Here is another point of view:
The Downside of Bulking
by Charles Poliquin
When taking the initial arm measurements of clients, personal trainers often don't bother to have them flex their arms. It's not because the trainers are planning to have them flex for the "after" measurement and thereby fool their clients into seeming more muscular than they actually are. No, the simple reason these trainers don't have their new clients hit a biceps pose is that it doesn't make any difference if the arm is straight or flexed - you can't flex fat!
Despite this self-evident truth, in the past it was common practice for bodybuilders to engage in the practice of "bulking up" in the off season. The idea was to gain as much bodyweight as possible, even if some of it was fat, and then, when a competition approached, to diet and exercise to lose the fat while attempting to spare as much muscle as possible. While this may have worked in the past for these athletes, the level of not just muscle mass but muscularity that is achievable today is such that even the great Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime would have a hard time winning even state physique competitions.
It's not only bodybuilders who used bulking up. Football linemen, even today, believe that it's best to add as much bodyweight as possible regardless of the composition of that weight. Again, that strategy may have worked in the past, but today's football line, especially defensive linemen, need speed - and excess fat and speed don't mix.
Often I see workout programs on the Internet still promoting the supposed superiority of bulking-up programs. Here are some of the nonsense statements I've read:
"Just gain weight; worry about cutting up later."
"You can't gain muscle without gaining fat."
"Eat Pop-Tarts. They are the most caloric-dense food."
"The key to gaining weight is to eat more candy bars - you can't gain weight on clean foods." Interestingly, the author of that one gives a history of switching brands of candy bars, leading up to the most calorie-dense one.
"Add Nesquik to every protein drink to help you gain weight."
The Downside of Bulking Up
Besides the obvious health problems associated with adding excess fat, bulking up is a really bad approach to trying to achieve your physique goals or athletic fitness goals. Here are six reasons why:
Anti-Bulking Fact #1. Bulking-up diet programs won't produce any more muscle growth than ingesting an ideal amount of nutrients. Sorry, but it's simply not possible to force additional muscle growth by overfeeding.
Anti-Bulking Fact #2. Bulking up makes you more insulin resistant, which makes it harder in the long run to gain muscle. What happens is that carbohydrates will go preferentially to fat stores, not muscle tissue.
Anti-Bulking Fact #3. Bulking up will make it harder for you to get leaner because insulin resistance is hard to reverse. The fatter you get, the harder it becomes to get lean.
Anti-Bulking Fact #4. The fatter you get, the more aromatase enzyme your body will produce. In the extreme, getting fat could be considered a form of self-castration, as your own testosterone will be converted into the female hormone estrogen. If you're a man and you enjoy wearing a bra, go right ahead and get fatter.
Anti-Bulking Fact #5. Getting fatter will ramp down the effectiveness of your thyroid hormone production. The fatter your abdominal wall gets, the less conversion of T4 to T3, the metabolically active form of thyroid.
Anti-Bulking Fact #6. The lower your percentage of body fat, the better your body gets at nutrient partitioning. This means that individuals with low body fat are more effective at storing the ingested nutrients in the muscle (as muscle tissue or glycogen) or in the liver (glycogen) and less effective at storing them as body fat. To put it in simpler terms, leaner individuals can eat more nutrients without gaining fat.
Anti-Bulking Fact #7. Getting fat increases the risk of dying from any cause, even terrorist attacks. I'm serious - you're a bigger target and you can't get out of danger as fast.
A Better Approach
For men, I strongly believe that before trying to put on muscle, your goal should be to keep your body fat at no higher than 10 percent. Ten percent body fat, in my experience, is the threshold for insulin sensitivity.
There is a prevalent theory in the bodybuilding community that you can't lose fat while gaining muscle, but it's simply not true - at least not in my experience. In fact, it is typical for my clients to gain 18 pounds of muscle and lose 12 pounds of fat in the first 12 weeks they train with me.
One of the most important points you should come away with from this article is that insulin sensitivity is your best friend. In addition to avoiding bulking-up diets, there are several supplements that can help with insulin sensitivity. Here are the best ones I've found, along with the appropriate protocols for each of them:
EPA-DHA 780: three to five capsules, three times a day
Fenuplex: two capsules, three times a day
Insulinomics: one tablet, three times a day
Yang R-ALA: three to five capsules, at breakfast and lunch
Yin R-ALA: three to five capsules, at the last two meals of the day
ÜberDHA: three to five capsules, at the last two meals of the day
Follow the protocol above and you will be rapidly on your way to adding muscle mass and decreasing body fat. And best of all, you'll always look your best while doing it
