How to Gain Muscle Without Gaining Fat for Women
15 minute read
Understanding Lean Bulking for Muscle Gain
Today I’m going to dive into how to gain muscle… WITHOUT gaining a bunch of extra fat.
Whether you’re looking to shape and sculpt your physique to be more competitive on the Bikini stage, or you just want to actually look like someone who lifts, then keep reading.
When the goal is to have a great physique, building lean muscle is a must, but gaining extra body fat isn’t.
You’ve probably heard the terms, bulking, dirty bulking, and lean/clean bulking but here is a quick refresher anyway…
Bulking - eating over maintenance calories, aka in a surplus, with the intention of building muscle.
Dirty Bulking - eating a large amount of calories, aka a big surplus, with the goal of gaining weight quickly to promote maximum muscle gains.
Lean/Clean Bulking - a technique that aims to gain muscle while minimizing fat gain by eating in a slight surplus.
You’ve probably been told that if you want to build muscle you have to bulk.
How Big of a Surplus Is Needed to Build Muscle Efficiently?
You’ve probably come across people saying the best way to build bigger glutes, sculpt strong arms, or build impressive shoulders, is to eat in a big surplus. The extra body fat you’ll gain along the way is a sacrifice you MUST be willing to make for the sake of progress.
This is the classic dirty bulking approach.
It sounds a bit like yo-yo dieting to me.
Maybe the idea that you have to yo-yo diet has turned you off when it comes to Bikini bodybuilding and building muscle in general?
Well, I have great news for you…
While there will almost always be some fat gain in a building phase, you don’t have to gain pounds and pounds of extra body fat just to gain muscle.
You can build muscle while staying lean. This is where lean/clean bulking comes in!
If you’re a Bikini competitor, keeping body fat in check is a competitive advantage when it comes to rocking your next competition season. Keeping it lean in the off-season is a strategic competitive edge you can utilize to keep coming back better and better.
Here’s what matters most when it comes to lean bulking:
Your diet
Your training
Your recovery
Okay, it’s finally time to dive into the nitty-gritty and learn how to lean bulk, so you can gain muscle without gaining excess fat.
The Importance of Diet in Lean Bulking
Diet plays the biggest role in how much fat you’ll gain during a bulk.
Generally speaking, to build muscle, you want to be in a caloric surplus. While you can build muscle in a deficit in certain circumstances, it isn’t ideal. Especially if you need to add a decent amount of lean mass.
There are a few different scenarios when someone can build a decent amount of muscle while in a deficit:
They are brand new to lifting.
They are brand new to eating in a way that supports building muscle.
They have a lot of extra body fat.
They use performance-enhancing drugs.
A combination of any or all of these.
Unless you fall into one of these categories, you’ll want to eat in a surplus to build muscle.
The question becomes… how big of a surplus do you need to be in to build muscle efficiently?
The consensus is it takes roughly 2500-2800 calories to build a pound of muscle.
Let’s say someone is a beast when it comes to building muscle and she can gain 1 pound of straight muscle per month.
We know it takes roughly 2,500 - 2,800 calories to build that 1 pound of muscle.
When we do the math, it shows she needs around 90 extra calories daily to build that 1 pound of muscle.
Are you thinking about how small the number is? When I learned this I was blown away at how minimal a surplus has to be to build muscle.
I just wanted to show you how minimal of a surplus is needed to build, but this doesn’t really help you figure out how much YOU need to be eating, does it?
Don’t worry, I got you.
Tracking Calories and Macros for Precision
How many calories do you need to eat to gain muscle without gaining extra fat?
A surplus of about 5%-10% above maintenance is ideal for women looking to build muscle.
The more advanced you are as a lifter the more conservative you’ll want to be with your surplus.
With more advanced lifters, muscle gain slows. Slower muscle gains mean a smaller surplus is needed daily to build that muscle.
For example, a Bikini bodybuilding athlete getting ready for her first competition and in her first year of lifting, could aim for a 10% surplus. If her maintenance calories are 2100, she would want to eat 2,300 calories to build muscle.
As she progresses in the sport and becomes a more advanced athlete, she may instead aim for a 5% surplus to mitigate extra fat gain. Assuming her maintenance calories are the same as before (this is unlikely but let’s keep it simple) her lean bulking calories would now be 2,200.
While the 5-10% surplus is a great starting point, many things (genetics, health, starting point) impact how quickly someone can build muscle.
This means tracking progress is important and being able to make adjustments as needed is a must. I’ll dive into how to track progress at the end of this blog!
What macro split should you follow to stay lean while building muscle?
A strict macro split is NOT necessary, but there are some solid general guidelines you can implement to maximize your progress.
Protein: The Building Block of Muscle
For the body to build muscle, muscle protein synthesis (MPS) must be higher than muscle protein breakdown (MPB).
Basically, this means your body needs enough raw materials (amino acids from protein) to not just replace the tissue that is being broken down, but enough to build more.
MPS and MPB happen continuously in the body, and both are essential. MPS is increased in a fed state (eating enough calories), when resistance training, and when protein intake is high.
The RDA recommends .8g or protein per kg of body weight or .36g per pound of body weight. Consuming more has been shown to maximize lean muscle gains. Consuming 1.6g - 2.2g of protein per kg or .7g-1g per pound of body weight is plenty to maximize muscle building.
Let’s use the same Bikini athlete from earlier as an example. She is 136 lbs in her off-season and wants to build muscle while minimizing fat gain. Her lean bulking calories are sitting at 2,300.
Her lean bulking protein goal would be 100g - 136g of protein daily.
** IMPORTANT **
While there is no harm in eating more protein, don’t consume so much protein that your diet lacks the proper amount of carbohydrates and fats.
Overeating protein won’t speed anything up.
Carbohydrates: Fuel for Your Workouts
While protein gets all the muscle-building glory, carbohydrates are an important part of the muscle-building process.
Fun fact: The RDA recommends no less than 130g of carbs daily, this is how much the brain needs (the only carb-dependent organ) to function. If someone eats a low-carb diet the body will convert other energy sources (fat or protein) into glucose to fuel the brain.
Now carbs are not essential, you won’t die without them, but just because they aren’t an essential macro doesn’t mean they aren’t an important part of your diet. Carbs are the body’s preferred source of energy.
When lifting weights most of the energy the muscles use comes from muscle glycogen. With classic Bikini bodybuilding and hypertrophy workouts, moderate to higher rep ranges and higher overall volume are utilized and this causes an even bigger reduction in muscle glycogen stores.
When stores are low, fatigue sets in sooner, and tanks the number of reps that can be performed. When reps are reduced because of a lack of energy (carbs) this impacts your ability to create enough stimulus to build muscle.
By eating a diet rich in carbs your body can keep glucose levels in the muscles topped off.
In addition to more energy while lifting, muscle glycogen levels play a major role in recovery and exercise tolerance.
Simply put – carbs fuel your workouts AND your recovery.
Carbs help regulate thyroid hormones, provide necessary micronutrients, and are protein-sparing. This means protein can be used for what we want it to be used for – to build lean mass – while carbs are used for energy!
So how many carbs should you eat?!
Sticking with at least a moderate-carb diet is ideal. Eating a higher-carb diet is fine, but there are no extra benefits to building muscle with a high-carb diet vs a moderate-carb diet. High carb could be beneficial if you engage in more endurance-based activities in addition to your lifting program.
Aim to get about 40%-60% of your total calories from carb sources.
Using our same Bikini competitor who is lean bulking by eating 2,300 calories, she would be looking to eat about 230g - 345g carbs daily.
Fats: Essential for Hormone Health
This leaves fats. Fats are essential, this means you have to get them from your diet or things go a bit haywire. The impact of fat on muscle building isn’t known, but dietary fat is important for general and hormone health.
Get in your healthy fats ladies.
Getting about 20%-30% of your total calories from dietary fats is recommended.
Our example Bikini competitor, eating 2,300 calories, would want to consume about 50g - 76g of fat daily.
Making Strategic Food Choices
When your goal is to maximize muscle gain while minimizing fat gain I recommend your diet consisting of mostly minimally processed foods.
Limit ultra-processed food. I’m not saying never have a Cheeto or a Combo, but these types of foods should definitely not make up a large part of your diet.
Minimally processed foods:
Are nutrient-dense - they provide higher concentrations of essential vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber, and antioxidants.
Benefit gut health - they keep your billions of little gut bacteria buddies healthy and happy.
Help keep digestion running smoothly - nobody likes it when digestion is wonky. If you do you’re sorta weird. Just sayin’.
Increase satiety - feeling satisfied makes it easier to stick to your calorie goals, helping mitigate excess fat gain.
Keep our bodies overall healthier.
A healthy body builds muscle more easily than an unhealthy one.
Track You Macros
Knowing exactly how many calories you’re consuming becomes even more important when the goal is to build muscle while minimizing fat gain.
A successful lean bulk is all about precision. Eating enough calories to build muscle but not so many calories unnecessary fat is gained. It’s a balancing act.
Can you build muscle without tracking? Of course. But if you want to keep fat gain to a minimum, tracking is the surest way to make that happen.
Tracking means there is no guessing. You know exactly what your intake is, and with the other tracking data I’ll talk about later in this article, you can make real-time adjustments as needed.
To keep it simple in a non-dieting phase, I personally track my total calories and protein while keeping an eye on my carbs and fats, ensuring they are within the recommended ranges.
I recommend you give this strategy a try too.
Letting carbs and fats fluctuate day-to-day, without focusing on hitting hard targets makes tracking more sustainable in the long term. This flexibility reduces the stress of hitting a specific number for all three macros.
In a bulk, even a lean bulk, calories are plentiful. For most people, when calories are higher carbs and fats will fall within the recommended ranges without much effort.
In our Bikini competitor example, her target is to eat 2,300 calories and 136g of protein.
Remember carbs should make up 40%-60% of her total calories and fat should make up 20%-30%.
Some days she might consume 60% of her calories from carbs and 20% from fats and other days she might consume 40% of her calories from carbs and 30% from fats.
On a day-to-day basis, as long as she is eating a minimum of 50g of fat and a minimum of 230g of carbs while hitting her 135g protein and 2,300 calorie goal, she is good to go.
The point I want to get across is - not getting so caught up in exact macro numbers makes tracking feel much more manageable.
The easiest way to track your calories is with an app. There are a million different options out there, I am currently using My Net Diary.
What About Untracked Meals?
Maybe you’re thinking, “Sam, I’m in my off-season, I’m not dieting. I’d like to go out to eat sometimes and maybe even have an untracked meal here and there. I want to live a little… jeesh.”
Sure I get it. I like to out to eat in my off-season and have untracked meals too. Having an untracked meal here and there is totally okay. BUT I want to encourage you to limit these if your goal is to limit fat gain while building.
You’re already eating in a surplus, and untracked meals usually put a person in a bigger surplus, which means a higher potential for fat gain.
You and I both know the surplus needed to build muscle is quite small.
You and I both know precision is important in managing that small surplus.
You and I both know going out to eat and untracked meals means less precision.
And you and I both know a bigger surplus doesn’t equal more muscle gain, it equals more fat gain.
I’m all for an untracked or out-to-eat meal just don’t make it a few-times-a-week habit.
Effective Training for Muscle Growth
While diet plays the biggest role in staying lean while building muscle, training is pretty important when it comes to building muscle.
Aim to get in at least 4 lifting sessions per week, hitting each major muscle group at least twice per week.
At a minimum, get in at least three good sets per muscle group per workout. Getting in 6-9 sets per lift will produce even better results. Performing 10-20 sets per muscle group weekly is the sweet spot.
The biggest driver of muscle growth is mechanical tension. Mechanical tension is achieved by lifting heavy loads. The heavier the load the more tension is placed on the muscle fibers, stimulating growth. YESSS!
What heavy weight is, is relative.
Heavy weight is relative per person. A weight that is heavy for me might not be heavy for you.
Heavy weight is relative to rep range. Many different rep ranges stimulate muscle growth. The rep sweet spot is 8-12 but I recommend having a mix of rep ranges, 4-8, 8-12, 10-15, and even 15-20.
Heavy weight is relative to each exercise. A heavy weight for a compound movement vs an isolation movement looks very different. For hypertrophy, using a combination of compound and isolation movements is best.
The most important point to remember is each of your sets, regardless of rep range, must be performed 1-2 reps shy of failure. Building muscle requires intensity in your lifts. Intensity is an ingredient you cannot exclude.
The Importance of Recovery and Sleep
Diet and training are the big two when it comes to building muscle, but when it comes to building muscle AND staying lean… the big two become diet and recovery.
You don’t need me to tell you (but I will anyway) that your workouts feel like poop when sleep sucks. It isn’t just you and me, and it isn’t all in your head, poor sleep impacts your lifts negatively, especially your big compound lifts.
Sleep also plays an important role in muscle growth and recovery. Your body does all its repairing and building while you sleep.
Remember what I said earlier about muscle protein synthesis? That it must be higher than muscle protein breakdown? Muscle growth is only possible when MPS is greater than the rate of MPB. This doesn’t happen when you are in the gym lifting, it happens when you sleep.
Poor sleep throws MPS off and can lead to more MPB. BOO! No bueno.
Sleep also has an impact on body composition. When sleep is optimized significant benefits to body composition can be seen. Yay more lean mass and less body fat! Lower muscle mass is seen in those who report regular poor sleep. Sucky.
Studies have shown, that when people were on the same calorie deficit, they lost the same amount of weight, but when they had fewer hours of sleep, they lost less weight from fat and lost more weight from muscle.
While studies are mixed about the impact sleep has on your hunger hormones, you’ll know if you’re someone who feels snackier when you have a crummy night’s sleep.
This all comes down to this main takeaway: Don’t make the mistake of thinking sleep doesn’t matter when it comes to building muscle without gaining fat.
It does. So get your z’s, please.
Incorporating Cardio Won’t Kill Your Gains
Cardio killing your gains is a popular theme in Bikini bodybuilding and weight lifting circles and it is the bane of my existence. Cardio does not limit your ability to build muscle. No gains will be killed in your pursuit of cardiovascular health and fitness.
The original study by Hickson didn’t find any differences in body composition between lifting and concurrent (lifting and cardio) training.
Numerous other studies show the same findings. When we look at direct muscle measurement studies, (MRI and Biopsy studies) they come to the same conclusion. In the studies where a difference is seen, more muscle gain is shown with concurrent training.
Meta-analysis data has come to the same conclusion.
Cardio helps with metabolism. Being cardiovascularly fit improves metabolic flexibility - meaning your body can switch between fuel sources better.
Cardio fitness helps with recovery.
Recovery between sets during your lifts. Better recovery between sets means you can handle more reps and heavier weight in your lifts without getting winded.
Recovery between sessions. Better recovery between sessions means your body can handle higher volumes of work. The very work needed to build muscle.
Cardio also helps keep your calorie output high, making it easier to stay leaner while building muscle.
Maintaining a higher calorie flux, the calories we eat vs calories we expend, can help with body composition and metabolism.
A higher calorie flux:
Increases lean body mass
Decreases fat mass
Speeds up adaptations to training
Increases tissue turnover
Results in better recovery
Results in better health
And more…
This isn’t me saying go out there and overtrain and overeat. I’m just letting you know you can let go of the unfounded fear that cardio kills gains.
If you’re a Bikini competitor, you might have been told to neglect your cardio fitness during a build phase to avoid limiting your options for fat loss in a prep phase. Please don't neglect your cardio fitness.
Maintaining cardiovascular fitness not only enhances overall performance and recovery but also helps keep you leaner, making your next Bikini competition prep more manageable.
Bikini bodybuilding is great, and so is being a fit and healthy human.
And while overall health and longevity is probably the most important reason for doing your cardio, even in a building phase, it is often the most overlooked.
Know what is cooler than big muscles and a great physique? Having big muscles and a great physique AND being in great shape.
Keep Body Fat Levels in Check with Strategic Mini Cuts
Mini cuts are a great tool for staying lean during a bulk. The goal of a mini cut is to keep it short and efficient.
A mini cut is a shorter, 2-6 week, and more aggressive dieting phase than a standard 8+ week diet. Keeping it short helps with motivation. Two to six weeks is long enough to see reductions in body fat but not so long that diet fatigue creeps in, energy drops and hunger hormones go wacky.
The goal of a mini cut during a bulk isn’t to get totally shredded or stage lean; the purpose is to keep body fat levels in check during an extended bulk.
Using the mini cut strategy helps with maintaining a physique you’re happy and comfortable with year-round while spending enough time in a bulk to build noticeable muscle. As a Bikini athlete, mini cuts strategically used in your bulk will help you stay closer to contest shape.
The best way to use mini cuts is to have a clear plan and a strategic (but potentially flexible) start and end date.
Having a clear start date helps prevent the desire to start a mini cut the moment your lines start to fade. Having a clear end date helps keep the motivation to stick to the plan high. It feels much easier to stick to a diet when you can clearly see the finish line.
You should never spend more time cutting than building during your bulk, as it defeats the purpose of a bulking phase. A solid ratio is about 12 weeks of building followed by 4 weeks of dieting.
This doesn’t mean you need to start a mini cut every 12 weeks! The more time you can spend building, the better. Limit mini cuts to no more than once every 12 weeks to maximize your muscle gains.
Of course, this can differ depending on the situation and how someone responds to their bulk and cuts.
This means at most you should only do 4 mini cuts per year. Think about the minimum effective dose. The goal in a bulk is to build; the mini cuts are simply a tool to keep body fat levels reasonable.
Mini cuts can also be a bit more aggressive because of their short timeline.
Used strategically, mini cuts are a great strategy to use during an extended bulk!
Setting Realistic Timelines and Expectations
Muscle gain is a slow process, much slower than fat loss. You can see big changes within just a few weeks when it comes to losing fat, but muscle gain is a real test of dedication and patience.
Setting realistic muscle-gaining goals is a must. For most natural women, about 1lb per month is a best-case scenario. That is 12lbs per year MAX. This isn’t realistic for most of use ladies that are past our first year of lifting though. A more realistic range is about .25-.5lbs of lean mass per month, or about 2.5-6lbs per year.
This varies a lot from person to person. Total newbies can see a lot more muscle gain, even if they aren’t doing everything right, and very experienced lifters can see a lot less, even if they are doing everything right.
Remember it is going to be slow, and be okay with that. There is no rushing it. Trying to rush it is where the dirty bulking crew gets it wrong. There is only so much muscle you can put on per day.
It takes the time it takes.
Tracking Progress to Optimize Results
Just like in a dieting phase, tracking progress is important in a bulking phase.
In addition to tracking your calories and macros, which we’ve already discussed, what else should you pay attention to?
Data to collect:
Daily weight
Measurements
Progress photos
Workouts
Take daily weigh-ins.
Then use weekly averages to make decisions.
How quickly are you gaining weight? If you’re gaining weight too quickly, you’ll know you either need to lower your calorie target or tighten up your eating a bit. Gaining about 1-2lbs per month is a good benchmark.
Again like everything else… everything is always individual and different circumstances can demand different benchmarks.
Take progress photos.
During prep or a cut, weekly photos are the norm, in a bulk you can keep up with weekly progress photos or drop frequency down to every other week or even monthly. It depends on what you or your coach are comfortable with.
Take measurements.
Waist measurement is the biggie, but I like to stick with what I was tracking my prep, hips, and waist. Waist measurements can be very helpful, if you are seeing the scale go up but minimal increases in your waist measurements that can be a good sign.
Track your workouts.
Make sure you are progressively overloading aka making progress by lifting more weight, doing more reps, or progressing in some other way.
I do NOT recommend using the body fat scales offered at gyms or the at-home versions. There are so many different things that will impact those readings, at best they offer the same benefit as daily weigh-ins, and at worst they can be overly upsetting and discouraging.
Use the information from all the different tracking data to make adjustments throughout your bulk. The key is to be flexible and adaptable.
Wrapping Up
With the right approach, it is totally possible to gain muscle without gaining extra body fat.
While some fat gain is unavoidable when aiming to maximize muscle gain, excessive fat gain isn’t necessary.
When you focus on what matters most, your diet, your training, and your recovery, you can achieve your muscle-building goals while maintaining a lean physique.
Remember to enjoy the process because no matter what… it's going to take the time it takes.
Are you interested in building a Bikini physique or competing in your next (or first) competition? Built by Sam is your one-stop show for Bikini prep, post-show, and bulking season!
Built by Sam is based in the heart of the Midwest - Des Moines, Iowa, but you can join the team from anywhere with online coaching.
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Nutrition Recommendations for Bodybuilders in the Off-Season: A Narrative Review
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Effect of dietary composition on fasting-induced changes in serum thyroid hormones and thyrotropin
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Hickson RC. Interference of strength development by simultaneously training for strength and endurance. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1980;45(2-3):255-63. doi: 10.1007/BF00421333. PMID: 7193134.