How to Bulk Without Getting Fat

Cristopher Cristia Bodybuilding: ‘As a lifelong bodybuilder, I understand the importance of committing yourself to the process. Bodybuilding is like an artist sculpting a statue – we sculpt out bodies to achieve our bodybuilding goals.’

Bulking & Cutting

Bodybuilders face two simultaneous challenges:

• Bulking (building muscle mass)
• Cutting (losing body fat)

It looks like these processes pull against one another: bulking adds muscle but necessarily adds a portion of body fat and cutting loses body fat but in the process removes muscle mass too.

So the question does today’s bodybuilding process allow for successful bulking and still cutting fat?

In this blog, I am going to share what I call clean bulking techniques that I have used to get big while still maintaining low body fat levels.

Cristopher Crista – Clean or Dirty

Let’s start by explaining the difference between clean bulking and dirty bulking so there is absolutely no confusion:

Clean bulking is a bodybuilding process where the bodybuilder chooses to bulk up by including a surplus of nutritionally beneficial calories in their diet program. Typical foods in a clean bulk include:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Lean meats
• Salmon
• Eggs

On the other hand, dirty bulking really just means a lazy type of diet where anything goes as long as it is calorific. A typical dirty bulk diet can include:

• Noodles
• Whey
• Donuts
• Junk food
• Pizza

Christopher Copernicus Cristia Recommends Excess 500 Calorie Surplus Daily

For a newbie or a builder who is beginning the path to bulking and cutting a calorific excess of 500 calories is a good starting point to promote healthy muscle gain.

The majority of this diet should be made up of calorific and nutritionally-packed whole foodstuffs, such as brown rice, nuts, pulses, lean red meats, salmon, fruit, avocados, healthy cereals, whole eggs, and full-fat dairy products.

Everyone is Not Equal

Different people process food with differing degrees of efficiency so it is important to learn about your own metabolism and how your body processes food. Especially in the early stages, check your body weight every week so that you can know if you are putting on weight and if so by how much.

For example, if your weight remains the same for 2 weeks running then try increasing your excess calories by an additional 250 to make a total of 750. However, do remember that this is a non-specific guideline only.

Once you have gained weight your calorific requirements will again require to be altered. Consider it – now your body requires a larger amount of nutrients in order to maintain your new size – and you will require your excess intake on top too.

If the gain becomes leveled out then what you have to do is recalculate a basic calorific requirement then ass the 250 calorie excess on top so that your growth can be recharged.

Know Your Body

From the beginning, it is vital to keep track of progress. The goal here is to keep all the gains lean and for this to happen you need these gains to be slow, no more than between ½ - 1 pound every week.

If you gain too quickly you are in danger of adding too much fat and if progress is not monitored you will not notice whether you are gaining weight at all and if you are the cutting technique is working successfully.

Cristopher Cristia – eat enough to gain bulk but not fat

Science says if you eat more calories than you burn then you will gain – but what will you gain? You have to gain in the right way to ensure you gain muscle bulk and cut out any fat. Don’t be fooled into trying the old technique of either:

• Not eating enough (you will win on the cutting)
• Doing too much cardio (you won’t gain fat but you will lose out on bulking which is the object of the exercise)

Equally, if you eat too much you will gain weight but that is likely to be only fat and not muscle mass. The best way to successful bulking whilst still cutting fat is to maintain a clean bulk diet program and run a cardio program in tandem to maintain a healthy heart.

Cristopher Cristia recommends the following program to help you do this whilst bulking (and this should always be done on a rest day): 30-minute session 3 times a week

Remember the importance of cardiovascular exercise

• Cardiovascular training burns fat and helps
• Strengthen the heart
• Increases lung capacity
• Helps reduce the risk of:

1. Heart attack
2. High cholesterol
3. High blood pressure
4. Diabetes

Bodybuilding involves endurance and requires strength and can be taxing. Having a strong heart helps you train more efficiently and more safely. If you are fit you will burn more fat than you would do if you are unfit. Working cardio whilst bulking does a long way to help the bodybuilder stay lean.

Cristopher Cristia’s 3 Failsafe Ways to Building Your Perfect Body

Check Your Strength

Muscle gain = strength

Never Underestimate the Importance of R&R

Your body grows all the time; when you sleep, when you work your job, when you play with your kids or walk the dog. Your gym time is the motivation for your muscles to grow but if the body does not get enough rest and recovery time the results will suffer.

A good weight training program requires you to work out 4 times a week – MAX! But friends make every second of those workouts count!

Go Clean

Clean bulking is healthier, safer and kinder to your body and offers a regulated, steady increase in quality muscle mass and cutting over a relatively short period of time.

Because the meals are planned ahead and with the overall aim being to reduce fat gain to the absolute minimum whilst advancing towards the growth of muscle; by the end of the bulking period you will have a sizeable reduction in fat to shed during cutting.