should I bulk up?

zoohockey
zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
went from 190 to 150 pretty fast, basically cut all carbs and ate 1k calories. right now I'm at 165 with 9-10%bf any advice??!!?!?
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Replies

  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    You were only eating 1000 calories?? :o

  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    yeah it was bad
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    Ouch, ok you need to reverse out of that low calorie intake. What are you at right now in intake? Are talking net or gross btw?
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    zoohockey wrote: »
    I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

    At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

    Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    zoohockey wrote: »
    I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

    At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

    Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.

    ohh ok, then that's gross. I workout 5-6days a week. I have looked into my maintenance and its roughly 2500. for the past 4 days I've been really bloated at the end of the day any specific reason why??
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    zoohockey wrote: »
    zoohockey wrote: »
    I'm getting around 2200 for the past 4 days, and what's the difference between net and gross??? sorry

    At 150 eating 2200 is probably pretty good unless you are playing a lot of hockey and working out etc. Net is the amount you take minus your exercise and gross is just how much you eat.

    Have you figured out your maintenance level yet? The first thing I would do is eat at your maintenance for about a month to give you body a chance to come back to normal. You have likely altered your hormone balance somewhat and are probably undergoing adaptive thermal genesis so you are going to need time for you body to get back to normal.

    ohh ok, then that's gross. I workout 5-6days a week. I have looked into my maintenance and its roughly 2500. for the past 4 days I've been really bloated at the end of the day any specific reason why??

    Not sure why you are bloated but could be sodium. If you are not at your maintenance than you should raise your calories until you hit your maintenance and then stay there for about a month. Once you've stabilized you will be ready to bulk. Alternatively, you could try to bulk right away but without knowing where your maintenance is, and not fully recovered yet from your weight loss, you risk gaining more fat than you need to.

    Choice is yours in the end. If you want to bulk I would go right to 3000 cals a day for a couple weeks and see how that goes. If you want to find your maintenance first than up your calories to about 2500 and then monitor and adjust your intake.
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    thanks!!! I really appreciate it. any advice on specific lifts I should do?? I use to do a powerlifting program and ended with a 405 squat, 235 bench and 470 deadlift. trying to get back to these numbers and trying to keep the somewhat abs I have
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    If you are playing competitive hockey then I would work with your trainer on a good off ice program. Otherwise, you can look into a good intermediate power lifting or strength program like 531, West Side, Texas Method etc. If you go to powerliftingtowin.com/ you can get a good review of all the big intermediate programs.
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    thanks a lot!!!!!
  • se015
    se015 Posts: 583 Member
    Hey Zoohockey so I'm not expert but I've been working on "bulking up" for awhile now. I'm one of those what they call hardgainers. A few things I wanted to touch base with you. It's very difficult to bulk up and cut down at the same time, almost impossible. You need to decide what you want to do and when you want to do it. So if you want to pack on the weight, you can't concern yourself with abs really, although continue doing ab workouts to keep those ab muscles toned, but most free weight exercises are going to make you use your abdominal muscles anyway. Once you've gained MUSCLE WEIGHT, so you've gained weight which is hopefully mostly of muscle and not as much fat, although you will still gain fat if you want to gain overall weight. You can then concern yourself with some cutting which will include mostly dietary changes and probably changing your entire lifting program and adding some more cardio each week. You should get a body fat % tool, although I think it sounds like you already got that, that's your main tool and the scale. You want to be under 10% body fat if you want that nice muscular look. Also keep an eye on your macro breakdown, carb, fat, protein. I suggest you up your carbs to put on the weight. When you've achieved the weight you want and size you want, then start lowering the carbs while keeping fat and protein somewhat the same. I hope my post has helped somewhat.

    How did you get to such heavy weights in those exercises, I can't seem to get passed 195 for bench, but I only weight 150 lbs. Any help with lifting would be greatly appreicated!

  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    thanks so much, that was really helpful. I made those lifts when I weighed roughly 178. I was on a 10 week program that consisted of heavy squats deadlifts and bench. it worked really well and I made some serious lifts in my opinion but I wasn't were I wanted to be(looks wise)
    Seth1825 wrote: »
    Hey Zoohockey so I'm not expert but I've been working on "bulking up" for awhile now. I'm one of those what they call hardgainers. A few things I wanted to touch base with you. It's very difficult to bulk up and cut down at the same time, almost impossible. You need to decide what you want to do and when you want to do it. So if you want to pack on the weight, you can't concern yourself with abs really, although continue doing ab workouts to keep those ab muscles toned, but most free weight exercises are going to make you use your abdominal muscles anyway. Once you've gained MUSCLE WEIGHT, so you've gained weight which is hopefully mostly of muscle and not as much fat, although you will still gain fat if you want to gain overall weight. You can then concern yourself with some cutting which will include mostly dietary changes and probably changing your entire lifting program and adding some more cardio each week. You should get a body fat % tool, although I think it sounds like you already got that, that's your main tool and the scale. You want to be under 10% body fat if you want that nice muscular look. Also keep an eye on your macro breakdown, carb, fat, protein. I suggest you up your carbs to put on the weight. When you've achieved the weight you want and size you want, then start lowering the carbs while keeping fat and protein somewhat the same. I hope my post has helped somewhat.

    How did you get to such heavy weights in those exercises, I can't seem to get passed 195 for bench, but I only weight 150 lbs. Any help with lifting would be greatly appreicated!

  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    any suggestions on my macros?
  • elfman5150
    elfman5150 Posts: 116 Member
    Calories > macros. But shoot for about 1g/lb body weight or thereabouts, then somewhere around .3-.4g/lb for fats, and the rest make carbs. That's just a suggestion though; you really just gotta play with it and see what makes you feel best.

    Just make sure to get enough protein and fat for essential biological functions. Other than that have fun!
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    thanks man, very much appreciated
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    any more suggestions/tips feel free to tell me, the more the better
  • FitnessTrainer69
    FitnessTrainer69 Posts: 283 Member
    You can bulk while keeping body fat low. You have to be meticulous with your diet. I've been bulking/surplus whatever you want to call it for the past 5 months. I've maintained less than 10% body fat and gained 1lb of muscle a month. Those who bulk with junk food and pizza only gain fat and not much else. Food timing is most important.
  • Unknown
    edited February 2015
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  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    can you explain meal timings and foods to eat, I eat really clean foods like chicken, ground turkey/beef, oatmeal
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    ^^Yeah I'd be interested to hear how he has had success bulking like that.
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    You can bulk while keeping body fat low. You have to be meticulous with your diet. I've been bulking/surplus whatever you want to call it for the past 5 months. I've maintained less than 10% body fat and gained 1lb of muscle a month. Those who bulk with junk food and pizza only gain fat and not much else. Food timing is most important.
    Well who exactly is bulking with pizza and what you call just food and not much else?
    Meal timing isn't the most important. It's actually towards the bottom of the importance list.

    could you explain what you believe is the more important stuff?
  • FitnessTrainer69
    FitnessTrainer69 Posts: 283 Member
    MrM27- It may be towards the bottom of your importance list but not everyone. Some people don't want to bulk and only get fat. If that's what you like then by all means.
  • Unknown
    edited February 2015
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  • Unknown
    edited February 2015
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  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    edited February 2015
    blah blah blah, IDK what I'm talking about blah blah blah. Those who bulk with junk food and pizza gain fat and muscle holding calories at an equal level. Food timing is least important.

    Fixed it for you
  • zoohockey
    zoohockey Posts: 26 Member
    mrM27- thank you, I will Deff look into that a lot more
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  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    ^^Yeah I'd be interested to hear how he has had success bulking like that.

    Didn't you decide you weren't even bulking? Now you're worried about meal timing when you don't even train properly?
    True, but it sounds like he's been able to accomplish exactly what I originally intended to do.

  • elfman5150
    elfman5150 Posts: 116 Member
    edited February 2015
    Meal/nutrient timing is hugely overstated in the bodybuilding and fitness community, unfortunately. Yea, there might be an extremely slight benefit in timing, but there's absolutely no way that it will give you a noticeable difference in your progress in the long run. Many people don't realize that muscle synthesis occurs over about a 72 hour period, and peaks around 24 hours or so after working out the body part trained*. So downing that protein shake or chicken breast right after lifting isn't necessary.

    I've posted this before, but I think you'll find it helpful. Omar knows his stuff.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xTOVasoBdU


    *I'm stating this from memory, but please feel free to research this and correct me if I'm way off

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