A lot of people have asked what the key factors for muscle building?
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 ⁣
Based on the current literature in natural bodybuilders, the most amount of fat free mass we can build in a one month period is about~ 400g in novice lifters. If you are intermediate or advanced, the amount is likely less
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Depending how much muscle you want to build, you may need a considerably longer time in the building phase.⁣
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𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐨?⁣
Too much cardio, specifically HIIT impedes MTOR signaling pathways, blunting hypertrophy. It also interferes with recovery from resistance training (RT), so if increasing muscle mass is your main goal, it’s important to keep HIIT cardio to a minimum & follow a structured RT program, which is necessary to illicit anabolic signaling for hypertrophy to occur.⁣
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𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐭?⁣
Research shows that being in an energy deficit can 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 the molecular machinery involved in building muscle, thus our daily calorie intake is important for growth! ⁣
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Further, the overall impact on hypertrophy will depend on other relevant factors such as dietary protein intake!
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During the building phase it has been suggested that our intake be at ~ 20% above maintenance calories. Its important to realize that there will be inter-individual variability in body mass & composition changes associated with an energy surplus, perhaps as a consequence of genetics or metabolic responses such as adaptation to diet induced thermogenesis (DIT ) or non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).⁣
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The minimum amount of dietary protein is also necessary to facilitate gains in LBM, even in an energy surplus. ⁣
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The recommended protein intake for optimizing lean body mass is 1.6-2.4/kg. More won’t hurt, but probably doesn’t elicit a further anabolic response, but rather aids personal dietary preferences.⁣
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𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐡𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭 ?⁣
There appears to be no difference in the hypertrophy response whether remaining energy is consumed as carbohydrate or a combination of carbohydrate and fat. This suggests that the energy content of the diet i had the biggest impact on body composition changes.