Advice on bulking after long deficit

mmqtq5dnkz

I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible. I was weighing around 77kg around October last year and managed to bring myself down to 65kg. I’ve done this through following a 1900kcal diet (500 kcal deficit based on my TDEE) and a workout routine which I have trialed and tested through the months which best works for me. My workout routine is a standard push and pull, working out 5 days a week. I used to train one muscle group a day but didn’t feel like I was getting results hence why I decided to move to push and pull which helped lose body fat (granted I have lost muscle mass as I have been cutting for a long time).

I don’t have any experience in bulking at it would be my first time. I would appreciate some advice in terms of calorie intake, macros and workout routine (I.e rep range etc)

Thanks in advance!

Retroguy2000

Congrats on the cut. I'd suggest go back to maintenance for a couple of weeks, then do a 10% surplus for a lean bulk. That'll probably be about +250. Go a bit higher if you don't mind a bit more fat, and the need to diet again later to cut that. After a few months, if you think you're gaining a little more fat than you desire, reduce for a short while. Repeat the process.

Macros, since you're lean, get close to 1g per pound protein, and get plenty of carbs without being deficient in fats. Get some protein before bed, preferably casein, and get plenty of sleep.

Training, keep doing what you're doing. Progressive overload. Get about 12-15 working sets per group per week. Any rep range will build muscle. 1-5 reps will favor strength, and likely lead to more fatigue.

I wonder though, you said 5 days with PPL, how does that work? If that's just one leg day per week, one out of five workouts, that's not enough for legs.

Don't forget a deload week every so often. I do it after 6-8 weeks depending how I feel.

mmqtq5dnkz

@Retroguy2000

Dude, thank you very much! Very insightful.

I do 6 days of PPL, my original post was a typo.

I just had another question I forgot to ask, whilst I was cutting used to do 20 mins of HIIT on the treadmill which consisted of 3 mins steady walking and 1 min of sprinting. I did this 4 days a week.

Should I remove that from my training routine or shall I reduce it to 20 mins of steady walking. I fear that I might continue losing weight since my cut was quite drastic. I suppose I have to go through process of trial and error but I would appreciate your input.

Thanks

Retroguy2000

Re the cardio/HIIT, it's up to you. You don't need it for weight loss. Maybe you want it to keep doing it for fitness reasons. Or, 5-10 minutes before weights would be a good warm-up. If you cut it out, remember to adjust your expected TDEE accordingly.

To your last paragraph, the concern would be that sudden calorie increase might lead to fat gain. If you've still been in a large deficit recently, then you may consider reverse dieting. If you've been on -500 recently say, assuming one pound per week loss recently, this is just a suggestion and do your own research, you might add +150 in week one, then +100 each week from there over the following six weeks until you're at +750 from present, i.e. +250 from your expected TDEE.

https://barbend.com/reverse-dieting/