Can you build good ol muscle without gaining any of that excess weight?
Not only is it possible, it might actually be one of the better fitness
approaches for a lot of people. So in this two-part series,
we’re going to break down how building muscle without gaining weight works who should do it,
my name is PictureFit, I make health and fitness content using my training
background and education, as well as the constantly evolving scientific research.
I also cut my own hair. As you can see, it’s going really well.
Our physiological understanding of building muscle is that one must provide an environment
with both sufficient stimuli and nutrients to promote muscle protein synthesis,
the physiological process for muscle growth. The stimuli is provided by our physical training,
notably resistance training like lifting weights or calisthenics.
The nutrient portion of course is the food we eat which we generally measure from calories.
One of the most popular nutrition strategies for building muscle is
something called the cut-bulk cycle: the intentional losing and gaining of weight.
Bulking is the weight-gaining cycle that provides the ideal muscle-building
environment. During a bulk, you eat in excess to provide the body more nutrients than it needs,
creating a surplus to prime muscle growth. However, a byproduct of bulking is weight gain,
and not just muscle weight, but also weight from our good little friend called body fat.
Thankfully, cutting resolves this, creating an environment primed for
weight and fat loss. During a cut, you do the opposite and provide fewer nutrients
than your body demands, causing a deficit. However, cutting also severely limits your
ability to build muscle, and if prolonged, you can even run the
risk of LOSING some of your precious gains. Nonetheless, the cut-bulk cycle is still one
of the most efficient fitness strategies since bulking is nearly unmatched for muscle growth.
But not everyone wants to cycle between long phases of eating a
lot and long phases of eating very little. At times, you might be as much as 10-plus
pounds heavier OR lighter than you want to be and both could last for weeks or months at a time.
Not everyone wants to deal with such significant weight and food fluctuations.
This is where we chime in with the idea of building muscle without
the challenging changes to your weight. First, let’s address it right off the bat:
Yes, it is physiologically possible to build muscle without gaining weight.
In fact, research has shown that in specific circumstances,
muscle growth can even occur while losing weight! Again, building muscle requires an environment
with sufficient stimuli and nutrients. But getting sufficient nutrients doesn’t
require nutrients to be delivered in excess, like in bulking.
Additionally, muscle growth requires sufficient protein intake, which is arguably even more
important than just counting calories. But yes, you can build muscle by eating
just enough to meet body demands, which is commonly classified as maintaining energy balance.
And being in this maintenance phase, your weight will be, well, maintained.
Thus, you build muscle without gaining weight. However, there are a few catches to this strategy.
One, a big one, is that muscle growth and strength to an extent will normally
take longer to progress compared to bulking. With bulking, you’re overshooting your needs,
creating a cushion that ensures enough nutrients are delivered, whereas attempting
maintenance might not always be the case. And that’s caveat number two: reaching energy
maintenance is not exactly simple due to its constant changes. Our energy needs fluctuates
on a daily basis based on our activity, it can be significantly different several months later, and
there’s no practical method to accurately measure it, merely we rely on formulized estimates.
And three, results can vary greatly from one person to the next. Many factors
have significant influence on the results, like a person’s fitness level and body fat
percentage. It won’t be a good fit for everyone. You gotta think twice, if your naughty or nice,
and if you wanna stick to this strategy if your current situation is working against you.
That said, let’s go ahead and look at some conditions and criteria that will
clear a lot of this up so you can make a much more informed decision.
First and foremost, make sure you specifically want to build muscle without gaining weight and
you don’t want to try anything else. Cut-bulk cycles work and can be a good fit for a lot
of people. Rule it out before anything else. Next, you should be someone that is already
at your ideal weight or very close to it. If you’re someone classified as notably overweight
or underweight, then your strategy should focus on addressing that first with cutting or bulking.
Assuming your current weight isn’t an issue, you also wanna make sure that your
body fat percentage isn’t already too low. The research makes it very clear that those
with very low bodyfat percentages, like around 12% bodyfat or less, have the most difficult
time building muscle without gaining weight. It’s already tough to maintain a low bodyfat
percentage, let alone trying to build muscle along with it, at least naturally.
Next, you might wanna consider this strategy if you have little to no training experience.
There are diminishing returns to progressive muscle growth. The more trained and fit you are,
the more and more work, time, and nutrients you need to build muscle.
Trying to build muscle without gaining weight only make these aspects harder.
Whereas for beginners, you can train less, eat less, and take less time
and still build significant muscle. And although it’s possible for more
advanced trainers, the results will be very slow compared to a bulk,
which is not ideal since building muscle even on a bulk at your level can already be challenging.
But if you do, then, and this goes for everyone, this strategy is a good option
if you’re willing to be patient and you don’t need to reach a specific
muscle or weight goal in a tight timeframe. This strategy can also be good for you if you want
something that is more sustainable as a lifestyle. The strategy is not about momentary extreme
surpluses, deficits, or any other diet, which one can argue is not fully sustainable and borderline
unhealthy if taken too far. Since building muscle without gaining weight employs maintenance,
there’s no massive changes or adjustments, making it a solid base for long-term planning for both
your fitness and your health. And finally, this strategy
might be for you if you don’t mind some meticulous planning, at least early on.
Again, figuring out maintenance calories is not easy, and when we jump into the actual steps
of this strategy in the next video, you’ll see that you will need some tight planning to iron
out the kinks until you get a better feel for it, and then it kind of becomes second nature.
Now double check and make sure these conditions apply well to you if you want to give it a shot.
In the end, it’s all about making sure you’re doing something that suits you best. There’s
nothing wrong with just doing cutting and bulking as long as you understand and deal with the
caveats that come along with it. Same for trying to build muscle without gaining weight. As we can
see, it’s not fully cut-and-dry and it will take some determination and patience with your results.
Now, if you are certain that it is the right fit for you, then let’s jump into the HOW and
the steps on actually getting this done. Link to that video is in the description,
I’ll see you there. If you enjoyed this video,
please give it a bulky thumbs up and share it with your meticulous planning loving friends.
Subscribe for more. As always, thank you
for watching and GET YOUR PROTEIN! Which we’ll be covering in the next video as well.