should I bulk up?

zoohockey

went from 190 to 150 pretty fast, basically cut all carbs and ate 1k calories. right now I'm at 165 with 9-10%bf any advice??!!?!?

Serah87

You were only eating 1000 calories??

zoohockey

yeah it was bad

Wheelhouse15

Ouch, ok you need to reverse out of that low calorie intake. What are you at right now in intake? Are talking net or gross btw?

zoohockey

I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

Wheelhouse15

zoohockey wrote: »

I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.

zoohockey

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

zoohockey wrote: »

I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.

ohh ok, then that's gross. I workout 5-6days a week. I have looked into my maintenance and its roughly 2500. for the past 4 days I've been really bloated at the end of the day any specific reason why??

Wheelhouse15

zoohockey wrote: »

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

zoohockey wrote: »

I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.

ohh ok, then that's gross. I workout 5-6days a week. I have looked into my maintenance and its roughly 2500. for the past 4 days I've been really bloated at the end of the day any specific reason why??

Not sure why you are bloated but could be sodium. If you are not at your maintenance than you should raise your calories until you hit your maintenance and then stay there for about a month. Once you've stabilized you will be ready to bulk. Alternatively, you could try to bulk right away but without knowing where your maintenance is, and not fully recovered yet from your weight loss, you risk gaining more fat than you need to.

Choice is yours in the end. If you want to bulk I would go right to 3000 cals a day for a couple weeks and see how that goes. If you want to find your maintenance first than up your calories to about 2500 and then monitor and adjust your intake.

zoohockey

thanks!!! I really appreciate it. any advice on specific lifts I should do?? I use to do a powerlifting program and ended with a 405 squat, 235 bench and 470 deadlift. trying to get back to these numbers and trying to keep the somewhat abs I have

Wheelhouse15

If you are playing competitive hockey then I would work with your trainer on a good off ice program. Otherwise, you can look into a good intermediate power lifting or strength program like 531, West Side, Texas Method etc. If you go to powerliftingtowin.com/ you can get a good review of all the big intermediate programs.

zoohockey

thanks a lot!!!!!

se015

Hey Zoohockey so I'm not expert but I've been working on "bulking up" for awhile now. I'm one of those what they call hardgainers. A few things I wanted to touch base with you. It's very difficult to bulk up and cut down at the same time, almost impossible. You need to decide what you want to do and when you want to do it. So if you want to pack on the weight, you can't concern yourself with abs really, although continue doing ab workouts to keep those ab muscles toned, but most free weight exercises are going to make you use your abdominal muscles anyway. Once you've gained MUSCLE WEIGHT, so you've gained weight which is hopefully mostly of muscle and not as much fat, although you will still gain fat if you want to gain overall weight. You can then concern yourself with some cutting which will include mostly dietary changes and probably changing your entire lifting program and adding some more cardio each week. You should get a body fat % tool, although I think it sounds like you already got that, that's your main tool and the scale. You want to be under 10% body fat if you want that nice muscular look. Also keep an eye on your macro breakdown, carb, fat, protein. I suggest you up your carbs to put on the weight. When you've achieved the weight you want and size you want, then start lowering the carbs while keeping fat and protein somewhat the same. I hope my post has helped somewhat.

How did you get to such heavy weights in those exercises, I can't seem to get passed 195 for bench, but I only weight 150 lbs. Any help with lifting would be greatly appreicated!

zoohockey

thanks so much, that was really helpful. I made those lifts when I weighed roughly 178. I was on a 10 week program that consisted of heavy squats deadlifts and bench. it worked really well and I made some serious lifts in my opinion but I wasn't were I wanted to be(looks wise)

Seth1825 wrote: »

Hey Zoohockey so I'm not expert but I've been working on "bulking up" for awhile now. I'm one of those what they call hardgainers. A few things I wanted to touch base with you. It's very difficult to bulk up and cut down at the same time, almost impossible. You need to decide what you want to do and when you want to do it. So if you want to pack on the weight, you can't concern yourself with abs really, although continue doing ab workouts to keep those ab muscles toned, but most free weight exercises are going to make you use your abdominal muscles anyway. Once you've gained MUSCLE WEIGHT, so you've gained weight which is hopefully mostly of muscle and not as much fat, although you will still gain fat if you want to gain overall weight. You can then concern yourself with some cutting which will include mostly dietary changes and probably changing your entire lifting program and adding some more cardio each week. You should get a body fat % tool, although I think it sounds like you already got that, that's your main tool and the scale. You want to be under 10% body fat if you want that nice muscular look. Also keep an eye on your macro breakdown, carb, fat, protein. I suggest you up your carbs to put on the weight. When you've achieved the weight you want and size you want, then start lowering the carbs while keeping fat and protein somewhat the same. I hope my post has helped somewhat.

How did you get to such heavy weights in those exercises, I can't seem to get passed 195 for bench, but I only weight 150 lbs. Any help with lifting would be greatly appreicated!

zoohockey

any suggestions on my macros?

elfman5150

Calories > macros. But shoot for about 1g/lb body weight or thereabouts, then somewhere around .3-.4g/lb for fats, and the rest make carbs. That's just a suggestion though; you really just gotta play with it and see what makes you feel best.

Just make sure to get enough protein and fat for essential biological functions. Other than that have fun!

zoohockey

thanks man, very much appreciated

zoohockey

any more suggestions/tips feel free to tell me, the more the better

FitnessTrainer69

You can bulk while keeping body fat low. You have to be meticulous with your diet. I've been bulking/surplus whatever you want to call it for the past 5 months. I've maintained less than 10% body fat and gained 1lb of muscle a month. Those who bulk with junk food and pizza only gain fat and not much else. Food timing is most important.

zoohockey

can you explain meal timings and foods to eat, I eat really clean foods like chicken, ground turkey/beef, oatmeal

ForecasterJason

^^Yeah I'd be interested to hear how he has had success bulking like that.