Ladies who have "bulked"

mommamuscles

I just finished my first bulk and proceeded to cut. I only cut for about 4 weeks and then I decided to do a powerlifting meet in May so right now I am eating at TDEE. My weight is back to where it was prior to bulking, so I expect to see body composition changes by eating at TDEE and continuing with heavy lifting. I am not at goal weight, but have kind of abandoned the idea of having a goal weight anywhere, more like having a goal body composition. I still have a long way to go, but I have to keep it all in perspective. My progress pic is where I started. I don't think you need to be at goal to start the bulking/cutting process, and in all honesty I think it might be better if you do before you get to goal, just my personal opinion though.

I bulked from November-February. Started at 2850 and moved up to 3000. Cut at 2500 and TDEE is now about 2700-2850.
I gained about 12 pounds and 1 % body fat. My favorite part of bulking was seeing those strength gains. Just awesome!!!!

Lets see if I can remember how to get pictures to post...


These pics show from my first week of cutting to fourth week of cutting.


Those pics cut off one of the pics in the collage. I also should clarify-1st pic is end of my cut, 2nd pic is about 2 weeks after ending bulk (so they go backwards lol)

roxierachael

bump bumpty bump

NovemberJune

I love your pics OP! It looks like you gained 10 lbs without gaining any fat! But I suppose you must have, it just doesn't look like it with the extra muscle in there.

Thanks for making this post!

Mutant13

So happy to see another thread spawned!

Bumping to sit back and be inspired

LJSmith1989

Can someone define cut and bulk for me. What does it mean and why do you do it? thanks

NovemberJune

I hope she doesn't mind, but one of my friends on here has gone through very successful cutting and bulking cycles and I love her progress pictures. She is stephanielynn76. Go check out her blog as it is FULL of pictures from when she was first starting to lose fat until now. She also details her training and nutrition regimen.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Can someone define cut and bulk for me. What does it mean and why do you do it? thanks

A cut is basically a diet, but one where you focus on cutting body fat and not just "weight". You do so by eating at a small to moderate calorie deficit, getting adequate protein, and lifting weights.

A bulk is where you try to gain muscle. We do this because muscle is awesome. You often can't have a real "defined" look if your muscles are too small physically. You pretty much can't gain muscle without gaining fat. This you do buy eating at a surplus and still weight lifting (although it might require a slightly different routine), and still eating enough protein.

So yeah, if you "accidentally" gain fat while bulking you would most likely want to lose it by cutting. Many people do several bulk/cut cycles.

Mutant13

Can someone define cut and bulk for me. What does it mean and why do you do it? thanks

It's the process of going through cycles of deliberately eating a surplus while maintaining a lifting routine (bulking) for a period of time, and eating a deficit while maintaining a lifting routine (cutting)

It works on the principle that you cannot gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. (Excepting newbie gains which is witchcraft) So you need to do each at different times. You bulk and provide your body with extra calories to build muscle (and some fat) and then you cut and reduce your calories to remove the excess fat, then you rinse and repeat, each cycle adding to your muscle and reducing your fat % a little more

BusyRaeNOTBusty

I hope she doesn't mind, but one of my friends on here has gone through very successful cutting and bulking cycles and I love her progress pictures. She is stephanielynn76. Go check out her blog as it is FULL of pictures from when she was first starting to lose fat until now. She also details her training and nutrition regimen.

She is awesome!

LJSmith1989

Can someone define cut and bulk for me. What does it mean and why do you do it? thanks

It's the process of going through cycles of deliberately eating a surplus while maintaining a lifting routine (bulking) for a period of time, and eating a deficit while maintaining a lifting routine (cutting)

It works on the principle that you cannot gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. (Excepting newbie gains which is witchcraft) So you need to do each at different times. You bulk and provide your body with extra calories to build muscle (and some fat) and then you cut and reduce your calories to remove the excess fat, then you rinse and repeat, each cycle adding to your muscle and reducing your fat % a little more

Ahhh ok Thanks both.

Yesterday I joined a free weights gym and tomorrow I go for my induction... I'm hoping to begin stronglift or something... Im sure these definitions will soon be familiar

BusyRaeNOTBusty

I love your pics OP! It looks like you gained 10 lbs without gaining any fat! But I suppose you must have, it just doesn't look like it with the extra muscle in there.

Thanks for making this post!

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I owe that to the fact that I started the bulk pretty much as soon as I started back lifting (I had lifted about 8 years before). So I put my "newbie gains" to use during a bulk.

laurelderry

I'm at the beginning of the second month of mine (so one month in) and have just incorporated moderate cardio back in. I eat at behind -10% and -20% TDEE depending on my workout. Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer is probably one of the best resources for women that haven't bulked previously and are either wary or uncertain on how to go about it.

kinsellae

How much over maintenance did you eat?

avg. 2500 so roughly 500-600 over maintenance

How long did you bulk for? 12 weeks

How much weight did you gain? 10 lbs.

What lifting program did you follow? upper/lower body split no specific program. Squats, Deadlifts, OHP, Bench, Rows.

How much cardio, if any? Not much, walks to the park with my little one - if that counts.

Here's some pictures. I wasn't as lean as I would have wanted to be before I bulked, but I had no muscle so I went for it. I think I may have gained a little in my back and definitely in my legs along with a ton of fat! I am 2-3 lbs away from pre-bulk and will probably start a long SLOW bulk in about a month.

Jonesie1984

See I'm impressed that people are eating a few hundred calories over maintenance daily and are gaining 10-16 lbs in 3-5 months in that time. That's important to note for all those freaking out about going up 3 lbs from a meal... a true gain takes much more time to accomplish.

I'm going to do my first bulk in October of this year... after the last of my 13 mile races.

I think a lot has to do with excessive deficit effects.. My bulk was part a metabolism "reset" if you will to raise my baseline maintanence level.. now I'm currently cutting while consuming 1800-1900 cals/daily so I'm guess my maintanence this time around will be much higher than my maintanence previously when I was dieting down for over a year and consuming somewhere like 1600 cals/daily with a lot of cardio.. now I do very little cardio and able to consume much more because of the metabolic needs my body has gone accustomed to paired with gains in muscle

jamaicanlady

Not a success story yet b/c I'm currently bulking but here goes:

How much over maintenance did you eat?
I'm currently eating about 200-300 calories above on average. I say average because there have been a few days where I was 700 over, mostly on days I lift.

How long did you bulk for?
I've been bulking since January and will continue to do so for 4 months for a total of 7 months.

How much weight did you gain?
So far I've gained 6 lbs for an average of about 2 lbs a month.

What lifting program did you follow?
NROL (the original). I bulked even during the fat loss phases. I'm about to begin hypertrophy so I hope that means even better results.

How much cardio, if any?
Started at 2 days a week of Insanity. That's now been reduced to 1 day a week. I think it may hold back my gains a little bit, but it's a mind thing. If I don't do it, I feel like I'm getting HUGE.

Also to add, unlike most of the women here, I went against the recommendation of the experts and I'm bulking while my bf% is pretty high. When I was losing weight I got to the stage where persons were telling me I'm getting too flat (no bum, small boobs) even though I knew my body fat % was still high. This indicated to me that I had very little muscle. So I halted my weight loss and started bulking. Let's just hope it doesn't backfire on me.

iorahkwano

Also please answer the following:

How much over maintenance did you eat?
I am 5'7" & started at 136lbs. I was maintaining on 1500-2000 calories so I had to guess at what "20% over TDEE" meant for me. For the first six weeks I ate 2000 calories because I was told I'd benefit off of "newbie gains" & didn't need to increase yet. After those 6 weeks, I bumped it up to 2200 calories.

How long did you bulk for?
12 weeks

How much weight did you gain?
12lbs. The gain went up & down, it was not a steady "1lb per week" thing.

What lifting program did you follow?
Stronglifts 5x5

How much cardio, if any?
None

I am in my 3rd week of cutting now.
Week 1 - Lost 4lbs
Week 2- No loss
Week 3- I'll find out on Monday... but my diet has been sabotaged a lot this week!

easycure

bumpity bump I love you ladies!!

zorreena

bump to follow

grover0ca

nice work ladies!

stephanielynn76

I hope she doesn't mind, but one of my friends on here has gone through very successful cutting and bulking cycles and I love her progress pictures. She is stephanielynn76. Go check out her blog as it is FULL of pictures from when she was first starting to lose fat until now. She also details her training and nutrition regimen.

Thanks for the mention!!! Great thread! I love seeing other women on this site bulking. I tried to start a bulking support group thread on here a year and a half ago... no one seemed interested and I think some people thought I was nuts! I ended up going over to bodybuilding.com to find other women bulkers to chat with. I've just finished my second "official" bulk and I'm 5 weeks in to my 3rd cut. I just updated my blog with end-of-bulk pictures, some recent pics, and some links to vids!

Bulk on you brave souls! It's not easy but it's worth it. I'm going to lean out until the end of July (my show is July 13th) and then I'll be back on the bulk train again starting in August.

ladytinkerbell99

bump

rosichick

Do you bulk after you lost the weight?

determinedbutlazy

The term "lady-bulk" makes me giggle uncontrollably.

In for more awesomes.

iorahkwano

I'll search stephanielynn76 now!

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Do you bulk after you lost the weight?

If you'd like to add muscle.

snowbab

BUMP

MelStren

bump

stephanielynn76

I'll search stephanielynn76 now!

I posted 4 posts above you!

HMVOL7409

I'm at the beginning of the second month of mine (so one month in) and have just incorporated moderate cardio back in. I eat at behind -10% and -20% TDEE depending on my workout. Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer is probably one of the best resources for women that haven't bulked previously and are either wary or uncertain on how to go about it.

If you want to bulk you need to not be eating at a cut, but an actual overage of your TDEE. The actual workout for Livefit is great for beginners but JE's nutrition plan is not designed for bulking.

aliciab307

I just finished my first bulk and proceeded to cut. I only cut for about 4 weeks and then I decided to do a powerlifting meet in May so right now I am eating at TDEE. My weight is back to where it was prior to bulking, so I expect to see body composition changes by eating at TDEE and continuing with heavy lifting. I am not at goal weight, but have kind of abandoned the idea of having a goal weight anywhere, more like having a goal body composition. I still have a long way to go, but I have to keep it all in perspective. My progress pic is where I started. I don't think you need to be at goal to start the bulking/cutting process, and in all honesty I think it might be better if you do before you get to goal, just my personal opinion though.

I bulked from November-February. Started at 2850 and moved up to 3000. Cut at 2500 and TDEE is now about 2700-2850.
I gained about 12 pounds and 1 % body fat. My favorite part of bulking was seeing those strength gains. Just awesome!!!!

Lets see if I can remember how to get pictures to post...


These pics show from my first week of cutting to fourth week of cutting.


Those pics cut off one of the pics in the collage. I also should clarify-1st pic is end of my cut, 2nd pic is about 2 weeks after ending bulk (so they go backwards lol)

WOW. congrats. See, I have been wondering about this. I asked about bulking and cutting before getting to your GW, people told me it would be ideal to do so once you've met your GW and BF% is 25 or below. do you know your BF% when you began? In your cut how much bf% did you lose?