NUTRITION MACRONUTRIENT RATIO

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1 It s that time of year again when we say goodbye to summertime shorts, slops and vests and say hello to long pants, coats and thermal underwear. While most people despise the chilly winter, for those of us who are fitness freaks, these few cold months provide the perfect time to add some serious muscle to our frames. Why you may ask? Well, here are three of my favourite reasons to bulk in the winter: 1. Bulking typically requires you to consume an abundance of calories in order to fuel the muscle building process. Coincidently, when temperatures drop, our survival instinct kicks in and urges us to eat more. Now your craving for more calories can be satisfied and instead of gaining mainly fat, these extra nutrients can be put to good use making gains. 2. An inevitable part of a bulking cycle is that you will gain a slight amount of fat weight, which in winter can be hidden under layers of clothing. So no one will even you know you have gotten fat. 3. Bulking requires fewer training days and typically less time in the gym than when cutting. This means you get to spend more time at home under the blankets watching movies. Because no one wants to be overweight in summer, the goal of our wintertime bulk is to add as much muscle to our bodies in as short a time as possible without adding too much fat weight. That way, you will be able to shred that little bit of wintertime weight very quickly so that your six pack will be popping by spring. It is for this reason that we have designed The Ultimate 8 Week Bulk program. NUTRITION I am sure that you have heard the adage fitness is 80% diet and 20% training. Well, this saying doesn t only apply to losing weight; in fact, it is just as important when bulking. Think about it this way, when you are trying to lose weight, you have to stick to healthy foods and consume the appropriate ratio and quantity of protein, carbs and fats to fuel right? Well, the exact same applies to bulking. The only difference is that both the quantity and ratio of protein, carbs and fats will change. MACRONUTRIENT RATIO Because people s genetic make-up varies so significantly, the ideal ratio of protein, carbs and fats to maximise muscle gain will differ from person to person. Unfortunately, the only way to find out the ideal macronutrient ratio for you is to test different ratios over time. That being said, researchers have found that a 40:40:20ratio of protein, carbs and fats is typically the macronutrient ratio that is most commonly found to be effective in muscle gain. It is with these ratios that we have designed our lean bulk nutrition plan.

2 MACRONUTRIENT QUANTITIES The first thing we need to consider when looking to build muscle is calorie consumption. Let me explain, calories provide the body with the necessary energy to fuel typical bodily processes and daily activity. Depending on a number of factors which we will get to later, your body requires a certain amount of calories to cope with the day to day stress placed upon it. If we eat too little, the body will start to look to find energy from other places rather than from food. When this happens, your body will start to break down, or catabolise, either fat, muscle mass or both in order to provide the body with the fuel it needs. Obviously this is counterproductive to muscle gain as we don t want to break down the body but instead build it up. This building process requires us to consume an excess, or surplus, of calories not only to fuel the day to day processes but to fuel the muscle building process. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE MACRONUTRIENT QUANTITY There are a number of factors that we need to take into consideration when we are looking to build muscle. These include age, height, weight, activity level and goal (which in this case is building muscle). With these factors, we can calculate how many calories we need to consume in order to gain weight. Lucky for you, we have done the math in order to simplify things so you don t have to worry about calculating, or miscalculating, your diet and can instead focus on growing. EATING FOR YOUR GOAL WEIGHT Remember, when you are trying to build muscle you need to consume a surplus of calories. While there are a number of ways to decide how many calories you should be eating, my favourite means it to eat for goal weight. In other words, don t just consume the calories required to maintain your current weight but rather for the weight you want to be. For example, you are 83kgs and want to build towards 90kgs, then don t consume the calories required to maintain your 83kgs, but rather for the 90kgs you hope to be. As you grow closer to your goal, reevaluate your calorie requirements and decide whether you are happy with your size or if you want to grow more. If you want to get bigger, then up your calorie intake to match your new goal weight. SUPPLEMENTATION Once you have your nutrition spot on, it is time to consider the supplements you need. When it comes to musclebuilding supplements, there are a number of products to consider. Here are 6 of the best supplements to use when bulking. MASS BUILDERS Mass builders make consuming an excess of calories a whole lot easier than by eating whole foods alone. They typically contain a high protein and carbohydrate content along with added ingredients like creatine, glutamine and BCAAs. Mass builders are ideal for individuals with an ectomorph frame who are typically hardgainers. Individuals with an endomorph frame need to be careful when using mass builders as they may gain fat weight due to the high calorie and carbohydrate content. A decent mass builder should contain calories per serving with 30-50g of protein and 40-60g of carbohydrates. The carbohydrates in mass builders generally come from high GI sources like dextrose, maltodextrin or waxy maize.

3 WHEY PROTEIN As mentioned above, if you have an endomorph frame, mass builders may cause fat weight gain due to the high GI carb and calorie content, therefore, whey protein may be a better option for you. It provides the protein you require to build muscle mass but without the extremely high calories. To spike insulin levels post-workout, you can add a high GI carb like those in a mass builder. The great thing is that because you are adding the carbs in manually, you can adjust the amount up and down to find out what level of carbohydrates is ideal for your body type. CREATINE Creatine has proven to be one of the most potent muscle building supplements on the market today. It helps to replenish ATP levels so that you have more muscular energy during your workout and it assists with muscle contraction, meaning that you are able to lift weights more effectively. Over time, creatine can help to increase muscle size and strength. There are a number of types of creatine on the market including monohydrate, HCl, Pyruvate, Citrate etc. Instead of trying all the different types of creatine individually to find which one works best for you, my suggestion would be to use a creatine product which has a blend of various creatines. While Scitec s Attack 2.0 is technically a pre-workout supplement, it contains an effective dose of creatine making a stand-alone creatine product a non-necessity; plus you will get all of the benefits of a powerful pre-workout.

4 TESTOSTERONE BOOSTERS Testosterone boosters are a great way to enhance the body s natural testosterone producing potential. Testosterone is the one of the most powerful anabolic hormones which plays a significant role in muscle growth. OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS Omega-3 fish oils also improve insulin sensitivity. This is because they get incorporated into the cellular lipid layer which allows cell receptors to bind more easily with insulin. After training, insulin provides a vital purpose which is to transport glucose from dietary carbs and other nutrients (like branch chain amino acids and creatine) into the muscle to help with repair and therefore, growth. VITAMIN & MINERALS Because of the greater demand placed on your body when trying to build serious muscle, you need to ensure that you are feeding your body enough nutrients to fuel your body. If you have any gaps in your nutrition, it may cause you anabolic drive to become slowed down as the nutrients you do get will go to fuelling day to day bodily functions rather than muscle growth. This potential lack in nutrients can be addressed by taking a quality vitamin and mineral supplement.

5 PHOSPHATIDIC ACID Phosphatidic acid is the new kid on the block when it comes to muscle building supplements, however, studies have shown this to be an extremely effective compound for adding lean muscle gains. Phosphatidic acid is a phospholipid which acts as an intracellular messenger which regulates signalling proteins through the mtor pathway. The mtor pathway acts as a central regulator of cell metabolism, growth and proliferation by promoting many anabolic processes. According to researchers, mtor is necessary for resistance training induced muscular growth.