My lady bulking memoir (pic heavy)

Hi guys.

A little bit of background info first. When I decided to do a 12 week bulk I'd been lifting for around 5 months and eating a small deficit and had successfully dropped body fat and started to see some muscle definition. I was happy but felt like I wasn't satisfied with the pre existing muscle that had been hiding under my skinny fat, I wanted to build up some more, particularly in my glutes and legs as I had always been very straight up and down in that area. So I decided to attempt a bulk.

Part of the reason I decided to write this is I was able to find very little information about bulking for women online, particularly women discussing their personal experiences, I wanted to know how you felt, how my body would change, how much I needed to eat, what sort of muscular gains I could expect. And I really wanted to see a visual representation of that.

So I've decided to share a few photos from my experience and some notes on what the whole thing was like for me. I didn't exactly take regular photos but I have mostly incidental pictures, but hopefully they will be helpful.

I also want to express that I am most definitely a novice in the world of lifting and building and I still have a long, long way to go. However I still feel that I have something to share. I'd also love to see anyone else with bulking experience post here.

This is me pre bulk, after lifting and eating a deficit for 5 months





As you can see, I had pretty drainpipey legs and a flat but. However I also had an (almost) flat stomach for the first time in my life. I knew this was something that was going to be sacrificed in the short term with bulking.



This is about the half way point. I had some very obvious quad and glute growth, and my lifts had improved a lot. I added about 10kg to my deadlift and 8kg to my squat. My isolations had also improved
As a downside there were some obvious fat gains to my stomach and a little in my upper arms



This is from a few days ago. I feel like there is a little more glute and leg development again here. I think this picture also shows the growth in my lats somewhat.
Again you can see there is quite a bit more flab around my stomach and arms, I do feel like there has been significant muscle improvement under the fat though.

Anyway that's a little peek at how I went with my bulk, by the end id added around 15kg to my deadlift and about 12kg to my squat. I don't really want to state an exact figure for my lbm gain or fat percentage as I feel like any inaccuracy might be misleading, but I feel like the pictures give a good indication. Yes I gained fat, I also gained muscle and strength, yes I got bloated and felt "heavy" and slow some days, yes it was hard to eat >2000 cal a day somedays (some days it wasn't)

All in all it was worth it. I am now embarking on a cut at will share those results here too. I plan to repeat the cycle again until I get the gains I want. Again, anyone else with bulking experience- I'd love to see you post here, also any questions and advice are both welcome.

I'm going to stop typing now. Thank god.