Gain Weight The Safe And Healthy Way… by Brad Campbell

If you wanna know how to gain weight the healhty way, this article is for you.  It’s 2011 and times are changing.  One such change in the area of health and fitness — more specifically, weight gain/muscle building — is how the average guy is going about it…

If you ask me, aggressive bulking is dead.  RIP.

The old school way of eating whatever is in sight — regardless of the nutritional content and without regard for the total quantities devoured — all day long, day after day… simply because you’re in a “bulking phase”… is a thing of the past.

Or at least it should be.

And I’m gonna tell you why right now… as I go into my “filthy five” reasons traditional balls-to-the-wall bulking is a piss poor way to add muscle and build a great physique…

How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way –
5 Reasons To Avoid Traditional Bulking:

1) Bulking forms bad habits. You know how I recommend a once weekly cheat day for “most” of my readers who’re looking to lose weight fast?  Well, the ones who don’t qualify for the cheat day are those who have problems cutting off the high calorie eating — people who have binging or compulsive eating tendencies…

Now, think about eating whatever you want 24/7, day after day during a 3-month bulk phase.  Even the most disciplined of individuals are gonna have a helluva hard time flipping the switch and eating clean, low calorie foods when it’s time to cut.

Not only that, but all that high fat, piss poor carb, chemically-enhanced, high salt food could really do some damage internally during the course of a lengthy bulking session.

2) It’s a crap-ton of work. Traditional bulking for long periods of time is flat-out hard to keep up with.  You’ve gotta run to the grocery store every couple of days; you’ve gotta cook all sorts of meat and clean veggies; you’ve gotta wash dishes and clean up messes; you’ve gotta plan ahead and pack meals and snacks so you’re constantly able to eat…

I’m freakin’ exhausted just thinking about it.  Point is: it’s not realistic to think you’re gonna successfully bulk for a long time period without getting burnt out — YES, even over-eating is hard to do for much more than a couple weeks.

3) A calorie is NOT a calorie. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but eating 4,500 daily calories worth of chocolate chip cookies will produce a body that’s drastically different visually, than someone eating 4,500 calories worth of chicken breasts each day.

Although this example is extreme and neither would be a good option, I can assure you that the “chicken breast bulker” would have a physique that is much leaner and more muscular than the “dough boy bulker.”

Sure, a surplus of any combination of food types would lead to weight gain — but depending on the macronutrient breakdown, the specific type of weight gain (whether it be fat, muscle or water) will vary substantially.

4) Sky high calories does NOT lead to skyrocketed muscle gains. It’s easy to make the conclusion that: if you need a surplus of calories to gain muscle, then clearly a greater surplus would lead to greater/faster muscle building, right?

Seems logical.  But it ain’t right.  Once again, I wish it were… but it’s just not the case.

Think of your muscles like a gas tank… after a hard weight training workout when you’re running on “E”… you need to stop by the gas station to fill up — but you can only put so much gas in the car.  If you try to add more than your gas tank holds, what happens?

You’re gonna start spilling it down the side of your car, onto the cement and waste a lot of money in the process.  Hey, at least it smells good, right?  ;-)

Your muscles are no different — they have a storage capacity and trying to feed past this capacity is only going to lead to a spare tire (you liked how I kept with the car analogy, huh?).

5) Gaining fat makes it harder to gain muscle and EASIER to gain more fat. Double whammy, huh?  Research has suggested that the higher percentage of body fat a person has when entering (or going through) a bulking phase, the more fat they’ll put on… and the less muscle they’ll gain… as compared to a leaner individual going through that same bulking period.

That’s why I always recommend my clients get lean first, then bulk.  And even still, I never recommend an all-out, prolonged bulking period… which obviously is the point of this post, showing you how to gain weight the healthy way.

Also remember, that when binging for a prolonged period of time your body has no choice but to increase the number of fat cells it holds.  And those fat cells, my friend, are NON-REFUNDABLE…

That’s right, you can’t get rid of ‘em without surgery.

I could go on and on, but those are five pretty convincing reasons to avoid traditional, all-you-can-eat, prolonged bulking phases when trying to gain weight.  So, if I’m telling you not to use standard bulking, but I’m admitting you need a caloric surplus to add lean muscle weight… what do I recommend?

Good question.  Here’s the method I use on my own body: How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way…

I’ve got a chicken breast and a side of whole wheat pasta and veggie salad calling my name, so I’m out like a scout on a new route for now.

Stay Cool.

Your Coach,

Brad Campbell

Posted in Build Muscle | Toning Exercises by Brad Campbell | 5 Comments