Bulking

malenaramirezactress5084

I am increasing my calories and I am very scared of the changes but I am excited. I was in maintenance for two weeks and now I feel my body needs more. My PR’s are improving I am very happy. I just don’t want to gain a lot of fat. Have you done a bulk without gaining much fat? How did you do it. I am also increasing my steps to 16K

AnnPT77

One option to consider is increasing very gradually, like 100 calories more daily for long enough - possibly several weeks - to see the effect on weight and body composition trend. Once you see the effect, you can either add another small increment, or not, based on real-world results.

Your profile says you're female. Other details matter, but under the best circumstances, a very good result for a woman would be half a pound of muscle gain per week. I'd suggest keeping the calories above maintenance to 250 per day or fewer for that reason, but that's just my opinion. Strength and muscle can be gained even at maintenance calories, it will just be slower than if bulking.

I'd point out that if you're increasing your steps, you're increasing your calorie needs.

nossmf

The truth is that if you bulk, you will gain fat along with muscle, it's just a fact of life.

The good truth is that if you bulk SLOWLY, the percentage of the gain that's fat goes WAY down. So do as @annpt77 suggested, adding 100-250 calories per day over maintenance.

The one additional factor is to ensure you have enough protein to provide your body the building blocks it needs to create muscle. Try to have at least 0.7g/lb (1.5g/kg) of BW in the form of protein: if you weigh 100lbs, try to eat at least 70g of protein per day. More can help a little, even as much as 1g/lb, but the added benefit tapers off pretty fast after that.