I need to bulk

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casnowns
casnowns Posts: 9 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I've dropped under 130lbs. Only 67.5" so that's not scary small but time to pack on some more muscle. Long story short I've never properly bulked or cut. Just ignorance really got me my current strength and leanness. Slowly add calories each week? Dial back the cardio?

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
    edited April 2016
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    You can maintain the cardio if you can eat enough calories. But if you struggle with the calories, temporarily cut cardio until you get that under control.
  • BradW99
    BradW99 Posts: 103 Member
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    No cardio, more calories. Then add cardio back in when you need it/want to drop weight.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Eat more, follow a decent lifting plan
  • diverroboz
    diverroboz Posts: 61 Member
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    Check out SUCCESS STORIES and log your entire eating and excercise on MFP!
    Keep a simple training program
    1. Start every day and workout with Superset of max reps of Pushup, Pullup and Situp
    2. Let MFP determine your macros and hit the targets
    3. Add WHEY shakes with 1 cup Oats, fruit, coconut oil 1 tbsp, Cinnamon 1 top - that's 1100 plus quality calories each, before bedtime and after workouts
    4. Progressive free weights with strict form
    5. Rest, what rest, go hard or go home and cry
    6. Get 8 hours sleep every night
    7. Add FLAXSEED and nuts, dried fruit to a bag or plastic container, eat thru the day between meals
    8. Keep cardio in the mix, but add 500 calories those days of protein mostly
    9. Stress less, enjoy life, but no alcohol
    10. No cigarettes
    11. Get quality meats, cottage cheese, dairy, fish and vegetables into you as much as you can
    12. Give this 3 months and log and chart your waist, arms, Legs measurements as you go
  • lancehuber
    lancehuber Posts: 2 Member
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    Eat, lift, repeat.
    And don't forget the water, water, water
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    diverroboz wrote: »
    Check out SUCCESS STORIES and log your entire eating and excercise on MFP!
    Keep a simple training program
    1. Start every day and workout with Superset of max reps of Pushup, Pullup and Situp
    2. Let MFP determine your macros and hit the targets
    3. Add WHEY shakes with 1 cup Oats, fruit, coconut oil 1 tbsp, Cinnamon 1 top - that's 1100 plus quality calories each, before bedtime and after workouts
    4. Progressive free weights with strict form
    5. Rest, what rest, go hard or go home and cry
    6. Get 8 hours sleep every night
    7. Add FLAXSEED and nuts, dried fruit to a bag or plastic container, eat thru the day between meals
    8. Keep cardio in the mix, but add 500 calories those days of protein mostly
    9. Stress less, enjoy life, but no alcohol
    10. No cigarettes
    11. Get quality meats, cottage cheese, dairy, fish and vegetables into you as much as you can
    12. Give this 3 months and log and chart your waist, arms, Legs measurements as you go

    Most of this is awful advice or just pointless! Many people smoke, drink, dont't eat quality meat and sleep less than 8hrs a night yet have better physiques then the general population. ( I am not endorsing any of said activities)!!

    Eat in a small surplus and gain weight like that. When your weight gain stalls, add more calories.
  • HamsterManV2
    HamsterManV2 Posts: 449 Member
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    Step1: Go on google, type "TDEE Calculator". TDEE = total daily energy expenditure. Based on your age, weight, height, activity level, etc., it will determine how many calories it takes to maintain your current weight.

    Step2: In order to gain +1lb a week, you need to eat 500 calories OVER your TDEE. That means you need to be weighing your food on a scale and tracking everything that you put in your mouth. It takes 3500 calories for 1lb of weight gain, so that makes TDEE+500calories daily = +1lb per week.

    This might be hard as you are a smaller person (500 calories for a 100lb woman is VERY different from 500 calories for a 200lb man), so I suggest you aim for a surplus of 10% to 20% instead - this is more realistic and you won't feel disgustingly full all the time. Perhaps you can aim for TDEE+250 calories = 0.5lbs of weight gain per week, or +2lbs of gain per month.

    Using this system, you can clearly and accurately measure how long you need to do this for get to your weight goal.

    Also, keep on lifting! Lifting during a bulk is the best time to build strength and muscle. Most people around here recommend Starting Strength / Strong Lifts / ICF 5x5 / Greyskull LP - all these have a linear progression meaning as you progress, your lifts will increase and you will gain mass and strength.
  • SJMseventysix
    SJMseventysix Posts: 2 Member
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    Eat as clean as you can, avoid sugars and LIFT!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    SJMseventysix wrote: »
    Eat as clean as you can, avoid sugars and LIFT!

    Completely unnecessarily and sugar can be very beneficial in a bulk. It stimulates insulin, which stimulates muscle protein synthesis.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    This is a really article with lots of information for beginner bulkers: http://strengthunbound.com/bulking-complete-guide-for-beginners/
  • JayWalk39
    JayWalk39 Posts: 68 Member
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    SJMseventysix wrote: »
    Eat as clean as you can, avoid sugars and LIFT!
    Makes no sense for a bulk! Just eat a lot and lift hard...the rest will fall into place. People make this WAY too complicated.
  • adamkatz131
    adamkatz131 Posts: 6 Member
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    Shameless promotional comment pertaining to OP's post:

    I am organizing something new for "exercise accountabilibuddies" (so-to-speak)!

    How this might work:

    (1) everyone is added to a shared excel spreadsheet
    (2) we meet once by real-time chat (i know of a way to meet anonymously):
    i. to discuss how to timestamp entries
    ii. to discuss how to organize our records
    iii. to discuss any and all interest/concerns
    iv. to discuss a fun reward/accountability framework
    (3) throughout the first several months we coordinate additional optional "town hall"-type meetings using live chat to voice our concerns and to tweak the layout (tweek the structure of our accountability framework, and to acknowledge our most religious self-improvers!)
    (4) I'll manage a website keeping track of the "trainer of the month", as well as other positive reinforcements!
    (5) we all get fabulously healthy!
  • hornby86
    hornby86 Posts: 2 Member
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    Trying to start bulking up a bit eating everything I see... hard to keep up with it on a budget... havingmore than my recommended calorie intake but miss couple days here an there which makes it harder to keep going an keep track... doing this with no scales or training I'm around 10.5 stone wanting to bulk to about 12.5 with in months an then start training any advice will be really appreciated thanks
  • se015
    se015 Posts: 583 Member
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    lancehuber wrote: »
    Eat, lift, repeat.
    And don't forget the water, water, water

    and SLEEP

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