How To Build Muscle While Staying Lean

The two most common fitness goals are: To build muscle mass fast and to get skinny quickly. I don't mean how to become skinny, we are still talking about those of you that have an extra layer of body fat that want their muscle definition to show through.. The bad new is that the two goals are at opposite ends of the spectrum, so if your goal is to build muscle and
Building muscle is going to require you to take in more calories, simply put. Understand that you can't build mass out of nothing (unless of course you have some HGH or steroid help going on).

Fat Loss on the other hand is going to require you to take in less calories because that is what will get your body burning off additional body fat as fuel for its tissues.

Trying to hit both goals at the same time is never a good approach, since more than likely you will just end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

The majority of bodybuilders will have to accept some fat gain when they are trying to build muscle mass, however the actual amount of fat they gain can depend on the principles that they put in to place. This is the variable that we are aiming to influence.

Is It Possible To Build Muscle Without Gaining Body Fat?

Here's the deal... When you are trying to pack on lean muscle tissue, you can take one of the following two approaches:

Approach #1: Eat as much food as possible

Many people take this approach. They try to consume as much food as they can possibly eat. Their life suddenly becomes one long 24-hour buffet in their quest for muscle mass as they figure that eating tons of food will guarantee muscle growth.

There is a problem with this approach though. The body can only process so much muscle tissue at once, and after it has done so, any remaining calories are simply going to be stored as body fat. Plain and simple. You my friend, are no exception to the rule.
For those guys who are out there taking in five thousand or more calories per day, this is obviously going to be way more than they need and will result in a considerable amount of unwanted fat weight over a period of three to six months (how long most people will be on a muscle building phase for).

Approach #2: Moderate caloric intake

The second option is to adopt a more moderate approach and only eat so many additional calories to support this muscle growth and that's it. This will allow you to hopefully get as much lean tissue gained as possible without the accumulation of a monstrous rise in body fat.
So that leads us to the next question you're probably wondering. How much muscle can you build? How many calories over maintenance should you be eating?

You've probably already heard of the guy who claims he's added 20 pounds of muscle in the short amount of time. While this may be a very rare occurrence among an individual who is brand new to weight lifting, has insanely good genetics and utilized an excellent training and nutritional program, the fact of the matter is that most guys are simply not going to be able to come even close to adding this much muscle tissue.

A natural trained individual can hope to achieve about half a pound to one pound of muscle per week - if he's doing everything correctly. If he doesn't have the greatest genetics or isn't feeding himself optimally, this will decrease even further. So as you can see, at a measly two to four pounds of muscle growth per month, you aren't going to be needed to eat insanely high calorie intakes.

The higher your caloric intake is, the more you risk putting on excess body fat. As a general rule, keep it to about 250 to 500 calories above maintenance in hopes of putting on mostly muscle without too much body fat. Keep track of your current body fat levels and appearance and if you see that too much of your weight gain is coming on as fat mass, reduce your calorie intake slightly.

It is always best to go by REAL WORLD results since you are in the real world after all. You can read as much as you like as to how many calories you should be consuming, but this does not mean that's going to be the exact number that will guarantee results. Everyone had a different metabolic rate that will respond to an increase in calories in various ways. So as you go about your weight gain routine, adjust according to the results you are getting.

Keep this in mind - the more patient you are with your muscle tissue gains and the slower you go, the more time you can spend adding muscle tissue and the less time you have to spend dieting off the additional fat you gained.

In the end, you are better off creating a moderate caloric surplus, and not eat every single food that you see. This will limit the amount of body fat that you gain. As long as you track your progress carefully, as well as your diet, you will reach your goals.