Mehdi eat big to get pig

People will often tell you have to "eat big to get big". But that usually just gets you fat like a pig. Here's an example, my comments are below...

### QUESTION ###
"Mehdi BIG BIG question! I'm a lean but skinny 6ft3" 78kg guy and need to bulk up, I'm consuming roughly 4000 calories a day and doing StrongLifts 5x5, but I'm afraid of gaining too much fat around my stomach. Can I do some HIIT workouts after my weight training and will it help anything? Thanks"

*** MY ANSWER ***
Start by re-reading my email from yesterday and the day before...

... because I'm going to use that house building analogy again.

Imagine you want to upgrade your "tiny house" into a big, strong CASTLE.

You first need bricks to build that castle.

That's the protein you eat.

The builders need a salary to lay those bricks.

That's your calorie intake.

If you pay the builders a good salary, they'll build your castle fast.

You can motivate them to build the castle faster by paying them more.

But there's a point where more pay no longer gets the work done faster.

Your builders have a natural physical limit.

They can only lay so many bricks a day.

When they reached their physical limit...

... the extra salary becomes a waste of money.

That limit is the 2lb/1kg of RAW muscle a month I talked about yesterday.

Stuffing your face with food won't make you gain muscle faster.

Your body is just going to store that excess food as fat.

And it's going to store it around your stomach first for guys.

Better is to pay the builders a honest salary so they work fast.

As your castle gets bigger, you can hire more builders to help.

Now your salary cost has increased - you're eating slightly more.

But you didn't waste money before getting those extra builders.

This is the approach I've used to gain muscle while losing fat.

I never force-fed myself by gorging on 4000 calories a day.

I just eat slightly over maintenance.

As my maintenance level increased, I ate slightly more.

First year I gained 25lb of mostly muscle...

... then I continued to gain muscle and ended 43lb heavier.

But at no point did I have to deal with fat around my stomach.

Heck, one of the reasons I joined the gym *was* to lose my belly!

I wasn't going to make it worse by "eating big" like a pig.

And that's how I've had visible abs for 16 years now.

Don't try to gain muscle faster than you can.

You're just going to get fat like a pig.

Slow and steady always wins.

Especially with my apps...

https://stronglifts.com/apps/

Keep it simple.

-Mehdi

P.S. Extra HIIT workouts wouldn't be "bad". But they won't make up for all that excess food. 20mins of HIIT cardio doesn't burn 1000 calories. You will get fat unless you do a ton of cardio. But that would hurt your lifting which you need to build muscle.

https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

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