Questions about lean bulking

thelostbreed02

As you guys can tell from my previous posts, a basic summary of me is that I was a previously extremely fat guy but lost more than what I wanted to and am now wanting to gain weight. But the good type of weight. Henceforth, I also have a severe paranoia of getting fat again even though I know that bulking means gaining muscle AND fat... I might be sabotaging myself by skipping breakfast and doing an hour long walk fasted everyday and skipping lunch. My first meal is at 4 PM and my last BIG feasting meal ends at around midnight. Anyways.... heres my first question
1). How important is it to eat within an hour after working out when bulking? I tend to do mumbo jumbo stuff like the sauna, foam roll, shoot a basketball etc... after working out and do this every time. This takes about an hour to 1.5 hours. Is this hindering my OPTIMAL ability to gain muscle mass?

2). Is it better to go fasted throughout the day but still meet your macronutrient needs in basically fewer meals consisted during the end of your day/workout/cardio, or is it better to constantly feed your muscles to be in an anabolic state aka repair and grow muscles?

Teabythesea_

Both of your questions relate to meal timing, which is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Meeting your calorie/macro targets is going to be what's most important. How you do that is up to your preferences and lifestyle. Some people find themselves naturally doing intermittent fasting while others eat several small meals a day. Also, by keeping your surplus small you can keep fat gains at a minimum. I've been lean bulking for about a year with a 250-300 calorie surplus and had the same fears you do now. I got over it by weighing every day to establish a trend and realizing that by doing so I can see when I'm gaining too fast and change my diet. The weight isnt going to come on all of a sudden. You will definitely notice when you begin to gain too much fat for your liking, then you can eat at maintenance or cut if youd like.

thelostbreed02

Teabythesea_ wrote: »

Both of your questions relate to meal timing, which is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Meeting your calorie/macro targets is going to be what's most important. How you do that is up to your preferences and lifestyle. Some people find themselves naturally doing intermittent fasting while others eat several small meals a day. Also, by keeping your surplus small you can keep fat gains at a minimum. I've been lean bulking for about a year with a 250-300 calorie surplus and had the same fears you do now. I got over it by weighing every day to establish a trend and realizing that by doing so I can see when I'm gaining too fast and change my diet. The weight isnt going to come on all of a sudden. You will definitely notice when you begin to gain too much fat for your liking, then you can eat at maintenance or cut if youd like.

If I'm getting weaker in ALMOST every compound movement, mainly my bench and deadlift, should I eat more? My weight has been stalling at around the same weight, but sometimes going up or down

Maxxitt

thelostbreed02 wrote: »

Teabythesea_ wrote: »

Both of your questions relate to meal timing, which is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Meeting your calorie/macro targets is going to be what's most important. How you do that is up to your preferences and lifestyle. Some people find themselves naturally doing intermittent fasting while others eat several small meals a day. Also, by keeping your surplus small you can keep fat gains at a minimum. I've been lean bulking for about a year with a 250-300 calorie surplus and had the same fears you do now. I got over it by weighing every day to establish a trend and realizing that by doing so I can see when I'm gaining too fast and change my diet. The weight isnt going to come on all of a sudden. You will definitely notice when you begin to gain too much fat for your liking, then you can eat at maintenance or cut if youd like.

If I'm getting weaker in ALMOST every compound movement, mainly my bench and deadlift, should I eat more? My weight has been stalling at around the same weight, but sometimes going up or down

If I was getting weaker in almost every compound movement, I would spread my nutrient intake out more so there was gas in the tank for my lifts, I would make sure that I was getting at LEAST 7.5 hours of GOOD sleep every night, and I would look at my lifting routine to make sure major muscle groups were getting 48 hours of recovery time. And of course, the content of ones meals is definitely going to affect how you feel. If you aren't fueling your body adequately, it's going to tell you to shut up when you ask it to do things.

edickson76

Many possible issues can cause a degradation in performance. Might simply be time for a deload. If you haven't done one in several months, I would start there. Other possibilities (as @Maxxitt already said): not eating enough, not recovering enough (and/or doing too much), not sleeping enough.