They bulk up, train hard to gain maximum muscle mass, eat tons of food — mostly carb and sugar-laden- then cut their food intake and starve themselves for a few weeks to “look lean.”
Ahah! That ain’t the way you build muscles, lose fat, and above all, be healthy, my dear bodybuilder, gym-rats. You got it wrong. But it’s not your fault — the gym and fitness industry misled you to operate this way.
I met a personal trainer who works at a gym, training her clients. She looks good — yet she carries considerable subcutaneous fat under her skin, despite working out hard with weights 4 times a week.
Now… Why is that, you think? I asked her what she thought.
Her reply was direct, matter-of-fact, and logical to her:
“I’m “bulking up” to build muscle mass for a couple of months, and then I will “cut.”
I am not sure what she meant with “cut,” but really, I do, and it’s wrong.
So, I asked her:
“Why is there much visceral fat under your skin if you work out so hard?”
Her unsurprising answer:
“Because I’m always hungry and need to eat lots of carbs to give me the energy to train.”
Heyho — here we go down the rabbit hole of “misinformation and heart disease!”
She incorrectly thinks that once she adds enough “weight,” she will cut her carb-eating habit, keep up the training, and starve herself for a few weeks.
That way, the subcutaneous (under the skin above the muscle) fat will eventually disappear, and she will look lean, with bigger muscles to be seen!
That’s a painful, stressful, and extremely unhealthy way to treat your body and mind.
After the process is done — She will think she won The Game! Nope, You did NOT!
All you did is harm your heart by overtraining (even 4 times a week of hard weight training causes damage — even if you think it doesn’t) with excessive cortisol flowing into your heart.
Much worse, though, are the multiple feeding bouts to satisfy her hunger that overwork the pancreas, which you force to pump tons of insulin into the bloodstream to remove the excess (toxic) glucose from the blood and into the fat cells — triglycerides.
This process increases the fat build-up, which can and does lead to insulin resistance, and internal inflammation.
If you abuse your pancreas by eating carb-glucose-heavy foods several times daily, it’s easy to develop type 2 diabetes. Whether you are young or older, it does not matter!
Even if you look and feel fit, you can become insulin-resistant and diabetic if you overeat anti-nutrient carb-loaded (sugar) foods.
If you constantly feed your body with sugar and push your heart too hard, you will soon experience burnout and weeks of setbacks.
I spent 2 hours explaining all of this — but don’t think she understood.
I visited her gym and watched her perform her “leg day.”
Oh my goodness — I saw overtraining legs and bum at its finest.
She looks strong but not lean, instead intentionally somewhat overweight throughout her whole body — this need not be!
The healthiest and most effective method to gain lean muscle mass:
Become fat-adapted, control your blood sugar levels and insulin response, maintain a healthy hormonal balance, and above all, do not overeat and stress your heart!
There are far better ways to “bulk up,” be lean, muscular, and look sharp.
Contrary to common beliefs, fasting makes the body insulin-sensitive and fat-adapted, creates growth hormones in order of magnitude, suppresses appetite, and lowers inflammation.
Having more growth hormone supports building lean and strong muscles.
“Growth hormone increases muscle strength by enhancing muscle mass without affecting contractile force or fibre composition type. Growth hormone stimulates whole-body protein accretion with protein synthesis occurring in muscular and extra-muscular sites.” Journal of Molecular Endocrinology
Please read my related story here:
You Are Your Gym — Challenge Your Mind To Be Creative with Your Body – Not Repetitive In a Gym!
Final Thoughts
The old-school “bulk up, eat a ton of carbs, then starve yourself for a week or two” is dangerous, outdated, false information touted by gyms and fitness trainers.
I will tirelessly do my best to educate people on how to work out correctly while building a stronger heart, eating right, losing fat, and building lean muscle by eating real food.
The eating carbs and sugar method to “bulk up and cut” is wrong and has long since been debunked as unhealthy because it causes long-term metabolic health and damage.
Rob
MBA from Robert Kennedy College & University of Cumbria, UK.
Certified Nutritionist & Health Coach | Trainer | Blogger | Copywriter | Author
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