Your 8000 calorie growth plan: add up to 10 pounds of lean muscle on M & F's turbo-charged one-day-a-week diet

Muscle & Fitness, Oct, 2004 by Steve Stiefel

It's the seemingly impossible: How do you add significant muscle mass without adding bodyfat? You know, like when you put on 20 pounds, only to have 10 pounds of it be fat? Not exactly what you were going for. We know what you're after--serious muscle and muscle alone. And a mass-gaining diet that provides the right kind of mass.

Bet you never thought the answer to keep from getting fat would lie in overfeeding, but that's exactly what this M & F diet strategy entails. [paragraph] If you gorge once a week at first, then more frequently as you progress, you can add 5-10 pounds of quality muscle without significantly altering your bodyfat levels. And you can do it in about two months.

By now you probably know that including cheat days in your diet plan is one of the most effective strategies for recovery and muscle growth. Surprisingly, taking this plan to extremes can give you even better results. "When you eat double your daily calories one day a week, you can really add significant muscle mass without the bodyfat," says nutrition expert Chris Aceto, author of Championship Bodybuilding and Everything. You Need to Know About Fat Loss. He explains that when you overfeed once a week, your body doesn't perceive the calorie spike as an excess that needs to be stored as fat. "When your body is hit with an infrequent and large calorie surplus, it dramatically increases thermogenesis [heat production]. This, in turn, supports an anabolic environment over bodyfat synthesis." Plus, you're providing your body with the necessary extra calories it needs to build more muscle.

This overfeeding diet plan is simple. For the first five weeks or so, eat double the number of calories you normally consume one day a week. As your body adapts to that, increase the frequency to once every five days. "This will give your body the extra fuel it needs to build pounds of muscle mass in only a couple of months," Aceto says.

FEED THE NEED

First, you need to determine your typical daily caloric needs for muscle maintenance. A typical 220-pounder will generally need about 4,000 calories to maintain his body-weight and muscle mass. You can either keep a food log (do so over 4-5 days to get the best estimate of your average daily calorie intake) or make your best estimate. If you keep a log, record all the foods and quantities you eat and use a resource (such as The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer) to approximate the number of calories you eat a day. Then, simply double your daily intake to determine how much you need to overfeed. The 220-pound body-builder in our example would consume 8,000 calories on his overfeeding days.

FAT TUESDAYS

Next, choose one day a week to overeat. Whether you pick a weekday or one on the weekend, make sure to choose a day when you have plenty of time available, as it takes preparation and effort to consume that much more food. If you're still concerned about adding bodyfat, go ahead and overeat on a training day. For the first five weeks on this diet plan, you'll eat double your daily calories on this day. "At first you may feel horrible on your overeating days, like you're going to barf from all the food you're taking in," Aceto warns. "But your body will adapt quickly. By the third overfeeding day, your body will have already adapted, so it won't be as tough."

Aceto says this is also the reason you'll need to start overfeeding more frequently in the second month. "After a month, adaptation will make it so that you need to overfeed more frequently than once a week to continue to get the growth results." At this point, begin to overfeed every fifth day but continue to eat the amount of food you need for maintenance on all other days. "Following the example of the 220-pound bodybuilder, make sure you eat 4,000 calories on regular eating days," Aceto advises. "Eating more will encourage you to store bodyfat, while eating less will undercut the advantages of the program and may even push you into an overall calorie deficit, causing you to begin to lose weight." Be particularly mindful of this on the days after you over-feed, when you may have less appetite.

If you continue to make gains without adding bodyfat, feel free to bump up your overeating frequency to once every four days, suggests Aceto.

DIET TRICKS

Eating that much food can be difficult. While you want to consume as much quality whole food as possible, trying to choke down more chicken and rice may be tougher than expected. Use any or all of the following suggestions to accomplish your goals.

* Drink your food. Protein shakes and milk are easy ways to get in a lot of calories quickly. Plus, they're a great way to increase the calories at individual meals. Often, you get so full you can't eat another bite, but you still might have room for 8-16 ounces of milk. These are quality calories you can use to boost your total daily count.

* Eat several meals a day. Your body processes calories better when they come in smaller doses. The more calories you eat in a sitting, the more likely you are to store them as bodyfat. As a rule of thumb, try to keep individual meals to less than 1,000 calories and strive to take in at least six meals a day. Our meal plan provides you with eight meals per day, including shakes.