To put it plainly, body composition is something that should be taken into consideration when starting to bulk. It’s a conversation I’ve had many times with clients, predominantly male, who want to put on mass. The start point, however, is important, as someone who is carrying high levels of excess body fat is not going to be in the best position to implement a calorie surplus for extended periods of time. Being lean in this case can serve you well.
In order to put on muscle, it’s an undisputed fact that you need to be in a calorie surplus. But any time you put on muscle, you’ll also be accumulating some additional body fat in the process, which is unavoidable (let’s not get into the outliers like newbies who have been known to put on muscle and drop fat at the same time). Even with only eating ‘clean’ foods to get you into a surplus, this will still be the case.
So how can ensure that our bulking is going to be effective without risking too much body fat in the process?
The analogy I like to use is simple. When you have a high body fat %, the body is like a sponge that’s soaked through with water. If you try to make it absorb more water (calories), it will just spill out (gain fat). When you’re lean, think of the body like a dry sponge that is capable of absorbing a lot of water (calories) before it starts to spill out.
Now granted, this is slightly simplified because even with a high body fat % you can still build muscle (absorb more water into the sponge), but the problem is that you’ll also accumulate more body fat while doing so.
Why does being leaner help if you want to bulk?
1. Your body will be more insulin sensitive. It’s likely that when you bulk you’ll be taking in a lot of carbohydrates. When you’re lean, you’ll be more efficient at shuttling the glucose from the food you eat to be used for energy as well as building tissue.
2. Time is your friend. If you’re already lean and start to bulk, you have a greater safety net before you start to ‘spill over’ as there’s more room to increase both muscle mass (and some fat) before body fat % gets out of hand.
3. The leaner you are the more effective you are at nutrient partitioning (similar to #1) - storing nutrition in muscle as muscle tissue or as glycogen and less effective at storing it as body fat.
What are good starting points to start a bulking phase?
There is no magic % or anything set in stone, but it’s generally a good idea to be relatively lean - between 10 to 12 % body fat for men.
Combining a high body fat % with a high-calorie surplus can actually grow the fat cells in your body, and when those cells run out of space to store the energy, your body will actually create more fat cells. This is why past a certain point, just throwing more calories into the mix and hoping that the body will turn it into more muscle won’t work. The body can only do what it can do, and if we’re just about sustaining a bulk at a surplus of 500 calories, adding in another 500 will most likely be too much, at which point the body will go into storage mode, and not the good kind.
One big obstacle for lifters in getting appropriately lean is that they feel smaller when they start the dieting process. During the first stages of fat loss, there isn’t a drastic visual difference in muscle definition, but clothes will be looser and muscle will be flatter from a lack of glycogen. Persisting past this point and getting closer to the 10-12% mark is where you can expect to see more definition, which gives the illusion of looking bigger due to the loss of sufficient body fat. It's then up to you if you want to take this further and get absolutely shredded or use the new and improved starting point for a reverse diet.
To summarise, if you’re planning on bulking, take a look at your current starting point and assess if you’re holding onto too much body fat and if a bulk would actually be in your best interest. If not, focus for a few weeks/months on fat loss, prime your body for a calorie surplus, and reap the benefits of being more efficient at processing the food.
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