A typical dilemma for any active sportsmen who lifts weights and wants to gain muscle mass is that they know there goal to build muscle up conflicts with the fact that they do a lot of cardio-vascular work. How can someone like this build muscle fastest whilst still doing cardio, indeed is it even possible?

Quite often it is recommended that to build muscles fastest you ought to keep aerobic training down to as little as possible. This is regularly stated because of the fact that aerobic training does two particular things that may restrict muscle growth, they are: 1) burn an abundance of calories 2) speed up your metabolism. Both of these two things contribute to the same problem, namely, not getting enough calories on board. How many calories ought I to be eating is therefore the next natural question?

Well, to keep at the same weight every day you would be required to consume enough calories to cover the energy usage of your body as if it were resting (basal metabolic rate), then eat enough extra calories to provide energy for your workouts. Each day you need to eat a further 500 calories if you wish to build muscle mass.

Is there a method to work out this number?

Yes, there most definitely is and one way of figuring this out is by using the Katch-McArdle formula (BMR based on lean body weight). Here it is:

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wght in kg) + (5 X hght in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X hght in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

Once you have gotten this figure you should then multiply it by one of the following to allow for your daily activity levels:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active equals BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (sports 6-7 days/hard exercise/wk)
Extr. active equals BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, competition etc).

So, if you are doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. Your daily energy needs will be safely covered by this amount. This amount then needs to be altered to suit your goals. Presuming it is muscle building, you would need to add at least a further 500 calories per day.

So if your final figure is 3000 calories then you would be looking at eating 6 meals per day of 500 calories each. Every meal would therefore contain 37 grams of protein, 62 grams of carbohydrate and just 11 grams of fat. This is due to the fact that a gram of protein or carbohydrate equals 4 calories where as a gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Correct muscle building nutrition and working out your calorie needs like this is what is going to ensure you build muscles fastest, not any miracle new exercise!

 

 

 

Tags: build muscle fastest, build muscle mass, build muscles fastest, muscle building nutrition
Filed under: Fat Loss