So, you want to build lean muscle without gaining fat? Well, we have some great news. You can do it, and not only that, you can do it naturally. Getting there will require patience and a pinch of strategy, but your results will be worth the time and effort. 

In this article, we'll cover specifics on nutrition, training, and rest demands to build lean muscle without gaining fat.

 

The Challenge of Building Muscle Without Fat Gain

Muscle growth requires a few key things: protein, adequate calories, hydration, rest, and the right exercise stimulus. Sufficient calories and protein are the most essential pieces of the muscle-building puzzle.

Balancing Muscle Building and Fat Loss

Protein is the building block that creates muscle tissue. It also helps repair and rebuild muscle, so it is a key piece of the puzzle even after you’ve reached your body composition goal. 

Muscle mass is very metabolically expensive (meaning that it requires more calories to maintain than it would take to keep the same amount of weight in the form of fat mass). So, consuming adequate calories in the form of carbs and fats ensures your body doesn’t break down the “expensive” materials for energy (protein). 

But how much is too much? How do you find the balance between eating just enough calories to encourage muscle growth without gaining fat at the same time?

The Importance of Energy Balance

Before diving in, it is essential to understand the different types of energy balance—energy surplus, energy deficit, and energy maintenance.

First Phase: Energy Surplus. 

An energy surplus occurs when you consume more calories than you expend, which usually results in weight gain. But here’s what most people miss when chasing body composition goals: not all weight is created equally. 

Water, muscle, and/or fat (and more) contribute to the weight you see on the scale. So, being in a slight surplus may help you gain lean muscle mass, especially if you aren’t gaining muscle mass at your desired rate.

Second Phase: Energy Deficit. 

An energy deficit occurs when you eat fewer calories than you expend, which usually results in fat loss. Although it is possible to maintain muscle mass, building muscle in this phase is tough since your body doesn’t have enough raw ingredients for building and recovery. Click here to find out why!

Third Phase: Energy Maintenance. 

Energy maintenance occurs when the calories you consume match the calories you expend, which usually results in weight staying about the same. You can build muscle in this phase if you time your nutrient intake and your workouts are designed for muscle building. However, you likely will see more progress by consuming a slight surplus so your body has what it needs for repair and growth.  

A Note on Metabolism and Individual Variability

People have different metabolic rates, meaning some can quickly build muscle mass with minimal fat gain at maintenance calorie needs. In contrast, some individuals might need a bit larger of a surplus. 

It is also important to note that individuals who have never trained before and have more weight to lose can build muscle without gaining fat more readily—they may even be able to build muscle while dropping fat. Those who are already lean and have higher muscle mass will have a more challenging time achieving muscle gain and fat loss. 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, which is why nutrition can be confusing! Working with a 1-on-1 nutrition coach is the best way to find out exactly what will work best for you if you want to build muscle without gaining fat.

 

What is "Dirty Bulking"

“How much you eat can impact your size, but what you eat can impact how you look at any given size.” 

Hearing “surplus” and running to the store to grab your favorite treats is tempting—this would be considered “Dirty Bulking.” But, food quality is essential to build lean muscle without gaining fat.

“Clean Bulking” Tips

“Clean Bulking” is the best method to build lean muscle without gaining fat. This is because clean bulking centers primarily on whole, healthy foods. Whole food sources contain so many different vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients (like fiber and water- depending on the food) that your body needs to produce energy, build muscle, and recover well.

  1. Fill up on high-quality animal sources to hit your protein target
  2. Utilize starchy whole-food carb sources, fruits, and vegetables to hit your carb target
  3. Eat nuts, seeds, avocado, and high-fat meats to hit your fat target
  4. Focus on hydration and fiber
  5. Avoid added sugars and processed foods as much as possible
  6. Track your food intake with a food scale and tracking app to hold yourself accountable for eating the correct macros and calories to gain muscle without gaining fat.
  7. It is all about balance. Just like it is possible to fit in a treat here and there when cutting, the same is possible when you’re in a surplus. Aim to get 80-90% of your intake from whole, healthy foods and enjoy treats in moderation.

The Role of Carbs, Fats, Hydration, and Fiber in Muscle Building 

Carbohydrates and Muscle Building

When you eat carbs, your body breaks them down into glucose—your body’s preferred source of quick energy.

When you eat carbs, your body receives a boost of glucose that it can use immediately or store for later as muscle glycogen. Storing glucose doesn’t necessarily mean that the body is storing fat. When glucose is stored, it is usually stored in muscle tissue as glycogen.

Without glucose or glycogen, you might find it hard to bring intensity to your training sessions. Over time, the lack of intensity and lower reps lifted decreases your muscle-building potential. 

Healthy Fats and Muscle Building

Let’s debunk the myth right now: fat doesn’t make you fat. 

A large amount of excess calories—from any of the three macros—leads to fat gain. Dietary fat helps your body make and regulate the hormones needed for muscle growth (like testosterone), provides a structure for existing and new cells (including muscle cells), provides energy, and aids in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins that help build muscle cells. 

Hydration and Fiber

You can go weeks without food but only days without water. So that says a lot, right? The body needs water because it helps deliver nutrients throughout the body (not just vitamins and minerals, but protein and carbs: the important players!) and ensures proper electrolyte balance, which helps with muscle contraction; a dehydrated muscle cell is an inefficient one! Find out how much water you need here.

Fiber is needed throughout this journey because it helps with digestion and elimination. If you want a lean body, you will want to quickly and thoroughly pass all waste products so that those aren’t just hanging around- not only will you feel lighter (which is great in the gym at times), but you will look leaner, too!  

 

Calorie Surplus: How Much Is Too Much?

The amount of calories you need to build muscle is dependent on many factors: genetics, training status, training age, current muscle mass, age, gender, and more (click here to calculate your starting macros for free!).

Based on research, the “average exerciser” will need about 2500 additional calories per week to build muscle. Which is only about 350 calories per day. 350 calories isn’t all that much—for most, this is a small meal or large snack. 

To put this into the perspective of actual food, 350 calories could be:

  • A medium-sized apple + 2 tbs peanut butter
  • 1.5 cups brown rice
  • A large everything seasoning bagel
  • A protein shake made with milk and a banana.

A slight daily surplus combined with the correct gym stimulus is all you need to see muscle growth over time. Remember, more isn’t better; it is just more! Doubling up on your surplus doesn’t increase the rate of muscle growth, and too many calories will inevitably be stored as body fat. 

 

Muscle Gain Per Week: Expectations vs. Reality

You can expect to see anywhere from 0.5-1 pound per week of muscle gain with the correct training frequently and stimulus, a slight calorie surplus, and ideal nutrient timing. The table below outlines more specific expectations for muscle gain based on your training level and gender.

 

 

Tracking Calories and Macros For Muscle Gain

People are notoriously bad at accurately estimating, remembering, and reporting food intake (research shows that some people can be up to 2000 calories off their estimation!). So, measuring your macros on a food scale and putting it in a food tracking app is the most effective and efficient way to gain muscle without putting on unnecessary fat.

Tracking macros ensures you have the correct protein, carbs, and fats balance to cue muscle gain.

Protein is an essential player since muscle tissue comprises protein and amino acids. You need to consume enough protein for your individual needs if you want to gain muscle.

Fat plays a critical role in the nervous system and brain functioning, which helps you put in the work in the gym! It also aids in satiety, so you don’t go over your macros due to uncontrollable hunger or cravings.

Carbohydrates provide energy to the muscle cells, which allows your muscles to do the work needed to gain muscle.

These are just some reasons you need to track individual macros to keep fat gain minimal while building muscle.

How to Increase Your Calories to Build Muscle

There are many nuances regarding nutrition for both men and women, but—excluding individual variability—increasing calories to build muscle mass while minimizing fat gain is roughly the same for both sexes. The research suggests that increasing your caloric intake to about 5-10% above maintenance calorie needs will be sufficient to build muscle mass over time. 

Although you can use an online calculator to estimate your maintenance calories and add 5-10% to find your bulking macros, working with an experienced coach who has helped a hundred clients achieve this goal will be a faster and more effective way to build muscle without gaining weight.

Together, you’ll monitor daily body weight and calorie intake to find weekly averages and determine if you’re at true calorie maintenance levels. Together, you’ll make any adjustments necessary to move into a surplus based on your body, training, timeframe, and more. Remember, your average body weight should only change about 0.5-1 pound per week over the 2-3 weeks (generally speaking!) when in a muscle-building phase. 

How to Adjust Calories and Macros Based on Results

The human body is never static, which means one set of macros won’t work forever. Your calorie and macronutrient needs change as your body and metabolism adapt, as your body composition changes, and if external factors influence your calorie needs (for example, you get a new job where you are on your feet all day compared to a former job where you were sitting at a computer all day or vice versa). 

Monitoring your progress weekly or biweekly via body weight averages, measurements, body composition tests, and progress in the gym will help you (and a coach) determine when and if things need to change. 

If you don’t notice any of the signs below, add 100-200 calories (split across carbs and fats) and monitor change for another two weeks. 

  • An average weight increase of 0.5-1lbs
  • PRs in the gym
  • Body composition changes (more defined muscles)
  • Body measurement changes

If you notice improvements in one or more areas above, stick with your current macros until that is no longer the case.

 

Prioritizing Protein for Muscle Growth

Protein is key to muscle growth because protein components—amino acids—make up muscle tissue. Eating enough protein throughout the day ensures that you give your body the building blocks it needs to put on muscle.

Optimal Protein Intake

Aim to consume about 0.7g-1.0g of protein per pound of body weight daily. This is about 105-150 grams of protein for a 150-pound individual. Research has found that this is the optimal range to help repair and rebuild muscle mass while keeping an individual lean. At WAG, we’ve found that staying closer to the 1.0g per pound is ideal.

High-Quality Protein Sources

Most whole-food protein sources also have a bit of fat. So, choose wisely to ensure you reach your protein targets without exceeding your calorie targets. One rule of thumb we always encourage is to build a plate by opting for lean protein sources (sources that contain less than 10g of total fat per 100g serving), including chicken breast, turkey breast, white fish, egg whites, deli meat, whey protein shakes, shrimp, tuna, 93% lean or leaner ground beef, pork loin, and tofu.

The table below organizes protein by fat content.

protein sources organized by fat content

Protein Timing for Muscle Growth and Fat Loss

When is the best time to eat protein? Should you consume it evenly throughout the day? All in one meal? Mainly after your training session? There is a lot of conflicting messaging regarding when to consume protein, so it makes sense that you have those questions. 

Lucky for us, research suggests that protein timing isn’t as important as we once thought. Consistent daily intake is most important. So, the “ideal timing” for you is whatever timing makes it as effortless as possible to hit your daily protein target—as you set up your meal schedule, think about what is realistic and sustainable. If you aren’t a breakfast person, trying to eat multiple eggs first thing in the morning likely won’t last long. But a protein shake on the way to work might be doable, and that works for you. 

Coach hack: In working with over 30,000 clients, we’ve found that spreading total protein intake across the day is the most successful for most people.

Post-workout protein: Is there really a post-workout muscle-building window? 

Research has mixed messages due to sample sizes and experiment protocols. We do know that exercise will stimulate muscle synthesis, so consuming protein pretty quickly post-workout (say within 30 minutes or so) will likely benefit muscle building since it has both the stimulus from exercise and the building blocks from protein. Protein after a workout is most important if you train on an empty stomach in the morning.

 

Strength Training for Muscle Gain

MPS. Have you ever heard of it? 

MPS stands for muscle protein synthesis, which happens during and after exercise. Cells lay down muscle fibers every time MPS is stimulated, and over time, muscle growth occurs. Simply put, you need to incorporate strength training to build muscle. Even though abs are made in the kitchen, muscle is built in the gym by incorporating some kind of external weight, resistance bands, or body weight to create a muscle contraction. 

Strength training is the primary driver of muscle growth, not just calories alone.

Progressive Overload and Compound Exercises 

What kind of strength training will promote some of the best muscle growth? Progressive overload of compound exercises. 

Progressive overload is one of the best ways to train to gain muscle mass because it reduces muscle adaptation. Progressive overload focuses on progressively increasing weights, reps, and/or sets, continuously increasing the demand for your target muscles. If you do the same exercises with the same weights and do the same reps week after week, your muscles eventually adapt, and there is no longer enough stimulus.

If you want the most bang for your buck, choose compound exercises as the main components of your training sessions. Compound exercises will activate multiple muscles simultaneously instead of isolated movements where only one muscle is worked at a time. Compound exercises include (but are not limited to):

  • Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Bench Press
  • Overhead Press
  • Push Ups
  • Pull Ups
  • Hip Thrusts
  • Lunges
  • Romanian Deadlifts

Importance of progressively increasing weight, reps, or sets over time and use of compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press) for optimal muscle activation.

The Importance of Proper Form

Aside from the obvious that proper exercise helps reduce the risk of injury, which keeps you in the gym week after week, adequate exercise will result in maximized muscle contraction to the targeted muscle group. Why work harder when you can work smarter? 

Proper form allows you to work the muscles efficiently and effectively. If you aren’t sure if you are doing the movement correctly, film yourself doing the movement or ask a coach or personal trainer to get feedback so you can lift confidently and safely!   

Workout Frequency and Volume

Adding more weight can change workout stimulus, but changing how frequently you train the muscle group per week or session may also work.

Gradually increasing your training set volume per session over time can result in a new stimulus if you are a beginner in your lifting journey. If your volume per session is already pretty high, you could also change how frequently you train each muscle group weekly to elicit a new response. 

Something important to note is that MPS might only last 12-24 hours depending on training experience (MPS lasts longer for beginners), which is where switching your training split from one muscle group per week to twice a week can significantly change muscle growth. 

 

Achieve Lean Gains with Smart Nutrition

If you are fired up after reading this article, here is what you can do right now to start working towards your body composition goals: 

  1. Start tracking how much you eat daily to get an idea of your current intake
  2. Begin taking your weight first thing in the morning daily and calculating a weekly average. Take photos and body measurements once per week (here’s how to do this accurately). 
  3. Hit the gym with a structured, progressive overload program
  4. Create a grocery list and hit the store to enjoy whole-food protein, carbs, and fat-containing meals. 
  5. Do those things daily
  6. Adjust your plan based on the information you learned today

And, if you want support from a pro, learn more about working with a 1-on-1 nutrition coach who specializes in helping you build muscle without gaining fat. Let someone else monitor your progress and determine your calorie and macronutrient needs so you can focus on enjoying your food and training!