What’s up, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, www.SeanNal.com and this video here is just a quick follow up to the video
that I did a couple weeks ago where I talked about dirty bulking and where I talked about
why it’s pretty much always a bad idea assuming that you’re goal is to build a lean and
muscular body and why lean bulking with a smaller calorie surplus will actually help
you make better progress in the long term.
And that’s because your body can only divert a limited number of calories toward muscle
growth in any given day and any excess beyond that is just going to be stored as fat.
And the more fat you gain the longer you’re going to need to spend dieting later on to
get rid of it and the worst you look and feel during your actual muscle building phase.
There were several comments on that video basically agreeing and saying that dirty bulking
isn’t a good idea for most people but saying that it’s something that hardgainers can
do since they generally have a tougher time gaining muscle.
And the truth is that within the lifting population hardgainers or ectomorphs which will just
define as those who have a naturally thin bone structure with below average muscle building
genetics who don’t gain weight easily, they generally are going to be the most likely
to follow that dirty bulking approach because they have it their head that since they have
a fast metabolism and because they don’t gain muscle easily that they need a bigger
calorie surplus in comparison to others in order to pack on size.
Now, someone who is naturally skinny and who doesn’t gain weight easily they might have
a higher resting metabolic rate than the average person, in which case they would have a higher
calorie maintenance level and would need more total daily calories in order to build muscle
consistently.
However, the actual size of your calorie surplus as a hardgainer, meaning how many calories
you eat beyond your maintenance level and your actual rate of weight gain from week
to week, that shouldn’t be any different and it shouldn’t be increased just because
you have a harder time getting muscle in general.
Again, a bigger calorie surplus beyond what your body can actually use does not equal
more muscle growth.
And a hardgainer isn’t magically going to be able to divert more calories to muscle
growth just because they’re starting out on the skinnier sign.
In fact, if anything someone who has below average muscle building genetics would actually
want to be even more cautious with this because their body is likely going to divert fewer
calories toward muscle growth than someone with average or above average genetics will.
So just because you’re a hardgainer and maybe you’re able to eat higher amounts
of food without gaining weight that still doesn’t mean that aimlessly stuffing your
face all day with high calorie foods and weight gainer shakes and eating to the point where
you’re completely stuffed and feeling sick, it doesn’t mean that that’s going to be
a good idea.
Again, you might need more total food on paper in order to gain weight, and so maybe you
might end up incorporating a higher amount of less clean calories into the mix to help
you get there but it still has to be kept within limits.
You still need to figure out what your daily calorie maintenance level is, which is how
many calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current weight, and then just
create a small calorie surplus beyond that to support muscle growth.
And then from there just focus on slow, gradual weight gain so that the maximum amount comes
in the form of actual lean muscle and the minimum amount comes as bodyfat.
I’ve just seen it way too many times where a naturally thin guy wants t bulk up as quickly
as possible, he just feel skinny and just desperately wants to get bigger so he goes
way overboard on calories and eats everything in sight, maybe packs on like twenty pounds
in three months, basically ends up just looking like a fatter version of his previous physique
then spend another two to three months cutting and then realize that he only gain a couple
pounds of actual muscle form all of that hard work, and then he doesn’t really look that
much different at all five or six months later.
When instead he could’ve just maintain a smaller and more controlled calorie surplus,
took things slowly and spend that entire five or six months making consistent quality lean
gains without the need to go off track doing a full cutting phase and without letting his
body go, basically, to crap along the way.
There’s no way around the fact that muscle growth requires time and patience, and if
you’re a hardgainer it’s going to be an even slower process.
You absolutely can still make significance gains overtime and build a great physique
but you have to be patient with it and you have to be willing to commit to this for the
long term.
It’s not going to happen in a few weeks or even a few months.
If you really want to make a serious transformation depending on how much you’re wanting to
gain and your bone structure, you’re probably looking at around a year or two years in order
to really add some noteworthy size to your frame.
That’s just the way it is.
So whether you have average genetics or below average there’s no way to rush the process,
find out how many calories you require to maintain your current weight.
If you identify as a hardgainer or as an ectomorph and you’re probably still a beginner at
this, and in that case about three hundred calories or so on top of your maintenance
level would be a good starting point.
And aiming for about half a pound of total weight gain per week but also recognizing
that the longer you’ve been training, the slower your rate of weight gain is going to
come.
But the bottom line is that force feeding yourself using a dirty bulking approach is
just, in my view, pretty much never going to be the best way to go about it for the
average trainee and that applies to hardgainers as well.
Lean bulking will probably allow you to gain more muscle in the long term, since you won’t
have to divert nearly as much time and effort to cutting, not to mention that cutting is
pretty tedious process in the first place.
And you’ll just look and feel better throughout your entire muscle building phase both physically
and mentally.
So, thanks for watching, guys.
I hope this was helpful.
If you want to get a complete step-by-step plan to help you maximize your genetic muscle
building potential in the most efficient way possible while staying lean, including a fully
structured workout plans, meal plans, supplement guides and one-on-one coaching make sure to
head over to www.BodyTransformationTruth.com and grab my complete Body Transformation Blueprint
System.
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Thanks for watching, guys.
And I’ll see you in the next video.