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?
Well often you will read that in order to build muscles fastest you should keep cardio workouts to a minimum. This is said because cardio workouts do two main things that work against muscle building, they are: 1) use up a lot of calories 2) increase the speed of your metabolism. Not getting enough calories on board is the problem that is added too by both of these two things. 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. Every day you will have to take on board another 500 calories if you want to build muscle mass.
Is there a way to figure out this total?
Yes, one way to do this is 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 ht 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 (desk job, little or no exercise)
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 = BMR X 1.{9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i}.e marathon, competition etc).
So, should you be doing cardio and weights frequently then you should multiply this by at least 1.725. This will give you the figure that will cover your daily energy needs. This total then needs to changed according to your specific goals. A further 500 calories a day need to be added if your goal is indeed to gain muscle mass.
So if your final figure is 3000 calories then you would be looking at eating 6 meals per day of 500 calories each. Each meal would then be made up of 62 grams of carbohydrate, 37 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. This is calculated as so because one gram of fat equals 9 calories as opposed to one gram of protein or carbohydrate which is worth 4 grams.
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!
Â
Â
Â