How To Gain Weight While Minimizing Fat Gain?
Sep 6th, 2007 by Mehdi Tags: Build Muscle, Lose Fat, Nutrition
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Posted by Nathaniel in reply to How to Lose Fat While Building Muscle
“I’m a skinny guy who wants to gain weight. Muscle weight, not fat.
The majority of sites say that to gain weight & build muscle you need to eat and get a little fat. Then you can cut back to show your lean muscle.
Is it true you have to get chubby to gain muscle? Or is there a slow progressive way of gaining weight & building muscle while minimizing fat gains? “
Goals. Nathaniel wants to lose his skinny look by:
- Building Muscle.
- Gaining Weight.
- Minimizing Fat Gains.
Gaining weight, muscle weight, while minimizing fat gains. Let’s see how this can be done.
Building Muscle. Get stronger using strength training. This forces your body to adapt. To grow muscles. The stronger you become, the more muscular you’ll be. You’re a beginner? Get on the Beginner Strength Training Program.
Next give your muscles the food they need to recover from strength training.
- Eat. At least 18x your bodyweight in lbs. More if needed. Track your food intake using Fitday.
- Protein. 2g per bodyweight in lbs. Might seem a lot, but your muscles need it for recovery.
- Healthy food. Meats, eggs, poultry, fish, oats, whole grains, rice, healthy fats, fruits, veggies, etc…
Gaining Weight. Eat more calories than you expend and you’ll gain weight. How much extra calories do you need?
- Eat 18x your bodyweight in lbs at least.
- Weigh yourself every 7 days.
- You gain weight: keep eating the same amount of calories.
- You don’t gain weight: add 500kcal/day the next week.
You weigh 55kg. Your goal is 70kg. You need at least 2200kcal to maintain the 55kg. Add 500kcal. You gained weight? Keep eating 2700kcal. Add 500kcal if you don’t gain weight. 3000kcal - 3500kcal - 4000 kcal. Some need to eat 5000 kcal & more to gain weight.
This progressive way of adding calories will minimize fat gains. Your body has time to adapt to the increased intake of calories. Those who get very chubby often increase their calories suddenly & drastically.
Minimizing Fat Gains. Strength training will build muscle. Leading to a lower body fat. The rest is food.
- Eat. Don’t starve yourself to death.
- Eat Clean. Cut down the junk food.
- Add calories progressively. Check above.
- Cardio. 30 mins low intensity cardio post workout speeds things up.
Sites recommend first gaining weight then cutting fat because it’s simpler. To gain weight eat more or burn less calories. To lose weight eat less or burn more calories. Contradicting. It’s much easier when you focus on one goal at a time.
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Great information as usual, Mehdi. I need to do more work in the area of planning specific numbers of consumption.
I would recommend measuring your body fat, rather than using weight, to determine how much you should eat. I am trying to gain muscle weight but I am not going to sacrifice by gaining fat that I’ll want to lose later. I measure my body fat percentage each week and I know how to adjust my caloric intake based on the results. if it goes up, I need to decrease my caloric intake or increase my workout intensity. If it goes down, I should be good as long as I’m gaining weight on the scale and my lifts are not suffering, if it stays even, I’m where I want to be.
Best $25 fitness purchase I’ve made : BF measurement calipers
All the best,
Josh
Josh, planning is definitely decisive in achieving success. Having food ready, preparing food, knowing how much calories you’re getting, …
Great advice on measuring body fat using a caliper Josh. Thank you for sharing.
How come you keep saying 2 gram protein / lbs when scientific studies point to 0.8 to 1 gram/lbs as being optimal ?
1gram is minimal, not optimal. Do the test. Try 2g/lbs for 6 months & compare.
Here are some articles by Berardi:
Protein Prejudice
Protein Debate
The scientific studies to which wazzup refers involved members of the general population, who are very sedentary. The 0.8–1 gram/lb figure is the protein requirement for couch potatoes to maintain enough muscle to make the roundtrip from the lounge to the refrigerator for another can on Budweiser. Studies of athletes indicate that much higher amounts of protein are needed, especially by those engaged in strength-training, for whom amounts of up to as much as 3 g/lb have been found to be beneficial.
Hey Mehdi. I thought cardio (unless it’s HIIT) hurts you when it comes to building muscle?
Exactly Sperwer. Couldn’t say it better.
When I do cardio it’s always HIIT (using weights). But then again HIIT is very taxing on your CNS. So it gets in the way of your recovery.
Like I wrote in the article: cardio is not necessary but speeds things up. That’s it’s benefit. It has disadvantages too. Especially if you overdo it. 30mins low intensity shouldn’t be a problem, but be sure you’re eating your calories, even if your goal is to lose fat. You don’t want to lose muscle mass.
Hi Mehdi,
Great site. I’m in a bit of a different scenario and am wondering your view is. I’m roughly 74kg and am looking to maintain this weight but cut out some fat and add muscle, maybe add 2Kg of muscle eventually. I’m a tennis player so I want to improve my cardio fitness but also my explosive power. What would you recommend for the relatives amounts of strenght training versus cardio training? Also, any nutrition recommendations to maintain weight while adding muscle?
Cheers
Hi Nick,
I think Crossfit style of training would be very suitable for you. But strength is also important. if you have considerable amount of strength then you can start with plyometrics they are great way for building explosive power and getting ripped. Another thing is to use complexes like O-lift.
Start with basic only and advance slowly as they are very taxing and there is a bit greater risk of injury….
Nick,
You want to maintain weight: keep eating the same amount of calories as you’re doing know. Focus on strength training to build muscle. This will build muscle while decreasing your body fat. To further decrease your body fat eat healthy & clean food. Non processed whole food: meats, fish, eggs, healthy oils, veggies, fruits, etc…
For power include olympic lifts or as Harsh adviced below: plyometrics. Power Cleans are great to build power.
For cardio you’d benefit most from a HIIT style of training from my perspective. Tennis is often a succession of quick, short, explosive movements. You can apply HIIT to sprints or to barbell exercises.
If I’m doing cardio (low intensity) after strength training, should I try to eat between the strength trainging and cardio? Or can I just eat after I’ve finished the entire workout? Does it matter?
You don’t want a set stomach & you don’t want your body to use the food you just ate. You want it to burn fat. Eat post workout, best & easiest thing Greg.
Hey. Great information, but I am a little afraid I might be gaining too much, too fast. I swear in like 2 months I went up 23 lbs. It dosen’t seem right, considering the results of my body (which is improving, but does not seem like 23 lbs of muscle). My weight keeps going up and I’m afraid I’m going to get fat. I know muscle weighs more than fat but I don’t know…I eat about 3500 cal. a day and classify myself as a hardgainer. I work out 4 times a week, doing intense strengh training. Am I doing anything wrong? I’m only eating 80g a fat a day , at least.