Could My Metabolism Be Broken?

Mr_Knight

heybales wrote: »

RoadieKill104 wrote: »

New question haha : is it possible to kind of bulk and gain lbm while staying semi lean? I don't like the idea of packing on weight with the whole to yo bulk cut routines, as I understand they simply involve cycles of eating lots and lifting to just basically gain weight, followed by basically cutting the way I already have and shrinking down? (Genery speaking of course, and I know I'm not tuly "cutting)

Thoughts or suggestions?

Eat 250 extra calories in the 24 hrs post lifting workout.

Would take 14 of such days to see a 1 lb gain, and if workout is good enough, shouldn't be much fat at all.

But you'd need to log your workouts and eat more on those days too - you are attempting to eat above maintenance by a little bit.
- Progress will be slow.

To put that in calendar perspective, if you do as heybales suggests, with three meaningful workouts a week, you're looking at adding somewhere close to a pound of lean body mass every five weeks. Keep it up for a year, and it'll be around 10 new pounds of prime beef.

RoadieKill104

So what I'm hearing here is the slower I take the bulking the lower amount of fat I'll accumulate while doing so?

That's what I'm kind of getting from this, almost like you're trying to build the muscle slowly by creating as small a surplus as possible so your body can repair and grow, but doesn't have a whole lot of energy left above that to store as fat.

Am I correct in this? And if I am correct does it stand to reason that one could bulk slowly and then say do a mini cut every few months to shave off the small amounts of additional fat they're gaining to sort of get lean and then continue to bulk again?

heybales

Yes to slow bulk. And that is so slow, I doubt you'll have any fat to trim off every so often.

Just watch waist measurements. If it goes up to much, then a small cut could be in order, 2 weeks, 2 lbs. 2 lbs of fat takes up a lot of volume, especially where it's added first.
Beer belly!

RoadieKill104

Awesome advice everyone and thank you so much! All this is very interesting/ exciting and I can't wait to start tryin some of these tactics!

RoadieKill104

So my next question would be (and thank you all so much for all the great help so far!) can I continue to do my programs while attempting to slow bulk like this?

I really do prefer this form of exercise (insanity and insanity max 30, cardio and body weight resistance traing) and for some added perspective I skate (board) maybe once a week as well.

My experiment I think will be as follows:

Continue with my program (s) and start at 2250 per day that I work out.

Off days or lighter days drop to 2000.

Monitor weight and adjust intake as weight starts to come up.

Any issues with this type of system?

Again the only thing I really fear is getting back that skinny-fat appearance and just feeling like crap. The other thing I fear is losing appetite again, as it makes it very hard to judge my progress or whether I should be eating or not if I'm not hingry no matter what the calls say.

And side note: are there any that think that 2250 will not be a surplus or that it will be too much of a surplus based off my stats? 27 y/o male 127 lbs 5 x week workout with insanity (30 mins each) with some skating sprinkled in (job is a desk job)

Thanks!
Chuck

heybales

Insanity is, as self-described, intervals upside down.
That means because the rest is so brief and the hard is so long, you can't even push as hard, compared to if it was brief.
(Compare, could you do squats with 150 lbs as long as you could with body weight?)

That means it is intense cardio, with a strength component. It will use what muscle you got sure.

But that's not the kind of overload required for the body to see a need to actually increase muscle. You'll get it as strong as it can be for intense cardio workouts.

Certainly not body weight exercise after a while, perhaps at first. If you can do more than 15 reps of whatever with good form, it's not asking the body to build more muscle.

That type of program will not result in lean bulk.

girlviernes

Several things you posted make me think you would really benefit from talking to a therapist who focused on treating eating disorders. Please consider it. Think about what percent of the day you are thinking about weight and food. Is it taking over your mind space?