Staying 5-6% bf dry while adding muscle

[Detroit Muscle]

5% is really lean I don't know how to post pics but maby soneone can post pics of what a true 5% bf athlete looks like alot of people feel they are 6 7% bf and they are no where near that. But I usually stay lean while adding but it depends how strict I am with couting my macros and staying very consistent but I've never Ben 6% would b nice to get that low thou

This is what 7% bodyfat looks like... I get tested via underwater weighing once a month.

 

[Detroit Muscle]

This was at 3.8% bodyfat via underwater weighing

 

[Detroit Muscle]

I've done it both ways and there are a lot of things that come into play as far as what is best for gaining muscle...dirty diet bulking and gaining while staying lean... diet, macros, drugs, doses, training style...
I will personally never bulk up and gain a lot of fat to gain muscle as it takes so much effort dieting the extra shit weight off to see what you really look like. I think that staying between 8 and 10% bodyfat is ideal for me off season...It's much easier to do coming off of a competition and just not letting things get too out of control but 8-10% is leaner than most people realize and trying to gain while getting down in bodyfat is a lot harder to do than already being lean and gaining muscle without adding much fat... ideally I'd suggest figuring out what your true metabolic rate is and where you just maintain your weight at and then adding another 600 calories or so... If your gaining too much bodyfat doing that then just make the adjustment and cut 300 cals or so and see where that gets you... The key to continuing to progress is making adjustments in your protien and essential fatty acid intake as you ad new muscle to accommodate the new tissues requirements to continue growing. Carbs are really just your fuel source and should only be adjusted by your energy expendature... for example, you obviously need more calories from carbs on your leg days than you would on a delt day and you need even less on off days... Some old school guys will argue that and say you need carbs for this, that, and a bunch of other reasons but if you want to stay lean while growing you really want to take into account you daily energy expendature and where you can keep your glycogen levels fuller at without getting excessive spillover... Carbs aren't really needed for growth of new tissue technically , but they do provide a better environment in the muscle cell for growth when glycogen levels are full as the carry water and fluid into the cell allowing protein to do its job and grow new tissue optimally.

 

[cac3071]

I've done it both ways and there are a lot of things that come into play as far as what is best for gaining muscle...dirty diet bulking and gaining while staying lean... diet, macros, drugs, doses, training style...
I will personally never bulk up and gain a lot of fat to gain muscle as it takes so much effort dieting the extra shit weight off to see what you really look like. I think that staying between 8 and 10% bodyfat is ideal for me off season...It's much easier to do coming off of a competition and just not letting things get too out of control but 8-10% is leaner than most people realize and trying to gain while getting down in bodyfat is a lot harder to do than already being lean and gaining muscle without adding much fat... ideally I'd suggest figuring out what your true metabolic rate is and where you just maintain your weight at and then adding another 600 calories or so... If your gaining too much bodyfat doing that then just make the adjustment and cut 300 cals or so and see where that gets you... The key to continuing to progress is making adjustments in your protien and essential fatty acid intake as you ad new muscle to accommodate the new tissues requirements to continue growing. Carbs are really just your fuel source and should only be adjusted by your energy expendature... for example, you obviously need more calories from carbs on your leg days than you would on a delt day and you need even less on off days... Some old school guys will argue that and say you need carbs for this, that, and a bunch of other reasons but if you want to stay lean while growing you really want to take into account you daily energy expendature and where you can keep your glycogen levels fuller at without getting excessive spillover... Carbs aren't really needed for growth of new tissue technically , but they do provide a better environment in the muscle cell for growth when glycogen levels are full as the carry water and fluid into the cell allowing protein to do its job and grow new tissue optimally.

very well thought out post

 

[swoll4life]

Good advice. Yea I stopped doing a so called bulk as I always gain say 15 pounds a year which only 3-4 is muscle then I diet down just to bulk back up and ir takes alot if effort to drop weight. I count macros which works great when controlling how much of a surplus i Stay in. This year I will be going with a 300 call surplus until progression stops then I'll add to it

 

[Bobby Light]

Like others have said a lot of this comes down to body type and genetics. Although I don't know that many people regardless of genetics that can actually GROW STAYING at 5-6% body fat, that is extremely lean lol.

For me at least there are a couple options in the offseason. If I do stay even remotely lean I have to be hungry pretty much constantly, something I'm not willing to do seeing as I don't get paid for guest posing and appearances all year round. Other option would be blast very high doses of gh/tren/etc also something I like to keep to only a certain portion of the year so I don't really want to do that either. When it's time to diet it's time to diet and when it's time to grow it's time to grow..that's how I see it anyway.

I used to get way too fat which I don't think is necessary by any means, but it's also not really productive for me personally to be under 10% or whatever number and still focus on growing the way I need to be.

 

[GreenTLB6]

Like others have said a lot of this comes down to body type and genetics. Although I don't know that many people regardless of genetics that can actually GROW STAYING at 5-6% body fat, that is extremely lean lol.

For me at least there are a couple options in the offseason. If I do stay even remotely lean I have to be hungry pretty much constantly, something I'm not willing to do seeing as I don't get paid for guest posing and appearances all year round. Other option would be blast very high doses of gh/tren/etc also something I like to keep to only a certain portion of the year so I don't really want to do that either. When it's time to diet it's time to diet and when it's time to grow it's time to grow..that's how I see it anyway.

I used to get way too fat which I don't think is necessary by any means, but it's also not really productive for me personally to be under 10% or whatever number and still focus on growing the way I need to be.

X2 same

 

[suppdude]

Not saying one has to let it get out of hand body comp and BF% wise, but how many times do we see individuals take a significant amount of time off, come back and prep for a show, and there is literally no significant addition of muscle tissue? IMO, in order to add quality muscle tissue, you're going to have to get uncomfortable to some degree.

I'm also not saying you can't gain tissue while staying relatively lean, but for most, I don't see the need to stay relatively shredded year round, especially if hypertrophy is the goal.

 

[bg091593]

Like others have said a lot of this comes down to body type and genetics. Although I don't know that many people regardless of genetics that can actually GROW STAYING at 5-6% body fat, that is extremely lean lol.

For me at least there are a couple options in the offseason. If I do stay even remotely lean I have to be hungry pretty much constantly, something I'm not willing to do seeing as I don't get paid for guest posing and appearances all year round. Other option would be blast very high doses of gh/tren/etc also something I like to keep to only a certain portion of the year so I don't really want to do that either. When it's time to diet it's time to diet and when it's time to grow it's time to grow..that's how I see it anyway.

I used to get way too fat which I don't think is necessary by any means, but it's also not really productive for me personally to be under 10% or whatever number and still focus on growing the way I need to be.

Exactly. I have to commit 100% or I'm just spinning my wheels.

 

[BigMatt]

I've done it both ways and there are a lot of things that come into play as far as what is best for gaining muscle...dirty diet bulking and gaining while staying lean... diet, macros, drugs, doses, training style...
I will personally never bulk up and gain a lot of fat to gain muscle as it takes so much effort dieting the extra shit weight off to see what you really look like. I think that staying between 8 and 10% bodyfat is ideal for me off season...It's much easier to do coming off of a competition and just not letting things get too out of control but 8-10% is leaner than most people realize and trying to gain while getting down in bodyfat is a lot harder to do than already being lean and gaining muscle without adding much fat... ideally I'd suggest figuring out what your true metabolic rate is and where you just maintain your weight at and then adding another 600 calories or so... If your gaining too much bodyfat doing that then just make the adjustment and cut 300 cals or so and see where that gets you... The key to continuing to progress is making adjustments in your protien and essential fatty acid intake as you ad new muscle to accommodate the new tissues requirements to continue growing. Carbs are really just your fuel source and should only be adjusted by your energy expendature... for example, you obviously need more calories from carbs on your leg days than you would on a delt day and you need even less on off days... Some old school guys will argue that and say you need carbs for this, that, and a bunch of other reasons but if you want to stay lean while growing you really want to take into account you daily energy expendature and where you can keep your glycogen levels fuller at without getting excessive spillover... Carbs aren't really needed for growth of new tissue technically , but they do provide a better environment in the muscle cell for growth when glycogen levels are full as the carry water and fluid into the cell allowing protein to do its job and grow new tissue optimally.

What kind of Macros(Protein,Fats) would you suggest for someone that want to stay lean and ad muscle tissue?

 

[Detroit Muscle]

without knowing any specifics about an individual....For a starting point, I like 45% protien, 35% carbs, and 20% fat for gaining muscle while staying lean with calories in a 600 calories surplus for bodybuilders over 200 lbs.

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