The next time I hear an aspiring Figure Athlete tell me they're on a bulking diet, I'm going to honor their commitment to a lack of discipline by giving them a $50 gift certificate to Krispy Kream.

I mean, after all, that's what they're giving themselves permission to do, right?

A bulking diet is nothing more than an excuse to eat junk food and pack on enough blubber to feed a family of eleven Eskimos.

Look here, miss sassy pants, I want you to look right in the mirror and try to say with a straight face that all of those alcoholic binges at the local tavern were a strategic maneuver to illicit the most effective nutrient partitioning possible.

Here it comes.

Wait for it.

Okay, I can hear them now: "You've got it all wrong, Wet Wolf! You have to eat a bulking diet to build muscle!"

Um, no, you don't. In fact, you don't even have to eat a surplus of calories to build muscle. Is it helpful to eat a slight surplus of calories if you want to add muscle? Possibly. But even toeing that catwalk will only get you so far.

If You're Nourished and You Know It...

If you want to build muscle with minimal fat gain, you should have the most nutrient-dense meals possible.

This means a moderate calorie intake made up of nutrient-rich foods and supplements. What you don't want is a monumental surplus of calories with no regard for nutrients. And this is the biggest mistake of the bulking Figure Athlete.

You see, there's a difference between someone who's well-nourished and someone who's well-fed.

This female has had no shortage of calories, but hasn't had much in the way of nutrient-dense, muscle-repairing foods:

Well-fed but undernourished.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can restrict a female's intake, but with the stipulation that every single thing she does eat must come from the most optimal source available. Cover all of the supplement bases, and you get something that looks like this:

Underfed but well-nourished.

Now, I'm not advocating that someone who wants to build muscle should slash their energy intake. What I'm saying is that you should eat at a maintenance level or slightly over.

I think this myth of gorging yourself for muscle was perpetrated by a lot of wannabe bodybuilders who were "trainers" or boyfriends of naive Figure Athletes. The young women, in an earnest attempt to pack on as much precious muscle as possible, embraced the "at all costs" mentality, and following the lead of her misinformed juicehead advisor, inhaled enough goodies over Thanksgiving and Christmas to fill up Santa's entire sleigh!

When the spring cutting diet pokes its sappy little evil eyes over the pile of empty peanut butter jars and Girl Scout cookies, you can kiss what little bit of muscle you gained goodbye.

After three months and a collective six days on the elliptical burning off the mounds of fat and the few ounces of muscle you did gain, your final product is a depleted, stringy, no-tone masterpiece that's worse than what you started with.

So, what gives?!

Focus on getting stronger, not gaining mass.

What's that you say? You think that in order to get stronger you have to gain mass? Not hardly. I've had girls lose weight and make tremendous gains in their strength simultaneously. The key is improving the quality of your food and implementing an excellent supplement regime, which will result in the most optimal nutrient partitioning possible.

It's this that leads to strength gains. And guess what? If you're getting stronger, you're building muscle!

Strong Supplements

I trained a girl for six months before we started her contest prep. As soon as the contest prep commenced, she started to lose fat so fast she couldn't keep her pants up. Well, that would be expected, but here's the interesting part: She started getting very strong!

She'd never been able to do a push-up in her life, but five weeks into her diet she was doing five reps of feet-elevated push-ups. She'd also never deadlifted over 135 before. Now, she performed 155 for four reps. All of this was accomplished while eating below maintenance levels.

The biggest thing that made it all click was her supplement protocol.

So, let's take a look at the most critical part of the equation when it comes to igniting the fat loss and muscle building process — your supplement cabinet.

Glutamine Peptides: Strengthened immune system function, improved nitrogen balance, and an increased recovery rate all result in an increase in muscle.

Branched Chain Amino Acids: Critical building blocks for muscle tissue become even more valuable when building muscle without a surplus of calories.

Flameout: Keeps the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio in balance from our corn-fed friends, reduces inflammation, aids in the release of stubborn body fat, and prevents disease.

ZMA: Increases anabolic hormone levels in athletes and replenishes zinc levels.

Superfood: Supplies all of the nutrients in Granny's fresh garden, and then to top things off, goes on a search and destroy mission to annihilate any free radicals.

Proof is in the Pudding (Well, Not Really, But...)

I talked to Erin Stern after her overall victory at the NPC Nationals last week. She said she never bulks up at all in the off-season. She actually laughed about it and called it the "caveman approach." Bulking up for a long, cold winter hibernation is a smart idea if you live in a cave, but not for a Figure Athlete!

No bulking diet for her!

Look, Dr. John Berardi has discussed the 90% rule a million times. If 90% of your meals are compliant, then you'll have the opportunity to be successful on your plan.

First, follow the diet I outlined in my previous article, Food Addictions: The Last Stand.

Second, get away from the body part split routines. Perform three full-body workouts per week. A full-body weight training workout will burn far more energy during and after the actual training session than any aerobic workout, so we'll maximize this advantage.

Lastly, only perform two energy systems workouts per week.

No More Excuses

Don't use the off-season and your need for more muscle as an excuse to go hog wild these holidays.

Follow a moderate intake and intelligent supplement protocol while getting stronger, and you'll add some functional mass to that Figure frame of yours.

About the Author

Wet Wolf specializes in physique transformation, contest prep, eating patterns & sports performance training for clients in real life and online.