I bulked and just got fat.

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  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
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    @OP - I have been reading these forums going on 18 months now...everything I have read about women and bulking suggested the following:

    ~To wait to do a bulk until you are at a reasonable BF% to begin with - I have read multiple times anything under 24% for women

    ~To utilize a modest calorie surplus. (Most suggestions seem to be 200-300). Your surplus seems too high?

    There are some very accomplished women in these forums who will hopefully be able to give you further guidance...
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
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    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    Eat below MX 250/500 cal. Only consume slow digesting carbs and lean protiens. Get plenty of rest and give it time. If you fail on a rep no biggy, as long as you keep good form with the ones youve completed. Only use a scale for weight but realize it fluctuates daily 1/5 lbs. Stay away from sugars ( soda, candy, ICE CREAM, ect ). I lost 80+ lbs and the best advice I can give is give it time and stay consistant.

    You realize the OP is asking about bulking??? Not cutting.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    Eat below MX 250/500 cal. Only consume slow digesting carbs and lean protiens. Get plenty of rest and give it time. If you fail on a rep no biggy, as long as you keep good form with the ones youve completed. Only use a scale for weight but realize it fluctuates daily 1/5 lbs. Stay away from sugars ( soda, candy, ICE CREAM, ect ). I lost 80+ lbs and the best advice I can give is give it time and stay consistant.

    lol sooo much bro science..

    I eat sugar and have no issues with bulking, cutting, etc.

    why only lean proteins and slow digesting carbs? OP is trying to bulk and surplus would be more important than macros….
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    lucygoesrawr wrote: »
    Why are you doing a 600-calorie daily surplus?
    Started bulking at just 100 extra. Each time I failed a rep my husband convinced me to increase my calories because he thought I hadn't recovered properly, and this is what I ended up with. There were promises of ice cream. ;)
    That's...wow. That's jumping the gun a little. You're going to occasionally fail to complete a set. Everyone does. Maybe you're tired that day, or distracted, or you're trying to increase the weight too quickly, or maybe a million other things. It happens. Your body needs time to respond to changes you make. A much better plan would be to start at maintenance and up your calories slowly (100-200 calories at a time), wait 3-4 weeks in between increases, and see how your body responds to each change.

    Is your maintenance really 1700? Did you determine that by observation or did you use a calculator?

    What's your targeted rate of gain?

  • FitnessTrainer69
    FitnessTrainer69 Posts: 283 Member
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    MADROSE you're right. I thought she was trying to lose some fat. Why would you bulk if you feel your overweight? I guess my only advice would be no running and a cleaner bulk if your worried about getting fat.
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
    edited December 2014
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    lucygoesrawr wrote: »
    Apparently I'm supposed to go and try again now. So, just a quick answer for now - I'm not terribly overweight and have a medical condition which means gaining the muscle is a lot more important at the moment than losing fat. Thank you for the replies, I'll read them in a bit.
    - After I fail at pressing. Hooray. :(

    @OP - may I ask who advised you that gaining muscle was more important than losing fat at this stage? ETA - What is your current body fat % ?
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    Eat below MX 250/500 cal. Only consume slow digesting carbs and lean protiens. Get plenty of rest and give it time. If you fail on a rep no biggy, as long as you keep good form with the ones youve completed. Only use a scale for weight but realize it fluctuates daily 1/5 lbs. Stay away from sugars ( soda, candy, ICE CREAM, ect ). I lost 80+ lbs and the best advice I can give is give it time and stay consistant.

    You're a trainer?!
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    lucygoesrawr wrote: »
    Apparently I'm supposed to go and try again now. So, just a quick answer for now - I'm not terribly overweight and have a medical condition which means gaining the muscle is a lot more important at the moment than losing fat. Thank you for the replies, I'll read them in a bit.
    - After I fail at pressing. Hooray. :(


    I would also like to know more about this medical condition.
  • release_the_kraken
    release_the_kraken Posts: 304 Member
    edited December 2014
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    Maybe you are not resting enough between workouts and that is why you reps. You don't grow during a workout, your grow during your rest days.
  • FitnessTrainer69
    FitnessTrainer69 Posts: 283 Member
    edited December 2014
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    3laine75 wrote: »
    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    Eat below MX 250/500 cal. Only consume slow digesting carbs and lean protiens. Get plenty of rest and give it time. If you fail on a rep no biggy, as long as you keep good form with the ones youve completed. Only use a scale for weight but realize it fluctuates daily 1/5 lbs. Stay away from sugars ( soda, candy, ICE CREAM, ect ). I lost 80+ lbs and the best advice I can give is give it time and stay consistant.

    You're a trainer?!

    I miss read her post. I thought she was looking to lose fat. Yes I train military members. Ive only helped those who are looking to lose weight and their careers depend on my advice. Ive yet to fail :) What about you?
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    AliceDark wrote: »
    lucygoesrawr wrote: »
    Why are you doing a 600-calorie daily surplus?
    Started bulking at just 100 extra. Each time I failed a rep my husband convinced me to increase my calories because he thought I hadn't recovered properly, and this is what I ended up with. There were promises of ice cream. ;)
    That's...wow. That's jumping the gun a little. You're going to occasionally fail to complete a set. Everyone does. Maybe you're tired that day, or distracted, or you're trying to increase the weight too quickly, or maybe a million other things. It happens. Your body needs time to respond to changes you make. A much better plan would be to start at maintenance and up your calories slowly (100-200 calories at a time), wait 3-4 weeks in between increases, and see how your body responds to each change.

    Is your maintenance really 1700? Did you determine that by observation or did you use a calculator?

    What's your targeted rate of gain?


    ^^^all of this.

    It's great that your hubby's giving you a hand and starting strength is a great programme IMO. Some of what you've gained should definitely be muscle if you've been working with a 600 surplus. I went too crazy, gaining quickly on my first bulk - I definitely got some shiny new muscle out of it but a bit too much fat.

    Go with a more conservative surplus and a positive attitude to your lifts and your going to be fine. Happy bulking :)


  • lucygoesrawr
    lucygoesrawr Posts: 184 Member
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    I've tried to explain the condition as best I can below. I'm sorry it's so long, and sorry about my own lack of knowledge about how it all works, it's based on what I've been told my professionals and other people with it...

    I have Joint Hypermobility Syndrome. I have been diagnosed independently by a physiotherapist and an orthopedic surgeon when they were trying to figure out what was wrong with my hands/wrists. The condition means I'm basically too flexible, due to ligaments and such not being taut enough.

    This has caused me several problems. Firstly, my wrists, hands and fingers were painful, went numb and tingly, just generally wouldn't work properly, for about a year. I had to wear braces most of the time to stop my wrists from going into positions they shouldn't (which could cause nerve problems), which apparantly caused all these issues. I also had an issue with a finger curling underneath the others which is basically permanant now.

    A couple of years ago I had awful hip problems - they would grind, sort of roll around, and sieze up so much I couldn't move - it was very, very painful. I refused to see a doctor because I was scared they might recommend a hip replacement. These problems lasted about two years and gradually went away. After losing weight it started to happen again. Milder, but enough to scare me. I also have permanant pain in my left hip if pressure is applied to it, and it hurts all the time if I'm inactive for a few days. A new doctor told me it needed strengthening and would be fine.

    I've had lower back pain for a few years now, and started to have upper back pain when walking after losing some weight. The doctor told me it was just because it moved too much and would stop when I gained more core strength.

    My knees are too unstable to run fast and prone to injury. They wobble around and hurt afterwards, and my ankles aren't much better.

    These problems are, from my understanding, a result of everything being able to move around too much, there's too much 'wear and tear', especially around joints. Some people with my condition are fine until my age (22) and suddenly, over the course of a few years, start having problems like these, and eventually have to use a wheelchair. It also seems to be quite common to have arthiritis by 30-40.

    Once again, if I understand what people have tried to explain to me, muscle can sort of do the job the ligaments are meant to do, hold stuff together - but I don't have enough yet. My wrists, for instance, which have probably been the worst part of my body, used to be very, very weak and thin.

    Strength training has completely cured my wrists and the back issues, but I still have other problems. Being overweight isn't good, and does make me self concious - however, not a single doctor or the physiotherapist or the orthopedic surgeon have mentioned it. They have all told me I need to get stronger and build muscle, though, and I am not going to let my body fall apart. And at the end of the day, if I have to put on a significant amount of fat as well to make sure of that, and eat at a moderate defecit for years (because I'm not going to lose muscle mass) to come - it's worth it. I'm not going to become disabled when I'm lucky enough to have the means to stop it.
  • lucygoesrawr
    lucygoesrawr Posts: 184 Member
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    AliceDark wrote: »
    Is your maintenance really 1700? Did you determine that by observation or did you use a calculator?

    What's your targeted rate of gain?

    We worked it out based on rate of weight loss and calorie deficits. Though the calculators say about the same, just a little more.

    I don't really have a target at the moment as to how much I want to put on. Happy for it to happen slowly though.

  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    edited December 2014
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    Okay, that makes sense. One of my sisters has some problems with that, while the other one has arthritis.

    I'm going to go ahead and make the uneducated guess that your condition is making your lifting harder as well. You can't expect to progress as much as someone without it. I'm also going to guess that gaining "significant amounts of fat" would be bad (and I'm going to put it out there that you can get stronger without gaining much actual muscle mass). I'd recommend a *slight* surplus, find a left at which you are gaining about a pound every 2 weeks, and a LOT of patience. It's possible that starting strength is not for you and that you'd do better with a program with slightly more reps, slower progression, and possibly NOT squats every day (I know squats every day just sucks for me). Have you worked with a physical therapist or anything? Someone who could recommended something?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Yeah, work on getting strong and don't worry about being a little overweight. Everything to encourage your muscles to support your frame! Core strength will help those hips and your back.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    edited December 2014
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    OP - maybe you would have better success if you ate in a slight surplus - say 200 calories - over maintenance - and slowly recomped to a point where you could then cut and lose some fat ….
  • Rogiefreida
    Rogiefreida Posts: 567 Member
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    A small surplus (+300 calories) worked really well for me and have been gaining about 1.5-2 pounds a month since i started my bulk. TBH a few weeks or a month isn't really a great indicator of whether the bulk is working or not, especially when there's usually a water weight fluctuation in the first few weeks of upping calories. Hell, I've been bulking for almost 7 months and it's only been in the last month and a half to 2 months that I've seen a significant improvement in muscle. A bulking group I'm a part of on Facebook actually tells all new bulkers to not weigh themselves for the first month because it might not be an accurate reflection of your progress. There's also a definite mental component to bulking as well, it can mess with your mind to try and purposely put weight on, even if you logically know why you're doing it.

    Also, everyone has bad lifting days. I know I do. Do you keep a log of your lifts to see any trends? I find it really helpful to do so. If the overall trend is strength improvement with some bad or meh days sprinkled in, then don't be so hard on yourself. Not everyday in the gym is going to be awesome, some will outright suck.

    I think it's great that you're taking charge of your health and doing what you can to help yourself in the future. Best of luck to you whatever you decide to do.
  • gperlberg
    gperlberg Posts: 1
    edited December 2014
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    You may want to consider a short break. If you have been lifting nearly everyday for 4 months, your body might need a rest. I'm an endurance athlete so this may not apply. We typically have a down/light week periodically to let the body and mind recover, especially after an extended period of intense training.

    After these breaks I always come back stronger.
  • beastcompany
    beastcompany Posts: 230 Member
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    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    3laine75 wrote: »
    FitnessTrainer69 wrote: »
    Eat below MX 250/500 cal. Only consume slow digesting carbs and lean protiens. Get plenty of rest and give it time. If you fail on a rep no biggy, as long as you keep good form with the ones youve completed. Only use a scale for weight but realize it fluctuates daily 1/5 lbs. Stay away from sugars ( soda, candy, ICE CREAM, ect ). I lost 80+ lbs and the best advice I can give is give it time and stay consistant.

    You're a trainer?!

    I miss read her post. I thought she was looking to lose fat. Yes I train military members. Ive only helped those who are looking to lose weight and their careers depend on my advice. Ive yet to fail :) What about you?


    So you're a trainer, but only know how to help people lose weight?
    What certifications/credentials do you hold?


    Also, what sort of military personnel do you train, and what sort of training are you teaching?


    Being prior military myself, I'm very curious to see.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Thanks for filling in the gaps.

    Now we have more details- personally I would dial back the bulk- you should be getting satisfactory muscle from eating at maintenance at this point. I'd dial it back down to a more comfortable calorie range and keep lifting.

    I wouldn't worry about failing- it happens- you might be trying to take to big of jumps b/c you're lifting with your hubby- women's weight jumps up in smaller increments- I used to lift with a guy and we would jump up at his rate- and I got to my working/max range much more quickly and I couldn't jump up as fast in terms of solid working weights.

    I'd also perk up about the failing. Failure comes from pushing- take it as a good sign that you are pushing your boundries- that's a REALLY good thing.

    I wouldn't lift to failure EVER time you lift- don't be afraid to work more on your level than his. I know it's easy to get swept up - but don't be afraid to dial back.

    Also- I call Bullocks on the no ice cream.

    Ice cream is always an option.

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