How To Build Muscle Fast...

without Putting On Fat!

It is possible to build muscle fast without putting on fat by simply following a few basic principles. These basic principles are a combination of both muscle building tips and fat burning strategies and if you use them correctly it is possible to gain muscle mass and burn off body fat at the same time.

Building muscle is generally a slow, deliberate process that the body fights all the way. The body does this because it has been designed to 'preserve itself' or, in other words, stop itself from being starved.

Since muscle is one of the most metabolically-active tissues in the body (burns up the most energy), if you gain muscle mass your metabolism will increase and you will increase your risk of starvation.

Therefore, it makes sense that your body limits the amount of muscle you build. However, if you convince your body that it has an abundant amount of food, stimulate it to increase your muscle mass and then allow enough time for it to recuperate and grow, then you can build muscle fast without putting on fat.

Traditionally, people who wanted to put on muscle would eat an enormous amount of food with little regard to what they ate. As a result, they increased their muscle mass along with their fat mass.

However, these days, top-level bodybuilders are more precise with what they eat, how they train and what supplements they take in the off-season so they stay relatively lean. This means when they start dieting for competitions they don't have to sacrifice as much muscle as the 'traditional' bodybuilders do.

In this article we will cover how bodybuilders structure these 3 areas: nutrition, exercise and supplementation in order to keep their body fat levels no greater than 10% in the off season but also how they can build muscle fast at the same time.

How To Build Muscle Fast: Nutrition

In order to build muscle there needs to be an excess of calories (energy). Without an energy/ calorie excess it is impossible to build muscle, plain and simple.

As a very broad guideline, most bodybuilders should have around 30 calories per kilogram of bodyweight per day. As an example, this means an 80-kilogram bodybuilder should have around 2,400 calories per day. However, after 2 weeks this figure can be adjusted up or down depending on the results.

The next step is to spread these calories over 6 or 7 meals. This tends to be a more frequent meal intake compared to the standard 5 or 6 small meals a day because the overall calorie intake is greater. Therefore, in order to keep the meals at a reasonable size it is necessary to increase the meal frequency.

Reducing the meal size means that there will be a reduced insulin response because larger meals tend to induce a greater insulin response after a meal.

Carbohydrate intake is also an issue because it will also have an impact on insulin response, i.e. more carbohydrate, greater insulin response. Therefore, it is best to keep the overall carbohydrate intake to around 30% of overall calorie intake. This equates to around 30 grams of carbohydrates per meal, which is certainly not excessive for a hard-training bodybuilder.

To take this one step further, it is best to have around 25-30% of your carbohydrate intake in your post-exercise meal. Therefore, if your overall carbohydrate intake for a day is 180 grams, you may want to have 45-55 grams of carbohydrates in the post-exercise meal.

This means you will need to reduce your overall carbohydrate intake in the other 5 meals during the day, which will also reduce your insulin spike from these meals, making your body more inclined to burn fat throughout the day.

The post-exercise meal is possibly the most important meal of the day from a muscle-building point of view. Since the weight training session has put your body under a certain amount of stress, the body will then make an effort to adapt to that stress. One way it does that is by storing more nutrients within the muscle cells. This is called a cell volumising effect.

The post-exercise meal should also contain a substantial amount of protein as well as other nutrients that can assist with the cell-volumising/ muscle-building process. Creatine and l-glutamine are good examples.

The best post-exercise meal is a protein shake made with the following ingredients:

75-100 grams of fast-acting protein, i.e. whey protein isolate and/ or hydrolysed whey protein.

A fast-acting protein source can help to start the repair and rebuilding processes straight away.

45-55 grams of simple carbohydrates, i.e. dextrose (glucose) or maltose.

This, along with the fast-acting protein will help to promote a maximum insulin spike, which will then drive the nutrients into the muscle cells.

10-15 grams of creatine.

Creatine has a powerful cell-volumising effect.

10 grams of l-glutamine.

L-glutamine also has cell-volumising and muscle-building effects.

The shake should be made with water (not milk) to improve the absorption rate. It may also be worthwhile taking it with a glucose disposal agent supplement like, GI Factor, which will help drive the nutrients into the muscles cells even more effectively.

It is important to note that the post-exercise shake should be consumed no sooner than 20 minutes post-exercise. Even though most bodybuilders will consume a post-exercise shake immediately after finishing training, since we want to burn fat as well as build muscle fast it is important to wait 20-30 minutes post-exercise before having the shake.

It is also important to minimse the fat in the shake because slows the passage of food from the stomach and will also reduce the insulin response.

Having a high insulin level post-exercise is a good thing because insulin is also an anabolic hormone (as well as being a fat-storing hormone) and it will therefore promote muscle building, especially when the body is in a depleted state as it is post-exercise.

The only time you want to have high insulin if you want to build muscle fast without putting on fat, is post-exercise. At all other times throughout the day you want to keep insulin as low as possible. The reason why it is okay to have high insulin post-exercise is simply because it will promote greater muscle growth through cell volumisation and because it won't store nutrients as fat because the body is in a depleted state. It when the body is already saturated with nutrients that it will stores nutrients as fat.

This is the same reason why it is okay to have more carbs in the morning with breakfast. Since your body has gone without food for many hours it is possible to have slightly more carbs with your breakfast without putting on fat.

How To Build Muscle Fast: Exercise

In order to build muscle fast without putting on fat, a combination of resistance training and aerobic exercise should be performed. The resistance training should be done at least 3-5 times a week and the aerobic exercise should be done a minimum of 5 times a week, both after the resistance training as well as on its own.

Each muscle group should be trained once a week and after each session at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise should be performed. This will help to burn off the maximum amount of fat from the exercise session.

To find out more about how to structure your resistance training workout program, visit: Free Workout Plan. This article will give you some extra muscle building tips and help you build muscle fast.

When performing the aerobic exercise on its own, it is best to perform the exercise at a high level of intensity or in an interval fashion and do it for at least 20 minutes first thing in the morning before breakfast. This is when the body is in a mildly carbohydrate-depleted state and will make the body more inclined to use fat as a fuel source.

Even though performing aerobic exercise will not help gain muscle mass directly, it may assist the body with the process of building muscle simply because it helps improve the body's recovery ability, i.e. the fitter you are, the faster you recover from exercise.

Prior to every exercise session, both resistance exercise and aerobic exercise, you should take a thermogenic. This will help to speed up your metabolism, give you an energy boost and will also force the fat cells to release stored fat into the blood stream, which the body can then use as a fuel source throughout the day.

How To Build Muscle Fast: Supplementation

We have already mentioned various supplements that you can use to help your body build muscle fast without putting on fat. These include a whey-based protein powder, creatine, l-glutamine, glucose disposal agents (GI Factor) and thermogenics (fat burners).

However, there are other supplements that may also be beneficial in helping you build muscle fast without putting on fat. These include, a good quality multivitamin/ mineral supplement as well as fish oils and antioxidants.

Even though these supplements may not necessarily help you gain muscle mass directly they may help you build muscle indirectly by improving your body's overall functioning.

If you use all these strategies as suggested, you will be amazed at how you can build muscle fast without putting on fat!

To discover even more principles to help you burn all the fat you want so you can get the best possible results, get a copy of my e-book, Look Good, Feel Great!

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