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How to Lean Bulk Without Getting Fat

More muscle and less fat? Yes, please.

New year, new fitness goal? One of the biggest difficulties for athletes is how to lean bulk without getting fat. Find out below.

Getting stronger without getting fat. A goal most people have in common, though not easy to achieve. However, the Buff Dudes shared some tips on how to get to lean bulk without getting fat.

The Buff Dudes is a YouTube channel with over 2.5 million subscribers. Despite the name of the channel, brothers Hudson and Brandon White are not your stereotypical bro-gym. They deliver clear information with a good background story while poking fun at how buffed they are.

In one of his videos, they tackled the idea of trying to put as much lean body mass without gaining too much fat. “If you are trying to build lean muscle mass, you’re going to have to know more than just what it says on the scale,” says Brandon White.

How to Lean Bulk Without Getting Fat

Know Your Body Composition

Before you start preparing to build lean muscle mass, you need to know and measure your body composition. That means knowing your body fat percentage, photos of your body to see the progress, body circumferences such as your neck, arms and waist.

Calculate Your Calories and Macros

The BMR (basal metabolic rate), which calculates the amount of energy your body needs to function while resting, will not be useful as most people would think on how to lean bulk without getting fat. For that, you need to know your TDEE, the total daily energy expenditure.

Around 500 calories a day above maintenance, which means for most people around 3,500 calories per day that you will need to eat to be able to lean bulk.

After that, you need to calculate your macros. “This can be a little bit of a trial and error,” says Brandon, “but making sure you track what you eat and the percentages that you have are really gonna tell what works best for you.”

volumetrics diet

Buy the Correct Food for You

The macro intake is different for each person and whatever your macros are, it should dictate what you buy at the grocery shop. If you need to add fat to your daily intake, you can go for salmon, steak, or avocados. On the opposite spectrum, you should buy more lean meat such as chicken and turkey.

Brandon eats 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat. Eating well in every meal you make is very important, he reminds everyone. “When you’re eating that much, you want to make sure to keep it not only simple but healthy as well.”

Have a Workout Strategy

“Compound exercises are really the best bang for your buck,” Brandon says. When eating more than usual, you have a lot of fuel in your body and you need to make sure that fuel is being put to good use, hence the compound movements.

“Compounds take priority over isolations [movements] especially if you are trying to gain that quality muscle size and strength. Only after that, you can supplement with isolation exercises in movements,” Brandon says.

how to lean bulk without getting fat

If you are a beginner, the buff dude suggests full body compound movements three days a week, much like a 5 x 5 training program.

After that, you can start experimenting with supersets, drop sets, different techniques with other isolation movements. Just make sure you hit the gym harder than you are used to because you have that extra fuel in your body. “You want to increase your training intensity as you bulk. That’s going to make sure you put on that quality muscle size and keep the fat off.”

Recover Properly

You don’t grow your muscles during your workouts, but rather while you are resting and your muscle tissues who have been damaged are healing and getting bigger.

Besides a good night sleep, you can use a foam roller to get a better flow into your muscle so they can repair properly. Make sure you are stretching and hydrating properly as well.

Read More: Top Training Programs to Gain Size and Mass

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