Bulking Guide, Part 1.

There as many ways to bulk as there are to skin a cat: 4. Actually there’s a metric crap-ton of ways, but here’s the most well-known ways.

1. Eat everything. Pizza, hamburgers, take-out, etc. Do no conditioning work and no cardio. Nutrition stays the same on off days as it does on days you workouts. 6000, 7000,8000 calories even can be the norm here. You will gain lean mass. You will gain even more fat. Think GOMAD & fast food.



2. Eat like this:

This was actually the first step of a cut. I was over 5000 calories using whole milk instead of the 2%. I didn’t eat garbage foods, and I still did some conditioning work. You’ll still gain a ton of fat this way though.

3. Eat selectively; increasing macros based on if you’re working out on a given day or not, and even basing it on what part of your body you’re working on a day.

4. Eat slightly more than usual, say a 100 or 200 calorie surplus primarily from protein and some extra carbs, stay disciplined, do this year round. It'll take a while but over the years you'll slowly put on mass.

This guide focuses on #3 in the preceding list; the others are fine, but 1 & 2 are pretty simple. In fact you could probably modify amounts seen in the above screen shot to fit your own caloric needs and have a pretty simple guide for a semi-dirty bulk. #4 is also ok, but most people I’ve spoken to are interested in making gains quicker than that strategy would allow. #3 is what people call a tactical or strategic bulk, and that’s what the rest of this guide will be devoted to.

I’m not going to go into great depths here about insulin and the mechanics behind it, but it is something that will help you understand the rest of what follows here. Insulin is a storage hormone, and when it’s circulating in your blood your body will take glucose out of circulation and either dump it in fat cells, or as glycogen (fuel for your muscles to do work) in muscles or your liver. Basically when glucose levels in your blood rise above a certain point (100mg/dl) your pancreas releases insulin which then pulls that glucose out of the blood and deposits it in one of the aforementioned spots. The fortunate part is that if muscle & liver glycogen are depleted raised insulin levels will not result in glucose being converted to fat. This is because your body will top off your muscle & liver glycogen stores first. Conversely, when insulin levels are low tissue is more likely to be broken down, and fat is your body’s first source of fuel.

Fortunately, manipulating this is not rocket surgery; the centerpiece of a strategic bulk is your carbohydrate intake. When you ingest carbohydrates they ultimately get broken down and enter the bloodstream as glucose. So if you want to put on weight while keeping your fat accumulation to a minimum you need make sure that the carbohydrates you consume are being used for something, and not just stored as fat. In this case that really only means three things: stopping catabolism after sleeping, being used as fuel pre-workout, or being used to raise insulin levels post-workout and shuttling glucose to your muscles. Let’s cover these three now.


1) Breakfast: When you get up in the morning you’ve been fasting for several hours, at least eight if you’re doing it right. Your insulin levels at this point are the lowest they will be all day, and you are at the highest risk for catabolism. Your liver has also spent the night pulling glycogen out of its stores to make sure that your blood sugar stays stable and doesn’t murder you while you sleep. What this means is that carbohydrates you ingest with breakfast are going to help get your insulin up which stops the catabolic cycle that occurs when you sleep, and those carbohydrates are most likely going to restore glycogen in your liver and not be stored as fat.

2) Pre-Workout: The 2nd time in which you can safely consume carbohydrates is prior to working out. Your body is going to need fuel for the battering you’re about to put your muscles through. In this case consuming some complex carbohydrates and finishing them up about an hour – 45 minutes before hitting the gym is going to result in your body using the byproducts of those carbs mostly as fuel for the workout as opposed to storing them as fat.

3) The final area in which carbohydrates can safely be consumed is post workout. So you’ve gone ahead and put in your reps at the gym and now your glycogen stores are low, in both your liver and muscles. You also want to get protein and nutrients to the muscle tissue you just decimated in your workout. Fortunately carbohydrates help here too. Simple carbohydrates result in a quicker spike in insulin levels as they are broken down into glucose quicker. As mentioned previously insulin is the storage hormone of your body. This quick spike means that your body (your muscles) is rapidly ready to consume the protein and carbs that you take in from your post workout meal or shake. In other words those carbs aren’t going to fat either. They’re going to restore the glycogen that your muscles burned during the workout, and they’re going to result in a spike in insulin that shuttles the protein you consume into repairing and strengthening the muscles you just worked.
 

      Some people ingest simple carbohydrates while working out; this is the 4th safe time to consume carbohydrates. I’m not including it here because it shouldn’t change much if you’re cutting or bulking. Unless you want to be a complete slob. The principle here is that you’re using simple carbs mid workout because they break down rapidly and are rapidly available as ‘fuel’ for your body.