Clean Bulking With Intermittent Fasting

If you’re into bodybuilding you may have heard the term “intermittent fasting.”

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water only)…

Although this strategy is typically used for fat burn and may seem like a strange way to gain muscle mass, by only eating food for a short period of time in a day, it can actually work to your advantage if done correctly. This can be a great diet plan to adopt to get the muscle size that you seek while avoiding unnecessary fat gains while “bulking”.

Bulking on Intermittent Fasting (IF)
On this plan you’ll be eating your calories at set a period of the day and then not eating at all for several hours. You will need to maintain a caloric surplus by getting enough calories into your body during your “feeding window”. Use my simple hardgainer diet plan formula to calculate exactly how many calories YOU will need in order to maintain a caloric surplus. Ideally you’ll want to eat all of your calories in a 6-8 hour window. I would recommend a feeding window of 12pm-6pm or 12pm-8pm. Once you have chosen the hours in which you will be consuming your calories, you can then schedule your meals accordingly.

Following this approach means you will need to consume the 2000-3000+ calories in a selected period of time and then fast for the rest of the day. Avoid eating foods that are low calorie as you won’t meet your calorie goals for the entire day.

15 Calorie Dense Foods for Skinny Guys <==Click here

Intermittent Fasting Schedule Example:
12pm: Meal 1
2pm: Meal 2
3pm: Gym
5pm: Meal 3
7pm: Meal 4
8pm-11:59am: Fasting

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If you are a naturally skinny guys who finds it damn near impossible to gain weight, 9 times out of 10 it’s because you are not eating as much as you think you are. Fact is, if you are in a caloric surplus, you will gain weight…if you fail to gain weight then you just aren’t eating enough, period. Now, I am assuming that your goal is not just to gain weight, but to gain solid muscle mass, right?

Find out how many calories YOU need in order to be in a caloric surplus with my simple hardgainer diet plan. Once you have calculated your calorie and macronutrient intake, it’s time to figure out where you are going to get these calories from. For hardgainers like me, it is very important that we focus on calorie and nutrient dense foods. This simply means that we should focus on foods that are high calorie, but also have good nutritional value. Let’s face it, 300 calories from a donut won’t provide the same nutrients as 300 calories from a chicken breast, brown rice, and some beans.

15 Calorie Dense Foods for Skinny Guys

Using the hardgainer diet plan formula you will have figured out exactly how many calories you will need from protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Now that you know this much, it’s time to give you the top 5 calorie/nutrient dense foods from each macronutrient group so that you can reach your daily caloric requirements with ease and start packing on slabs of muscle, fast.

Protein that’ll make you grow

1. Bison (Buffalo): This protein source is not only leaner than beef, but delivers over 40 grams of protein per serving!
2. Turkey Breast: Unlike the process sliced or grounded turkey you are familiar with from the grocery store, turkey breast is not only one of the leanest protein sources, but contains about 8 grams of quality protein per ounce.
3. Chocolate Milk: This source contains two types of protein: Casein and whey. Casein is a slow digesting protein that does wonders for preventing muscle breakdown and whey is a fast digesting protein that makes for speedy absorption.
4. Fish (Haddock, Cod, Salmon, Tilapia, Flounder, and Whiting): Most fish is a great source of high quality protein and delivers over 20 grams per 6 ounce on average. Not to mention, they are typically packed with supercharged omega-3 fats.
5. Whey Protein: This is the fastest absorbing protein and can become easily consumable for those of us who don’t have time for full meals at certain times. One serving of whey protein can contain over 50 grams of protein. Not to mention, it is typically low in fat and carbohydrates.
6. *BONUS* Eggs: Not only are they packed with riboflavin, folate, vitamins B6, B12, D, and E, and iron, phosphorus, and zinc, but you need less protein from eggs than other sources to achieve the same benefits.

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If you did not already know, testosterone is an important hormone in building lean muscle tissue. As such, it would be of extreme benefit to you to find ways of increasing your body’s production of this anabolic substance naturally. This is not a difficult task if one takes the time to get sufficient exercise, eat healthy and get sufficient rest everyday. The reward will be a leaner, stronger and healthier you.

Anabolic Hormone Amplifier #1: Multi-Joint Movements
It should come as no surprise that performing a lot of compound movements at the gym will greatly increase the levels of testosterone in your body. Compound exercises entail those movements which stress multiple muscle groups such as the squat, dead lift, bench press, dips, pull-ups and pushups. As a result of the tremendous stress your body undergoes when performing these exercises, your body is forced to increase levels of testosterone to help you to cope with this situation.

Anabolic Hormone Amplifier #2: You Need to Work Out At Full Intensity

Apart from incorporating as many compound movements as you can into your workout to boost your body’s production of testosterone, you also need to work out at full intensity. What this means is that you should use proper form so that your muscle fibers are fully stimulated. For example, if you are performing bicep curls do not cheat by using body momentum to lift the weight. When you perform bicep curls at a correct weight and with proper technique you will permit the muscle fibers in your biceps to be fully stimulated so that hypertrophy can take place. If you have to swing the weights to lift them by getting your shoulders into the action then you will not be working out at full intensity. Lower the weights so that you can train with correct form at full intensity to increase testosterone levels so that you can build muscle.

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As most of you may already know, a short time ago I competed in my first fitness show. I started at 19% bodyfat and cut down to a stage shredded 5% in just 14 weeks. Pretty impressive huh? Well maybe, but here is the kicker. Not only did I manage to drop about 1% of bodyfat per week, but I managed to build muscle while in a caloric deficit.

In this post I am going to go over 7 things that I learned in those 14 weeks of show preparation. So if you are someone who is or was naturally skinny and want to get ripped without sacrificing your hard earned muscle mass, pay close attention.

7 Things I Learned in 14 Weeks: Get Ripped Without Losing Muscle

1. DON’T CUT YOUR CARBS!
Carbohydrates are a very important part of muscle preservation. Supplying your body with enough energy will help you to avoid breaking down muscle and/or protein to create more energy. In fact, the leaner you get, the more important carbohydrates become. Depleting your carbohydrates can not only cause you to use muscle mass as a source of energy, but it can destroy your metabolism and suppress your leptin levels, making it nearly impossible to burn fat efficiently.

2. Use it or lose it
When most people think about a “cutting phase”, they assume they must kill themselves with cardio workouts. The fact is, lifting weights with the proper intensity will do more toward your fat loss goals than cardio, any day…especially if you are concerned about preserving your muscle. This is not to say that the proper amount of cardio with the proper nutrition isn’t a great way to burn fat. This simply means that jogging on the dreaded hamster wheel does not have to be the focus of your training.

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Are you afraid of entering a “cutting phase” because you are skeptical about losing your precious muscle mass?

No worries, I had the same issue before I dedicated myself to get lean and shredded for my first fitness competition.

When it comes to torching slabs of fat in a short period of time while maintaining your hard earned muscle mass, there are a few key points that you may want to focus on. You see, starving yourself and running on the treadmill 5 times per week might help you lose weight, but a less extreme and more thought out approach will help you burn fat. Did that not make sense? Losing weight and burning fat are two totally different things. Losing weight (muscle, fat, water, etc.) can easily be done by burning more calories than you consume. However, keeping your hard earned muscle for a sharp, toned, fitness model physique is a little more complicated when entering a “cutting phase” (and less draining).

Fat Burning Secrets I used to drop 14% Body-fat in 14 weeks…without losing a pound of muscle

Tip #1 – More Weights, Less Cardio

One huge mistake most people make when trying to burn fat is they decrease the amount of weightlifting and increase the amount of cardio. Although this approach could work given the proper nutrition and balance between the two, increasing the weightlifting and keeping the cardio at a minimum allowed me to keep my hard earned mass, gain new mass while in a deficit, and burn fat around the clock.

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