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The Two Keys For Eating To Gain Muscle While Simultaneously Shedding Fat
I’ve found two specific eating habits that are essential if you want to gain muscle and shed fat at the same time.
This is the 3rd and final installment on this mini-series of how to eat to maximize muscle gain. Click here for part 1 and here for part 2. Plus, today I’m including some sample menus!
Before I share them, and conclude this series, let’s get some assumptions on the table:
- You are not fat now, but still want to get leaner
- You want to gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time
- You are willing to have each of those goals progress more slowly in combination than if you focused on only one at a time; but you still want good progress on both
- I assume you are using a decent lifting routine
- I assume you are eating healthy food, in a good mix of proteins, carbs, and fats; if you don’t know the basics, then refer to Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle or 3 Months To A New You.
Ok , so rather than tease you, I’ll state the two keys upfront:
a) Gradually increase your overall calories to a point far above what you think you should be eating
b) Use the zig-zag calorie method
Last week I shared a 5-step strategy about how to gradually increase your caloric intake.
Now let’s talk about that “zig-zag method”… (more…)
Just starting out with weightlifting? Want to get bigger muscles this winter?
Get my full-body lifting routine here: FullBodyAttack!
Continue reading about Eat Like This To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time – conclusion
pic: Skinny guys can get muscular by eating right and training
pic: Skinny guys can get muscular by eating right and training
[Don't forget - I give away a free lifting routine ebook to the top contributor each month to our free discussion forum!]
Why Skinny Guys Stay Skinny
This is Part 2 of a series on how to eat right to gain muscle. Click here for part 1. This article (part 2) has three sections
- one about why skinny guys stay skinny,
- another about how to get yourself to eat more, and
- the real secret to gaining muscle fastest from your diet.
Then next week I’ll share the advanced eating technique to actually gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, plus I’ll include a few sample menus!
The biggest mistake skinny guys make, when starting to lift, is not eating enough. Oh, they think they are eating enough. But they aren’t. They think they are in Case 5 above but really they are in Case 4.
Look at a skinny guy who isn’t lifting. He’s currently skinny, right, so that means he’s not eating excess calories.
Now start him lifting on a decent muscle building program. Lifting heavy weights burns calories during the activity and also burns more after the activity. If he’s still eating the same amount as he was before, then he’ll actually lose mass!
This is compounded by the fact that the skinny guy isn’t happy about his muscle size, but he likes being able to see his abs. (Yeah, but you can see his ribs too!) So he absolutely doesn’t want to get fat. He just wants more muscle. As we’ll see, this constraint comes back to haunt him.
Of course he’ll have heard from his buddies that he needs to eat more. Plus, he’ll naturally be more hungry. So chances are he would increase how much he eats, right?
But most skinny guys only end up eating a little bit more. They eat enough to prevent muscle loss, but not enough to really grow muscles.
An Example Might Help
Let’s take an example of a skinny guy: 6 feet tall, 150 pounds, 10% bodyfat. So he’s not too skinny, he’s got a thin layer of muscle because he’s an active guy, but he’s now going to start lifting. His target is to get to 180 pounds and stay 10% bodyfat. (6 feet tall, 180 pounds, and 10% bodyfat looks really good at the beach.)
And let’s say he wants to get there within 1 year. That’s 30 pounds (27 pounds of muscle and 3 pounds of fat) in 12 months. Breaking this down, we get to an average of 0.5 pounds of muscle a week. That’s tough to do but not impossible for the skinny guy who’s never really lifted before. [And it won’t be linear – in the beginning, if he does things right, he’ll gain faster than he will towards the end.]
It’s pretty universally accepted that (more…)
Continue reading about Why Skinny Guys Stay Skinny – Eating For Bigger Muscles Part 2
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I’m starting a series today on how you should eat in order to gain more muscle mass. This will be a 3-parter that I’ll finish throughout the month. Here’s the outline:
- Why your eating habits are more important than your lifting habits if you want to get bigger (naturally)
- Why skinny guys stay skinny – plus, the fastest way to gain muscle from your diet
- How to eat more to gain more muscle and actually lose fat at the same time – plus, I’ll also include some sample menus ( keep in mind that entire books are written on menus so I’m only offering some examples!)
Today let’s tackle the importance of eating habits compared to lifting habits. Next week we’ll dive into #2 and the week after that we’ll conclude with the third topic.
Why Eating Is More Important Than Lifting
- pic: Good eating, with good weight lifting, equals bigger and better physique
You want to get bigger, huh? Join the crowd.
You might just be thinking “a little” bigger. Or maybe you are thinking “a lot bigger”. And maybe you just want bigger shoulders, or pecs, or glutes, or whatever.
The point is, we’re talking physique here and we all have different ideal images of what our target physique should be. If you are reading this, then chances are high that part of your desired physique means bigger muscles.
So weightlifting is the most important part of getting bigger muscles, right?
Wrong.
Now before you start writing me hate mail, I’m saying “most important”. That’s a relative term. Meaning, that of course lifting matters! If you want to get bigger muscles, instead of just a bigger gut, then you’ve gotta lift.
But I’m saying that a great eating plan with a mediocre lifting routine will do more for your physique than a great lifting routine and a mediocre eating plan.
(I’d like to write that previous sentence in all caps, but that would just annoy you, right?)
A Simple Example
Let’s walk through a very simplified analysis of 5 cases…
Muscles need stimulation, nutrients, and rest. That combination triggers growth. How much growth depends on the quality and quantity of the stimulation, nutrients, and rest.
No stimulation, no growth. Ditto for rest. And of course, no nutrients (food), no growth.
Since this article series is about how eating impacts muscle growth, let’s assume for now that you are on a pretty good lifting routine. It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst. (So, you can extrapolate from this and assume that results will be better/worse in relation to your lifting routine.)
Case 1: Let’s say you are doing your “adequate” lifting routine, but not eating at all. What would happen? Your body would go into starvation mode, burning muscle first, then fat, and then you’d die. Obviously, no muscle growth in this scenario.
Case 2: Now, instead of eating nothing, imagine you eat a small quantity of junk food. Let’s assume total calories are just enough to prevent starvation. But your muscles need protein (in the form of amino acids) to heal after you’ve stimulated them with your adequate workout. And so just junk food doesn’t give the muscles what they need to grow. Result: no muscle growth.
Case 3: (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below. - (3) PostsHave you ever listened to the Get-It-Done-Guy’s weekly podcast?
You need to. It’s hysterical.
Oh, and actually practical too. Tips for getting things done. He gets extra points for the clever show name.
But really the reason to listen is to laugh.
Stever (no, that’s not a typo) is both insightful and funny.
Last week he had a great podcast you can listen to here: (more…)
Continue reading about Sticking To Your Diet And Fitness Plan
Today was the last day of my trip – whew! 6 airports and two destination cities, plus business conferences, was quite a challenge.
I learned a lot myself by writing all this down for you – the act of writing gave me a few insights I might have otherwise glossed over so thanks for indulging me. I hope you learned something as well.
If you have any lingering questions about what to do for fitness on the road, or how to eat right when traveling, this is the post to reply to. I’m also including links at the end to all the previous days’ posts, plus some of my earlier posts on traveling. Let me know what you think!
On to the summaries… (more…)
Ready for Day 6 of my week-long business trip? No, I’m not going to start talking about the business issues – but hopefully the past several posts are giving you ideas you can use the next time you travel. You are probably also seeing that while I’m far from perfect, I take my fitness and eating very seriously. My point being that being fit, strong, heart-healthy, low-fat, muscular, and healthy overall isn’t a part-time thing. Perfection isn’t required, but dedication is.
If you are already fit, you know this. If you aren’t, then perhaps you can see that some extra effort is sometimes required. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that being in great shape is easy. It’s not. And while your workouts are important, they aren’t as important as your eating.
And unfortunately, eating right is a lot harder than exercising. (At least for most people.)
What I’d like to hear from you on, in comments for this post, are you own ideas and experiences about how to eat right and get in good workouts while traveling. You don’t need to write a lot – just join in and share some ideas.
Day 6 – Eating
I was speaking today at a conference so I knew that eating was going to be a challenge. But, like I keep saying, all it takes is good planning ahead of time.
My breakfasts were just like yesterday in the sense of lower quantity because I’m on a lighter day, and similar to the other (more…)
Day 5. One word. Unbelievable.
Let’s get the eating thing out of the way, because the exercise part of today was unique.
Day 5 – Eating
Excellent day for eating. By now you might be a little bored so I’ll skip the details except to say that
- I ate really well in terms of food quality
- I ate less food than previous days (I’ve shared the idea of calorie cycling here, where the basic idea for building muscle and shedding fat at the same time has little to do with your workouts – it’s about calories in and calories out; so I do 2-3 days of over-calories and then 2-3 days of under; I’ll explain more another time or if someone asks a question specific to this)
- I timed my simple carbs perfectly around my workouts (see here)
- I did a really good job planning ahead (for example, for lunch I ordered two lunches, and asked that one be packed “to go”; that way, 3 hrs later, I had food [protein and veggies] with me at the business conference)
Now for the really exciting part…
Day 5 Exercise
A week ago, knowing I’d be in San Diego, I scheduled time at one of the top 10 gyms in the country: Fitness Quest 10 . I have no idea what the “10″ means (more…)
As predicted, I woke up pretty sore yesterday (day 4 was yesterday but I am a day behind in my writing). Cable flyes really seem to hit my inner chest more than my other exercises (though, as you might know, there is no “inner chest” in reality – it’s a perception).
Day 4 was another travel day but the flight was pretty short. Should I pack a meal for the flight or not? I decided not.
Before I tell you if that was the right choice or not, I wanted to share with you a question I got from a reader/customer because I think it will inspire you and help you progress smartly. It comes from Jorge Ochoa:
Hello darrin i am new in this stuff of fitness and muscles, but all my life i wanted to be more muscular, i am a man of 39 years that my weight before starting your program was 150lb now after a month is 159 lb but my fat goes from 16.9 % to 12.3 % in the same time i am 5.11 1.80cmt my question is, i do the warm up, the exercises and then cardio and i finished so tire, what can i do???
He then gives some details of his workout (I believe he’s using my FullBodyAttack program) and then ends with this question:
i am doing the right things, or you should think that i have to change something???
What do you think? Should he change anything? [p.s. of course, I got his permission to share this]
The correct answer is NO, he shouldn’t change anything!!!!
He dropped 4.6% bodyfat AND gained 9 pounds of muscle. In ONE FREGGIN’ MONTH!
Now, I don’t care who’s program you are using – mine, your own, or some other routine you bought. That’s incredible progress. [Disclaimer - only beginners can see this kind of progress and even then, this is exceptional.]
So what lessons should you take from this?
a) He tracked is progress. If you don’t track it, you can’t have any objective evidence about effectiveness.
b) He didn’t know what amazing results he was getting – he had no experience so he didn’t know his results were already astonishing. That’s why you need peers/mentors to help you get a reality check.
c) He was actually considering changing his routine. Now, as I said in (a), he just didn’t know. But you are probably not making as much progress as him. And so you are probably thinking you need to switch your program. Most likely, the answer is no, you don’t.
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