Advice on bulking?

justiceevers

Hey everyone. Quick history before I begin:

I began working out around 8 months ago. I just wanted to lose the love handles and basically just wanted to get lean. I went from about 180 to 140 in about 5-6 months time. For the past 2-3 months, I've been trying to bulk.

I would like to stay as lean as possible while I am bulking, but I feel like my fear of gaining fat is keeping me from making gains. Over the past 2-3 months, my weight has only gone up and down a few pounds and I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I upped my calories for this past week and the scale says I've gained about 5 pounds (up to 145).

How much of this weight is actually fat and how much is just glycogen/water/muscle? I have also been taking 5g creatine for a few weeks, so water retention could be affecting my weight there. I feel like this is way too much weight gain, but I don't want to fall back into a caloric deficit and keep going no where. Should I drop the carbs or fats a little bit so I gain weight more slowly? Any advice from those more experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

justiceevers

Also, even while my weight is fluctuating, strength is steadily increasing. I believe this is probably normal for a novice lifter, but just thought I'd throw that out there.

Mrsallypants

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html

Good article on the topic.

SideSteel

Creatine will likely account for some of the gain especially if that gain correlates with you beginning creatine.

I would take a daily weigh in and average your weight over the course of a week and compare the average weight from week to week.

If you are concerned about fat gain and you are willing to accept slightly slower than maximal muscle gains then keep your rate of weight gain rather low. Somewhere around 2lb/month would likely be a good slot.

If you aren't as concerned about it, aim slightly higher.

If you are relatively new to resistance training your capacity to add muscle may be slightly higher/faster when compared to someone who is closer to their genetic limits. Consequently, you may be able to go slightly faster, but I would still maintain that the faster you gain weight, the greater chance you will gain excess fat.

likitisplit

Thank you for this. I'm trying bulking for the first time too, so this is great information.

SideSteel

Thank you for this. I'm trying bulking for the first time too, so this is great information.

The linked article is a good one. The information I replied with was specific to the poster I quoted, and I'm only mentioning this so that you don't take my post as being applicable to you. Females shouldn't attempt to gain as fast as males.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

cpusmc

Hey everyone. Quick history before I begin:

I began working out around 8 months ago. I just wanted to lose the love handles and basically just wanted to get lean. I went from about 180 to 140 in about 5-6 months time. For the past 2-3 months, I've been trying to bulk.

I would like to stay as lean as possible while I am bulking, but I feel like my fear of gaining fat is keeping me from making gains. Over the past 2-3 months, my weight has only gone up and down a few pounds and I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I upped my calories for this past week and the scale says I've gained about 5 pounds (up to 145).

How much of this weight is actually fat and how much is just glycogen/water/muscle? I have also been taking 5g creatine for a few weeks, so water retention could be affecting my weight there. I feel like this is way too much weight gain, but I don't want to fall back into a caloric deficit and keep going no where. Should I drop the carbs or fats a little bit so I gain weight more slowly? Any advice from those more experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Congrats going from 180-140 thats a big drop.... So here's what I see from your posts...
1. Novice Lifter
2. 19yrs old
3.. Looking to bulk up but not add fat
4. taking creatine
5. gained 5lbs or so after upping calories/adding the creatine...

IMO,
1. Lift heavy, focus on compound exercises (Squat, Dead, Bench), you are young and a new lifter so mass should come naturally as your body continues to mature.
2. At 19, your metabolism is likely still high so dont be afraid of eating extra calories, try to keep your calories heavy on protein, 1g/lb of bodyweight is a good target, as this will help you build muscle.
3. Bulking at your age, naturally I am assuming, will be a mixture of fast and slow, it will start out fast as being a new lifter you will add muscle/bulk rather easily as long as your diet is solid, but that muscle weight will come slowly. After lifting for over 25 years, if I gain a couple of lbs/year of muscle weight while staying lean, 13%bf or below, I am excited. Dont get addicted to "got to have it now" as slow and steady will get you where you want to be but it takes consistent dedication.
4. Creatine is good, stay with it, i would be adding protein shakes as well if you are not getting enough protein in your diet.
5. Dont scale watch. Use a tape measure, if your waist is getting bigger you are adding fat and need to adjust your diet. Measuring and adjusting 1/month is fine, more than that and you are not giving your body time to grow. Our bodies fluctuate in body weight 5lbs/day due to fluid retention etc, donts sweat it.

Good luck...

likitisplit

Thank you for this. I'm trying bulking for the first time too, so this is great information.

The linked article is a good one. The information I replied with was specific to the poster I quoted, and I'm only mentioning this so that you don't take my post as being applicable to you. Females shouldn't attempt to gain as fast as males.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

I just read that. I was going for 2 pounds a month. Should I cut that in half?

lrmall01

How much of this weight is actually fat and how much is just glycogen/water/muscle?

Really very little of it should be fat. Don't freak out and stop what you are doing.

Should I drop the carbs or fats a little bit so I gain weight more slowly?

Probably not. As SideSteel mentioned the averages and changes from week to week are what you are looking for. A single 5lb jump on the scale doesn't warrant a diet change. Now if you are gaining 5lb a week for a couple weeks in a row, then we might need to change something!

Any advice from those more experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

IMHO, forget the scale and go buy a set of these: http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/ Use them to measure your BF% and bounce back and forth between a high and low percentages as discussed in the article that was linked earlier.

Good luck!

mjudd1990

You've already proved you can lose weight by going from 180-140. Don't be afraid about putting on fat while bulking because you know you'll be able to take it off later but it will be even easier the second time around due to experience and having a higher BMR due to increased muscle mass. Too many guys that want to build muscle are so concerned that they are gonna lose their six packs, lose their sex appeal with women, or whatever else that the just end up going nowhere. Trying to build muscle and lose fat concurrently is a good way to do neither.

Charliejl82

What the chap said above - you have to decide on a cut or a bulk - you can't achieve both unless you are a complete beginner.

Work out your required macros using an online calculator- they are quite accurate. Then eat, train, sleep, repeat. Be patient! - fat gains while bulking is expected - but so worth it when you lean out gain.

Chadomaniac

U cant fear gaining fat on a Bulk, u gaining weight that's the whole purpose . just gain at a slow rate to minimize fat gains

That's probably the sole reason u don't make the gains

Gotta eat big to get big .

PS: Doesn't mean Pig out . Track your calories , hit a decent calorie surplus and lift heavy and be consistent for a couple of months until the cutting phase approaches . That's when you go on a calorie deficit and lose the fat u gained to expose the muscle u gained on the bulk

AestheticUnicorn

I started out at 137 pounds, 5'8 skinny, and within my first 3 months gained roughly 15 - 20 pounds and for the next 6 months kinda stalled, My weight just fluctuated up and down between 154 and 159, and i couldnt gain more weight or pass 160 pounds, my body fat based off pictures and the fact i can almost see my abs is about 10-12 percent, my problem was although i felt like i was eating a lot/enough the reason I wasnt consitantly gaining weight was because I Wasnt tracking marco's and in reality wasn't eating enough. I Assumed i was burning X amount of Calories & Eating X Amount, when in reality doing 1-2 hours heavy weight traing 4-6 days a week i was burning a lot more than i taught and as for the calories on one day i would eat 3000+ another day only 2000-2500, another 1800 another 3500, due to being on a low budget my diet wasn't consistant,

Recently i have started tracking my macro's and workout logs, and im aiming for about 0.5 pound a week, not bothered about fat as ill remove it when cutting, but now I'm able to adjust my calories according to my specific goals, so its definitely a good idea to track macro's if your worried about gaining to much, aim for 0.5 pounds a week, majority of the weight gained in a 6 month period doing this should be muscle.

so yeah now the scales is being maintained or going up for me slowly instead of just being 156 one month 159 the next and 153 the next which was annoying, considering i was eating alot. and strenth was always going up.. but now i learned.

212019156

You are not going to gain 5 lbs in a week. You might gain 5 lbs in a month when just starting out. 5 lbs in a week is most likely just water weight.

JoRocka

fear of fat gains hold most people back from a solid bulk.

But you're young and novice at lifting.

EAT ALL OF THE THINGS

LIFT ALLLLL OF THE THINGS.

Seriously- go for it. Eat- lift. get it in while you are YOUNG and NEW. If there was every a magical thing to create overnight bulk- this would be it... well it isn't actually it- but it's ideal conditions for success so don't be shy- go have at it.

TonyStark30

If you fear getting fat on a bulk, LIFT HEAVIER.

You'll still gain some fat but you'll be getting big enough Muscle gain for it you be worth it.

I went from 140 back up to 180 on my bulk, but the Difference in Muscle is huge. Cutting it back down now and its gonna be so much better. I mean I could've lean bulked up to 160 but I would've just looked the same eating a whole pizza.

Lld320

In for when I can get to 10% bf