A Trainer Explains How to Lean Bulk

Track Your Daily Calorie Intake

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"Lean bulking requires a slight calorie surplus," Dimitri wrote in his caption. "If you're not tracking there is no chance you're going to be able to control the amount of fat you put on while putting on muscle size."

Use an app like My Fitness Pal to make tracking easier. Then, if you're not making progress, it'll be easier to see why and to make changes to your nutrition to meet your goals.

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Train For Strength and Muscle Growth

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"Utilize different rep ranges and different loads," suggested Dimitri. Use different types of equipment, vary the exercises and the order and pace you do them, and work on high reps with low weight and low reps with high weight (don't be afraid to lift heavy!). This helps challenge your muscles and is proven to help with hypertrophy (muscle growth).

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Gradually Increase Your Calorie Intake

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Gradually increase your calorie intake to support your muscle growth. Protein and complex carbs are the best fuel for strength training so make sure you're eating enough to repair your muscle fibres and to encourage growth.

During the process, plateaus will happen so make small changes to see what happens. If you're tracking your calories and macros as suggested and you don't see progress within a couple weeks, make another small change.

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Do 0 to 2 Weekly Cardio Sessions

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Cardio isn't necessary for fat loss, but it could help — it depends on the individual.

Dimitri said, "If your weight training sessions (especially legs) are intense enough to challenge you" and you're consuming your goal intake of daily calories, this will usually be enough to prevent fat gain. If it isn't, try adding one to two additional cardio sessions. They don't have to be very long. They can be short and intense, such as HIIT sessions.

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Be Patient!

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Changing your body composition takes time, and there will be days when the scale numbers go up, and the scale numbers go down — it's not linear. "Enjoy the process and train hard," Dimitri said. Results will come so try to focus on the big picture of progress instead of each day.

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How to Lean Bulk the Right Way

This is the key to losing fat while gaining strength and muscle definition.

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