For many people, gaining weight is quite easy. Just look at most Americans. It's losing weight that is difficult.

However, even though millions of people are chronically overweight, they're "under-muscled." The objective of this post is to change that.

To build lean muscle mass, you have to take on a serious weight training and diet regimen. Hopefully, you are starting from a point where you are relatively lean or just need to drop a few pounds of body fat. But if you're seriously overweight, you can still follow the prescription I'm about to give; just realize that it's going to take some time and a lot of effort to see lasting results.

All that said, it's pretty easy to build lean muscle mass.

How to Build Lean Muscle Mass

These are some general guidelines to follow. You can check out Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day for an in-depth view of how to put it all together. Note that you need to do some form of cardio in order to supercharge your calorie-burning efforts. Here's what I propose:

• Follow the Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day system.
• Add 30 minutes every single day of cardio. It can be fast walking, running (not jogging, too hard on the joints), cycling, or active hiking. I prefer mountain biking, but you can do anything you want as long as you do it hard for 30 minutes.
• Eat frequent, small meals. The idea here is to maintain blood sugar levels so that you don't get hungry and don't burn muscle for fuel.
• Add 4 Fat-Loss Secret Ingredients to your diet.
• If you cannot prepare 6 meals a day, buy a meal replacement supplement like MetRx. You really cannot afford to miss meals.
• Portion control is king! Don't eat a lot. Use smaller bowls, plates, and utensils.
• Eat slowly. You may feel like you're grazing all day (because you are) but it's necessary.

As you might surmise from the above list, diet is very important. In fact 80 percent of your success can be attributed to nutrition. Don't take it lightly. In order to build lean muscle mass, you have to eat lean, quality food. No fat diets DO NOT WORK but neither does "all you can eat."

Choose to eat wisely and train smart. You'll build a better-looking body that will be healthier, too!

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Today's a day to relax. Or at least learn about it.

A critical component of any exercise program is recovery. It's just as important as exercise and nutrition. In fact, if you don't give your body enough time to rest and recover from the strenuous workouts you do, no matter what you do otherwise, your muscle gains will be minimal, if even positive.

Yeah, you could lose size even if you train right and eat right.

It's a sad fact. But it's true. I've seen super athletes fall from grace by partying too hard into the early morning. I've also been plagued myself by a significant lack of sleep for extended periods of time (years, decades even). I always rationalized my poor sleeping habits with a mucho macho phrase:

I can sleep all I want when I die.

Of course, this thinking is all crap. There's nothing good to be said about sleep deprivation. So let's lay it on the line right now: Get at least 8 hours of sound, restful sleep every single night. Here are a few other "Rules of Recovery" -

• Go to sleep at the same time each night.
• Avoid shift work if at all possible.
• If you must consume caffeine, do so only prior to 3PM.
• Rise at the same time each morning.

Try to abstain from these activities -

• Going to sleep full.
• Exercising immediately before going to bed.
• Consuming any caffeine after about 3PM.
• Taking any kind of weight-loss aids, like diet pills, as they contain caffeine and other stimulants.

Read more about sleep here.

Sleep isn't the only component of Recovery.

You also need to calm down and relax. If you want to build maximum muscle, you need to put your mind at ease and stop worrying about stuff. I used to be a worrier; it's a trait I got from my mom, who constantly worries about this, that, and the other thing. Fortunately, I have overcome this unfortunate mental characteristic. It's a long road, but it's certainly worth it.

Sit if you can stand, walk if you can run. That sort of thing. Conserve as much energy as possible throughout the day. You will find that you won't have to eat as much to get results, either.

It's really win-win.

There's more on Rest here.

If you follow the advice given in this series, you will most definitely be training and eating right. If you find that you still aren't gaining the muscle you think you ought to be gaining, look first at your recovery practices.

• Are you getting enough sleep?
• Do you fidget while working or watching TV?
• Do your ears ring (classic sign of overtraining)?
• Is something bugging you and making you sleep less soundly, for less time, or both?

That's it for this series. I hope you liked it – let me know in the Comments! Thanks for visiting.

To recap, this is the entire series, How to Build Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Yesterday, we talked about basic nutrition. Today, we're going to "kick it up a notch," and talk about a specific eating program that will have you building muscle faster than Lou Ferrigno on anabolic steroids, bull semen, and gorilla growth hormone!

I've alluded to elements of this program before, not only in this series, but in quite a few posts over the years. Here are a few, just for background:

• Gallon of Milk a Day
• How to Consume More Protein Without Supplements
• Creatine Cycling
  

…and, as they say, much, much more!!!

I'll try to lay it all out in a schedule-format. This assumes you train mid-afternoon, say around 3pm. Adjust accordingly.

• Upon Rising – 2 Arginine tablets with a glass of water
• Breakfast – Eggs, toast, whole milk, vita-pak, 6 desiccated liver tabs, 5 grams Creatine
• Snack – Protein shake, liver tabs, creatine (same doses)
• Lunch – "Flesh" food like beef, chicken, fish, or eggs, whole milk, rice, liver tabs and creatine (same doses)
• Snack – Protein shake, liver tabs
• Pre-workout meal – Protein shake, liver tabs, branch chain amino acids, creatine, 30 minutes prior to workout
• WORK OUT, feel free to consume some protein shake during your workout too
• Post-workout meal – Protein shake, liver tabs, creatine, branch chain aminos, immediately after workout
• Dinner – Another round of flesh – beef, chicken, fish, or fowl. Rice, oats, other starchy foods. This is to be your biggest meal of the day. Vita-pak. Add milk as you grow.
• Snack – Protein shake, aminos, creatine, liver tabs
• Right before sleep – arginine, tryptophan, and glutamine

10 bullets (plus one for working out). Think you can consume all that? Build to it

Granted, two of those bullets aren't meals or working out – the first and last ones are there to a) break your all night "fast" (hence, why it's called "breakfast") and b) to set you up for sound sleep along with some growth hormone-inducing aminos.

On non-workout days, simply cut out the pre- and post-workout shakes. On Thursday (assuming you're training M-W-F), cut the supplements entirely. Give your gut a rest.

After 7 days, cut the creatine down to 2-3 grams where creatine is called for. The first 7 days' worth of creatine will build up a huge store of in-muscle creatine but then it maxes out and giving that high a dose is just wasteful.

Note that your muscles use creatine phosphate to produce energy when working out anaerobically. The creatine you ingest is converted into CP by the body and is stored in your muscles for quick energy.

That's it for today. Tomorrow: Recover tips and tricks.

Here's the rundown again on what we're covering this week:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Somebody, I think it was Vince Gironda, once said (well, knowing Vince, he said it a million times if he said it once)

Bodybuilding success is 85 percent nutrition

I have often said, in that same vein, that I wasn't sure what the percentage was, but I know this – It is high, way up there, far above 50 percent.

Especially when it comes to building muscle!

Sure, you have to train right and give your body time to recover (recovery will be covered on Friday), but one thing is crystal clear:

If you're not gaining weight, you're not eating enough!

Now, you could be gaining weight and NOT building muscle. That's 80 percent of the population. But that's because most of us eat shit and don't exercise at all.

But you're here because you train diligently, try to eat right, and try to balance the 3 Pillars the best you can.

Today, we're going to get back to basics – Basic eating. Here's what you need to know and do:

• In order to build muscle, you have to increase your caloric intake; you have to create a calorie surplus. If you're maintaining your weight, simply add in a glass of milk or other high-protein food to each meal.
• Eating 6 to 8 smaller meals is better for building muscle. Why? Because you can maximize your protein uptake. This means you can eat less protein per meal but more protein by the end of the day. This is very important for many reasons, one of which is this: If you're not in a positive caloric balance throughout the day, you most likely are running in the red at some parts of the day. When you're running a deficit, you are either burning fat or breaking down muscle tissue. Guess which one is more likely? Right! You are more likely to catabolize muscle tissue than burn fat. It's a sad but true fact.
• You have Two Most Important Meals – the one right before your weight workout and the one right after it! Here, bump up the protein intake to roughly double what you might take in during a regular meal.
• Consume at least 1 1/2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Preferably, take in 2 grams per pound. Yes, a lot of it is "wasted," but studies have shown that taking in more protein actually stimulates growth hormone production which spurs muscle growth, even if the protein isn't used.
• Eat plenty of eggs and lots of milk, if you can tolerate it. Both of these foods are sources of high-quality protein. Many weight trainers have made HUGE muscle gains on an eating/training system called GOMAD.
• Most supplements don't deliver on their promises. Read Supplement Scams. However, a few do. Read Supplements that work.
• Take your supplements every single day. Except Thursdays Seriously, I suggest you take a break from all supplements every 4th day of the week. Doing so just gives your digestive system a rest. Do it on a non-training day.

Tomorrow, we'll talk more specifically about a dietary meal & supplementation plan that will kick-start your muscle growth and put you on a path to gaining serious muscle!

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery