When a Bulk Become a Recomp

keithcw_the_first wrote: »

So it's just... nothing? No progress is made in either direction?

Edit: That seems unlikely. If the body is in a constant state of tearing down and rebuilding and burning calories and parceling out ingested calories then certainly something occurs, even if we're talking about fractions of ounces.

No reason you will not be making progress (assuming training is dialed in) - just slower than in a surplus. A week however is neither here nor there in the scheme of things.

Maintenance is not static - look at the longer term trends.

I think you are over-thinking it.

keithcw_the_first wrote: »

@3laine75 Been about three and a half weeks. I'm running a 14 day average on the weight, which is trending upwards but sloooowly flattening out. I actually decreased my surplus by about 100 calories a few days ago because I was looking at a little over a pound a week of gain.

A lot of people advocate .5 pounds a week or less. What's your take?

I'd advise a 0.5 gain for females not a guy. You can build approx double the muscle I can if your intake is optimal - which I'd say, although I am far from an expert, was a 500 surplus for a 1lb a week gain.

Regardless if your going for 0.5 or 1 lb, your not going to get it if you don't hit your goals - eat up man!

3laine75 wrote: »

keithcw_the_first wrote: »

@3laine75 Been about three and a half weeks. I'm running a 14 day average on the weight, which is trending upwards but sloooowly flattening out. I actually decreased my surplus by about 100 calories a few days ago because I was looking at a little over a pound a week of gain.

A lot of people advocate .5 pounds a week or less. What's your take?

I'd advise a 0.5 gain for females not a guy. You can build approx double the muscle I can if your intake is optimal - which I'd say, although I am far from an expert, was a 500 surplus for a 1lb a week gain.

Regardless if your going for 0.5 or 1 lb, your not going to get it if you don't hit your goals - eat up man!

At 0.5lb a week - that's 24lb a year - that is the max (on average) a guy can gain in muscle over the first year - females half that. Obviously, not all you gain is muscle, but that's leaving too much for fat gain (unless it's a guy who is in their late teens/early 20's where they can possibly capitalize on higher test). 1lb a week is too quick imo - he would be gaining more fat than necessary.

3laine75 wrote: »

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

3laine75 wrote: »

keithcw_the_first wrote: »

@3laine75 Been about three and a half weeks. I'm running a 14 day average on the weight, which is trending upwards but sloooowly flattening out. I actually decreased my surplus by about 100 calories a few days ago because I was looking at a little over a pound a week of gain.

A lot of people advocate .5 pounds a week or less. What's your take?

I'd advise a 0.5 gain for females not a guy. You can build approx double the muscle I can if your intake is optimal - which I'd say, although I am far from an expert, was a 500 surplus for a 1lb a week gain.

Regardless if your going for 0.5 or 1 lb, your not going to get it if you don't hit your goals - eat up man!

At 0.5lb a week - that's 24lb a year - that is the max (on average) a guy can gain in muscle over the first year - females half that. Obviously, not all you gain is muscle, but that's leaving too much for fat gain (unless it's a guy who is in their late teens/early 20's where they can possibly capitalize on higher test). 1lb a week is too quick imo - he would be gaining more fat than necessary.

I'm going off the gain 50:50 muscle to fat thing. My assumption is, you'd need damn great genetics (or a lot of discipline) to gain mostly muscle. I'm also assuming that if you want the optimum muscle growth you can accept the fat gain and deal with it later.

On a first bulk, me personally, I'd accept the extra fat because of diminishing returns on later bulks. In saying that, your physique kind of sh!ts all over my thinking, considering the great results you get at maintenance or slightly above (?!)

Where are you getting the 50:50 muscle to fat ratio?

I agree that you need to accept some fat, but I just think that its too high of a ratio - it also assumes that someone will be gaining approx. 26lb a year of muscle.

:flowerforyou: re the physique comment. Someone's physique does not =/= knowledge necessarily. There are more than one way to go about things - some work better than others and some work better for the individual than others (and some ways are just bro, as we know from the forums lol). Genetics also do matter. I am lucky in that I seem to respond well to stimulus so have an easier time than some women gaining muscle. I did bulk the first time round after I cut down to a pretty lean BF%, since then I have hovered around maintenance - at a higher BF%, but that's for performance reasons.