1 thing you must do to gain muscle
QUESTION:
Hi Tom. I have your BURN THE FAT ebook; it’s great thanks, but
now that I’m lean enough my aim is bodybuilding and muscle gain.
I read your information on body types in chapter 5 of your book
and it was very interesting. I am definitely an ectomorph body
type. I am getting good results gaining about 1 to 2 pounds a
week, but I’m pretty skinny so it’s going to take a while to get
where I really want to be, but that’s fine, I’m patient and
determined. My question is, can I use all the guidelines in
your BURN THE FAT ebook for gaining muscle mass?
Martin
ANSWER:
It’s true that BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE is primarily a
fat burning program and as you’re reading through the book,
you’ll see that the entire manual is written with references
to getting leaner.
However, with a few simple tweaks, the program can definitely
be used for gaining muscle. The primary adjustment would be an
increase in the calories.
To gain lean body mass, you need a calorie surplus. The reason most
people fail to gain lean muscle is that they’re simply not eating
enough. Many times when they come off a fat loss program, they
are completely paranoid about “losing their abs.”
Truthfully, it IS easy to lose them and it takes continued discipline
and dietary restraint, but the fact is, you just can’t gain significant
amounts of muscle if you’re afraid to eat more.
The trick in gaining lean muscle without fat gain is to select a
small calorie surplus. Overeating, even on clean, bodybuilding
foods is going to make you gain fat along with the muscle.
Gaining fat and muscle weight at the same time is commonly known as
“bulking up” and that’s the old school approach to building muscle.
We don’t want to do that. The whole idea is to Feed The Muscle and
build Lean body mass only.
Although BFFM is written with a fat loss slant, all the calorie
formulas are included in chapter 6, so you can figure out exactly how
many you need to lose, maintain, OR gain weight.
A typical male maintains on about 2700 calories per day and a
typical female at about 2100 calories, but it’s good to plug your
stats into the formulas to individualize, and you need to recalibrate
calories anyways after you come off a long fat loss phase.
What I would recommend for lean gains is to add a 10-15% calorie
surplus on top of your maintenance level as your starting point. You
will probably need a second increase in calories after a few months
or after you’ve begun to add some lean mass in order to keep the
lean gains coming.
The only other major adjustments for gaining lean mass would be the
protein-carb-fat ratios (covered in detail in chapter 
and of course,
the amount of cardio.
Weight gain programs require more carbs in the macronutrient mix and
less cardio. Endomorph types may need to keep 3 days of cardio in
the mix to avoid losing their abs. In some cases for ectomorph
“hard-gainer” body types, they should cut the cardio completely
during the muscle gain phase.
For the endomorph body type who tends to gain fat easily, I
recommend continuing to use a carb or calorie cycling method
even for the muscle gaining phase. The difference is in the
number of calories.
For fat loss, I typically recommend a carb cycle with a 20-30%
caloric deficit for 3 days, followed by one full day at maintenance
or even maintenance + 5-10%, with ALL the caloric increase coming
from carbs.
For lean muscle gain with out fat gain, I’d recommend a cycle with
3 days at a 15% surplus, followed by 3 days at maintenance or a
small caloric deficit of 5-10% below maintenance.
These are just guidelines. They are not written in stone. I have
seen all types of calorie cycling variations work for different
people. Any non-linear calorie approach is superior, in my opinion,
for keeping the gains lean.
All the other principles in BFFM, such as eating the “foods that burn”
fat and avoiding the “foods that turn to fat” apply as equally to
weight gain programs as they do to fat loss programs.
In fact, many BFFM “graduates” quickly reached their fat loss goal
using these techniques, and then with a few simple adjustments,
shifted into a “muscle-gaining phase.” Same program, 1 change
in calorie levels.
Using the BFFM techniques for muscle mass gains, most people can expect
to gain 1/2 pound to 1 pound per week of lean body mass with no increase
in body fat, (1/2 to 3/4 of that for women).
It’s not that hard to put on the first 10-12 pounds of lean muscle.
After that, gains tend to slow down a bit.
These types of gains can be achieved completely natural – and in
fact, natural is the only way I’d ever recommend you do muscle
gaining programs.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto, fat loss coach
 About the Author:Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models.program:
Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle: A Complete Check out our Review of Tom Venuto Program
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