Best BF% to start bulking?

mperrott2205

Hi guys,

So I've started my weight loss adventure Towards the end of April and I was 244lbs, the heaviest I've ever been. I've now dropped 34lbs which I'm absolutely chuffed about and I'm really starting to see progress. I'm getting newbie gains in my arms, legs and my chest and I can honestly say I'm starting to feel great about the way I look. My overall fitness and strength has improved dramatically too!

However, I wanted to know your guys opinions on when a good time to start bulking would be? I'm 6ft 2 and currently weigh 210lbs and my original goal weight was around 185-190lbs.

Is there any formula to work out a rough BF% to this weight? Is there a right BF% to be at when it's time to start bulking? Would it be ok for me to start bulking at a heavier weight than my GW?

Thanks for your responses!

mustgetmuscles1

You can bulk anytime but the leaner you start the longer you can bulk and look relatively lean.

I wanted to get to a lower BF% before I started my first bulk but was just tired of dieting and was feeling drained and run down so started early.

In a perfect scenario I would want to get down to 10% then do a bulk until I reached around 15%. In reality I get down to 12-14% get sick of cutting then bulk up to 18-20. LOL

AJ_G

I'd say anywhere between 10% and 15% is probably ideal

choijanro

10% to 15%

jwdieter

If your objective is ultimately to get nice abs and such, maybe you should try to accomplish that at least once. I've seen a lot of guys who are constantly on "bulk" cycles, but never actually lean up. Hell, my uncle had a heart attack doing that. Not sure what the motivation is.

ShaunaMcMac

Great question. How about for women?? 20%??

vienna_h

Great question. How about for women?? 20%??

Yes, what about for women???!

mustgetmuscles1

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/initial-body-fat-and-body-composition-changes.html

"Practical Recommendations
Ok, enough theory crap. Based on the above data, here’s what I would generally recommend to bodybuilders or athletes who want to put on muscle mass (i.e. all of them).
If you’re above 15% body fat (about 24-27% for women), diet first. If you can get to the 10-12% (19-24%) body fat range or so, I think you’ll be in an overall better position to gain mass. Trying to get super lean will probably end up screwing you in the long run because your body will be primed to put back fat on (and most other physiological systems are screwed up as well) when you get super lean.
After finishing your diet, regardless of how lean you get, take 2 weeks to eat at roughly maintenance calorie levels before starting your mass gaining phase. The reason has to do with the physiological adaptations to dieting described briefly above. Although you can’t reverse all of them short of getting fat again (or fixing the problem pharmaceutically), 2 weeks at maintenance, which by definition should be higher calories than you were eating on your diet, will help to normalize some of them. Leptin, thyroid, SNS output should improve a bit, along with other hormones, putting you in a better place to gain mass without super excessive fat gain. Make sure to get at least 100 grams of carbs/day or more during this phase so that thyroid will come back up.
Only try to add mass/bulk until you hit the top end body fat percentage listed in #1 above. So that’s about 15% body fat for men and 24-27% body fat for women. What this would mean in practice is that you diet to 10-12% body fat for men (22-24% for women), eat at maintenance for two weeks to try and normalize things, and then add mass until you hit 15% body fat for men (22-24% for women) and then diet back down. Over a number of cycles, you should be able to increase your muscle mass while keeping body fat under control"

mperrott2205

Thanks for all your great responses!