Should I BULK in the Off-Season?

Details: Published on Sunday, 03 March 2013 22:01; Written by Adam Bonilla CPT, MP Competitor

We’ve all had friends from the gym that have too high of a percentage of body fat for their health. They use the excuse that they are in a “bulking” phase. I’ve seen some guys put on 50 lbs in one off season. But, is this necessary to maximize lean mass gains? Working as a trainer for 13 years I’ve heard 1,000’s of times “in order to grow you have to eat bro!” People go to the extreme to get in extra calories and are taking in Pop-Tarts for post workout and eating McDonalds for a quick calorie heavy meal. Let’s face it most people who are doing this are using “bulking” as an excuse to eat whatever they want and aren’t concerned with two things, first their overall health in terms of saturated fat intake and cholesterol levels and second their net gains.

The days have passed where you see top pros putting on 80lbs in the off season and cutting up to lose 65 of those lbs for contest weight. Ben Pakulski, Dennis Wolfe, Hidetada Yamagishi, and many others are now staying in the single digit body fat levels year round. Why is this? Well over the years science has evolved and they’ve figured out that instead of just being concerned with watching the scale move up you should be more concerned with what you’ll be left with “net gains.” Net gains is the muscle you are left with after losing all the new stored body fat. Think about it this way, if you put on 50 lbs in the off season and have to diet for 16-20 weeks to end up 10 lbs heavier on stage. That’s the same thing as if you only put on 18 lbs and then had to diet for 6 weeks to be 10 lbs heavier stage weight. The difference is someone who puts on 50 lbs will probably put on a tad more muscle than the guy who only put on 18 but over the course of a longer diet will end up losing the extra amount gained if not more. More importantly, the guy who put on only 18 lbs will feel good all year, be comfortable taking his shirt off without giving the disclaimer to his friends that he’s “bulking” (you know you’ve seen this before) and will be healthier by not rapidly moving up and down in weight multiple times throughout a year which can be very stressful on the heart. I don’t know about you, but personally I’m not trying to look good one time a year….just when I step on stage. Maybe if I made my entire yearly income by stepping on stage once a year I’d consider it; but, for most of us who just compete locally as our sport we should focus on looking good all year.

It’s very possible to look good all year and still make good progress. So, why aren‘t more of us doing it? By now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Okay Adam, well how the heck do I keep packing on muscle without gaining a significant amount of body fat?” Think about it this way, in order to gain muscle you have to be in a caloric surplus so if you burn 3,000 calories you would have to eat more than 3000. Well how much more? It’s been shown that the natural athlete can put on about 1 lb of pure muscle per week which would equal out to you consuming 500 calories more daily than you burn. (example you burn 3,000 you would consume 3,500 per day.) So you see just because you’re eating 5,000 calories per day in that scenario doesn’t mean that your body is going to put on more muscle. It is more likely means that most of the extra calories past the 500 surplus consumed will become “stored energy” AKA FAT! Slow and steady wins the race! So, how do you do this? Well it really is a simple formula which I have explained below.

BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

AMR Formula (Active Metabolic Rate)

sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Example: a 200 lb man who is 6 feet tall, 30 years old, works out 5 days a week and works a sedentary job.

66 + 1246 + 914 - 204= 2,022calories as BMR

2,022 BMR x activity level of 1.55 = 3,134 calories burned per day over a 7 day average.

In this scenario it would take approx 3,634 calories consumed per day to reach optimal growth of lean body mass levels without a significant change in body fat. (An addition of 500 calories per day)

Will this work for everyone? NO! However, this is one of the most widely accepted methods for calculating Active Metabolic Rates. However, every person is different and body fat should be monitored to ensure proper progress without excessive fat accumulation. This is done by monitoring lean body mass levels versus body fat levels.

Example: 200lb man is 10% when we started his gaining phase.

200 lbs @ 10% BF = 20 lbs fat and 180 lbs lean body mass. If after two weeks of this higher caloric intake his body fat weight goes up significantly it may be too great of a caloric increase calories for him and we will need to make the necessary adjustments. If he doesn’t gain any weight, we will have to up his calories and make sure he is working out with proper technique to ensure a stimulus is being created where the body will add lean mass.

Of course this is the basis of the first law of thermogenesis (the production of heat) which in it’s simplest definition related to a persons body mass is interpreted as: In order to gain weight you must consume more than you expend and in order to lose it you most consume less than you expend. As of right now we aren’t going into the complexities of the role of macronutrient effect as that’s a topic for another article entirely.

I hope this article was helpful to you and you were able to see a little about what trainers do behind the scenes for contest prep clients. I’ll now be writing monthly for RxMuscle/ Men’s Physique and would love to answer your technical questions instead of just writing about what I feel is relevant so please send me an email with your questions and hopefully next month I’ll be able to give you an answer to your specific questions.

-Adam Bonilla

Trainer of Team Elite Physiquez

Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist

NASM Certified Personal Trainer since 2001

NASM Weight Loss Specialist

NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist

NCSF Certfied Personal Trainer since 2002

ISSA Certified Personal Trainer since 2000

APEX Certified Personal Trainer since 2001

Master Trainer Qualified

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