Issue 002
April 2005
In contact sports it's not always desirable to be the biggest guy in the ring! You want to be strong, sure, but powerful and able to use that muscle power on your opponent and not on lugging your own great bulk about!
Many of you, though, will still want to have a bit of bulk, but some muscle definition with this bulk does add to a good, agile shape and will certainly make you look powerful. But it's really down to you to find your happy medium, where you carry enough bulk to be strong, but are not too stripped of fat that you're weak and prone to injury. This issue can be further confounded if you have to make a specific weight for your competitive weight category, where you have to get your body weight down on the scales but at the same time have enough energy to fight hard.
There is, however, a common myth in strength sports that you need to bulk-up in order to grow muscle and be strong. While this is true to a point, you certainly don't need to gain too much fat. What you do need in order to grow muscle is to be in calorie surplus, ie consume more calories than you need to maintain your weight (protein intake aside), and by doing this a little fat deposition is inevitable and nothing to worry about.
By James Collier BSc (Hons) RNutr
James Collier runs the popular bodybuilding website
www.MuscleTalk.co.uk and is a nutrition consultant. You can get his ebook Informed Bodybuilding Nutrition though Muscle Talk or www.bodybuilding-diets.co.uk and he is also available for personalised, tailored nutritional advice online.
Nutrition
Wake
7.30 am
One scoop whey protein in water
Breakfast
8.00 am
Porridge: 50g cats + 250 ml
skimmed milk + 1 tsp sugar
One to two slices granary bread +
olive oil spread
Three egg whites + one yolk
scrambled
100ml orange juice
1 tblsp flaxseed oil
Snack
10.30 am
120g chicken breast
Two oatcakes
Fruit
Lunch
12.30 pm
Tuna (200g) + 2 tblsp low fat yoghurt
Two slices granary bread + olive oil spread
Huge salad
Snack
3.00 pm
120g chicken breast
Two oatcakes
Fruit
5.30 pm
Meal replacement powder drink in water
Training session
After training
6.30 pm
Two scoops whey protein in water
Evening meal
7.30 pm
150g chicken breast
Either one medium jacket potato or
50g boiled basmati rice or
75g boiled wholewheat pasta
Vegetables
Supper
10.00pm
Two oatcakes
Stick celery
50g low fat soft cheese
11.30 pm
100g cottage cheese
Bed
11.30 pm
Losing fat/gaining muscle regimens
Strictly speaking from a scientific viewpoint - it isn't possible to gain muscle while being in an energy deficit due to the fact that muscle growth is an energy-requiring process. As you can only lose fat if you are in an energy deficit, the trick to weight loss while gaining muscle is to fluctuate your body between energy surplus and deficit at different times of the day, or on different days of the week, through diet and exercise. However, if your goal is to lose body fat extremely strictly, then it is not possible to gain muscle at the same time as losing body fat because there is far too insufficient an energy reserve for muscle growth. Here the priority is maintaining muscle mass. But, for the main, with gentle dieting you can successfully lose fat and grow, reaching your objective-looking and feeling great, and being powerful.
Meal size
Meals must be small but regular and in order to keep growing it is essential to keep protein intake high. The key to effective fat loss lies in careful manipulation of your intake of carbohydrate foods, this means carbs should be low, but not omitted. Consume complex, starchy carbohydrate foods regularly, but in small portions only. You will also have to be that little bit stricter in avoiding treats and junk food, of course!
Meal plan
Following a meal plan similar to the one below should give a steady loss of body fat and if you are weight training hard, you will gain muscle too. It is also reasonable in portion sizes, so should help in keeping you feeling full-up and satisfied.
The plan is merely a guide and must not be stuck to rigidly! You must eat a variety of different meats/fish, complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables every day, and drink plenty of water. Adapt the plans to suit your own needs according to your results in order to attain a steady loss of body fat. Varying portions from day to day along with hard training will help you to gain some lean muscle too.
Exercise and fat loss
Both weight and cardiovascular training must remain intense. You will be able to continue to train hard as your calorie intake will not be mega low and you'll be including regular carbohydrates. In order to achieve optimum results, as well as your weight and fighting training I'd also try to include 30-40 minutes high intensity interval training (HIIT) twice a week, to preferentially burn fat while maintaining muscle mass. Ideally this should be done on a different day or at a different time of day to weight training so as not to interfere with nutrients required for muscle growth. Intensity should be low, say about 55-60% maximum heart rate the optimum level for mobilising fat reserves while maintaining muscle tissue. In practice, this is a level of exercising that makes you feel slightly warm and just out of breath when you finish.
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