BODYBUILDING Community!

nail_polish wrote: »

I am not trying to compete. I'm just really confused and wanted some feedback from people that have been training and what has worked for them.

could you expand on your comment?: "You need to cut or maintain and attempt to recomp."
how should I "cut" or why "maintain"? I'm under the impression that cutting will require eating at a small deficit, which will be extremely hard since my body is adjusting and I get extremely hungry. I am not understanding what you mean by "maintain".

thank you guys for taking your time to respond and sharing your knowledge!

You should be working to adjust your diet to find macros that work for you and help you with hunger. If you're really struggling with hunger, then you should maintain and figure out how to adjust your diet to be more satiating for you. Once you figure that out, you can slowly reduce calories until you reach a manageable deficit.

If your trainer's way of dealing with your hunger is to tell you to bulk, it doesn't sound like he's very knowledgeable.

And if you're dealing with extreme hunger, I'm going to take a wild guess and say you were too aggressive with your deficit. Diets do tend to be an adjustment but you shouldn't be starving, especially not after 20 pounds lost. Plus the fact that your trainer's suggestions lead you to believe 2000 calories would be sufficient for bulking.

terar21,

I wanna look like you!!!

I was not very hungry while on my deficit. I started at around 1,600 calories and, as my body "adjusted", I noticed I did not need that many calories as I was feeling satisfied with less. listened to my body until I was eating 1,250-1,300 cal/day. also, cardio was curbing my appetite. but I have been recommended to skip the cardio to be in a surplus to gain muscle.

maybe I'm too hungry because my body needs time to adjust again... I don't know. I'm too new at this! (2 weeks)

my goal is to put on a lot of muscle and significantly reduce the amount of fat. I don't even know how long this will take. but I know that if I start wrong, I will not reach my goal.

is 2,000 cal/day not enough? what would you suggest? how did you achieve your loss and gain?

usmcmp wrote: »

nail_polish wrote: »

terar21,

I wanna look like you!!!

I was not very hungry while on my deficit. I started at around 1,600 calories and, as my body "adjusted", I noticed I did not need that many calories as I was feeling satisfied with less. listened to my body until I was eating 1,250-1,300 cal/day. also, cardio was curbing my appetite. but I have been recommended to skip the cardio to be in a surplus to gain muscle.

maybe I'm too hungry because my body needs time to adjust again... I don't know. I'm too new at this! (2 weeks)

my goal is to put on a lot of muscle and significantly reduce the amount of fat. I don't even know how long this will take. but I know that if I start wrong, I will not reach my goal.

is 2,000 cal/day not enough? what would you suggest? how did you achieve your loss and gain?

You should not be bulking. Your body fat is too high. You will gain muscle on a deficit due to having extra body fat and being a newer lifter. Go back to 1600 calories.

I don't think she has posted her actual bodyfat % anywhere yet.

OP, have you measured your bodyfat with calipers yet? Bodyfat % reading is very important to understand what you should be doing with your training.

I would not trust readings from those bodyfat scales or any kind of bioelectric impedance testers, they aren't very accurate. Even calipers aren't that great, but they are the best thing you can do at home.

If you are totally new to lifting OP, I agree with @usmcmp, you don't need a calorie surplus to build muscle right now. You have the unique opportunity to burn fat and build muscle at the same time for anywhere from 2-3 months when you first start training ("newbie gainz"). Once your body catches on, it will force you to pick between muscle gain or fat loss, and you will be in the grind like the rest of us.

What steps are you taking to stimulate muscles for growth? Do you have a lifting program? I'm nervous what your trainer is having you do based on his bad advice to eat at surplus because you are hungry. Beware: they make money by keeping you on as a client. If you are just starting out, you should pick some kind of program aimed for beginners to learn important things like compound movements, training scheduling & frequency, and progressive overloading principles.

The little machine was likely a bioelectric impedance test (Results can be off by as much as 10%! That is real bad).

You can purchase calipers from most health/wellness stores, or online at places like bodybuilding.com/. Calipers can be off by about %5.

In an effort to keep the thread on track, if you have any more questions, feel free to message me and hopefully I can answer them. The gaining weight thread is also roughly correlated to bodybuilding, so you should be able to get good starting info there from the stickies.

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

usmcmp wrote: »

nail_polish wrote: »

terar21,

I wanna look like you!!!

I was not very hungry while on my deficit. I started at around 1,600 calories and, as my body "adjusted", I noticed I did not need that many calories as I was feeling satisfied with less. listened to my body until I was eating 1,250-1,300 cal/day. also, cardio was curbing my appetite. but I have been recommended to skip the cardio to be in a surplus to gain muscle.

maybe I'm too hungry because my body needs time to adjust again... I don't know. I'm too new at this! (2 weeks)

my goal is to put on a lot of muscle and significantly reduce the amount of fat. I don't even know how long this will take. but I know that if I start wrong, I will not reach my goal.

is 2,000 cal/day not enough? what would you suggest? how did you achieve your loss and gain?

You should not be bulking. Your body fat is too high. You will gain muscle on a deficit due to having extra body fat and being a newer lifter. Go back to 1600 calories.

I don't think she has posted her actual bodyfat % anywhere yet.

OP, have you measured your bodyfat with calipers yet? Bodyfat % reading is very important to understand what you should be doing with your training.

I would not trust readings from those bodyfat scales or any kind of bioelectric impedance testers, they aren't very accurate. Even calipers aren't that great, but they are the best thing you can do at home.

If you are totally new to lifting OP, I agree with @usmcmp, you don't need a calorie surplus to build muscle right now. You have the unique opportunity to burn fat and build muscle at the same time for anywhere from 2-3 months when you first start training ("newbie gainz"). Once your body catches on, it will force you to pick between muscle gain or fat loss, and you will be in the grind like the rest of us.

What steps are you taking to stimulate muscles for growth? Do you have a lifting program? I'm nervous what your trainer is having you do based on his bad advice to eat at surplus because you are hungry. Beware: they make money by keeping you on as a client. If you are just starting out, you should pick some kind of program aimed for beginners to learn important things like compound movements, training scheduling & frequency, and progressive overloading principles.

@_Bropollo_ She's 5'4" 164 pounds. She's just below the obese cut off. The only way her body fat would be below 26% at her height and weight is if she's lifted for 3+ years.

Okay, week 1 was a success. 198 lbs, up 2 pounds in the first week. Let's keep the momentum and add another 2 pounds this week!

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

memo1974 wrote: »

Okay, week 1 was a success. 198 lbs, up 2 pounds in the first week. Let's keep the momentum and add another 2 pounds this week!

0.5lbs a week in muscle, that is about the max your body can synthesize, unless you are geared. Even less for people with 1 year+ in the gym.

While you can't add 0.5lbs of muscle without a bit of fat gain, 2lbs/week is definitely not ideal. Beware the dreamer bulk. Too early to tell right now with just one week of data, but if you continue to shoot up at the 2lbs rate for another week or two, you should slightly decrease your daily calories.

My whole life I' been a hard gainer, if I stop training I lose weight fast. For me it is hard to add weight, even fat weight. Since I was a little under eating, it feels great to eat high carbs and recover from workouts faster.

I did adjusted my plan, week 1 was 2400 calories, week 2 was supposed to be 2600, but I adjusted to 2500, and will continue to monitor the weight. I agree with you, 2 pounds per week is not sustainable, but because I come from under weight, I am hoping to catch 4 ponds the first 2 weeks, then 1 pound the next 4 weeks, then maintain that weight for 3 weeks before cutting back.

Hi all. I am trying to get ready for a comp in April (Figure) currently bulking - I need to put on at least 2kg muscles my trainer says. On 2100 cals atm. Have slowly been increasing the cals over the last month from 1600 ish to almost 1800 to around 1900 and now 2100. I'm in week 5 of my 'bulk'. Trainer says to gain these muscles by end of January so I can then cut slowly-ish until April.

I need to muscle everywhere but especially shoulders - get those caps going.

Am at 20%BF (or was as of a month ago when I had a DEXA scan) It may have gone up - I note my gut is a bit fluffier than it was a month ago but my weight has stated the same (which is surprising) 62.3 ish (usual small fluctuations).

Actually just yesterday she (trainer) told me she wanted me to be ready in September but I had a WTF moment because when we started this a month ago - it was after I'd seen a real life comp and though "i can do this!" that I could do April and she'd agreed. So I said let's aim for April anyway and even if i'm not 100% super duper it's a small regional show it will be good experience and then I can kill in in September.

I think she doesn't want me to get up there looking like *kitten* because it will make her look bad (understandable). So - I now want to double my efforts and be stage ready in April. Won't be ideal in terms of musculature, but if I can make it up there and rock a bling suit I'll be happy

camilacreme wrote: »

Hi all. I am trying to get ready for a comp in April (Figure) currently bulking - I need to put on at least 2kg muscles my trainer says. On 2100 cals atm. Have slowly been increasing the cals over the last month from 1600 ish to almost 1800 to around 1900 and now 2100. I'm in week 5 of my 'bulk'. Trainer says to gain these muscles by end of January so I can then cut slowly-ish until April.

I need to muscle everywhere but especially shoulders - get those caps going.

Am at 20%BF (or was as of a month ago when I had a DEXA scan) It may have gone up - I note my gut is a bit fluffier than it was a month ago but my weight has stated the same (which is surprising) 62.3 ish (usual small fluctuations).

Actually just yesterday she (trainer) told me she wanted me to be ready in September but I had a WTF moment because when we started this a month ago - it was after I'd seen a real life comp and though "i can do this!" that I could do April and she'd agreed. So I said let's aim for April anyway and even if i'm not 100% super duper it's a small regional show it will be good experience and then I can kill in in September.

I think she doesn't want me to get up there looking like *kitten* because it will make her look bad (understandable). So - I now want to double my efforts and be stage ready in April. Won't be ideal in terms of musculature, but if I can make it up there and rock a bling suit I'll be happy

I think a "practice" show is a good idea, but agree with @usmcmp that trying to pack on that much muscle as a woman, while also somehow cutting and getting show prep'd by April, is fairly unrealistic. I guess just go into the April competition with the understanding that it is a learning experience. Judges seem to care slightly more about lower bodyfat than muscular size, so just make sure you give yourself enough prep time if you really focused on placing in April.

I've got roughly 15lbs of muscle to pack on until I could be any real competition -_-

Tedebearduff wrote: »

usmcmp wrote: »

camilacreme wrote: »

Hi all. I am trying to get ready for a comp in April (Figure) currently bulking - I need to put on at least 2kg muscles my trainer says. On 2100 cals atm. Have slowly been increasing the cals over the last month from 1600 ish to almost 1800 to around 1900 and now 2100. I'm in week 5 of my 'bulk'. Trainer says to gain these muscles by end of January so I can then cut slowly-ish until April.

I need to muscle everywhere but especially shoulders - get those caps going.

Am at 20%BF (or was as of a month ago when I had a DEXA scan) It may have gone up - I note my gut is a bit fluffier than it was a month ago but my weight has stated the same (which is surprising) 62.3 ish (usual small fluctuations).

Actually just yesterday she (trainer) told me she wanted me to be ready in September but I had a WTF moment because when we started this a month ago - it was after I'd seen a real life comp and though "i can do this!" that I could do April and she'd agreed. So I said let's aim for April anyway and even if i'm not 100% super duper it's a small regional show it will be good experience and then I can kill in in September.

I think she doesn't want me to get up there looking like *kitten* because it will make her look bad (understandable). So - I now want to double my efforts and be stage ready in April. Won't be ideal in terms of musculature, but if I can make it up there and rock a bling suit I'll be happy

I think your trainer's goals for you are a bit lofty. Women generally add 1 pound of lean mass per month. Cutting starting at the end of January may not leave you lean enough for stage, especially your first time around. Women jump into competitions way earlier than they should (I know, I've done it).

Pretty sure everyone jumps into competing way to early these days. No offense to those that compete but like, let's be real there are just some people that shouldn't be up there, and we all sit around and ask "What was he thinking"! I'd never get on stage unless I knew I was going to blow everyone away! cause if I'm doing it you better believe I am going to win it. I'm not looking to update my FB status like the new gen of competitors.

I think part of the major problem is that everyone thinks they're a coach these days too!!! like sorry your not a coach just because you competed in 1 show! - Not referring to anyone in this thread just what I see at my gym and in the OPA

ALSO a real coach would tell you, you're not ready... it's time to lift for 5+ years and in most cases the amount you'll need to spend on "supplements" to reach your goals.

Tedebearduff wrote: »

usmcmp wrote: »

camilacreme wrote: »

Hi all. I am trying to get ready for a comp in April (Figure) currently bulking - I need to put on at least 2kg muscles my trainer says. On 2100 cals atm. Have slowly been increasing the cals over the last month from 1600 ish to almost 1800 to around 1900 and now 2100. I'm in week 5 of my 'bulk'. Trainer says to gain these muscles by end of January so I can then cut slowly-ish until April.

I need to muscle everywhere but especially shoulders - get those caps going.

Am at 20%BF (or was as of a month ago when I had a DEXA scan) It may have gone up - I note my gut is a bit fluffier than it was a month ago but my weight has stated the same (which is surprising) 62.3 ish (usual small fluctuations).

Actually just yesterday she (trainer) told me she wanted me to be ready in September but I had a WTF moment because when we started this a month ago - it was after I'd seen a real life comp and though "i can do this!" that I could do April and she'd agreed. So I said let's aim for April anyway and even if i'm not 100% super duper it's a small regional show it will be good experience and then I can kill in in September.

I think she doesn't want me to get up there looking like *kitten* because it will make her look bad (understandable). So - I now want to double my efforts and be stage ready in April. Won't be ideal in terms of musculature, but if I can make it up there and rock a bling suit I'll be happy

I think your trainer's goals for you are a bit lofty. Women generally add 1 pound of lean mass per month. Cutting starting at the end of January may not leave you lean enough for stage, especially your first time around. Women jump into competitions way earlier than they should (I know, I've done it).

Pretty sure everyone jumps into competing way to early these days. No offense to those that compete but like, let's be real there are just some people that shouldn't be up there, and we all sit around and ask "What was he thinking"! I'd never get on stage unless I knew I was going to blow everyone away! cause if I'm doing it you better believe I am going to win it. I'm not looking to update my FB status like the new gen of competitors.

I think part of the major problem is that everyone thinks they're a coach these days too!!! like sorry your not a coach just because you competed in 1 show! - Not referring to anyone in this thread just what I see at my gym and in the OPA

ALSO a real coach would tell you, you're not ready... it's time to lift for 5+ years and in most cases the amount you'll need to spend on "supplements" to reach your goals.

Steroids or "supplements" as you put it, are totally unnecessary at most levels. Many competition coaches simply don't know how to train natural competitors, so finding a coach that knows how to train natural competitors is important. It's also important to be patient. Gaining mass and getting lean enough to be on stage takes a long time. That's why using steroids is so attractive to competitors, it lets them get on stage sooner.

I'm natural and I compete in tested as well as untested shows.

I'm bulking... prepping for my first show in April 2016.. women's physique

Recently started my second bulk. Almost exactly 1 year after my first. Want to do a show in 2017.

usmcmp wrote: »

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

usmcmp wrote: »

Steroids or "supplements" as you put it, are totally unnecessary at most levels. Many competition coaches simply don't know how to train natural competitors, so finding a coach that knows how to train natural competitors is important. It's also important to be patient. Gaining mass and getting lean enough to be on stage takes a long time. That's why using steroids is so attractive to competitors, it lets them get on stage sooner.

I'm natural and I compete in tested as well as untested shows.

I disagree. The size most judges are looking for, at the leanness they expect, is something that is typically only achievable with steroids for 95% of people. The other lucky few with superior genetics might be able to do this natural. Jason Blaha lays it down pretty plain and simple, as do a fair number of other well known strength athletes.

From talking to other friends who are geared, and lots of research, it's fairly easy to pass a tested show, so going into a tested show thinking you are up against nattys is not a correct assumption . Fair number of "supplements" out there that you can take 2 weeks before a show and still pass (DBol being the first that comes to mind). Others stay in your system a long, long time. I'm not advocating anything here, just stating information. I personally don't use steroids. I enjoy not balding.

Whether you view them as necessary or not, a large number of people are on them at a competitive level. That is just a fact. People just won't talk about it because of legal implications. Maybe it is more prevalent in male competitions than female, idk.

I've competed against women who were using and placed better than some. Some of it depends on the size of the show and which category you select. Certain federations or shows pretty much guarantee you won't place well if you are natural, but that would be like playing in a professional sport when you are amateur level.

Training is absolutely more important than the steroids. Some people take them and expect magic to happen, when all it really does is increase your body's training capacity.

So if you can out-train the person on steroids, which is not unrealistic considering our culture where nobody wants to put the work in, then it is very possible to beat people on steroids full natty, correct. Which is seems you have been doing repeatedly, so props to you for busting some serious butt @usmcmp

Back from Disney! I "bulked" this week and gained 2 pounds from 156 to 158.

Now, back to the gym either today or tomorrow.