What is lean muscle gain?
Muscle building will never be fat-free, but it can be low in fat. So the simple answer to the question is: Fat-free muscle building takes place when most of every kilogram of body weight gained is muscle mass.

Here is a simplified example:

If you gain one kilogram in a month and of that 800 gram of muscle mass and 200 gram of fat, the muscle build-up is just as low in fat as if you gain two kilograms in a month and of which 1600 gram of muscle mass and 400 gram of fat. So it’s about the ratio of the gain in muscle mass and fat.

The aim is therefore to convert the supplied calorie surplus into muscle mass as efficiently as possible so that it does not turn into fat rolls on your stomach.

So the big problem is not the high calorie surplus, but the wasted calorie surplus.

The wasted calorie excess is that part of the calorie excess that is not converted into muscle mass. It is therefore important to keep this as low as possible. However, this cannot be avoided entirely. It is perfectly normal for some of the excess calories to turn into fat.

So how do you avoid wasted excess calories?

On the one hand, the amount of calorie surplus must make sense: Nobody can convert an excess of 1000 or 2000kcal into muscle mass in the long term, the percentage of fat gain will be very high. It is advisable to eat an excess of 10-20% of the maintenance calorie requirement, which corresponds to 200-500 kcal for most people.

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On the other hand, the added surplus must be implemented sensibly and this is where it gets interesting! What many completely forget about lean muscle building is that it is not just about the calories ingested, but also about the training!

If you cannot get stronger in small, regular steps, i.e. increase your training weights, then your excess calories will be wasted, or better said: into hip gold. So the real key to lean muscle building is training that allows you to make progress.

If you have an injury and can currently only train your upper body, you should reduce the excess. Your upper body alone won’t build as much muscle as your entire body.

Even if you are just getting started with training and learning the exercises, no excess is necessary.
And if you generally make no, or only very seldom, progress in your training, tackle the problem, find out what it is. Avoid excess calories as long as you are not exercising productively and thus can increase the weights.

Finally, for lean muscle building, it is not only important to limit the excess and use it productively, but also to limit the time frame in which it is eaten. Try to stay between 10 and 15% body fat, so you start from 10% and build up to 15%, which will take several months. When you reach 15%, you diet back down to 10% and start again. So you are never fat and always relatively lean and do not have to go on long diets. Your optics will get better and better step by step!

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