Clean bulking strategies

Snake47

Hi. I am 6'3, 187pounds, 34inch waist and still visible six-pack (well-five of them anyway).
I am training to bulk up but i want to do it clean so i am taking in around 300-500 cals above maintenance everyday.
I was reading somewhere that once a week, if you have double your intake of cals (so for me thats 6000) the extra wont get stored as fat but will mainly be used for muscle. Is that true? Has anyone tried that?
Also, are there any other strategies like that for eating or training.
Cheers

Garry_8472

Thats a new one on me, never heard anything like it. Most of these things are myths.

Anyone else ?

zx9rjas

I have read info like this before but a lecturer on on muscle and fitness I know disputes this.
He told me that as the body works on a weekly calorie intake (not daily) anything over 700 calories a day (4900 a week) and the body will store it as fat.

Also I was told that 1 lb a week is the most pure muscle that we can build a week, he said that studies have shown that anything over this (normal 2lbs) and it is lipid and water weight. However I'm not so sure about this as I have gained this before and been fine.

I suppose the only thing you can do is experiment for 4 weeks or so and keep an eye on BF levels and body weight increases. If you put on to much cut it back.

J

Anonymous

I doubt that big time, if your maintenance is 2500, and your eating above at 3000, then you decide to start eating at 6000! then your gonna get very fat and very fast - unless you are doing some HIIT or weights every morning and night, you'd still prob get fat though!

to put on LBM you want to be consuming just above maintenance, so you are eating slightly more than you burn and that surplus will be added as LBM through a strict regime of weights and minimal (but some) cardio

i've read a lot of stuff regarding this, but a recall a recent article saying that high calorie diets do not lead to more muscle but rather more fat, i will not be upping my cals over the 3500mark till after xmas, 4500 tops i reckon, 6000 is just silly

Snake47

Cheers for that. I thought it was nuts too but part of me wanted to believe and use it for an excuse to eat shit for a day, oh well.

GettinSwole

I've read the article this was taken from and only somewhat agree with it. It is true that eating a constant amount of food over time stabilizes metabolism, so eating those extra calories (especially carbs) on 1 day out of the week will raise metabolism and spike insulin. Raising metabolism will help rid the body of those extra cals you won't need. The spike in insulin will help the body synthesize the carbs and protein more efficiently. This method in my opinion would only work for a month or two and then you would have to try something else. I do agree that it would work in the short run however. Science proves it.

Snake47

How many extra cals could you have that day and could some of it come from, say, a burger.Hehehe

zx9rjas

I would expect that eating such a high/extreme amount of calories it is more important that the diet is clean.

J

GTForce

I believe that technique can be beneficial if you are dieting. Say you were on a 2000 calorie/day diet then taking in 4000 calories once every 10 days would accomplish two things : 1) It would help keep your metabolism from slowing down
too much.
2) It would help you maintain some sanity

By the way, if you are serious about bulking, you may need to say goodbye to your abs for a while. You will get them back, it is actually way easier to rip-up once you have gained more muscle. I am not saying get fat...your plan to go above maintenance by 500 calories sounds like a great plan. In theory, that should result in a one pound gain per week (500 x 7 = 3500 cals = 1 pound)

Good luck,
GTF

Absfreak

I have never heard of this for bulking although I have for dieting. It is called a re-feed day where you hammer the carbs to keep the metabolism high and to get an insulin spike to synthesize the carbs & protein better.