how to explain a bulk to someone..

There seems to be a lot of hate and distrust directed towards people who deliberately eat to gain...try being the <100 lb girl struggling to gain on 2400...."gee I WISH I had your PROBLEM "was the most common response ...dripping in sarcasm ...

It's probably harder for people to understand when you have been intentionally losing ...so honestly I wouldn't even bother to explain ....if they ask about your weight loss don't correct them...just say "fine ...still ongoing"...if they comment on your food (though I can't imagine why people would be so rude) simply say you're weight lifting and need the energy now....

Ignoring and not over explaining seem to work best for me....unless you are in it...intentional weight gain doesn't make sense to most ...and they don't really care to understand ...esp I'd they are on their own weight loss journey.

Jealousy is a glinty eyed bit¢h...

Did you resistance train while you were losing weight?

If your end goal is to be muscular im sure you did but if not I would eat your TDEE and hit a beginner barbell program like stronglifts 5x5 before going in to bulk/cut cycles.

I went straight into stronglifts 5x5 while eating to gain weight (i.e. over TDEE) - before that I'd been maintaning for a while and before that I was losing fat (i.e. going from obese to a healthy body fat percentage) - while I was doing weights all this time, I was doing a bunch of stuff wrong, mainly that I was using too light weights, so wasn't getting the benefit of it. I've gained 7lb so far, and my body fat percentage has stayed the same and I fit into the same clothes I did at the start. I'm female so a 7lb gain of mostly lean weight is really good progress... a young man should be able to gain quite a bit more than that with the right diet.

If someone is at a healthy body fat percentage, or is underweight, and their aim is to gain muscle/strength, there's absolutely no reason why they should stick to eating at TDEE while doing a beginner programme like Stronglifts. They will see much better results eating at a surplus while doing the programme, if the goal is gaining mass and/or strength. If someone is obese and their goal is to lose fat, then they should eat at a deficit while doing that. If they're someone who wants to gain strength but doesn't want to "bulk up" then eating at TDEE would be best. Bulking and cutting are not only for intermediate or advanced.... anyone who wants to change their body composition needs to do them. Bulking is only inadvisable for people who are currently overfat or obese (according to body fat percentage).

I definitely agree re that particular programme or a similar one like starting strength, but I totally disagree re eating at TDEE while doing it if the goal is to gain strength and mass. It's counter-productive to that goal to restrict yourself to eating TDEE as the time when you can make the most muscle mass and strength gains is when you're a beginner.

marks:

bulking = trying to gain lean mass and strength while not gaining too much fat

cutting = trying to lose fat while maintaning the current lean body mass

this is body recomposition, if you want to gain weight or lose weight, you have to do that. It's not a mentality - it's simply what you need to do to gain or lose weight the healthy way. Everyone who goes on a diet is trying to cut... they might not call it that, they might not go about it the right way, but that's what it is. And anyone who wants to gain healthy weight (i.e lean mass, not so much fat) needs to go on a bulk... again, they might not call it that, they might not go about it the right way, but it's what it is.

You can't say that bulking and cutting is only for bodybuilders/powerlifters... it's what anyone has to do for body composition changes. People with a too high body fat percentage who are new to lifting may be able to make lean mass gains while losing fat, but they're the exception and those gains only happen for a short time as beginners. For everyone else, to gain mass, you need to eat at a surplus. You can gain *strength* eating at a deficit, due to neuromuscular adaptation, but the gains will not be as good as for someone who's eating at a surplus. If the goal is to gain *mass* you need to go on a bulk, and the only people it's inadvisable for are those who already have a too high body fat percentage.

ETA: if you assumed that the OP had an obese bodyfat percentage and was a beginner... the advice you gave would have been fine, but he's not obese or a beginner.

also to add (to marks) - a properly planned bulk phase should not result in piling on loads of fat, just as a properly planned cut phase shouldn't result in massive losses of strength. Personally, I have no intention of ever cutting to the point that I lose strength. I'm only considering a cut if my bf% gets to around 28% (i.e. right at the top of the healthy range for women) and I've no intention of cutting to lower than 22%, because I want to be really strong, and don't care that much about 6 pack abs. But in terms of gaining strength, I'm eating at a small surplus to achieve this, I haven't piled on loads of body fat, the calipers say I've gained little if any.... accumeasure says my body fat percentage has stayed the same, Jackson Pollack said it's gone up by maybe around 1%. If I get to a point where increases in bodyweight don't equal increases in strength then I'll maintain my weight there. There's a limit to how much lean mas you can gain as a female... men can gain way more, especially young men.

Step 1. Eat all the yummy foods.
Step 2. Don't talk about it with others. If people have the nerve to comment on your eating habits tell them to mind their own f*cking business.
Step 3. Profit.

I used to just tell people I am fueling my exercise, eating to perform.

If you are not going overboard with it, noone, 'cept maybe your spouse, should be able to notice the fat gain from bulking. You'll never see it in clothes, and even unclothed the changes are slow and subtle enough that it is hard to tell, even yourself.

Once you've bulk/cut a couple times it becomes really obvious that you do a bit of strength training, at that point noone will question your eating habits.

As I've gone from a big fat guy to slim and now through a couple bulk/cut cycles, people have really changed. Toward the end of my loss everyone was complimenting me and asking me how I did it, and would talk to me about dieting and exercise, and had all sorts of advice. Nowadays people tell me I look great, but that's about as far as it goes, noone really discussed diet/exercise with me anymore, I think that I intimidate people now on that subject. When people get big weight loss discussions going they don't even include me anymore.