TO BUILD A bigger and leaner physique, bodybuilders and average guys alike often turn to the same strategy: eating everything in sight, or “bulking,” and then burning fat, or “cutting,” by reducing calories and eating cleaner to reveal the new muscle beneath. It works, but it takes time and can cause you long-term damage on a cellular level—and it can make it very hard to stay lean over the long term.

When your goal is to slash fat and build muscle as fast as possible, however, accounting for every calorie at once can condense these two phases into one superefficient “clean bulking” phase, enabling you to build muscle and burn fat simultaneously, and ultimately emerge with your best body ever.