First time bulk

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  • keithcw_the_first
    keithcw_the_first Posts: 382 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

    So the elusive "recomp"? What's your general strategy? Just heavy weights + maintenance calories?
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    keithcw_the_first wrote: »
    Hornsby wrote: »
    I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

    So the elusive "recomp"? What's your general strategy? Just heavy weights + maintenance calories?

    Yea, pretty much. Eat around maintenance, go over some days. Go under some days. Weight stays the same. Measurements go up in the good places, down in the bad places. Good enough for me now, but I will ride out newb gains as long as possible. It's been a bit over a year since I started lifting.
  • jmule24
    jmule24 Posts: 1,404 Member
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    asflatasapancake wrote: »
    I'll update my measurements tonight. I checked my weight. Definitely did some screwy stuff, as expected. At one point this week I was at 198lbs, which was 4 pounds heavier than last week. I knew that was wrong so I ignored it. I weighed myself today and was 195.4lbs. On April 24th, exactly 3 weeks ago, when I first started, I was at 192.6. I am eating a surplus of 500 calories a day. It is a gain of almost 1 pound and week and I do feel as if I am getting stronger. I've also jacked my protein and carbs up. They are set at 45%carbs, 25%fat, 30%protein. I've also seen recommendations of a gain of .5lbs per week given. Should I ease up on the calories or does this seem about right? Any other thoughts? Thank you for your time.

    What is your actual calorie goal right now? I looked at your diary for the last 10 days and your calories swing up and down quite a bit.

    **Culver's cheese curds & concrete mixers are a MUST when bulking!!!!**

  • jmule24
    jmule24 Posts: 1,404 Member
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    So if you just average your exercise out and then round up I've got you at 3000/day no matter if you work out or not. I would do 100 (Fat) , 150 (Protein), 375 (Carbs). The increased fat will help to keep your natural testosterone levels peaked. I'm 160lbs and it's recommend my fat level be around 95 grams/day. If you don't want the fat that hight then allocate those calories to your carbs.

    As for your progress it looks good so far. You can add 100 daily calories to 3100 and measure your progress for a couple of weeks.
  • jmule24
    jmule24 Posts: 1,404 Member
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    You're at a modest to small surplus....my guess is your body is holding on to water and filling your glycogen stores to capacity. Keep on, keepin' on!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    I hate the scale. I have nothing useful besides that... :flowerforyou:
  • Shadowsan
    Shadowsan Posts: 365 Member
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    Ignore the scale. Work on strength.

    Think of it like this...

    Your body gets more efficient at lifting X weight. It adapts.

    It adapts by improving motor neuron control to fire a greater proportion of your muscle fibres.

    But eventually... That motor adaptation has to stop - and the only way strength keeps going up is if NEW muscle fibres are made, along with new motor neurons.

    Then the cycle continues. More adaptation, more growth.

    Bottom line is if your strength is going up... More often than not your lean mass will be going up alongside it.
  • giantrobot_powerlifting
    giantrobot_powerlifting Posts: 2,598 Member
    edited May 2015
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    OP, we are roughly about the same weight/age. (I'm a few years older though.) I did a six month bulk over the winter and ate about 4,000+ calories a day. I started at a modest 250, then increased 500 above maintenance (which was 2800-2900 at the time) and I wasn't getting the results I wanted so I ate more all the way up to 4000 to 4500. Took some doing, but all said and done, I added about 10 lbs, roughly half LBM to BF. Somehow still managed to lean bulk and retained some abs.

    While bulking, I weighed and measured myself around every six weeks and really concentrated on my training and my eating because I was looking at bulking with a long view approach. I found that I reliably added about a 1.5 to 2 lbs every two weeks. Performing metrics less removed a lot of noise, that is, useless daily/weekly fluctuations and gave me better -- and more reliable data points -- in which to determine my results.

    Anyway -- if you want -- you can read about my results here. My gains were modest, even small by some standards (0.125" in some places) but I did gain.

    Happy eating and good luck!
  • jimmmer
    jimmmer Posts: 3,515 Member
    edited May 2015
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    nakedraygun wrote: »
    OP, we are roughly about the same weight/age. (I'm a few years older though.) I did a six month bulk over the winter and ate about 4,000+ calories a day. I started at a modest 250, then increased 500 above maintenance (which was 2800-2900 at the time) and I wasn't getting the results I wanted so I ate more all the way up to 4000 to 4500. Took some doing, but all said and done, I added about 10 lbs, roughly half LBM to BF. Somehow still managed to lean bulk and retained some abs.

    While bulking, I weighed and measured myself around every six weeks and really concentrated on my training and my eating because I was looking at bulking with a long view approach. I found that I reliably added about a 1.5 to 2 lbs every two weeks. Performing metrics less removed a lot of noise, that is, useless daily/weekly fluctuations and gave me better -- and more reliable data points -- in which to determine my results.

    Anyway -- if you want -- you can read about my results here. My gains were modest, even small by some standards (0.125" in some places) but I did gain.

    Happy eating and good luck!

    I second this.

    He was consistent with his eating. Trained really, really hard. And stayed the course.

    Great inspiration (I actually jumped ship off my cut after watching his progress/eating)!
  • giantrobot_powerlifting
    giantrobot_powerlifting Posts: 2,598 Member
    edited May 2015
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    jimmmer wrote: »
    nakedraygun wrote: »
    OP, we are roughly about the same weight/age. (I'm a few years older though.) I did a six month bulk over the winter and ate about 4,000+ calories a day. I started at a modest 250, then increased 500 above maintenance (which was 2800-2900 at the time) and I wasn't getting the results I wanted so I ate more all the way up to 4000 to 4500. Took some doing, but all said and done, I added about 10 lbs, roughly half LBM to BF. Somehow still managed to lean bulk and retained some abs.

    While bulking, I weighed and measured myself around every six weeks and really concentrated on my training and my eating because I was looking at bulking with a long view approach. I found that I reliably added about a 1.5 to 2 lbs every two weeks. Performing metrics less removed a lot of noise, that is, useless daily/weekly fluctuations and gave me better -- and more reliable data points -- in which to determine my results.

    Anyway -- if you want -- you can read about my results here. My gains were modest, even small by some standards (0.125" in some places) but I did gain.

    Happy eating and good luck!

    I second this.

    He was consistent with his eating. Trained really, really hard. And stayed the course.

    Great inspiration (I actually jumped ship off my cut after watching his progress/eating)!
    Thanks @jimmer for the +1. I gotta say since adding in the DeFranco mobility drills (which I learned from your training) I've really reduced my recovery turn-around time while I am cutting/recomping.

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