Do You Need a Calorie Surplus to Gain Muscle

 If you are new to lifting, let's say less than 18 months, you can gain significant muscle mass while being in a calorie deficit. The training stimulus outweighs the body's reactions to being in a calorie deficit state.  This is especially true if you are overweight to begin with. Many of my clients, and many studies show, and I have demonstrated,  that this is very possible, if not common.

 Once you have accumulated some training years, you probably will need to be in a slight calorie deficit to gain any appreciable mass.  The key thing is to increase your calories judiciously. You don't want to accumulate fat as you go.  Further, the amount of protein that you consume is key. Not only will high protein consumption reduce muscle loss while in a calorie deficit, it is the key to muscle protein synthesis as you go into surplus.   1.6 to 2  grams of protein per kilogram of body weight on a daily basis should be sufficient for most athletes.

Also of note is that the branched chain amino acid leucine seems to act as an on off switch for muscle protein synthesis. Recent research has shown that a minimum dosage of about 2.5 g of Leucine is needed to start the muscle building process, maybe  slightly higher for adults over 40.  You should get about this amount in a standard scoop of whey protein. Other protein sources will not be so high in this key amino acid.

 Optimally, you should be getting your protein in at least 3 to 4 separate feedings per day. 

Should I do Cario and Weight Training on the Same Day?

The bottom line is that it really depends upon your goals and where you are now in reaching your long-term objectives.

Very recent studies have shown that for the average person it really doesn't matter, after a "break in period of a couple of months. Both strength and cardio health indicators improved to a statistically similar degree, whether you did one or the other first or whether you did them on different days.

Most successful "natural" bodybuilders will do their cardio either on an empty stomach, before breakfast, or after completing their weight lifting. The theory being that once the muscles are depleted of glycogen, you're more likely to burn fat during your cardio session.

I personally do 15-30 minutes of cardio after each of my four weekly weight room workouts, in order to manage my body composition, as well as several short walking and stair climbing sessions, during my weekdays at the office.

At the same time, because I am a multi-sport athlete, I also tend to do sport specific cardio, either steady state or HIIT on the other three days of the week. I don't find this to be onerous because for the most part, I'm doing activities that I love, either on the bike, one the road, on the slopes, or in the water.

Do what works for you. Both cardio and strength training are important for overall health and sports success. And unless you're working at an Olympic or pro sports level, it really doesn't matter.

Use Process Goals for Great Outcomes

I want to lose 15 pounds.  I want to bench 400 pounds and have 19 inch biceps.  I want to get down to 6% body fat.  Do those goals or similar ones sound familiar.  They should.  This is how most folks express their fitness goals.   These are outcome goals.  They describe an end state that you'd like to achieve.  And in fact, these are pretty good outcome goals in that they are measurable.  Much better than something like I'd like to get bigger and lose some body fat, also an outcome goal but vague and unmeasurable.

The Rules of Recovery

The Rules of Recovery

I can't tell you how often I hear folks at the gym say that they have cut back on either the intensity or frequency of their workouts because they just don't recover as well as they did when they were younger. This mantra is also in incessantly repeated by pundits  in the bodybuilding magazines and forums, as well.  Some of the folks saying this are as young as their early 30s.  Really, you're not recovering as well as you did when you were younger, and you're what, 32?

Effort is the Secret

I recently read two Internet postings that got me thinking about the significance of activating high threshold motor units, not just to increase strength and muscle hypertrophy, which is usually the focus of such discussions, but to burn fat and increase cardiovascular fitness as well. Is this the real secret?

Intermittent Fasting

I recently commented on a thread, within the bodybuilding.com forums. that dealt with the topic of intermittent fasting (IF). Subsequently, I was contacted by the originator of that thread and asked to further elaborate on some of the points I was making and further delineate some of the articles/studies I was referencing. This post is the result of that request.

Does a Low Carb Diet Really Burn More Calories

 I wanted to post a short reaction to a recent NIH sponsored study that appears in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. The study is being reported in a number of news sources. It compares the ability of three diets, 1. Low Fat, 2. Low Carb, 3. Low Glycemic but balanced, to facilitate maintenance of weight loss.