Building muscle with little fat

[muscle99]

Can you be say 8% BF & stay that way & continue to make good gains in muscle growth providing your eating your maintance amount of calories?

[thatwaslight]

are you 8% bf?

[muscle99]

No but that's my goal.

[thatwaslight]

There a somewhat conflicting goals , your best environment to build muscle is most certainly not going to be at 8%

(but on the gaspari ad hidetada yamagishi said he gains mass the best while hes taking size on at low bf??) :grin:

[muscle99]

What would be the best bf % range for building muscle?

[thatwaslight]

are you natural? and why 8%?

[muscle99]

Natural. I wish to cut down to a low % & remain there & start building muscle again but don't want to be counter productive.

[jimjim83]

I dont understand why people chase numbers who care what % your body fat is if your doing it for asthetics then use the mirror and dont stop till your happy.

What will you do if you get to 8% and look shit just accept it? Same with if you get to 12% and look the best you have ever looked just keep going till you reach 8% cos thats the magic number.

I just dont get it.

[Dr Squat]

Simple works best. Eat every 2-3 hours, train hard and heavy, get lots of rest, say your prayers etc...

If you follow these simple rules you can build muscle.

Like Jimmy, I am a bit miffed about the lean thing.

[PeterDolan]

You can stay at 8% if you are growing. Simply put a 100kg dude with 10kg fat and a 80kg dude with 8kg fat have the same bf%

[Phedder]

Can you be say 8% BF & stay that way & continue to make good gains in muscle growth providing your eating your maintance amount of calories?

Well to be picky if you're only eating at your maintenance calories then you're unlikely to be gaining anything, hence why they're called maintenance calories, they maintain...

What's your main priority? being lean, or being muscular? I'd say focus on one before the other, because if you try and focus on both from the get go you'll end up getting half results for both of them. i.e either get lean and stay that way while slowly building muscle, or bulk up to the amount of muscle you want and then cut get lean.

[thatwaslight]

Simple works best. Eat every 2-3 hours, train hard and heavy, get lots of rest, say your prayers etc...

If you follow these simple rules you can build muscle.

Like Jimmy, I am a bit miffed about the lean thing.

I hear this may even mimic the actions of a weak steroid such as winstrol or taking large doses of L-leucine

[Ryno33]

Can you be say 8% BF & stay that way & continue to make good gains in muscle growth providing your eating your maintance amount of calories?

If that's the case Im gonna get my arse back to church :pfft: :grin:

[Ryno33]

I hear this may even mimic the actions of a weak steroid such as winstrol or taking large doses of L-leucine

If that's the case Im gonna get my arse back to church :pfft: :grin:

[Grover]

:notworthy:

[cantygirl]

If your 8% and really tall, good luck to you building muscle.

[muscle99]

Can you be say 8% BF & stay that way & continue to make good gains in muscle growth providing your eating your maintance amount of calories?

Well to be picky if you're only eating at your maintenance calories then you're unlikely to be gaining anything, hence why they're called maintenance calories, they maintain...

What's your main priority? being lean, or being muscular? I'd say focus on one before the other, because if you try and focus on both from the get go you'll end up getting half results for both of them. i.e either get lean and stay that way while slowly building muscle, or bulk up to the amount of muscle you want and then cut get lean.

Yeah I agree it is not easy to focus on both at the same time. Right now I'm focusing on getting lean. Why do I need to bulk up at the same time as building muscle?

[Phedder]

Can you be say 8% BF & stay that way & continue to make good gains in muscle growth providing your eating your maintance amount of calories?

Well to be picky if you're only eating at your maintenance calories then you're unlikely to be gaining anything, hence why they're called maintenance calories, they maintain...

What's your main priority? being lean, or being muscular? I'd say focus on one before the other, because if you try and focus on both from the get go you'll end up getting half results for both of them. i.e either get lean and stay that way while slowly building muscle, or bulk up to the amount of muscle you want and then cut get lean.

Yeah I agree it is not easy to focus on both at the same time. Right now I'm focusing on getting lean. Why do I need to bulk up at the same time as building muscle?

You don't need to, but chances are you'd be able to gain more muscle if you did. Say you eat 200-300 calories over maintenance and slowly add muscle with minimal fat. If you 'bulked' up and ate say 1000 calories over maintenance chances are you're going to gain fat, but you're also providing the body plenty of calories to build the muscle. With the 200-300 over maintenance perhaps you're restricting the amount of muscle growth you could be getting, and 1000 over maintenance would allow you to maximise the growth. All just me theorizing here, don't take anything as fact :shifty:

Like I said earlier it all depends on your main priority though, you can stay lean and slowly add muscle to eventually reach your goal, or you can bulk up and add muscle quicker, but then have to cut down again later to get to your goal. Chances are both methods would get you to the desired end result in a similar time frame anyway, just via two different routes. Everyone has their preference.

[perpetual_injuries]

At 8% BF it is technically possible to gain just as much muscle as you would at 10, 12, 14 or 20% BF. You simply need to do the numbers and be a lot more careful with your intake to maintain 8%

Your body needs a maintenance level of energy. If you only eat that much you cannot gain muscle as you don't have anything left over to put into it. So you will need to eat just enough over the maintenance level to allow the energy to create and repair muscle while not going so far over as to have excess energy which will then be stored as fat.

Also be sure to keep your protein levels high enough. 1g for pound of muscle mass tends to be the most common advice.

It's effectively tight rope walking and will require a lot of experimentation on your behalf to figure out exactly where your levels are.

However, once you figure out the numbers there shouldn't be any reason you can't gain muscle efficiently at 8% with a strict and well monitored diet.

[thatwaslight]

Good luck!

[PeterDolan]

At 8% BF it is technically possible to gain just as much muscle as you would at 10, 12, 14 or 20% BF

Not true, body fat % alters hormone levels

[thatwaslight]

why the f*ck do you want to be 8% lol do you want to have a strict diet all year round?

What are your stats?

[weener lad]

I dont understand why people chase numbers who care what % your body fat is if your doing it for asthetics then use the mirror and dont stop till your happy.

What will you do if you get to 8% and look shit just accept it? Same with if you get to 12% and look the best you have ever looked just keep going till you reach 8% cos thats the magic number.

Shit I actually agree with this. :pfft:

However I'm probably going to cop a thrashing for this, but lean bulking isnt hard or ineffective like alot of you are suggesting.

I've been lean bulking (call it what you like) for 2 years and have had my best results. Given I don't think I'm down in single digit BF% but I wouldn't be much over 10-11% all year round (estimated as I don't do BF cals). Personally if your going to try this type of dieting you will need to be spot on with your diet (know what's in what and schedule cheats ect), train bloody hard (as usual), be prepared to think of food as fuel and not overly enjoyable and learn what your body is telling you.

May all sound like a crock of shit but if you do your homework it can be done easily.

Now fire away Jimjim :pfft:

[Dr Squat]

I dont understand why people chase numbers who care what % your body fat is if your doing it for asthetics then use the mirror and dont stop till your happy.

What will you do if you get to 8% and look shit just accept it? Same with if you get to 12% and look the best you have ever looked just keep going till you reach 8% cos thats the magic number.

Shit I actually agree with this. :pfft:

However I'm probably going to cop a thrashing for this, but lean bulking isnt hard or ineffective like alot of you are suggesting.

I've been lean bulking (call it what you like) for 2 years and have had my best results. Given I don't think I'm down in single digit BF% but I wouldn't be much over 10-11% all year round (estimated as I don't do BF cals). Personally if your going to try this type of dieting you will need to be spot on with your diet (know what's in what and schedule cheats ect), train bloody hard (as usual), be prepared to think of food as fuel and not overly enjoyable and learn what your body is telling you.

May all sound like a crock of shit but if you do your homework it can be done easily.

Now fire away Jimjim :pfft:

Lee, if you let yourself go to say 15% do you think it would be easier for you to gain muscle? As opposed to being 10%ish?

[Rookie]

Bro, agree with TWL: Conflicting goals hard, would you rather be:

1) 70-80kgs at 8% bf OR

2) 95+kgs at 12-15% bf?

sure you'll be shredded at 8% bf but like TWL said, you gonna have to be damn strict with diet year round. At 95+kgs and 12-15% bf you'll look way bigger, just think of the long term bro. I hope to be 95+kgs and 12-15% one day lololol. Height is dependent too, if you're a tall mofo, wouldnt see the point in getting that lean, be best to build muscle first.