Yogaga1's bulking journal
yogaga1
Posts: 182 Member
I haven't begun my official bulk yet. Still sitting at maintenance waiting for the scale to chill out before I proceed. Hopefully I can begin next week.
I knew a little water weight was to be expected, but I noticed my pants were a little tight this morning so I just hopped on the scale and saw that I've gone from 119 to 125 in 3 weeks!. I had originally set my bulk weight to top off at 130 which won't give me much wiggle room now! I will have to reevaluate how far I'd like to go now.
Anyway- I guess I'll start my stats at my new current weight and measurements! The water weight has added an inch to my belly button area, hips and bust. I'm curious if this will change once the weight settles. We shall see! Hopefully, this is all the water weight that's coming!
Starting Weight: 125
BF%: 20%
Bust: 33"
Chest: 30 "
Waist: 26"
Belly Button: 29"
Right Arm: 10"
Right Thigh: 20.5"
Shoulders: 39"
Neck: 12.5"
Hips: 34"
I knew a little water weight was to be expected, but I noticed my pants were a little tight this morning so I just hopped on the scale and saw that I've gone from 119 to 125 in 3 weeks!. I had originally set my bulk weight to top off at 130 which won't give me much wiggle room now! I will have to reevaluate how far I'd like to go now.
Anyway- I guess I'll start my stats at my new current weight and measurements! The water weight has added an inch to my belly button area, hips and bust. I'm curious if this will change once the weight settles. We shall see! Hopefully, this is all the water weight that's coming!
Starting Weight: 125
BF%: 20%
Bust: 33"
Chest: 30 "
Waist: 26"
Belly Button: 29"
Right Arm: 10"
Right Thigh: 20.5"
Shoulders: 39"
Neck: 12.5"
Hips: 34"
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Replies
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I haven't begun my official bulk yet. Still sitting at maintenance waiting for the scale to chill out before I proceed. Hopefully I can begin next week.
I knew a little water weight was to be expected, but I noticed my pants were a little tight this morning so I just hopped on the scale and saw that I've gone from 119 to 125 in 3 weeks!. I had originally set my bulk weight to top off at 130 which won't give me much wiggle room now! I will have to reevaluate how far I'd like to go now.
Anyway- I guess I'll start my stats at my new current weight and measurements! The water weight has added an inch to my belly button area, hips and bust. I'm curious if this will change once the weight settles. We shall see! Hopefully, this is all the water weight that's coming!
Starting Weight: 125
BF%: 20%
Bust: 33"
Chest: 30 "
Waist: 26"
Belly Button: 29"
Right Arm: 10"
Right Thigh: 20.5"
Shoulders: 39"
Neck: 12.5"
Hips: 34"
Ugh, I'm with you with starting higher than I'd hoped! Hopefully things will calm down int he next week for you.0 -
Phew! Appears that was a temporary gain. I'm usually a once a month weigher but after seeing the gain yesterday and waking up noticeably less bloated, I jumped on the scale just to see. Back down to 121.8. That's a little better!
I can tell that my biggest struggle with bulking will be mental! Having dieted down for a 15 months, I am still stuck in that mind-set of seeing myself in the mirror as my old chubby self even though I am considerably leaner than where I started. I have that stupid nagging feeling that I am going to wake up to my former body one day now that I am eating more. Ridiculous! Gotta work on that. It is similar to years of trying NOT to get pregnant, to that switch you make when you are trying to conceive! Haha
Gotta keep my eyes on the prize!
Anyway, with that said- I've decided Monday will be the first official day of my bulk. I just finished my first round of Stronglifts and have decided to go for another round and deload a little on my squat, DL & barbell row to perfect form. I think I was starting to cheat myself by lifting more and letting form slip just to log a high lift. I've also incorporated 2 other days of accessory isolation lifts because I'd really like extra focus on glutes and all around upper body strength during the bulk. So far, I feel like I can handle it while on maintenance, so hopefully I can continue that during the bulk. I have read that at a certain point you are spinning your wheels if you do too much, so I certainly don't want to overdo it, but I also feel weird only working out 3 days a week when I am eating more! I will monitor through the weeks and see if I need to rethink this over time.0 -
Oy, I'm with you on eating more and working out less palying mind games...it's hard to wrap your head around. Glad the original gain was just temporary--you can do this!0
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It appears I did something stupid while lifting yesterday! My left arm has been buzzing/tingling and portions of it have gone numb for the last 12 hours or so. Kept me up throughout the night! I played around on different bodybuilding forums, google & webMD (because, you know- THAT is always a good idea...) and I keep coming back to "Pronator teres syndrome". Looks like I need to haul my butt to the DR soon. Lame!
Thankfully, my mother-in-law is a massage therapist and has taught my husband how to give a mean massage. So, he spent about an hour working on my arm last night. Seems much better this morning! I'm a little nervous about it but hopefully it won't hinder my progress too much once I figure out what's going on.
On a more positive note, tomorrow is the first official day of my bulk and I am stoked!! I am READY to start chowing down!
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Yikes! I hope everything is okay!0
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Ouch! I tweaked my right quad today while doing lunges. I took an ice bath as soon as I got home (helpful? yes; pleasant? NO) and iced it off an on for an hour until I had to go to posing class. It's feeling a lot better, but I'm gonna ice it more tonight before bed just in case. You might've just tweaked something that's pressing on the nerve hence the tingling, so hopefully just a little time will cure ya!
Anyhow, yay for officially starting your bulk tomorrow! What's your macro plan?0 -
Ouch! I tweaked my right quad today while doing lunges. I took an ice bath as soon as I got home (helpful? yes; pleasant? NO) and iced it off an on for an hour until I had to go to posing class. It's feeling a lot better, but I'm gonna ice it more tonight before bed just in case. You might've just tweaked something that's pressing on the nerve hence the tingling, so hopefully just a little time will cure ya!
Anyhow, yay for officially starting your bulk tomorrow! What's your macro plan?
Ouchie! Hope your quad heals up soon!
I have my macros set at 1.25-1.5/body weight for protein, trying to keep fat at 25% although, I've been hovering around 28% this last week- and the rest in carbs!
Well, I unofficially started my bulk yesterday. Got the super munchies from Leg day...what can I say So- it's begun!
I retook my measurements and weight this morning- pretty close to what I was a few days ago, just without the water weight bloat.
Starting Weight: 125 (Crept back up here after unofficial bulk began yesterday, LOL!)
BF%: 20%
Bust: 32"
Chest: 30 "
Waist: 26"
Belly Button: 28"
Right Arm: 9.5"
Right Thigh: 21"
Shoulders: 39"
Neck: 12.5"
Hips: 33"
I took some pictures for myself and will go back and view those anytime I feel discouraged and continue to take them to track my progress- hopefully, that will help monitor my progress without my girl brain causing problems. 0 -
Yikes! I hope everything is okay!
Thanks! My husband is a professional guitar player and has dealt with something similar. He has a nifty brace he is letting my sport around that should help a bit. I look like a dork, but I will take dork over non-functioning left arm!0 -
In to the second week of my bulk. I'm struggling to eat all my calories while staying in the macro range I've set. I could easily eat it in all fat!! Haven't gained yet but I swear my body is changing so quickly!
All of a sudden I have a butt! Like, a real butt- not a slope into my thighs! It feels like it showed up over night. The butt fairy sprinkled magic dust on me in my sleep or something. Or, maybe all those barbell glute bridges and hip thrusts I've been doing in addition to SL is starting to pay off! Yahoooo!
Oddly, I've become ridiculously more vascular this week. I don't know where that came from but it's kind of badass.
The downer part is although I haven't had an official gain this week, my poor waist/tummy is a blobby mess. Trying to not let that get me down. Especially since it's officially chilly here and I can hide it in big comfy sweatshirts everyday.
My lifts are progressing and I feel AWESOME after my workouts instead of totally drained. Love it. I finally busted through my Bench Press and Barbell Row stall which was super cool.
The weather is so great for running right now. I'm DYING to get out and go run but I know there is no way I'll be able to eat back those cals and stay within my macros so I'm stuck indoors for now until I get a better handle on things and/or the intense hunger kicks in.
I upped my cals another 100 this week to see if that gets things moving. I'm also going to work on lowering my fat intake just a little more. I was at about 31% this week because I had family visiting and massive amounts of treats were eaten!0 -
Calories versus fats is a struggle for me. I can get most of my calories in a day by eating a whole pizza but then I am over like 3x for fat. Without foods like that, I feel like I AM ALWAYS EATING and forcefeeding. Who knew it would be so hard?0
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I'm struggling with my macros too...I tried upping my carbs and lowering my fat, but I can't eat that many carbs! I went from 15% carbs to 30% carbs, and it's not going well.
Breaking lifting stalls is amazing! Congrats to you for that!!!0 -
Contrast on breaking the stalls and the booty! I love glute bridges and hip thrusts! Macros can be tough. I'm like a Primal Runner, I have a hard time hitting my carb numbers, mostly because I follow a paleo diet and don't eat grains. I do make exceptions for oats and sprouted grain bread which helps when I really need to up the carbs.
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Great news on your lifts. I just started Hip Thrust last week,hope the butt fairy comes to my house soon.0
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Contrast on breaking the stalls and the booty! I love glute bridges and hip thrusts! Macros can be tough. I'm like a Primal Runner, I have a hard time hitting my carb numbers, mostly because I follow a paleo diet and don't eat grains. I do make exceptions for oats and sprouted grain bread which helps when I really need to up the carbs.
Hehehe...my paleo exception is dairy, hence the "primal." (It's the only way I can hit my protein!)0 -
Yep! That is EXACTLY why I am struggling with my macros! I am always too low on carbs because I don't eat grains unless the husband talks me into going out for pizza/pasta on date nights. I've set my meal plans for the week to include some recipes with coconut flour, so that should help bump me up a little. I do feel like I am force feeding myself though just to bump it. I swear I ate almost 5 pounds of vegetables yesterday just to get my carbs up to 29%! Oh well, I'm working on it! 0
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Do you think smoothies/juicing might might help? You can look up some recipes online that easily bump up the calories, but still just contain fruit and veggies, etc. I have been drinking Odwalla's, b/c A) they were on sale
they taste good and C) soo many calories in a little bottle! 0 -
Yep! That is EXACTLY why I am struggling with my macros! I am always too low on carbs because I don't eat grains unless the husband talks me into going out for pizza/pasta on date nights. I've set my meal plans for the week to include some recipes with coconut flour, so that should help bump me up a little. I do feel like I am force feeding myself though just to bump it. I swear I ate almost 5 pounds of vegetables yesterday just to get my carbs up to 29%! Oh well, I'm working on it!
Yeah, my big carb days are pizza days as well. I at least for for "gluten-free." I've also been trying to add more sweet potatoes.0 -
My body is tripping out! I am down 4lbs all of a sudden??? I noticed my jeans were falling off this morning so I checked the scale and my measurements and now I'm smaller than when I transitioned from restriction to maintenance! So weird...
On another note, I found the perfect thing to bump my carbs! I discovered Blue Almond Wheat & Gluten free seed crackers last night. I try to stay away from processed stuff but I think it's time to make an exception. I can only eat so many sweet potatoes to jack up my carb intake each day! Anyway, they are deeeeeelish and I was finally able to hit my carb % last night!0 -
That sounds so yummy! If you eat the way you do, it's okay to allow something processed like that... even every day. I mean, ending else is way "clean."
I haven't officially weighed in yet, but I was down three lbs when I hopped on the scale on Wednesday just to see.0 -
Today is week three of my bulk and my weight is still all over the place. I came back up a little bit this morning but still under starting weight- at 122.4. Tomorrow is TOM so I'm going to keep the cals steady at 200 over maintenance this week and see what happens.
I've been really drained the past few days and have been losing motivation to get my workouts in. I don't typically suffer from motivation issues, so that's a little off for me. Hopefully things pick back up soon.0 -
I've been sick for the past two weeks (sinus infection I can't shake) and haven't felt as energized to go and do my workouts. It's tough, but you'll get through it.0
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Seems I need to take it easy! Just as my arm has finally healed, I am reporting with the new injury of the week- this time it's my back! :sad:
While attempting a PR on my deadlift yesterday, I did something nasty to my lower back. I felt it almost immediately and dropped the weights. Didn't hear a pop or crack, just intense pressure in my lower back all of a sudden. I happened to be filming my form at the time and from what I can tell- I was doing it exactly as I should have! Not sure what went wrong. My husband offered a massage last night to help, but as of this morning I am in even worse pain. Some of which I think is just soreness from my husband massaging WAY too hard (Ohhh, men!). I can't walk without being hunched over and any twist or bend I attempt ends in a whimper! The contour of my lower back FEELS different, too. Like it doesn't curve the same way...
WTF! I pray I didn't seriously injure myself, especially since we are in the middle of switching to new insurance so I am currently without!
So, with that said, I am taking the next few days off to rest and heal. Since I am not hitting weights, I have also lowered my caloric intake to maintenance for the rest of the week. Fingers crossed this is just a small bump in the road.0 -
Yikes! Heal up!!! :ohwell:0
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My weight has been all over the place but as of this morning, my stats are:
Weight: 126.4 / Up 1.4lbs
BF%: 21% / Up 1% BF
Bust: 33" / Stayed the same
Chest: 30 " / Stayed the same
Waist: 27.5" / Up 1.5"... Yikes
Belly Button: 31" / Up 2"... Also yikes!
Right Arm: 10"/ Stayed the same
Right Thigh: 20.5"/ Stayed the same
Shoulders: 39" / Stayed the same
Neck: 12"/ Down .5"
Hips: 33.5"/ Down .5"
As you can see, the only increase in inches I've had is in the tummy area! The mind games are def starting. I wake up every other day feeling like I look great and the others like I look like a total fatty. Silly, I know. But it's where I'm at! This is the heaviest I have been in about 10 months, so I'm starting to get a little antsy, but trying to keep my eye on the prize!
Good news-
My back is 100% better. Took 2 extra days off last week to heal and it's back to normal this morning. Thank goodness! I was terrified I ruptured a disc or something! I am going to deload on my DL and take it a little slower this week to work on form.
I was able to progress big time on my bench this week, adding 10lbs to the bar! I also progressed on my squat and am finally able to get reaaaaally low. Hurray!
Lastly, in the last month, drumroll please...my butt has LIFTED an inch!!! My yoga pants never looked so good, ha!
Overall, it was a good month and I look forward to month two! (You know, as long as my belly stops growing!)0 -
I'm with you on feeling like a fatty some days! I'm glad your back is better, and I agree deloading and working up slowly is smart. Great job!0
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Had a great week last week.
Balanced my macros perfectly, progressed my lifts at every workout, gained .4lbs and felt great all week. Wish I could have a week like this every week!
All the water weight from TOM is gone so my measurements for my waist and belly area went back down a few inches. Phew! Not feeling like such a fatty anymore. Silly side note. Boobs are killing me. They have come back with a vengeance. No complaints, but ouch!! They hurt!
That's all I've got!0 -
That's fantastic that you had such a great week! That certainly will help with the motivation to keep at it!0
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That's great progress!!0
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Great job!0
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Yay for that bloat going away! I think it left you and came to me hahahaha!0
