When is a good time to end my first bulk?

HookGripDeadlifts

About 6 months I decided I was tired of being a 6'2 skinny guy and wanted to bulk up from about 170 to 200lbs. 200 sounded like a good number and it gave me a goal to work towards. Along the way it opened my eyes to a whole new world I've never explored in nutrition and building muscle. I've reached my goal and I am happy with the gains I've experienced.

I understand now this is too much weight too fast as it's impossible to gain that much muscle in that short of a window. But as a life long skinny guy it was important for me to see these results to keep me modivated even though I was adding more fat than what many would recommended.

I currently work out 3 times a week doing progressive overloads without any cardio. I would estimate my current body fat to be in the 17/18% range. My goals are to continue going through the bulk/cut routine for the foreseeable future as I've been quite pleased with my results.

So a few questions,

1) I've read that taking full advantage of my noob gains can take up to a year. Would it make sense to continue bulking, at a slower rate till I've hit this year mark or should I do a cut and get my fat % back down into the low teens. Seeing how this is my first bulk I want to take full advantage of these noob gains and not miss out on them.

2) When transitioning from a bulk to a cut and back should I first try staying at maintenance for a few weeks or go straight from one to another?

3) This may sound like a silly question and I get it but I'm curious to know. Is it realistic to get your body fat % into the low teens while eating a fast food meal 4 to 5 times a week? I ask because my place of employment provides free lunch daily and many days it's hamburgers, tacos, chinese food, you get the idea. I've eliminated French fries from my diet to help but do you think this is still too much to ask?

These may be some newbie questions but thanks for any advice given.

SideSteel

tlock24 wrote: »

About 6 months I decided I was tired of being a 6'2 skinny guy and wanted to bulk up from about 170 to 200lbs. 200 sounded like a good number and it gave me a goal to work towards. Along the way it opened my eyes to a whole new world I've never explored in nutrition and building muscle. I've reached my goal and I am happy with the gains I've experienced.

I understand now this is too much weight too fast as it's impossible to gain that much muscle in that short of a window. But as a life long skinny guy it was important for me to see these results to keep me modivated even though I was adding more fat than what many would recommended.

I currently work out 3 times a week doing progressive overloads without any cardio. I would estimate my current body fat to be in the 17/18% range. My goals are to continue going through the bulk/cut routine for the foreseeable future as I've been quite pleased with my results.

So a few questions,

1) I've read that taking full advantage of my noob gains can take up to a year. Would it make sense to continue bulking, at a slower rate till I've hit this year mark or should I do a cut and get my fat % back down into the low teens. Seeing how this is my first bulk I want to take full advantage of these noob gains and not miss out on them.

2) When transitioning from a bulk to a cut and back should I first try staying at maintenance for a few weeks or go straight from one to another?

3) This may sound like a silly question and I get it but I'm curious to know. Is it realistic to get your body fat % into the low teens while eating a fast food meal 4 to 5 times a week? I ask because my place of employment provides free lunch daily and many days it's hamburgers, tacos, chinese food, you get the idea. I've eliminated French fries from my diet to help but do you think this is still too much to ask?

These may be some newbie questions but thanks for any advice given.

First of all I wouldn't worry at all about whether or not a question is "noob" or not

In order:

1) I wouldn't worry about missing out on noob gains. I don't think it's possible to permanently miss out on noob gains. So for example lets just suppose you did some really sub optimal stuff in your first year -- if you didn't maximize your noob gains because of this you would just reap the remaining benefits when you fixed those sub optimal components.

Regarding your specifics, IF (big if) your bodyfat% is accurate I would cut. I think you can make a strong argument against getting too fat during a bulk. It will require a longer dieting phase which will suck both for adherence AND for the possibility of it negatively effecting training.

2) I think this is largely optional. I TEND to favor going from a surplus to a deficit directly, and going from a deficit to maintenance followed then by a surplus.

3) I think it's possible, yes. I think it will make it more challenging but since it will come down to caloric balance, then yes it is possible. You may need to tighten up the diet during the other meals to compensate for the higher energy meal and you may even need to include some sort of buffer to account for estimation errors in those meals.

Ultimately the nice part is this, if you track as accurately as you can and you discover you aren't losing, you can just pull your calorie target down a bit lower until you start losing.

If you come to a place where you're still not losing and starting to experience hunger and adherence issues then you may need to reduce the fast food meals or substantially increase activity.

cocoradical

tlock24 wrote: »

About 6 months I decided I was tired of being a 6'2 skinny guy and wanted to bulk up from about 170 to 200lbs. 200 sounded like a good number and it gave me a goal to work towards. Along the way it opened my eyes to a whole new world I've never explored in nutrition and building muscle. I've reached my goal and I am happy with the gains I've experienced.

I understand now this is too much weight too fast as it's impossible to gain that much muscle in that short of a window. But as a life long skinny guy it was important for me to see these results to keep me modivated even though I was adding more fat than what many would recommended.

I currently work out 3 times a week doing progressive overloads without any cardio. I would estimate my current body fat to be in the 17/18% range. My goals are to continue going through the bulk/cut routine for the foreseeable future as I've been quite pleased with my results.

So a few questions,

1) I've read that taking full advantage of my noob gains can take up to a year. Would it make sense to continue bulking, at a slower rate till I've hit this year mark or should I do a cut and get my fat % back down into the low teens. Seeing how this is my first bulk I want to take full advantage of these noob gains and not miss out on them.

2) When transitioning from a bulk to a cut and back should I first try staying at maintenance for a few weeks or go straight from one to another?

3) This may sound like a silly question and I get it but I'm curious to know. Is it realistic to get your body fat % into the low teens while eating a fast food meal 4 to 5 times a week? I ask because my place of employment provides free lunch daily and many days it's hamburgers, tacos, chinese food, you get the idea. I've eliminated French fries from my diet to help but do you think this is still too much to ask?

These may be some newbie questions but thanks for any advice given.

Its better to ask these questions in the cutting category, none the less..

1) it depends on your weight goal. If you think you've done too much already then gradually move to cutting by changing your diet first. more fat = harder to cut.

2) in terms of diet, its better and more comfortable to slowly bring down your calorie intake. For me adding or decreasing 80-100 calories per day is way more conventional. In terms of training, I recommend approaching a new program as if you're a beginner. Research and learn first since I assume you haven't done a program designed for cutting. Learn how your body reacts to changes.

3) Nutrition is important especially in cutting. If you're serious about cutting then you should get your diet right.

There are different kinds of diet. I recommend intermittent fasting

HookGripDeadlifts

Thanks for the info guys, you've given me something to think about.

I'm somewhat ignorant when it comes to diet plans but with intermittent fasting, I would think going 16 hours without feeding my muscles protein would be somewhat devastating. Is this not the case?

trigden1991

1) Don't get fatter just for a few potential pounds of muscle.

2) When going from surplus to deficit, you can go directly. From deficit to surplus, a period at maintenance would be advised.

3)Absolutely. A calorie deficit is all that is required for weight loss. As long as you can get in sufficient micronutrients and vitamins as well.

If you are estimating that you are 18% bodyfat, it is likely that you are higher. To build more muscle and optimise your time in a surplus it would be advised to be leaner at the start of your next bulk.