We always wanted to look fit and right all year long. Who doesn't anyway? It's not for pure vanity or whim but also, for your overall well being and self-esteem. I see lots of strength trainers and fitness trainers, telling people to bulk up if they want to gain weight and get big muscles. I read that all the time in forums, websites, magazines, and i believe it's one of the stupidest things anyone can do. Bulking is a high caloric diet also known as "see food diet", it means you're supposed to eat high caloric foods in big quantities, and it won't matter what foods you´re eating, they tell you to eat junk food, saturated fats, high GI carbs, and that's a serious health problem, calories aren't all created equal and you shouldn't over eat.

I've been stupid too, I've bulked before for some months and it was stupid and unhealthy. I just looked at myself in the mirror and asked: What is this? Is this the way I want to look? Is this the reason why I'm training? Looking at my blood tests, my cholesterol was high, I was risking my health, and for what? To look fat? No thank you. As a note just let me tell you that at the time I was also with the stupid obssession of getting big, really big, and that's also stupid, but that will be for another post.

Here's why you shouldn't bulk, you'll get fat, you'll look bad and the muscle mass you gain won't be more than if you wouldn't bulk. I can tell you that if you gain 10 kg/22 pounds while bulking, when you cut and lose the fat, you'll only have gained about 2 or 3 kg/4 to 6 pounds of lean muscle. If you had eaten clean and healthy, you would have gained just about the same muscle mass, with big advantages, the first one, you would have looked good all year, because you'd be always lean. Why would you want to look fat 9 or 10 months, and just look good 2 or 3, while risking your health? It's stupid right?

Some of you might say: I'm just bulking until I get big enough and then I'll get lean and stay lean, but when your mind is in getting big mode, you'll never feel satisfied, you'll always want to get bigger and bigger, and you'll keep fat and endangering your health.

Another problem with bulking is that your body will never lose the fat cells, you can empty them when you burn the fat, but they'll always be there just waiting to be filled again, you'll always have to be extra careful with your food because it will be much easier to get fat again, not having this problem is the second advantage of not bulking.

Now the worse problem is your health, when bulking you'll be ingesting just about anything high on calories, and that means saturated fats and excessive carbs, usually people who are bulking will skip veggies because they're told to fill themselves with high caloric foods, and to not let your stomach be filled with low caloric foods. Each time i think about this, i just think how could i have been so stupid? How can responsable people in the fitness area advice this to their trainees? And to the people who read them? These people trust them and then they get this as a reward.

So do what you can to stay fit and right all year long. Eat healthy, sleep right and live healthy!