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I decided to do a poll on my facebook fitness page. I wanted to know what everyone’s number one goals were. The options were as follows:
1. Gain Muscle
2. Lose Fat
3. Gain Muscle & Lose Fat
According to the results most people are looking to build muscle and lose fat. The results did not surprise me because most people that workout still need to lose 5-10 lbs of fat and gain 10 lbs of muscle if they really want to look awesome.
Mark Wahlberg Looks Awesome Here
Bulking and Cutting Cycles SUCK
The conventional approach in the fitness world is to engage in bulking and cutting cycles. This is where you would spend several months focusing on bulking up followed by a few months trying to get ripped. Unfortunately this method rarely ever works. A sustained caloric surplus eventually leads to inevitable fat gain (unless you take steroids). On the other hand dieting for an extended period of time sucks. The bulking and cutting approach is like the ultimate grind and is extremely exhausting. Your social life suffers and you have to spend a large portion of the year looking a little pudgy.
The New Way – Get Bigger and Leaner Every Week
Yes. It is possible for you to get bigger and leaner every single week. The power is in cycling calories. But first I need to introduce you to the term ‘nutrient partitioning’. Nutrient partitioning refers to where excess calories are stored. In a perfect world all excess calories would be stored into the muscles. Unfortunately this is rarely ever the case. However there are techniques and tactics to maximize nutrient partitioning. By consuming excess calories during optimal partitioning times and restricting calories the other times you can get bigger and leaner every single week.
Strength Training Increases Nutrient Partitioning
By consuming excess calories on your workout days you can maximize muscle growth. Best results are from consuming the most calories and carbohydrates in the post workout period.
The Muscle Building Effects of Calorie Restriction
Restricting calories (dieting) can create an anabolic rebound effect. This is due to the body’s response during low calories where all kinds of anabolic hormones and receptors are up regulated. As a result once you start eating normally again you will temporarily be able to partition a lot of nutrients towards building muscle.
Maximize Fat Loss from Prior Overfeeding
Eating a surplus of calories maximizes the fat loss effects of dieting. When you eat a lot your body up regulates fat burning hormones and fat burning machinery. This is the reason why most people tend to lose fat the fastest at the beginning of a diet.
Putting it Together
The first step is to determine your maintenance calories. A good estimate is 15 calories x body-weight. Example for a 150 lbs guy: 150 x 15 = 2250.
On training days (3-4x per week max) you would bump this number up by 20%. Ex: 2250 x 1.2 = 2700 calories
On rest days (3-4x per week – cardio optional) you would lower this number by 20%. Ex: 2250 x 0.8 = 1800 calories
By cycling between high calorie and low calorie days you can maximize muscle building and fat loss.
What to eat on the high calorie days
On the high calorie days I recommend eating high carb, moderate protein and low fat. Best options here are leaner cuts of meat, protein shakes, egg whites, fruits, rice, pasta, cereals…….
What to eat on the low calorie days
On the low calorie days I recommend going high protein, moderate fat and low carb. Having plenty of protein on the low calorie days will help keep you satisfied and not hungry. This is because protein has the greatest effects on satiety. Good food choices here are fattier cuts of meat, protein shakes, coconut milk/oil, advocado’s, limited fruits, vegetables…
What Workout Program For best results I recommend investing in Visual Impact Muscle Building. This is the workout program I follow. You can see my VI Transformation here –> http://www.visualimpactmusclebuilding.org
Click to see my transformation vid
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Great Post on How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat Gregory! I was really looking forward to your next post.
Keep up the good work!
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One of the best posts I’ve read in a while – straight up, no BS writing
Keep it up Greg!
Tim
BehindTheWorkout (http://www.behindtheworkout.com)
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How many times per week should you do cardio ( strategic cardio, intervals with low steady state cardio) also on what days( rest or calorie surplus days)?How many reps? Rusty Moore says that building muscle and density togheter , one should do the 5 rep range instead of the normal/ typical 6-12 rep range , so does it also apply here? Also is the post workout meal/ one hour window recommended here also or should you just wait one hour or two and then have your meal??
Cardio can be done 3-4x per week on the low calorie days. On the high calorie days you definitely want to get some nutrition in 30-60 minutes after the workout. If you want to build strength and density then stick to lower reps.
I forgot to mention what about the food? how many grams of carbs on workout days? I know in one of your previous post ( american pshyco) that the recommended carbs are 50-80 grams, so that applies one resting days but how much on workout days? Also what kind of carbs should you eat, can it be white pasta and white rice or whole grain pasta and whole grain rice??? Please help me ( and others) on these questions , so that we dont get confused on what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat ( when i mean eat , it is refured to carbs :P ) when we wanna build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Thanks a million /// Josh
@Josh
On the workout days your going to want to get 250-300+ grams of carbs depending on your weight. On the rest days limit yourself to no more then 100 grams of carbs. On the workout days you can go with any carbs. Have the more refined/sugary carbs after the workouts and the more complex carbs later.
A very good article. I believe too that you can build muscle and lose fat with partitioning however I also think it’s a slower process than bulking and cutting.
I personally hate the bulking process and having that look and losing my abs is not a happy state to be in.
With low calorie days and then looking forward to those feed days seems to work best for me.
Raymond
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Yea really missed this site when it was down, but i do have a small question. For high calorie days would a % split be good of 50% carb, 40% Protein and 10% fat? and low calorie split 50% Protein, 35% fat and 15% Carbs?
Thanks Greg.
Hey Claudio. On the high calorie days I would go 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fat. On the low calorie days I would go 50% protein, 30% fat and 20% carbs.
Hey Greg, I recently spoke with a personal trainer and told him I wanted to gain 15 pounds of lean muscle and he told me it will take me 8-10 months is this true?
@Randy
Depends on several factors. If you are young (16-25 years old), a beginner, follow a good program, use proper technique, push yourself, eat well, get plenty of rest…… then you should be able to gain 15 lbs of muscle in 4-6 months. I’ve seen it done all the time. However those type of results take some serious dedication.
Hi Greg, I am part of Rusty’s mastermind group also. My blog is only one month old so it’s still a baby. I have checked out most peoples blogs in our group and have to say yours is most like my ideologies. We both love doing bodyweight training, I started convict conditioning over the summer and used Visual impact philosophies to undergo my transformation. Looks like you have reached all the master steps to convict conditioning, I am not quite there yet but i will be within 6 months to a year i feel. Have to say your content is great and your youtube videos are excellent and i do plan on doing similar things when i graduate from university. Keep up the hard work buddy.
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Hey Greg. If I do strenght training 3 times per week; could I do your “Sliced & Shredded (A, B, C)” workouts? And on my strenght training days; should I do some HIIT followed by low intensity cardio?
Thanks again for this great article!
Hey Greg. Im suprised nobody asked but how much weight should be lost each week?
@Marcus.
I wouldn’t focus too much on weight. This is because you will be gaining muscle and losing fat each week so measuring your bodyweight will be very useless. The mirror test or taking a picture every week would be much more effective.
Your other option is to measure you waist every week. If you waist is getting smaller and your weight is more or less the same then you are doing awesome.
Please Greg, answer this question if you have time. Well the question is about abs. The thing is , I recently read the abs blueprint ( By Rusty Moore) and he mentions that you want to make you abs “pop” out a little, by doing hanging leg raises and the thing is I am kinda afraid of getting big abs. My goal is to make my abs symmetrical ( my left upper ab is bigger than my right, and the reason has to be with muscle imbalance , do to the fact that i dont train my abs but I am serously considering to do it, for the symmetrical thing :P ) and to make my lower abs “pop ” out to even out the size with my upper abs ( my lower six and eight pack dont stand out as much as the upper four ones). Should I do the hanging leg raises or can I achieve a nice six pack witout doing an abdominal exercise ( Which I serously doubt do to the fact that I am already a low bodyfat but cant seem to se the last two and my abdominals arent symmetrical even in SIZE! which pisses me off).
@Josh
Don’t worry about getting your abs symmetrical. You can’t change that, its just genetics. But who cares cause no ones perfect. Hanging leg raises are an awesome exercise that you should definitely incorporate.
Hey Greg, I just recently seen a movie called “I Am Number Four”, the star of the movie Alex Pettyfer, has a lean muscular body. It would be cool if you good do a post on him. Thanks and keep up the good work with your website.
@Randy
Cool. I’ll whip up a post of his workout routine now.
hey i plan on doing this with the adonis index would that be good?
@Justin.
Definitely Justin! The adonis index calls for 4 workouts per week. I would recommend making one of those workouts a low calorie day.
i am trying to get everything planned out before i start the adonis index my diet and everything thing should i do cardio on saturday and sunday and like how long should i do cardio for? tell me if you have any other good ideas for me? i am trying to get ripped and build muscle and trying to get some muscle mass
@Justin
Hit some cardio on your low calorie days to maximize fat burning. Your best bet is to do 45 minutes on the treadmill walking at 3.5-4mph with an incline. Keep your heart rate at around 65-70% of your maximum heart rate. Maximum heart rate is predicted by subtracting your age from 220. If your 20 years old then your maximum heart rate would be 200 (220 – 20 = 200). Therefore you would want to stay between 130 and 140 bpm. This will maximize fat burning without causing muscle/strength loss.
Hey Greg if i workout at home without a barbell can i use only dumbbells?
I am 20 years old,5.8 feet and my weight is 145 lbs.
If i follow your greek god workout without pull ups (i don’t have a bar) can i achieve good results?
I have 4 pack abs the other two are not very visible.
Can you give me some advice?
Thanks ;)
Ps.Sorry for my bad english i’m italian ;)
@Chris.
Yes Chris. Dumbbells are fine. WIth that being said pull ups and chin ups are such awesome exercises that I think they should be in everyone’s program.
Awesome approach to building muscle and losing fat. I’ve successfully implemented similar strategies and it just feels like the optimal way to train.
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Hey Greg. Thanks for answering my earlier ?’s but i had 1 more. I have read all your posts at least once and i was wondering, on my work out days (m,w,f) can i follow the diet on the post “A Simple Diet Approach to Building Pure Muscle” and follow the diet on the post “An Eating Strategy for Exuberant Health and a Lean Spartan Body” the other 4 days of dieting? I am bad at planning what to eat which is why i thought this would be a good idea. Thanks alot :)
@Marcus.
Yes Marcus. That would be a very effective strategy for building muscle and losing fat.
Oh ok and ive been wondering, i dont have protien powder and wont be able to get it until thursday but idk what to eat on my diet day on tuesday in place of this. What should i sub it with? Thanks again
Marcus – On your diet day stick to eggs, meat, veggies and perhaps a few pieces of fruit. The key is to get in lots of protein while keeping carbs low.
Hey there Greg. I really love what youre doing with the website. But i was wondering on your other diets like the 1 models use (with the shakes and salads) or the 1 with the rambo picture, you say have 1 carb up day a week. What if you dont want to? will it slow your results or will it inprove them or something? Thx. Look foward to your next post :)
@Terrance
I now prefer to do a moderate carb refeed 3x per week on strength training days. I’m still able to lose fat with this approach but it is much more enjoyable. If you want faster fat loss then it is better to do a carb refeed every fourth or fifth day.
Hi Greg,
In your “Get Sliced & Shredded” program, I was wondering if it would be a bad thing to diet down, do the fat burning cardio workouts… but leave out the weight lifting.
Would I lose muscle if I don’t do strength training while dieting? (I think so, but I just need you to confirm it.)
Thanks again.
@Mark
Yes Mark. Strength training is the most important activity while on a diet. It will ensure your maintain muscle and you don’t experience metabolic slow down. Too much cardio on a diet can cause a lowered metabolism which offsets doing the actual cardio.
Hi Greg,
On training days do you factor in the calories burned in a weight training workout?
For example, if on training days I had to eat 2500 calories, but working out burned 300-500 calories, would I have to compensate for this? Bringing the total to around 3000 calories?
Or is it just straight 2500 calories?
Thanks.
@Jimmy
Keep it simple. Use the same maintenance on all days. This will give you the option to add cardio on your non weight training days.
Hey Greg,
Was wondering if you could use this diet in phase 1 and 2 in visual impact or should I just eat 3000 calories a day in both phases?
@Charlie
Yes. This diet would be very ideal for phase 1 and 2 to add muscle while limiting or dropping fat.
Hey greg awesome tips man, i just wanted to ask you a quick question. Should i eat the same amount of carbs to build muscle density as i would when im doing phase 1, for ex: im eating over maintenance 3 days a week and doing cardio the other days, i norm eat like 250-300 grams of carbs those days to build muscle, do i need the same amount for density or should i lower it?
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@Ricardo
Thanks. If you are as lean as you want to be then you can stick to the same set up. If you want to drop more fat you can cut calories by 10% or more on both days. The 10% calorie drop should come from carbs.
Hi Greg
I stumbled along this blog recently and I’m very pleased with what I see here.
I know this post is old, but I would be very grateful for a reply.
I’m curremtly overweight, so how should i select my base/maintenance calories? Should I just apply the same formula you provide here and alter it every month, or should i set my base lower than what maintenance should be?
Thanks
Rodger
@Rodger
You can set your maintenance calories for your goal weight! Example goal weight in pounds x 15 = maintenance. This will be a little lower but it will allow for smooth fat loss.
AH sorry mate, I just forgot to add to the above comment, does the advice about eating straight after the workout/waiting for a certain period of time differ according to whether my main goal is bulking up or losing weight?
No need to eat right after a workout. Have a meal sometime between 30 minutes and 2 hours after your workout. Going longer than 2 hours without eating after a workout just won’t be very fun. You’ll probably get really hungry.
I like to plan my workouts 30-120 minutes before one of my meals for this reason.
Hey Greg, thanks for the fast reply man. I asked because in so many places people say that you really want to spike the insulin right after the workout, hence eating right after the workout. Would you just write a few words about the insulin spike issue and why, in your opinion, you eat 30-120 mins after a workout? :)
To quote the great Ori Hofmekler
“First off, after training your muscle becomes temporarily insulin resistant. That’s due to tissue micro-injuries which impair the mechanism that utilizes glucose in your muscle. Putting a high glycemic fuel in your muscle right after exercise will jeopardize energy utilization and disrupt your insulin sensitivity. High glycemic fuel includes all kinds of sugars, dried fruits and refined flour.
One of the biggest misconceptions is the idea that an insulin spike is necessary for boosting protein synthesis in the muscle. The truth is quite different. The real factor is not insulin spike but rather insulin sensitivity.
It has been proven that as long as insulin sensitivity is high, even low (fasting) insulin levels along with amino acids will be sufficient to trigger mTOR/AKT – the cellular pathway that deposits protein in the muscle towards repair and growth.
Overly spiking insulin with simple carbs immediately after exercise impairs insulin sensitivity and diminishes your capacity to sustain a healthy metabolism and a lean, strong physique.”
You can read the rest of the article here
Firstly, thanks a lot for the clarifications. I read the article soon after you have posted it and I practiced what it is thought in there. I also found that when I do not eat straight after the workout, I feel really good and mentally focused. I guess it is because my testosterone continues being high.
: )
Hey Greg
I just wanted to ask a quick question that been on my mind latley. Should I be counting incomplete protein sources towards my overall macro count? Carb sources that contain protein like Rice, Oatmeal, Veggies, etc. I figure if Im eating these things with a complete protein source like chicken, eggs, tuna and such, I should be counting it towards my macros.
I weight 166lbs right now and I get 130grams of my protein from complete protein sources and around 50grams come from the protein in carb sources.
Thanks
I don’t bother tracking tag along proteins. If you don’t count these amounts from the start then you won’t have to ever. I also don’t bother counting the carbs/cals from fibrous veggies. They amount to very few calories especially when taking into account all the fiber.
Hey Greg,
in the morning ive been eating oatmeal and eggs which is getting harder to eat now and you mentioned to cut out breakfast meals so im doing that now… my question is about my eating schedule…i take a caffiene pill or drink coffe w.e i feel like in the morning…2nd meal 2-3pm rice and beans with chicken or beef (im spanish im surrounded by rice and beans everywhere i go) then i leave work at 6pm and get to the gym at 7:30pm and i do HIIT treamill after.. so my question is what do i consume (meal/protien shake) after i leave the gym?… im only eating carbs at 2-3pm, what should i do..im trying to get my 6pack im currently 169lbs 5’9 estimating 13%-15% body fat
Thanks Steven
You can repeat the same meal – rice, beans and protein for your last meal. I don’t recommend taking shakes if your goal is fat loss since they tend not to be very filling.
sorry my first meal would be a chicken wrap
Very good post, Greg!
I’ve noticed that sometimes on other posts you’ll advise to first lose the body fat and then try to gain muscle slowly as opposed to doing them simultaneously the way this post suggests.
What would you suggest for me?
I’m 6’1″, 170 lbs, and estimating 12-15% body fat (flexing, I can see some abs). I work out 3x a week, but since I started grad school I’ve only been doing 2x.
I consider myself an experienced lifter doing a LeanGains type workout – Weighted chins, squats, deads, and bench.
I’ve been eating at least 178g of protein every day, and average 2100 calories.
Love this site!
Kyle
If you’re around 10-12% body fat and want to maintain weight, build muscle and get a little leaner then the recomp protocol can be effective. Most of the time though, I prefer people to just do straight cuts and lean bulks. It’s much easier to track progress and make adjustments this way. As well, progress is a little slower with the recomp protocol.
Thanks Greg!
Could you use this diet system even if you only do the bodyweight prg on the workout days? Or is just good with weights?
This can definitely work with bodyweight training.
Hi Greg,
I have been trying this calorie/carb cycling diet together with your hollywood workout (4 days per week, high calories on workout all workout days, 50/20/30 split of macros the way you described above) and I find it extremely hard to get my waist smaller even though my weight was decreasing slightly (appx. 500 g per week, so i gues i should eat more calories on both low calorie & high calorie days). Do you have any suggestions how to actually achieve the optimal point where the waist is getting smaller while weight is not changing? It also feels like I’m not getting any bigger, which again means that i should eat more.
Thanks,
Mika
Make sure to measure our waist first thing in the morning. Also don’t expect your waist to decrease much until you’ve lost 5-10 lbs.
But what if my goal is to keep weight at the same level? Or do you mean 5-10 lbs of fat? :)
Then you should increase calories so that you are maintaining your weight. Start with a 10% increase in calories per day.