You want to put on muscles, but the last thing you want is to put on a whole bunch of body fat.

I can calm you down: You don’t have to get ‘chubby’ while building. There are strategies to keep the fat gain minimal while gaining muscles.

You lost some body fat in your diet and now you want to grow muscles but are unsure about how to do it without putting all the lost body fat back that you worked your a** off for the last months.

Here is what you need to do:​

​EAT MORE CARBOHYDRATES​

Following a fat loss phase, increasing carbs instead of dietary fat can help to minimize fat gain.

But why?

When we are in a building phase, we consume more energy than our body needs. The slight excess in calories is necessary in order to have enough resources to build strong muscles (and train hard + recover harder).

Now you need to understand that an excess of carbs has the potential to be stored as glycogen first AKA carbs will be stored in your muscles and liver. (This enables you to train hard and recover harder.)

Once the glycogen stores are FULL, your body will convert the left-over carbs into fat. This process is called De-Novo-Lipogenesis (see picture below).

The latter doesn’t sound like what we want – I get you.

However, data shows that the mentioned mechanism is rather inefficient. That means only a very small percentage of carbs will get converted into fat. Note, that an excess of dietary fat will always be stored as fat.

What’s the take-home message?

​Advice No. 1
Once you set your calorie target (slight surplus) and you hit your needed protein intake, increase your carbohydrate intake over time instead of your dietary fats.

Advice No. 2
Watch out to keep your muscle gain at a slow rate. Here are some numbers you can take as a guideline:

≈ 0,8% of bodyweight/month for a beginner
≈ 0,5% of bodyweight/month for an advanced trainee

If you’re still scared to go through a building phase on your own, apply for our premium 1:1 coaching HERE. Together we will go through all phases of body transformation together and you will gain knowledge (and muscles) for a lifetime.

If you’re ready to do the work on your own but want a step-by-step guide navigating yourself through a building (and cutting phase), invest in our nutrition guide ‘From Macros To Meals’. Get your copy HERE.

Join our mailing list for weekly blog and youtube updates. You may or may not get exclusive discounts as well. Just sayin’. Join the gang!