by Chris Shugart
A 500-Calorie Strategy for Clean Gains
Ditch the dirty bulk. Build muscle at the optimal rate and avoid excess fat gain. Here's a simple way to do it.
- Fact: An experienced lifter needs a calorie surplus to build muscle at the maximal rate.
- Another Fact: Most experienced lifters consume far too many calories during mass phases, gain too much fat, and then have a tough time dieting it off. Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, sums it up: "Upwards of 75% of weight gained during the bulking phase is body fat. Sure, you gain muscle, too, but much of that is catabolized during the subsequent dieting process."
- One More Fact: Your body has a built-in speed limit for muscle gains. Try to exceed it by eating too many extra calories and you gain far more fat than muscle. For example, you might gain 10 pounds of body weight, but 7 pounds is made of fat.
- The Final Fact: With the right number of extra calories, you build muscle at the fastest physiological rate possible with minimal fat gain. The scale weight goes up 5 pounds, but 4 pounds is muscle. Schoenfeld notes that, for most experienced lifters, this is one or two pounds of muscle gain per month.
So, What's the Right Number of Calories?
It's around 500 calories over your maintenance intake – the number of calories you generally eat in a day that doesn't lead to weight loss or gain. Maybe 200 calories less or 200 calories more, depending on individual factors like genetics, age, activity levels, and more.
I chose 500 calories after running my own numbers through various formulas and averaging out the recommendations of a dozen trusted coaches. You can do that too, but your results will be 300 to 700 calories more than your maintenance intake.
So, let's call it 500. You can always adjust up or down from there based on your results. Your goal? Gain muscle at a realistic but optimal rate while keeping fat gain to a minimum.
The Easiest Way to Add Around 500 Calories
Add one 500-calorie protein-based shake to your normal daily diet.
Choose a protein powder containing both whey protein isolate and micellar casein. Remember, the goal is "clean" muscle gains. Whey protein isolate contains fast-acting essential amino acids and jumpstarts protein synthesis. Micellar casein is the superior protein for sustaining protein synthesis and building muscle. MD Protein (Buy at Amazon) is the ideal choice.
The Simple Guidelines
- Make sure you've roughly maintained your current weight for at least a few months. If you have, you've naturally been eating your maintenance intake. There's no need to calculate it.
- If you normally skip breakfast or any other meal, have the shake instead.
- If you're eating regular meals, have the shake between meals or before bed.
- After 4 weeks, adjust calories up or down by around 200 per day based on your results.
The 500-Calorie (ish) Shake
Here's my favorite recipe, already calculated for you:
- 2 scoops chocolate or vanilla MD Protein (Buy at Amazon)
- 1 medium banana
- 2 tablespoons natural nut butter
Blend with 16 ounces of water and a few ice cubes. Use more or less water to get the consistency you enjoy most. Pro tip: Skip the ice and use a sliced frozen banana. This prevents the ice from watering down the flavor.
Calories & Macros
- Calories: 520
- Protein: 53g
- Carbs: 46g
- Fat: 17g
The Non-Linear Bulking Approach
If you're an easy fat-gainer, or you're just worried about gaining too much, use the non-linear approach: Drink the 500-calorie shake on weekdays and skip it (return to maintenance) on weekends. This could also help prevent any negative adaptations from bulking too long. It's simple:
- Weekdays: Drink the shake (normal diet + caloric surplus)
- Weekends: Skip the shake (normal diet)
Finally, remember that the 500-calorie guideline isn't the fastest way to gain weight, but it is the fastest and healthiest way to gain muscle. And that's what we're after, isn't it?