What is 'bulking'

                                                Bulking

                
     Bulking is one of the most common terms when it comes to nutrition among active people. However many people do not really know what it is or how to use this dieting terms. In this blog I'll explain what bulking actually is and how to bulk.


Bulking means increasing your calories from your maintenance level of calories. For example, Tom eats roughly 2700 calories each day to stay at around 90kg. Tom wants to get to 95kg, so in order to achieve his goal he must increase his daily caloric intake of 2700 calories to 3200 calories for example. In order to see good results he must be consistent in hitting his new daily caloric goal of 3200 calories. Remember it is easier to put on weight than lose it.

 

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To be able to gain weight at a steady, consistent rate, we have to accurately find our daily caloric intake. Today the easiest way to do this is to download a calorie tracker. A fantastic app that millions use is myfitnesspal. To find your daily intake, track the calories that you consume for a week to get an accurate answer. Then on the app you can put in how much weight you want to gain gain over the months. You need to consider this carefully as if you gain too much too quickly, you may put on unecisary fat. You need to gain weight at a healthy rate to see good results.


There are two types of bulking: clean and dirty bulking. Clean bulking is keeping track in terms of calories and the food that is being eaten. It's eating healthy food for the most part with a few cheat meals thrown in there aswell. It's harder to gain weight quickly than a dirty bulk as the healthy foods don't contain as much calories, but you won't put on as much fat and so you'll look better. Dirty bulking is easier to gain weight quickly, but you'll also gain fat quicker aswell as the food choices will not be as healthy. I feel that combining the two together is very effective in gaining weight. Allow yourself a treat once or twice a week for the cravings and be reletively strict for the rest of the week

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Bulking is all about making the right choices for your personal goals

What does fat do for the body ?

                                            Fat

Fat is essential for our body and we cannot live without it. Many people believe that fat, the macronutrient is what will directly make us fat and that's all there is to them. This isnt't true.

Fat is made up of fatty acids and helps transport and absorb vitamins A, D, E and K . They have an important job of the making of hormone, testosterone. Testosterone triggers muscle growth and increases strength. Having a high fat diet can increse testosterone levels. Fats are very important in the membrane surround the cells, a good, healthy membrane is vital to the cell itself to function properly. Fats cushion our organs, the kidneys, heart and intestines are all cushioned by fat to protect them from being injured

http://www.theissnscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/healthy_high_fat_foods_draft_2.jpg Fats release energy slowly throughout the day, which can keep  you full, unlike many carbohydrates which relese energy very quickly. Each gram of fat gives us 9 calories.

Fats are made up of  three fatty acids: Saturated fats, Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. I will briefly explain what each of these fats do.

 Saturated fats: They are found in animal fats. Meat, milk, cheese, yougurt and butter all contain saturated fat. Although there are no major links between saturated fats and heart disease, foods with high saturated fat content can still increse your cholesterol levels. So eat these foods sensibly

Monounsaturated fats: They are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, avocados and nuts. The Mediterrainian diet has a high monounsaturated fat content,which is very healthy and reduces the risk of heart disease.

Polyunsaturated fat: They are found in oils such as sunflower and corn oil. The omega-3 and the omega-6 fatty acids are two types of this fat. We need thse fats in our bodies as our bodies can't naturally produce them. This is an simple explaination of them to keep it short.

So to finish off, fats are not the enemy, they play a vital role within our bodies. So don't neglect fats when dieting, they will keep you full along with all the other benefits mentioned above.



  

Is a low carb diet effective

Low carb diets

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Low carb diets have been in use for many years. It would make sense to decrease your carbohydrate intake as it stimulates the release of hormone insulin, which is the body's main fat storing hormone.

So how does a low carb diet work? First off, I think that there is a big misconception on the term 'weight loss'. People think that they have to eat less food and burn loads of calories doing physical activity. This is true but it is a very hard and draining way of losing weight as you are eating less food and therefore less calories. The result of this will mean that your energy levels will drop when doing physical activity.

In order to lose weight, you MUST be in a caloric deficit. This means that you have to eat less calories than  your maintenance caloric intake that your body consumes every day  in order to keep at the same weight. Low carb diets are helpful as you may be eating less food because you will be eating extra protein and fat, which will keep you full for a while.

                                                                                                                                                                      There has been a big debate about low carb vs low fat diets. There has been studies showing that more weight has been lost through doing a low carb diet over a short period of time than low fat diets but, more people found it harder to stick to the low carb diet. This was probably because lowering your carb intake generally makes you more hungry. It can also be hard maintaining high protein intakes.

Low carb diets can help prevent high blood pressure and diabetes and can help improve cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels. However as explained above, low carb diets aren't easy to stick to. The typical side effects of this is usually: Tiredness, feeling weaker than usual[ which can effect physical activity ], Mood may be affected and constipation can also occur, Essential vitamins can be lots as a result of having to pee more often.

So to summarize, low carb diets are proven to be affective in the short term and can  reduce the risk of sugar related problems e.g. diabetes. It can also discipline the people who are doing it about future food choices as it is an easy diet to stick to. However as mentioned above there are side affects which leads to many people dropping out. Like all diets if you put in the work you will see results. I personally would recommend this diet as it is straight foward 

Introduction about me

Hello, my name is David Stevenson and my blogs are going to be on nutrition and supplementation for those who want to learn more about one of the most important aspects of an active and inactive person