The Case for Gains - Part 1: Intake
There are at least a thousand different professional opinions on how to add muscle, and if we are talking about the best way to add muscle AND also burn fat, well, then the differentiating opinions estimate goes straight out the window and towards the moon on that one.
Why are there so many ideas in relation to optimal training and performance? Is everyone just lying? If there are a lot of different answers for something, without trying all of those suggested methods out, we can assume that many of them have actually worked for people, to some degree. My friend Cam regularly says something to the sound of, ‘Everything works, but nothing works forever.’ Sorry if I butchered that, but it’s a good argument nonetheless.
There are a ton of different ways to go about muscular growth and fat loss, or simply put, gains. But there are a lot of different ways to do a lot of different things. I could crack and egg into a bowl and whisk it up with my feet, and technically the egg would get whisked and technically I would be able to cook that baby up pretty good, but most people would probably argue that using my feet is not the most ideal or effective method.
Okay, I can feel your internal monologue from all the way over here after that analogy, “What am I reading right now?” But hear me out anyways. The same principles apply to training. Technically we can add muscle and lose fat a lot of different ways, but what is the best way? What is most optimal?
Now if this was a true training opinion piece this is the part where I would start pitching you my prescribed training and diet pattern that has worked solely for myself and my clients, but this is not a true training opinion piece and I am not that kind of author. No, I am going to point out that there are many solutions to the problem at hand and my suggestion is purely that, my suggestion. I have no personal scientific study to compare to other training and diet combos out there, like keto and crossfit, or bro-splits and carb cycling. All I have is the stuff I know personally that works with me and what works with my clients.
The most common misconception out there in the training world is the belief that there needs to be a total calorie surplus in order to gain muscle. What that means is that the body needs to take in more calories than it is burning in a given day in order to add on more muscle, this is untrue. This is also a dangerous rumor to go about all on its own. Many people fall victim to this ideal, including younger Andrew, and end up getting fat while trying to train hard and grow bigger. The body needs food in order to repair and grow, yes, but it does not need a significant calorie surplus to do that. The body requires an adequate amount of protein consumption for proper post-training adaptation. This number can vary greatly from person to person, but the age-old estimate can be used for good reference, 1.2-1.7 g of protein for each kilo of body weight, or 0.5-0.8 g per pound of body weight. Start there and feel it out, it’s your body.
Outside of that, we need to know how to train our bodies to adapt them into what we want them to look, feel, and work-like. Our training needs to be focused, and intentional to those goals. Many people I work with or have worked with in the past had never considered that - what they truly want to do with their bodies.
Every trainer under the sun hears the summer-time slogan like a clarion call, “Lose fat and tone up.” But it needs to be deeper than that kiddie-pool depth of a fitness goal. The truth is, there are a lot of different ways that we can train for similar goals, but we need specificity, if we don’t have that it can be hard to create a proper program. I am going to train someone much differently who wants to be strong and also lose fat versus a person who is looking to shred fat ASAP and that’s that. Figure it out - that’s the first step from the kiddie-pool and towards the real stuff.
Here’s the end of part 1, see you in the deep end.
Andrew Happel
Andrew Happel is an online coach who specializes in powerbuilding, or creating strong and aesthetic-looking bodies.