders is make them larger. You can never change the shape you were born with, you can only make the muscles bigger. Are you grasping this yet? Back to abs: the washboard look is the natural shape of the abs... you don't sort-of create that look by working the abs. You make them bigger, for sure, but the washboard look of your abs is how you were born my friend (barring any physical defects). So it's not like the bodybuilder started out without those shapely muscles and then built them, he just made them bigger and dieted away the fat that surrounds them to make them visible.
So this is cutting, removing the layer of fat that is hiding your muscles. It is not, as I've tried to explain above, building the muscle so big that you bring it through the fat layer. Rather, you remove the fat layer. Basically it's getting your calories under the amount required to maintain a bodyweight. No matter which technique you use to diet down, I submit to you that it's very important to not lose more than 2 lbs of weight per week (that's all the fat the body is capable of burning without burning some muscle too)... yes, the body WILL use muscle too, that's why it's SO crucial to have a proper dieting plan.
As I mentioned above, no matter whether you're bulking or cutting, have a plan, stick to it and prepare your meals ahead of time!! That's where everyone falls down, on the cutting diets especially. I find the easiest way to do this is to cook in bulk... I throw on a whole BBQ full of chicken breasts and turn on the rice steamer every second night or so and rely on frozen veggies. I throw it all the fridge and prepare the meals each morning to weight.
I mentioned above that changing what you eat, as well as the amount or calories, determines what type of diet you're on:
- when cutting, you want to remove all the things from your diet that can make you hold water, fat, etc. Being super-strict will produce the results you're looking for. Again, there are many approaches so you'll have to work on a specific diet plan with someone. Also, there are different cutting goals as well. A BB competitor is going to have a much much more strict approach than someone just wanting to lose a bit of excess "chub".
- when bulking, it's important to get in good foods, but to include lots of dairy, red meats, good fats, lots of fruit and veggies. I personally also believe it is absolutely crucial to have a cheat meal or two each week where you eat anything you want, just till you're full (and it does not replace your good food -- you still gotta' get that in too ).
Well, there's so much more I want to say but I've taken up enough space. I'd appreciate any comments and am very keen on discussion, so please... discuss Questions? ;D
By the way, while I was making breakfast and taking photos of it the other day, my wife was packing up lunches:
members.shaw.ca/troysters_pix/prepping food.jpg[/img]
members.shaw.ca/troysters_pix/Meals for the day.jpg[/img]
T
First off, for those who are new to the concept, "bulking" means to "build up" or "put on" muscle with less concern or emphasis placed on looking lean (we'll get into why this is done below). "Cutting" means to diet down and remove all the fat from your body to show your muscle definition.
Why bulk?
First there are a couple things to consider. This is a very important concept to grasp if you want to gain size (be that fat or muscle) you have to eat more calories than it takes to maintain a certain size. In other words, if you wanna' be big, you have to eat big. If you wanna' be small, eat small. For the most part, WHAT you eat will affect what type of mass you will put on.
One of the age-old proverbs is "all things in moderation"... well, if you want to be a "moderate" person, this is true; if you wanna' be BIG, this is BS
The human body is more capable of packing on muscle while it's slightly "chubbier". Why this is, I don't know, nor do I care I only know this is a fact and you'll find lots of research on the web. I'm not a scientist, so the question of WHY doesn't interest me, only the fact that it's the case. In addition, as you gain muscle, you will gain a certain degree of fat. It comes with the territory.
Now, I want to make clear right here that I'm talking a few lbs of extra weight. Many of us BBers get carried away with it and use it as an excuse to get plain old fat (I'm bulking). That's not what I'm talking about, what I MEAN is a few extra lbs in the offseason (this is also important before you do a "cutting" diet) will allow you to build muscle much quicker and much heavier.
What's the way to bulk?
Increase your calories but in a smart way. I read too many nonsense posts about eating everything in site from Mac D's to pints of icecream. That's just silly.
If you're serious about putting on some muscle mass, here's my suggestions (note that there are many ways to approach this with bulking diets -- I'm not going to get into diets, there are a few different methods a few of us use here and we'll save that discussion for other threads -- these are just some guidelines) -- these apply to both cutting and bulking, for the most part:
- whether you're bulking or cutting, you have to start looking at eating differently, you have a specific purpose now in eating. Remember that eating, even on a cutting diet, for bodybuilding will seem like massive amounts of food. Because the food is generally "clean" you have to eat so much more of it to get enough calories (thus, you're getting more building materials into your system for your body to work with).
- Eat every two to three hours to split up the food across the day over six meals, or more if that's what you need to do to get it all in.
- Prepare your meals in advance so you're never faced with the question: what should I eat? That should never be a question, if you're really committed. When it's time to eat, just eat.
- Like training, you have to stop asking yourself how you "feel" about it and just "do" (or "eat" in this case ).
- Stop thinking of food in terms of the general public... as something good, comforting, satisfying, etc. and start thinking of food in terms of building materials for your goals. Not taking in the proper materials, in the proper amounts = not reaching your goals... how bad do you wanna' get there?
- whatever your diet approach, buy a scale, use it and record what you ate. It's the only way to make adjustments.
You've heard the term "lean bulking"? That's what this is... it doesn't mean you keep dieting and you get big, it means you eat lots and sacrifice a bit of leanness to get big and pack on muscle.
Cutting
Here's the most important concept to grasp with cutting... hope you're listening cause most people don't get this, and I work with a lot of people... No matter what condition you're in, how much you've lifted (or not), no matter how fat or small you are, you can get ripped -- even if you've never been in a gym. The general public seems to think that the more you work a muscle, the more it "shows" so therefore if you see a "ripped" person, they have been working out like crazy... I'll say it again, this is not the case.
Dieting alone will reveal your muscles. How big they are will be determined by how much you've been in a gym... did you grasp that? Abs, for example, look the same on a person who's never worked them as they do on a bodybuilder (yes, of course the bodybuilders are bigger)... what I'm getting at here, is that each muscle has a specific shape. Most people can't see that shape cause it's covered by water and fat. But it's there. It was there from birth. What we do as bodybuilders is make them larger. You can never change the shape you were born with, you can only make the muscles bigger. Are you grasping this yet? Back to abs: the washboard look is the natural shape of the abs... you don't sort-of create that look by working the abs. You make them bigger, for sure, but the washboard look of your abs is how you were born my friend (barring any physical defects). So it's not like the bodybuilder started out without those shapely muscles and then built them, he just made them bigger and dieted away the fat that surrounds them to make them visible.
So this is cutting, removing the layer of fat that is hiding your muscles. It is not, as I've tried to explain above, building the muscle so big that you bring it through the fat layer. Rather, you remove the fat layer. Basically it's getting your calories under the amount required to maintain a bodyweight. No matter which technique you use to diet down, I submit to you that it's very important to not lose more than 2 lbs of weight per week (that's all the fat the body is capable of burning without burning some muscle too)... yes, the body WILL use muscle too, that's why it's SO crucial to have a proper dieting plan.
As I mentioned above, no matter whether you're bulking or cutting, have a plan, stick to it and prepare your meals ahead of time!! That's where everyone falls down, on the cutting diets especially. I find the easiest way to do this is to cook in bulk... I throw on a whole BBQ full of chicken breasts and turn on the rice steamer every second night or so and rely on frozen veggies. I throw it all the fridge and prepare the meals each morning to weight.
I mentioned above that changing what you eat, as well as the amount or calories, determines what type of diet you're on:
- when cutting, you want to remove all the things from your diet that can make you hold water, fat, etc. Being super-strict will produce the results you're looking for. Again, there are many approaches so you'll have to work on a specific diet plan with someone. Also, there are different cutting goals as well. A BB competitor is going to have a much much more strict approach than someone just wanting to lose a bit of excess "chub".
- when bulking, it's important to get in good foods, but to include lots of dairy, red meats, good fats, lots of fruit and veggies. I personally also believe it is absolutely crucial to have a cheat meal or two each week where you eat anything you want, just till you're full (and it does not replace your good food -- you still gotta' get that in too ).
Well, there's so much more I want to say but I've taken up enough space. I'd appreciate any comments and am very keen on discussion, so please... discuss Questions? ;D
By the way, while I was making breakfast and taking photos of it the other day, my wife was packing up lunches:
members.shaw.ca/troysters_pix/prepping food.jpg[/img]
members.shaw.ca/troysters_pix/Meals for the day.jpg[/img]
T