Bulk struggles
cnbbnc
Posts: 1,267 Member
I don't know what I'm looking for anyone to tell me, but my bulk is getting sloppy and I'm trying to brainstorm what to do. I'm 9wks in and up 5lbs so far. Workouts are going well....definitely stronger and making progress. Where it's falling apart is with food though.
I'm gaining on a mere 1800cals. I feel so damned hungry some days, and I'm seriously starting to overeat. Not every day but a couple times a week or so.... I end up cutting calories on other days to try to even it out, but I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing...thinking ideally it should be the same daily to fuel workouts/recovery. Am I right here?
I don't know if I should try volume eating with more salads/veggies/fruit/low cal foods so I feel more satisfied and stop exceeding my goal. Or maybe I need to start doing some cardio....
Any thoughts on ways to handle this?
I'm gaining on a mere 1800cals. I feel so damned hungry some days, and I'm seriously starting to overeat. Not every day but a couple times a week or so.... I end up cutting calories on other days to try to even it out, but I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing...thinking ideally it should be the same daily to fuel workouts/recovery. Am I right here?
I don't know if I should try volume eating with more salads/veggies/fruit/low cal foods so I feel more satisfied and stop exceeding my goal. Or maybe I need to start doing some cardio....
Any thoughts on ways to handle this?
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Replies
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What is your exercise program?0
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5 lbs in 9 wks isn't a bad ratio per sae.
How much is your surplus?
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5 lbs in 9 wks isn't a bad ratio per sae.
How much is your surplus?
Surplus is 250 (I'm small so i don't get to eat much). I don't think I've done too terrible with the gain so far but just feel like I'm starting to struggle to keep it at the same rate.... Just don't know if I can possibly tweak something....
And I'm following strong curves with some extra upper body work tacked on.
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5 lbs in 9 wks isn't a bad ratio per sae.
How much is your surplus?
Surplus is 250 (I'm small so i don't get to eat much). I don't think I've done too terrible with the gain so far but just feel like I'm starting to struggle to keep it at the same rate.... Just don't know if I can possibly tweak something....
And I'm following strong curves with some extra upper body work tacked on.
I see.
Don't forget as your weight goes upward, your TDEE also grows higher, have you adjusted your calories intake for you weight gain?
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5 lbs in 9 wks isn't a bad ratio per sae.
How much is your surplus?
Surplus is 250 (I'm small so i don't get to eat much). I don't think I've done too terrible with the gain so far but just feel like I'm starting to struggle to keep it at the same rate.... Just don't know if I can possibly tweak something....
And I'm following strong curves with some extra upper body work tacked on.
I see.
Don't forget as your weight goes upward, your TDEE also grows higher, have you adjusted your calories intake for you weight gain?
I haven't.... Since I'm averaging a little more than 2lbs/mo I've been afraid to. Sooooo afraid of overpacking on the fat! Maybe I should do that though. Thanks.
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If you think you're gaining too fast why would you consider increasing your calories? Keep them where they are until your weight gain stalls.
One thing I find that helps with my hunger is calorie cycling. I intentionally do 1-2 lower calorie days a week which then allow me to indulge a bit more on other days whilst keeping my weekly surplus the same
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Protein and fats take longer to digest and will keep the hunger away for longer. Is there a pattern to your hunger?
I find a breakfast of eggs helps keep me going until lunch time, but cereal will leave me feeling hungry after a couple of hours.0 -
I don't know what I'm looking for anyone to tell me, but my bulk is getting sloppy and I'm trying to brainstorm what to do. I'm 9wks in and up 5lbs so far. Workouts are going well....definitely stronger and making progress. Where it's falling apart is with food though.
I'm gaining on a mere 1800cals. I feel so damned hungry some days, and I'm seriously starting to overeat. Not every day but a couple times a week or so.... I end up cutting calories on other days to try to even it out, but I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing...thinking ideally it should be the same daily to fuel workouts/recovery. Am I right here?
I don't know if I should try volume eating with more salads/veggies/fruit/low cal foods so I feel more satisfied and stop exceeding my goal. Or maybe I need to start doing some cardio....
Any thoughts on ways to handle this?
You gain is good over the time period. Your actual surplus is 277 calories. If you are struggling with hungry, then you should play with food combinations. More lean meats, egg whites mixed with eggs, low sugar veggies and fruits (potentially starches).0 -
I found that as my lifting program got heavier, & I was really working for my deadlifts & squats, it got harder to keep the weight gain going. Its like I was burning it up. That's when the real strength & muscle gains started. I tweaked the calories up slowly over a month or so to keep the half pound per week average. It takes time to really tell. Lift heavy.0
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It is a strange thing, but I remember feeling hungry somedays when I was bulking too... even with a ridiculous amount of cals. Definitely try to play with your macros a little, maybe a little more fibre and veggies too that help fill you up. Somedays I eat more, then the next day I eat a little less... I eat a lot more on weekends so I go with my weekly trend and it seems to even out. I think as long as you aren't cutting too much everyday you should be fine.0
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Have those 5 lbs come on pretty evenly over the 9 weeks, or was that mostly from the start of the bulk? I am assuming you are weighing often and tracking your weight trend or average, right?0
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I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
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I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.1 -
Did you jump from maintenance or a deficit to surplus?
The reason I'm asking is that when I go from a deficit to even maintenance there's a couple lbs of water weight that show up in just a day or 2. That 5lb in 9 weeks may include water weight from increased carbs.
Personally, I'd say 2lbs a month is pretty good.1 -
I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.0 -
I don't know what I'm looking for anyone to tell me, but my bulk is getting sloppy and I'm trying to brainstorm what to do. I'm 9wks in and up 5lbs so far. Workouts are going well....definitely stronger and making progress. Where it's falling apart is with food though.
I'm gaining on a mere 1800cals. I feel so damned hungry some days, and I'm seriously starting to overeat. Not every day but a couple times a week or so.... I end up cutting calories on other days to try to even it out, but I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing...thinking ideally it should be the same daily to fuel workouts/recovery. Am I right here?
I don't know if I should try volume eating with more salads/veggies/fruit/low cal foods so I feel more satisfied and stop exceeding my goal. Or maybe I need to start doing some cardio....
Any thoughts on ways to handle this?
You could experiment with calorie cycling and eat bigger on lifting days and smaller on non lifting days (or vice versa depending on when you're getting those hungers) and maintain the same surplus for the week.1 -
I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.
I would imagine that is fine as long as it's not thousands of calories at the end of the week to make up for! I think it was @psulemon that mentioned something about keeping calories more on the consistent side which is better for muscle growth? (vs. really high then really low days like 5:2 or something etc). I don't remember where I read that0 -
I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.
I would imagine that is fine as long as it's not thousands of calories at the end of the week to make up for! I think it was @psulemon that mentioned something about keeping calories more on the consistent side which is better for muscle growth? (vs. really high then really low days like 5:2 or something etc). I don't remember where I read that
I guess you can look into calorie cycling. I personally like consistency with my calories and do not doing any fasting (24 hrs or 5:2)..
I need to say one last thing in my post, OP is around my age. Recovery and working towards how to best handle cardio is important, not just the calories.. SO again, however she needs to do this is certainly all fine. My thoughts were random at best..0 -
Have those 5 lbs come on pretty evenly over the 9 weeks, or was that mostly from the start of the bulk? I am assuming you are weighing often and tracking your weight trend or average, right?piperdown44 wrote: »Did you jump from maintenance or a deficit to surplus?
The reason I'm asking is that when I go from a deficit to even maintenance there's a couple lbs of water weight that show up in just a day or 2. That 5lb in 9 weeks may include water weight from increased carbs.
Personally, I'd say 2lbs a month is pretty good.
I had an initial big jump, part of which fell back off, and since it's been pretty consistent. I weigh daily and use a tracking app. The trend is what I go by to see where I'm at. My measurements are up slightly so I know I'm gaining.I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.
I would imagine that is fine as long as it's not thousands of calories at the end of the week to make up for! I think it was @psulemon that mentioned something about keeping calories more on the consistent side which is better for muscle growth? (vs. really high then really low days like 5:2 or something etc). I don't remember where I read that
Yeah....I think this was my biggest question but I suspect there's some difference of opinion on staggering calories. At any rate I'm going to play with foods and see what I can do. I'd rather not do cardio simply because of finding the time.... Thanks guys.
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I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.
I would imagine that is fine as long as it's not thousands of calories at the end of the week to make up for! I think it was @psulemon that mentioned something about keeping calories more on the consistent side which is better for muscle growth? (vs. really high then really low days like 5:2 or something etc). I don't remember where I read that
Calorie cycling is a good option for the OP, you eat a slightly bigger surplus on lifting days and more around maintenance on non lifting days. My initial comment was really directed at not trying to catch on at the end of the week since your body has limitations on being able to make muscle. And ideally, you want to stimulate protein synthesis as much as possible.
OP, also, don't be afraid of some cardio, as long as it doesn't impede recovery. Your calories are rather low, so the increase in calories burned could be beneficial to you. Personally, I will be doing HIIT if I bulk. I have no problem pounding down 3400 calories. I actually don't suggest dropping cardio unless you can't keep up.2 -
I would not add in cardio.. this might make you hungrier, and also keep you from adhering to your surplus.
Macros is the first place I would look at. What combinations of macro give you satiety? I would not choose low calorie foods in general, but filling up on volume foods around a time of day when you are hungrier and for example pack a salad with tons of things to help meet macros.. also play with meal timing.
Cardio is an interesting thing. It's never made me hungry. Weight lifting is the polar opposite for me. So it's possible the OP might benefit from some cardio if it doesn't cause her to over eat.
After I posted that, I did think about what I said, as I actually do cardio during my bulk.. but I eat back mine back .. but was not a huge fan of a recommendation to just go add cardio.. I was thinking making changes in diet/meal timing/finding ways to eat that will help her with satiety/keeping fuller for longer etc..
The idea is to gain some fat, boy do I get that being female and not ever wanting to abandon the bulk.
She is cutting calories on days to compensate for hunger/over eating days, so what is the best approach for this situation? I guess balance the surplus at the end of the week however she needs to get there.
I would imagine that is fine as long as it's not thousands of calories at the end of the week to make up for! I think it was @psulemon that mentioned something about keeping calories more on the consistent side which is better for muscle growth? (vs. really high then really low days like 5:2 or something etc). I don't remember where I read that
Calorie cycling is a good option for the OP, you eat a slightly bigger surplus on lifting days and more around maintenance on non lifting days. My initial comment was really directed at not trying to catch on at the end of the week since your body has limitations on being able to make muscle. And ideally, you want to stimulate protein synthesis as much as possible.
OP, also, don't be afraid of some cardio, as long as it doesn't impede recovery. Your calories are rather low, so the increase in calories burned could be beneficial to you. Personally, I will be doing HIIT if I bulk. I have no problem pounding down 3400 calories. I actually don't suggest dropping cardio unless you can't keep up.
Ok. I'll give all of this a try, including the cardio. If anyone looks at my diary now, it IS lower than usual because I'm recovering from a minor surgery. Eating around maintenance for a few days until I pull myself together....
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Sounds like a reasonable surplus. So if you want to help satisfy your appetite you should make sure you limit the simple sugars (sweet foods) and make sure each meal has a fair amount of proteins and fats. The proteins and fats take longer to digest than carbs so it will keep you full for a longer period of time. Also try to eat every 2-3 hrs, you'll eat smaller meals and won't ever really be super hungry or super full.1
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I hear your main concern is you're HUNGRY. So long as you are getting proper nutrition, I agree with adding more vegetables in your diet like you said, and other carbohydrates higher in fiber. I aim for a 5:1 carb to fiber ratio throughout the day (original goal was to decrease insulin sensitivity), so if I have 100g of carbs, I look for 100/5=20g of fiber. This keeps me full and I am currently maintaining, if anything loosing fat. Cheapest high-fiber sources I found: carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, barley, whole grain pasta, bulgar. For meal prep on the veggies, I cut/cook them up for a full week and then I plan to eat so much every day. Plus you get SO much micronutrients from them. I'm not a big fan of varying my diet too much, I'm much more comfortable with consistency.1
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I forgot the fruits, I like: pears, apples, oranges, and (if you splurge on price) blueberries.0
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