How Do I Gain Muscle Mass Without Gaining Body Fat?

Are you looking to pack on some muscle for an upcoming event but are unsure how to avoid gaining love handles in the process? Let's find out what's the best way to go about that!

A common way individuals looking to gain muscle mass go about it, is by eating larger amounts of food in their daily diet (caloric surplus) also known as bulking.

Bulking while engaging

in resistance training may increase muscle mass, but it is also linked to an increase in body fat.

Cutting weight (caloric deficit) as opposed to bulking (caloric surplus), makes it more challenging to gain muscle mass depending on specific attributing details and an individuals exercise experience and genetic makeup.

The good news is that individuals that have recently started a training program can gain muscle while in a caloric deficit much easier than individuals that have been training consistently.

(Donnelly et al., 1993; Longland et al., 2016)

If you haven't been working out in the last 6 months, you should be able to gain muscle mass without having to take on all those extra calories by either continuing your current diet, or decreasing your daily food intake (depending on if you have any weight loss goals).

The most common recommendation is consuming a 400-500 calorie surplus daily to increase muscle mass. (Robbie et al., 2023).

I think another factor to take into account is whether you are an Ectomorph, Mesomorph, or Endomorph.

Ectomorphs tend to be long and have thin limbs, and a very fast metabolism, which burns calories quickly, making it difficult to gain weight/muscle without proper nutrition.

Mesomorphs tend to have a high amount of muscle mass, even without much weight lifting, their metabolisms are mid range, so they can gain weight or lose weight rather quickly.

Endomorphs are what sometimes is called by people (big boned), they have slower metabolisms, that require careful tracking of their diets in order not to pack on more weight, as they don't expend as many calories as the other two body types.

Many people tend to fall into more than one category (ecto-mesomorph, endo-mesomorph), so that should be taken into account.

If you primarily fall into the ectomorph category, you may need to eat more calories to gain muscle compared to the other two body types (and may not be worried about gaining body fat).

If you primarily fall into the mesomorph category, you attain muscle mass quickly, but that can come with body fat as well. So if you're looking to gain more mass while losing body fat, carefully reviewing your current diet, the pragmatically making changes makes more sense. You may end up deciding to focus on cutting a few lbs instead (and focusing on retaining muscle mass/cutting body fat).

Endomorphs on the other hand, need to track their nutrition carefully, if new to exercise, building muscle and losing body fat should definitely be achievable, if you've been exercising for the past 6 months or more, you may want to focusing like the mesamorph on cutting a few lbs (your muscles will pop out more with less body fat, even if you lose some muscle mass), unless you're in a powerlifting sport that requires more mass, then focusing on building muscle while packing on the least amount of body fat may be most beneficial.

Keeping track of your results, your diet and weight lifting programming is essential, as by being detail oriented, you can spot trends, and make changes (weight training program,aerobic program, calorie intake), as no two bodies are exactly the same.

REFERENCES

Slater GJ, Dieter BP, Marsh DJ, Helms ER, Shaw G, Iraki J. Is an Energy Surplus Required to Maximize Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy Associated With Resistance Training. Front Nutr. 2019 Aug 20;6:131. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2019.00131. PMID: 31482093; PMCID: PMC6710320.