BULKING GUIDE
CAYLEPT
CONTENTS
WELCOME 3
BULKING ABSOLUTES 4
DIRTY VS LEAN BULKING 5
BULKING TLDR 6
CALORIE EXPENDITURE 7
TDEE 8-9
HORMONES 10
BODY FAT PERCENTAGES 11
BODY RECOMPOSITION 12
"SKINNY FAT" 13
MACRONUTRIENTS 14
PROTEIN 15
THE MOST IMPORTANT PAGE 16
TRACKING CALORIES 17
FOOD CHOICES 18
RATE OF GAIN 19
OUTSIDE INFLUENCES 20
MINI-CUTS 21
STOPPED GAINING? 22
CARDIO 23
SCALE GOALS 24
WEIGHING YOURSELF 25
PROGRESS PICTURES 26
WHEN TO STOP BULKING 27
TIME TO CUT? 28
TRAINING CONSIDERATIONS 29
SUPPLEMENTS 30
TRAINING AND FOOD 31
END NOTES 32
HAPPY SCALE AND MYFITNESSPAL 33-61
WELCOME
First of all, thank you for purchasing this guide and choosing
to directly support me.
I hope that through this, I can help you understand all you
need to know to run a successful gaining phase. Ideally
running one of my programmes in conjunction with this or
the fat loss guide will give the most complete picture of
everything around training and diet.
I believe understanding the fundamentals of gaining muscle
and knowing how to apply them to yourself as an individual is
dramatically more useful than just a cookie cutter meal plan.
Yes you could probably eat chicken and rice a few times a day
and move in the direction you want to be, but how long can
you keep that up for?
On that note, I won't be telling you exactly what to eat or
specifically how many calories to eat within this guide, as not
only is that outside my scope of practice as a PT but it's also
not helpful long term. Instead the goal is to teach you how to
figure these things out and apply them to yourself. No more
confusion.
BULKING
ABSOLUTES
If you want to be gaining weight consistently over time you
must be in a calorie surplus. This means to be eating more
calories than you currently need to stay the same weight.
Think like this, your body doesn't really want to change, it
enjoys something called homeostasis: It wants to stay the
same. Due to this, building muscle is a fairly difficult process
and why we have to eat more food. If you wanted to fuel a
bigger car, you'd have to put more fuel in right?
"Maingaining" has become a popular phrase recently, but I
believe the true definition of this has been skewed. It really
means to gain weight slowly without putting on too much fat this has always just been known as "lean bulking". Recently,
maingaining has taken the definition of "gain muscle without
ever gaining fat. If you hope to be the most muscular version
of yourself as soon as possible, this simply does not happen.
Yes you might gain a bit of muscle, but it will stop. This is the
reason why every single bodybuilder to ever exist engages in
gaining phases and cutting phases.
DIRTY VS LEAN
BULKING
When it comes to bulking, you'll typically hear of two camps lean bulking and dirty bulking. The accepted definiton of lean
bulking is to gain weight slowly over time to reduce the
amount of fat you put on during the process. This is what you
should do.
Dirty bulking is eating in extreme excess of maintenance with
little care for the quality of the food you eat. Therefore you
have little control over the amount of weight you gain and the
rate at which you gain it. This typically results in getting too
fat, too quickly.
The thing that differentiates which one you're in, is the size of
your surplus. To lean bulk you want a smaller surplus than the
dirty bulk. A smaller surplus means you gain weight slower,
but as the amount of muscle you can put on is limited, putting
on too much weight too quickly just suggests lots of fat is
being added. Keep that surplus smaller, stay leaner for longer,
and your gaining phase can run for longer - meaning you'll
build more muscle.
BULKING TLDR
For those uninterested in the entire reasoning behind
everything, here's the shortened and simple version of how to
run a successful gaining phase.
Use a calculator to estimate calorie requirements, eat the
estimation for a decent period of time and measure changes,
adjust calories accordingly until scale weight is ticking up by
around 1-2% of your total bodyweight per month. Set protein
to 0.8-1.2g per Lb of lean body mass.
Keep an eye on progress pictures and gym performance along
the way, you want to keep an eye on how much fat you're
putting on, if it's too much too quickly - reduce calorie surplus
size. More progress in the gym? More muscle.
If weight gain stalls (and it will) it's time to increase food, very
simply if you are not gaining weight over time your solution is
more calories.
Bulk for as long as physically possible until you are no longer
comfortable with your bodyfat percentage, then you can diet
and reveal the new muscle you have built. Remember: the
longer you can be in a gaining phase for, the more muscle
you're going to build. This is why minimising fat gain is vital
because the leaner you were to begin with, the longer you can
gain before you've got too much fat to continue.
CALORIE
EXPENDITURE
To gain weight you need to eat more calories than you expend,
this is called being in a calorie surplus. If you are not gaining
weight over time it means you are not consistently eating above
your maintenance calories, which is otherwise known as your
TDEE - if you eat your TDEE every day you'd stay the same
weight.
Your Total Daily Energy (Calories) Expenditure is called your
TDEE and when graphed out it looks like this.
tdee
For simplicity purposes your TDEE is your "metabolism", it's
how many calories you burn in a day through all sources of
calorie expenditure.
BMR: (Basal Metabolic Rate) This is the amount of calories
you would burn in a day at complete rest in a bed with no
movement. Surprisingly, this accounts for the majority of
your daily calories. People often mistake this for the number
they need to eat above to gain weight.
NEAT: (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) These are
the calories that you burn through movement that is not
dedicated exercise. For example, walking around during the
day or fidgeting at your desk. If you're an active person who
moves around a lot, this can be a big reason why despite
your efforts, you're not gaining weight. If you're a person who
works on a building site all day you probably need more
calories than a person sitting in an office even if your other
stats are equal.
TDEE
TEF: (Thermic Effect of Food) This is the amount of calories
your body expends breaking down and utilising the foods
you eat each day. Yes, even your calorie intake requires
calories to utilise. This means that if you're bulking, you're
burning more calories digesting that food, and is yet
another reason food can go so high during a gaining phase.
If you're eating lots of protein in efforts to gain new muscle
(as you should) you're also burning a decent chunk of the
calories from this protien just to use it.
EAT: (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) Finally we have the
smallest part of the puzzle, the amount of calories in a day
that you burn through dedicated exercise. People are often
shocked by how small of a part EAT is of their calorie burn. If
you do 45 minutes of cardio a day that sounds like a lot, but
if you think of it as less than 1/24th of your day spent doing
something, you see how it's less significant. But again, if
you're active, for example playing sports, you'll still need to
account for these calories. If you're more active, you'll need
more calories to make up for that during your gaining phase
as this activity will reduce the size of your surplus. Or in
some cases take you out of the surplus causing you to not
gain weight.
HORMONES
Hormones play a role in how many calories you expend on a
daily basis just by existing, and as such are factored into the
BMR part of your TDEE.
Some conditions people may have could cause them to
expend more calories than is predicted for someone of their
height and weight. This doesn't mean they can't gain weight, it
just means eating more calories than predicted would be
required. If you think something is up, don't self diagnose, see
a doctor because treatment is often available.
So to put it simply, at the top of the pyramid for controlling
bodyweight is always calories. Calories in vs calories out
(CICO). Your hormones effect your calorie output, so if there's
an abnormality, your calorie output may be higher but it's still
a rule that CICO is how controlling bodyweight works.
BODYFAT
PERCENTAGES
Bodyfat percentage is always a really hot topic, basically the lower
your bodyfat percentage the leaner you are. On social media this is
always viewed as a flex and as such everyone always wants to know
their own. But here's the thing, judging BF% is pretty difficult and
there aren't many ways of doing it accurately.
Bioelectrical Impedance Machines are inaccurate, Dexa scans are
inaccurate, bodpods are inaccurate. The most accurate way to work
out your BF% is to chop you up once you've stopped living.
Beyond kicking the bucket and finding yourself on a hard slab, the
most accurate and attainable way is likely going to be callipers, but
even these require a lot of skill to use. You can also use your eyes to
take a guess, but even then, due to different people holding fat in
different places, it will be inaccurate.
Here's what matters with BF% and bulking - you want to start from as
lean as possible, because no matter how lean your bulk aims to be,
you will always put on some amount of fat, and because muscle
takes a long time to build, that means we need to be in a surplus for
a long time (think months not weeks). Therefore the limiting factor to
the duration of your gaining phase will be the amount of bodyfat you
have. So start leaner to give yourself more room for growth.
BODY
RECOMPOSITION
In some circumstances your attempts at bulking may be halted,
not because you're not gaining muscle, but because the number
on the scale is going down. Congratulations, because if you're
gaining muscle while also losing fat you're encountering
something called body recomposition. It's rare and sought after,
and it won't last forever. It typically happens in people newer to
the gym who didn't have lots of muscle to begin with. Savour it
while you can because eventually, once the scale starts to stall
and stay the same, that'll be when you have to increase your
calories again to create a new surplus to have the scale ticking
up.
The reason this sometimes happens is because as a result of the
extra calories you tried to initially give yourself, you actually
ended up expending more as a result, think about it. More food =
more energy, if you have more energy you're likely going to move
around more, or you're going to train harder - both of these
expend more calories. If the amount of calories you expend as a
result of the calorie increase is more than the calories you
increased by, then the scales could start going down despite the
increase. If you're then also keeping protein high and progressing
in the gym, there's your recipe for muscle growth.
See how all this happening at the same time would be pretty
rare?
"SKINNY FAT"
Being skinny fat means to have a decent amount of bodyfat while
not having very much muscle. The solution may seem to be
gaining more muscle, but as we've already established, if you
enter a gaining phase you're going to gain more fat, so if you
already have a decent amount of body fat to begin with, you're
going to have very little choice but to diet again. This is the circle
that a lot of young lifters get trapped within.
The solution is usually start with a quick, aggresissive diet and
remove some of that fat. This may end with you being skinny, but
you'll be leaner. Meaning you can gain for longer, and you'll never
find yourself in this scenario again.
The number one thing most people need to do when it comes to
building muscle is spend a really decent chunk of time in that
surplus in pursuit of new muscle. I'm talking six months
minimum. Hence why starting lean and not getting too fat
throughout is imporant.
MACRONUTRIENTS
All food contains calories, and all calories are then broken down
into carbohydrates, proteins and fats. For every one gram of
protein or carbohydrates you eat, you consume 4 calories. For
every one gram of fat you eat, you consume 9 calories. Knowing
these numbers is how we work out the calories in our food. If a
meal has 800 calories total, 50 grams of protein, 50 grams of
carbs, and 44 grams of fat, we can then do the math with the
above calorie values to see that 50 grams of protein and carbs =
200 calories (each) and 44 grams of fat = 400 calories.
Knowing this, we want to be smart with how we set up our bulk,
we can choose higher fat foods to get more calories in easier due
to them containing more than twice the calories per gram. If
you're trying to gain weight you should probably switch to fattier
cuts of meat, use real oil rather than zero calorie sprays, and use
the time you're in a surplus to eat the "nice" stuff. Just don't go
overboard. Remember, eat in a small surplus, and eat high
quality foods as often as possible, always ensuring protein is hit.
For health purposes you may not want your fat intake to go too
high, where that marker is however is person specific, but usually
when food is increased during a surplus we'll see a carb increase
as that's easiest macro to consume and carbs translate better to
the gym. Plus, it makes hitting calories simple, knowing that 1
gram of carbs is 4 calories means that if you simply eat an extra
25g of carbs per day you'll add 100 cals per day.
PROTEIN
Protein is arguably your most important macronutrient.
The general recommendation for setting up a protein goal
would be 0.8-1.2 grams per pound of lean body mass. We
use lean body mass rather than total bodyweight because
if someone has a lot of fat, this is tissue that doesn't need
protein to support, whereas lean mass (muscle) does. If
you use total bodyweight rather than lean body mass you
often make your protein requirement lots higher.
To work out your lean body mass, you estimate your body
fat percentage, work out that percentage as a number of
your total body weight and take it away. When you take
total bodyweight and deduct estimated fat weight, you get
lean body mass. Multiply that number by 0.8-1.2 and you
get a protein goal. But again, if you're already lean like you
should be prior to a gaining phase, Lean body mass won't
be too different from total bodyweight.
Click here for a calculator for an estimate on lean body
mass
THE MOST
IMPORTANT PAGE
This is the one you've probably wanted to get to. You now know
that calories need to be controlled to gain weight, but how do
you work out how many calories you need?
Step 1: Use a calculator to get an estimate.
Step 2: Accurately consume estimated calories over a decent
period of time (around 3 weeks)
Step 3: Measure the changes. By weighing yourself, keeping an
eye on how you look in the mirror you'll see the scale start to
trend up. Aim for around 1-2% of your bodyweight gained per
month. If you gain much more than that, it's likely lots of it is fat.
Step 4: Adjust based on the result. If your bodyweight has not
increased, very simply you weren't in a calorie surplus. Add 200300 cals and then repeat steps 2-4 again until weight is slowly
trending up.
Step 5: Repeat for the length of your gaining phase, only
increasing calories if you really need to, you'll know because your
weight stopped going up over time. That's when it's time for
another 200-300 calorie bump
In all honesty you should really only ever need to use a calorie
calculator once just for initial estimates. Beyond that, through
trial and error, your calorie intake becomes specific to you.
TRACKING
CALORIES
This is potentially an unpopular opinion, but I truly believe to
give yourself the absolute best chance of the best results, you
should be counting your calories.
Too often I'm told "I'm eating so much but I'm not gaining any
weight, what do I do?" then when I ask how many calories the
person is consuming, they can't give me an answer because
they weren't tracking. What we do know is that if they're not
gaining weight, they're not in a surplus, so they need to eat
more food. This is why I believe tracking is important, what
gets measured can be managed.
This doesn't mean you absolutely have to track to see results
because that isn't true. But if you want to take all of the guess
work out and be able to make the best educated decisions
based on your own results, tracking gets you there. You can't
make accurate decisions on data that you don't have.
Personally I use MyFitnessPal to track calories and will include
a guide on this later in the guide.
FOOD CHOICES
So we know you need to be in a surplus and we also know
we're trying to not get too fat too quickly. Does this mean we
can eat literally whatever we want within the calorie allotment
we do have?
To some extent yes, to some extent no.
There's more to your body than weight, yes calories control
your weight, but that isn't the full story of your health.
If all of your food choices are always unhealthy junk food it's
likely that at some point your health will reflect that. The
poison is in the dosage as it were. If you're in a surplus it
means your calories are higher, so yes you absolutely can
have more off plan meals or higher calorie meals than you
would if you were dieting or at maintenance - because your
calories allow for it. I would try to offset the occasional junk
food with higher quality foods for the majority of the time. So
long as your food is primarily healthy nutritious foods, you'll
be just fine, then occasionally go for the "unhealthier" stuff.
RATE OF GAIN
Trying to control your weight gain is difficult, we want to gain enough
weight to maximise muscle growth, but not so much weight that you
put on too much fat. So where's the middle ground? Typically it's
around 1-2% of your total bodyweight gained per month. This means
that if you weigh 200lbs you might look to add 2-4lbs per month. Any
more than 1-2% added on the scale and it's likely just more fat.
Now you're probably thinking "I'm only 150lbs that's like 1.5lbs a
month or 0.3lbs per week, that's nothing , that's so slow", and you're
right, it is. However if you gained 1.5lbs of muscle a month for a
year? You'd gain 18lbs of muscle that year and that would be an
incredible result. If you repeated that for 2-3 years you could have
60lbs of extra muscle. That's enough to make you look like a
completely different person, and more muscle than most will put on
in their training career perhaps. So now you see the bigger picture.
We're trying to gain muscle. It takes time. It's boring and repetitive
but this process is what weeds out the people that really really want
it, from just recreational lifters. The best bodybuilders are the ones
who don't compete every year, they're the ones who commit to
multi-year-long gaining phases to ensure they've got enough muscle.
Now before I said 1-2% didn't I? The ones who can gain 2% will be the
ones who don't get fat easily. If you find yourself gaining 1% of your
bodyweight per month but visually not changing very much in the
mirror, you're not really gaining much fat. You can probably increase
your calories and go for 2%. It's all a case of responding to what's
happening in the mirror and what's happening on the scale via
altering calorie intake. If you're gaining too quickly, reduce calories
slightly.
OUTSIDE
INFLUENCES
Sometimes life makes it difficult to stick to the plan. We're
trying to not get too fat, but because you're able to eat more
calories you find yourself going out to eat and drink more.
When you're dieting you perhaps find yourself saying no, but
now you're gaining you say yes more frequently, you have a
few drinks. One thing leads to another and all of a sudden
you've eaten 3000 calories worth of kebab. It happens, but
you've got to try to be sensible despite calories being high.
Try to moderate your higher calorie days so they don't
interfere with the process too much
Another example might be family or a partner making it
difficult to stick to the plan, usually partners enjoy eating
together but if you happen to be a man reading this who has
to eat 4000 calories to gain weight and your partner eats 2000
calories a day, your dinners might look a bit different,
sometimes this is fine, sometimes it causes stress. It's
important to be communicative so everyone understands.
Same thing if you're not in control of your food intake for
whatever reason. Your body doesn't care you don't choose
your foods. So you'll have to find ways to get the calories in
regardless. Communication is key.
MINI-CUTS
Mini-cuts are a lovely tool to extend the duration of your gaining
phase. You want to be gaining for as long as possible, more
gaining = more muscle, but you're starting to gain a little bit too
much fat during the process. This is where mini cuts come in. The
good thing about fat, compared to muscle is that the process is a
whole lot faster. You can lose a big chunk of fat within a short
time frame, but you can't gain a big chunk of muscle in a short
time frame.
So once you start to get to the point where you genuinely have
too much fat, you can drop your calories and enter a mini cut.
This is a period of time where you attempt to lose a lot of fat
within a few weeks or months. During this time you'll usually
enter a large deficit because the idea is get in and get out. Get
yourself in a position where you can gain for more months to
come following the mini-cut.
So from where your calories currently are you'll drop them
somewhat drastically, but luckily you've spent months gaining by
now so even when you cut them down, you'll still be dieting on
decent calories. But as with before, in response to the calorie
change you'll need keep an eye on the scale and if it isn't moving
how you need it to, you make adjustments. You can typically lose
around 1% of your bodyweight per week when in a deficit. Maybe
even more when being aggressive. So keep an eye on things and
make good choices.
STOPPED
GAINING?
Okay so you're a few months in and you've stopped gaining
weight, now what? Well it's pretty simple. You increase
calories. The reason this happens in the first place is because,
as you get heavier your body is expending more calories by
being larger (a bigger car uses more fuel to travel the same
distance as a smaller car would). At some point you'll get
heavy enough that what previously was a calorie surplus is
now actually just your new calorie maintenance. This means
it's time to bump calories to re-enter a surplus. This will
usually happen every few months and further reinforces why
you use the data in front of you to make smart decisions. If
you can see on the scale that your weight has started to stall,
you'll know what you need to do next.
Expect this to become fairly difficult at some point, a lot of
people have to eat more food than they first realised to gain
weight and it won't be easy. But if you hope to get the most
out of it you'll simply have to find a way of getting the calories
in.
CARDIO
Cardio is usually used as a tool to expend more calories and
increase the size of your calorie deficit to lose weight faster
while dieting. As such you may think that you won't do any
cardio while gaining. But you'd be mistaken. Remember your
bodyweight isn't the only factor when it comes to your health.
As you get heavier your heart has to work harder to support
that heavier frame. Cardio keeps your heart healthy, so don't
skip your cardio. You just may not need to do as much as
someone that's dieting, and you may need to eat back the
calories you expend to ensure you stay in your surplus.
Another benefit to doing cardio within your gaining phase is
making sure that the reason your sets end in the gym isn't
because of your gas tank. You don't want to finish a set
because you're out of breath, you want it to finish because
the muscle you're trying to target can't produce force. But as
you get heavier you're going to gas out faster. Cardio can help
prevent this from becoming a limiting factor as you get
heavier.
SCALE GOALS
Often when people set out to change their bodyweight they
set a scale goal, but I don't recommend it. With bulking
especially this usually results in people getting fat. Person "X"
says they want to bulk to 200lbs, when person "x" is already
quite fat 6 months in at 180lbs, but because 6 months ago
they said they wanted to hit 200lbs they carry on anyway.
Continually putting on more fat that they'll need to remove.
So instead, have a rate of gain goal, have an amount of weight
you want to add each month. Keep an eye on how you look in
clothes, in progress pictures, and in the mirror. If you find
yourself getting too fat, it's probably time to finish the
gaining phase regardless of what the number on the scale
happens to say.
Something I do think is incredibly important to stress is you
will have to deal with putting on some fat. There is a
difference between having more fat and BEING fat.
Sometimes people hold back their muscle building
capabilities because anytime they put on small amounts of fat
they stop gaining and diet again. This results in an endless
loop of never bulking long enough to build new muscle and
never being happy once they do cut because the muscle isn't
there. Be okay with losing your abs for a while. Get big and
strong.
WEIGHING YOURSELF
When it comes to weighing-in, I recommend weighing-in more
frequently. The more you weigh yourself, the more data you
have. If you only weigh yourself once per week, you'll be
making decisions based upon single numbers that are highly
influenced by factors other than the amount of fat or muscle
you have.
Throughout your week, the number on the scale is likely to
fluctuate all over the place based on a million reasons.
Whether it be the amount of carbs you ate, the amount of salt
you ate, when you last went to the toilet or what time you had
your last meal yesterday. To counter this, we weigh-in more
frequently. These frequent fluctuations allow us to take a
moving average weight. Your average weight is what you
want to watch as it moves forwards.
Personally I use an app called Happy Scale and it will
automatically work out your average weight for you based
upon what you enter. I have a guide for this further down.
PROGRESS
PICTURES
Alongside your scale weight I would make sure that you're
frequently taking progress pictures. Doing this you'll be able
to see if you're gaining fat or not. Muscle growth is so slow
you may not notice it very much week to week, but if the
number on the scale is trending upwards, and you're not
visibly getting any fatter, and this is happening for
weeks/months, these are the lovely signs that you're building
muscle.
Take your progress pictures first thing after waking up, make
sure that you've been to the toilet and haven't eaten yet to
take the most accurate photos. You may also want to take
some posed photos too while flexing, because often, and
especially as naturals ,the lighting in our homes without a
pump and while relaxed isn't going to make us look very
muscular. So flexing for your progress pictures makes a lot of
sense. Over months you'll be able to compare these progress
pictures to each other to see your changes.
WHEN TO STOP
BULKING
Okay so you know how to bulk and how to control everything
you need to be throughout the process. But how do you
know its time to stop?
Well as mentioned before, it's once you're truly too fat or are
no longer comfortable with how you look. By the end of your
bulk you'll probably have been gaining for months, several
calorie bumps in, you're probably sick of food, but you also
should've also got a lot stronger in the gym. Once you've
gotten to the end of your bulk it may be time to consider
whether you're going to maintain where you are, or if you're
going to cut. Usually following a bulk most will cut to reveal
the new muscle they have built though their hard work.
TIME TO
CUT?
So bulk is over and now you're going to pull off the fat you
gained during your bulk. Well the good news is that just like
this guide I have another one on my website specifically
about taking you through a fat loss phase.
But here I will give some general tips.
You can lose faster than you gain, but you want to make sure
that unlike a mini-cut, you don't cut calories too drastically
too soon, because when you eventually plateau you'll have
nowhere further to go.
Try to keep strong in the gym, if your logbook starts
regressing as you lose weight, then you're at risk of losing
muscle. Train as hard as you absolutely can.
Prioritise protein, unlike in a bulk you're at risk of losing
muscle during a cut, therefore protein is arguably more
important as eating more of it gives you a better chance of
retaining the muscle you worked so hard for.
TRAINING
CONSIDERATIONS
The good thing about having all these extra calories is it gives
you your best chance to build as much muscle as you possibly
can. You'll be stronger, you'll recover quicker, you'll be able
to handle more vs being in a calorie deficit.
So when bulking, this is where you want to really train as hard
as you possibly can. Every set in the gym is a chance to
stimulate new muscle, when you get towards the end of each
set, remind yourself that these difficult reps combined with
the extra food are how you build muscle. Give them your all.
Due to having better recovery in a surplus you might find it a
good idea to utilise intensifiers such as partials, forced reps,
drop sets etc. I would use these primarily on the final set of
your final exercise for a given muscle in a given session. Your
normal sets will always be the most important while you
progress them, but the intensifiers can be a fun way to accrue
more hard work while you're able to recover from it.
I wouldn't advise doing as many intensifiers during a calorie
deficit for the opposite reason.
SUPPLEMENTS
Supplements are truly pretty simple. First and foremost is
always going to be your food. The food is what is helping to
build new muscle. Supplements just help a little bit.
Protein powder is effectively powdered food to help you hit
your protein macro, as such it's arguably the most useful.
Creatine can help you get a few extra reps during your sets
and as such that can help you build more muscle.
Pre-workout can be helpful to give you more energy to
perform better, and performing better is once again going to
result in more muscle.
Realistically that's about it for the supplements that matter
most. Anything else is up to you if you have the budget to
spend.
TRAINING AND
FOOD
When it comes to protein you want to consume protein every
few hours to spike muscle protein synthesis often throughout
the day. So when it is time to train it makes sense to eat a
meal with a protein serving and also some carbs around an
hour prior to training, the protein covers the MPS spike and
the carbs will be digested ready for use by the time you train.
When it comes to after the workout, you'll do the same thing,
another higher protein meal with some carbs. Protein
because it's likely been a few hours since your last protein
feeding and as such its time to spike MPS again and the carbs
because you need to replenish glycogen after you used it
during your training.
Because you have extra calories spare you may even look into
intra workout nutrition. This is usually some sort of carb
powder or EAA - carbs to provide quick energy during the
session and EAA's to help bridge the gap between the MPS
spikes. But again these are less important than the other
supplements and would only really recommend if you have
the budget spare.
END NOTES
You made it to the end of the bulking guide.
Thank you for staying with me and I hope this covered
everything you need to run a successful gaining phase. I truly
believe that between this guide, the fat loss guide and a
programme, that you're as close to being able to coach
yourself to your goals as you can be without actually just
getting a coach.
I would love it if in the coming months after purchasing these
guides you guys share your results via Instagram (@caylept)
I'd love to see what you're capable of.
Once again, thank you for supporting me by purchasing this
and any other guide. Below this page you'll find a guide for
MyFitnessPal and Happy Scale so that you can utilise both of
those to their best ability during your journey. If you brought
a programme you also already these guides in there.
HOW TO USE
MY
FITNESS
PAL
COACHED BY CAYLE
HOW TO USE
MYFITNESSPAL
This guide will get you to grips with using
MyFitnessPal to track your daily calorie
intake.
By the end of this guide should be able to
use the app confidently to help you reach
your goals, be able to track your foods,
and create lisitngs for foods, meals and
recipes.
Don't be scared! There are lots of pages in
this guide but the app is easy to use and
you'll be a MyFitnessPal pro in no time.
The goal of this guide is to answer any
MyFitnessPal related questions you may
have, and you can refer back to this later
if you forget how to do something
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Download the 'MyFitnessPal' app from your
respective app store to your phone.
ACCOUNT AND SETUP
Open the app and select how you would like to
create an account, I suggest using your email.
The app will ask you questions about you, your
goals, and your lifestyle.
The answer to this will determine how many
calories per day the app will set you to achieve
this goal.
Most people want to lose as much as possible,
as quickly as possible, and will select 2 pounds
per week - giving them a super low and
unsustainable calorie target. Sustainable long
term weight loss should be around 1% of your
bodyweight per week.
Don't worry about this as I will be setting your
calorie target for you. Select 0.5 or 1lb.
Your account will now be created and your
calorie target set.
Again, don't worry about the number the app
gives to you.
EXERCISE CALORIES
As you track your food and move throughout
the day your 'Remaining' calories will change.
Here, although I have tracked 1,371 calories of
food. I have done 92 calories worth of steps,
and MyFitnessPal says that in order to reach
my calorie 'goal' of 1,500, calories, I need to 'eat
back' those 92 calories.
I want you to ignore all of the numbers except
for 'Food'. I will set your calorie target already
taking your daily activity level into account.
GOING UNDER OR OVER
ON CALORIES
You should try your best to hit the calorie target
I have set for you every day (remember to
ignore what the app sets for you).
But some days, the food you are eating or have
tracked in advance may leave you under or over
on your calories.
This is okay, it's all about the bigger picture and
one day shouldn't make a difference to your
overall progress.
Tracking all your food at the begining of the day,
or the day before can help as you can be
prepared in advance if you need to eat more
calories to reach your target, or make sure you
stick to what you have tracked if you are on
target or slightly over.
TRACKING FOOD
To track food, select the meal of the day you are
tracking, or snacks if thats what you are eating.
HISTORY
When you go to track a food item, the app will show
you this page which includes your history.
You can filter this by most recent or most frequent.
Which makes adding your most eaten foods or
tracking leftovers from last nights dinner even easier.
On a new day the app will ask you if you want to track
yesterday's breakfast as well, as most people eat the
same every day.
BARCODE SCANNER
Select the barcode
scanner next to the
search bar and position
the barcode of your item
in within the icon on the
screen.
The app will show you the matching listing.
You can also manually enter the barcode number if
the barcode won't scan
Make sure the listing matches the nutrition
information on the packet. If the listing is incorrect,
you can search for a product that matches the label,
or you can create your own food and input the in
formation from the nutrition label (I'll show you how
to do this later)
Make note of how the nutrition on the packet is
calculated - cooked or as sold. I recommend tracking
all food as uncooked as it is more accurate, but make
sure the listing you then use is for the uncooked item.
If you are unsure what to do or what listing is
accurate have a search of multiple sources on google
and choose what is most accurate or ask me for
guidance.
Generic foods such as plain rice, pasta and raw
vegetables are going to be the same no matter
where they are from - 75g of raw fusilli is going to
have the same nutrition as 75g of raw penne.
If you find an accurate uncooked listing for pasta
for example, you can use this going forward rather
than scanning the barcode from each packet.
This is the listing I use for raw pasta, regardless of
where I buy it from or what shape pasta it is.
As long as you are consistent and use the same
listing each time, exactly which listing you use
shouldn't matter - as long as you can accurately
track and report your calories. Which again is
easier to do when using raw and uncooked food.
Change the serving size to 1g, weigh out your
food on a digital kitchen scale and change the
number of servings to how many grams you are
eating.
SEARCHING FOR A FOOD
If you know what you want to track but don't have
the barcode handy, or have thrown away the
outer packaging on a multipack, searching for the
product can help you find what youre looking for.
Type what you're looking for into the search bar,
including brand name, product and flavour, to
find matching listings.
Choose the one which matches the nutrition on
the packaging and the serving size you are
consuming.
Don't forget to adjust the serving or number of
grams if you need to.
CREATING A FOOD
If the barcode won't scan, typing in the number
doesn't work and you can't find the correct lisitng
through search, you can create a listing for the
item yourself using the nutrition information on
the packaging.
To do this select the 'More' icon at the bottom of
the screen and then select 'My Meals, Recipes &
Foods'. Then go to the 'Foods' tab.
CREATING A FOOD
Select 'Create a Food' at the bottom of the screen.
Input the brand name, description (product name),
the serving size, and how many servings the
container or item has. For example, Heinz, Baked
Beans, 415g can or 1 can and 2 servings.
Then input the nutrition from the packaging. Input all
fields given on the packaging to help other app users.
DAILY SUMMARIES
To view a daily summary of your nutrition, tap on the
'Calories Remaining' bar at the top of the page.
You can then tap between the tabs to view a breakdown
of your calories across each meal, how much of each
nutrient you've consumed, and your macronutient profile
.
CREATING A MEAL
In 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods' you will also find the
'Meals' tab. This enables you to combine foods you
commonly eat together.
This can make tracking things like your everyday
breakfast or daily protein shake easier as they can
appear as one item in your food diary rather than
several.
Select 'Add Food' and add foods to the meal from
your history, search or barcode. The meal will then be
stored in the 'Meals' tab.
CREATING A RECIPE
In 'My Meals, Recipes & Foods' you will also find the
'Recipes' tab. This enables you to import recipes from
the internet or create your own.
This is good for batch cooking or when you are
making a meal such as lasagne, with several servings.
Select 'Create a Recipe' and choose to import or enter
manually.
Name the recipe and indicate how many
servings it will have, you can also edit this later.
CREATING A RECIPE
Add each ingredient for the recipe or change the
ones added when importing recipes to the specific
items you are using. You can then see the nutrition
for each serving and save or log the recipe.
If you dont know how much you want to eat, you can
weigh the total weight of your cooked recipe and
input this weight in grams as the number of servings.
Then when you track the recipe, weigh your portion
and input this as the number of servings in your diary
HOW TO
USE HAPPY
SCALE
COACHED BY CAYLE
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
This guide will show you how to use the app
Happy Scale to track your bodyweight
change over time using moving averages.
Unfortunately this app is only available on
iOS but the app 'Libra' for Android has very
similar features.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
Here is the front page of the Happy Scale app
where you can view all of your data.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To add your weight for today, tap the '+' at the
bottom of the screen.
You can then log your weight.
To change the units of measurement, tap the
'settings' tab, and then 'Calculation methods'
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To view all of your weigh ins, tap the 'Logbook'
tab, and you will see this view.
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
To set yourself goals within the app, tap 'Settings'
and then 'Weight Goals'.
Customise these as you like, however I don't
recommend committing to a certain amount per
week
HOW TO
USE HAPPY SCALE
You can keep track of your moving average and
the resr of your data in the 'Summary' tab
THE END
THANK YOU ALL AND GOOD LUCK!