Is it time for me to start bulking?

knlucero

I've been losing weight and am now considered a "healthy" weight and want to start getting stronger now. I'm 20 years old, 4'10, and weigh 114.5 pounds (waist 29.5 inches, Hips 31 inches). I was eating 1200 calories with 60 grams of protein a day to lose weight, and just changed it to gaining 0.5 lbs a week. Is this an appropriate change? I was doing an hour of cardio and 30 minutes of strength, but now i want to do 20-30 minutes of cardio and an hour of strength, will this be a good balance of exercise? Also, MFP recommends 65g of protein a day and 1730 calories, is this about right for someone my size?

These pictures are me today, do you think I should start bulking now or perhaps lose a bit more?

3laine75

Sounds good - check out the 'women who bulk' group.

I'd consider upping protein (maybe to around 100g (ish)).

Edit: I'm not too sure on calorie requirements for someone your height - you could use a few online calculators, get an average then work from there, upping if you need to.

ndj1979

If you are going to bulk then you really need to cut the cardio down to a minimum…

also, I think that you would benefit from adjusting your calories to a half pound per week loss, as you still have some fat to lose. The problem with bulking is that you ARE going to gain fat there is nothing that you can do to avoid that…

so I would suggest dropping a few more pounds and then go for the bulk …

just my two cents...

PwrLftr82

ndj1979 wrote: »

If you are going to bulk then you really need to cut the cardio down to a minimum…

also, I think that you would benefit from adjusting your calories to a half pound per week loss, as you still have some fat to lose. The problem with bulking is that you ARE going to gain fat there is nothing that you can do to avoid that…

so I would suggest dropping a few more pounds and then go for the bulk …

just my two cents...

I agree with all of this. I'm 5'6" and started my bulk at 124 lbs (16% bf). If you're 8" shorter than I am, I'm sure you could cut down to 100 lbs before you start bulking. Set your weight loss to 1/2 lb/week and increase protein to 80g/day. Lift 3x/week full body routine about 45 min each. Cardio can stay the same. Once you reach about 100 lbs, then you can start thinking about bulking.

knlucero

Thank you! I was on the fence on whether or not I should stop weight loss and start bulking. I'm going to continue with losing 0.5 pounds a week but increase my protein and longer strength workouts. I'm also going to integrate more interval workouts in my cardio because I have read that that primarily burns fat.

terbusha

Hit those weights! I would suggest that you do not just jump to 1730 cal/day if you've been eating 1200 cal/day. If you do a big jump like that, you're likely to add on body fat. Increase your calories slowly. Jump to 1400 cal/day for 2 weeks. Then if your weight hasn't increased, bump up to 1600 cal/day for another 2 weeks. Keep doing this until your weight starts to increase ~0.5 lbs/week. This is what I've done. I got my calorie intake up from 1800 cal/day to 2800 cal/day (moving to 3000 cal/day this weekend) and I'm still just as lean as I was before I started bulking and I'm up 11 lbs. Slow is the way to go for sure.

PwrLftr82

terbusha wrote: »

Hit those weights! I would suggest that you do not just jump to 1730 cal/day if you've been eating 1200 cal/day. If you do a big jump like that, you're likely to add on body fat. Increase your calories slowly. Jump to 1400 cal/day for 2 weeks. Then if your weight hasn't increased, bump up to 1600 cal/day for another 2 weeks. Keep doing this until your weight starts to increase ~0.5 lbs/week. This is what I've done. I got my calorie intake up from 1800 cal/day to 2800 cal/day (moving to 3000 cal/day this weekend) and I'm still just as lean as I was before I started bulking and I'm up 11 lbs. Slow is the way to go for sure.

She is not lean enough to begin bulking yet.

JeffseekingV

If strength is your goal, you can get stronger while in a slight deficit. But you cannot gain size in a deficit.

If your goal is to gain size/muscle, then bulk now. There is no "yes" or "no" answer to this. You can bulk now and cut later. You can keep trying to cut and then bulk later. But remember, it's really tough to bulk w/o gaining some fat. But it's also tough to lose fat w/o losing some muscle.

MagnumBurrito

PwrLftr82 wrote: »

terbusha wrote: »

Hit those weights! I would suggest that you do not just jump to 1730 cal/day if you've been eating 1200 cal/day. If you do a big jump like that, you're likely to add on body fat. Increase your calories slowly. Jump to 1400 cal/day for 2 weeks. Then if your weight hasn't increased, bump up to 1600 cal/day for another 2 weeks. Keep doing this until your weight starts to increase ~0.5 lbs/week. This is what I've done. I got my calorie intake up from 1800 cal/day to 2800 cal/day (moving to 3000 cal/day this weekend) and I'm still just as lean as I was before I started bulking and I'm up 11 lbs. Slow is the way to go for sure.

She is not lean enough to begin bulking yet.

+1 She's close but not there.