Nowdays every person from every walk of life wants to be fit healthy and in shape. Coz let’s be honest for us now the physical appearance of an individual, or the idea of how we are looked on and perceived in the society is important. And this makes people as young as 18 to people as old as 50 hitting the gym.

We all go to gym for a purpose to achieve a goal. Some go to lose weight, some go to gain muscles whereas some only to look fit and in shape. A persons diet and workout depend on his goals. An average person consumes about 2000 calories a day from various sources of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. But someone who needs to bulk up needs to be on a caloric surplus and needs to consume around 3000-4000 calories a day, one who needs to cut need needs to be on a caloric deficit and needs to consume around 1500 – 1800 calories a day and someone who needs to maintain should stick to around 2000-2500 calories a day.

The phase in which a person gains muscle mass is called bulking phase, the phase in which a person wants to lose weight is called shredding or cutting phase and the phase of maintaining the same weight is called maintaining phase. So in short a gym goers life revolves around the 3 phases depending on their goal and how they want to look in 2 months from now. I say 2 months as bodybuilding, loosing weight is not something which can be done by reading a magic spell and poof you have your desired physique. Gaining muscle and loosing fat does take time.

The three phases in detail….

1 – Bulking :

I like to call this the hulk phase.Bulking is the muscle growth phase. In order to bulk up, one needs extra calories. This is called a caloric surplus, and it simply means taking in more calories than you are burning off. The intake of these extra calories is what will add more muscle or fat to the body. Since you need to lift heavy to gain muscle until unless you wont be in a caloric surplus your body wont have that extra energy to lift that extra heavy weight. As calories is measured in joules which is a measurement of energy so calories can be termed as energy. Bulking is all about going high on carbs and proteins in your diet.

This phase is the reason why most boys and men join the gym. Coz they want to build muscles look broad, be fit and look like an action hero. And the hard to digest unpleasing truth for most people in the world we don’t just have males in this category nowdays even females are joining the gym to gain muscle. The bulking phase is a happy phase where one gets too eat a lot and lift heavy, certain pr’s are hit during this phase, the stamina and endurance is very high in bulking phase. But at times if one gets too involved and engulfed in it then it may lead to anxiety, mood swings, irritatibility.

When bulking its easier to up your calorie intake by eating a lot of junk and simple carbs like burgers, pizza, chocolate, cakes etc. This way you will increase your calorie intake and look big and broad but it wont give you a very pleasing physique. This is called dirty bulking

There is also called something as clean bulking. Under clean bulking one increases their calorie intake by adding complex carbs like brown rice, wheat pasta, rice crispies, bagel bread etc and also one adds lean meat like salmon or tuna fish, turkey or chicken or lean ground beef.

If you want to bulk up real fast then simple carbs is the best way but not healthy and good in a long run, complex carbs on the otherhand wont bulk you up as fast as simple carbs would but the results at the end of the bulking phase would be more sharp and better when doing clean bulk.

2 – Cutting :

I like to call this as captain America phase. This is the phase most bodybuilders would follow right after the bulking phase. In cutting phase one drops the calorie intake than the average 2000 calories of a normal persons diet. Cutting is done in order to retain muscles and just get rid of the fat around the body to achieve a more ripped, dry and muscular look. Cutting is majorly done when a bodybuilding competition is upcoming, or some lad is preparing for a beach holiday to Ibiza or when a damsel has a wedding to attend.

In cutting one drops down the carbs and fat and has a high protein diet as the goal here is to look sharp and cut like a greek god or a greek godess. During the cutting phase one mainly consumes boiled or steamed food, avoids sugar and simple carbs or soda drinks. This is the worst phase as the food intake is less than required carb is at a minimal low so in this stage the level of irritatibily, anxiety etc are much higher. One is always hungry for more food and all one eats is boring tasteless food. That is the reason most pro seasoned bodybuilders are always an emotional wreck during the end of their prep for a competition.

3 – Maintaining :

The most relaxing and comfortable phase of bodybuilding I call this average Joe phase. As the name suggest maintaining phase is one in which one just maintains the current weight, muscle etc. The diet under maintenance phase is not very strict until unless one is a fitness model or prepping for an upcoming contest. Cheating under this phase is often as the person is satisfied with their overall look and one doesn’t fret much about gaining weight or loosing weight. The calorie intake is overall the same as a non gym goer however macros are calculated in order to not loose track.

So those were the 3 phases around which a persons diet, workout revolves around irrespective of whether they go to the gym or not. We all go through all the phases whether we go to gym or not. At times when we on holidays we binge too much then when we are back we restrict our diet a bit. But a non gym goer will never go for bulking phase deliberately, but will definitely go for cutting or maintaining phase. We all are wired to be in the maintaining phase. Its only when we want to be a lil different from what we normally perceive ourselves as that we enter a different phase. Don’t fret about gaining weight or loosing too much don’t be obsessed with it. Just stay happy smile a lot, jog a little and control a little with food. A real fit person is someone who is happy with how they look from inside and outside.

Stay hungry !!!!! Stay foolish !!!!