What to do when gaining fat while bulking??

kontehhalima
kontehhalima Posts: 44 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hello! So I'm trying to build muscle for bigger glutes and to improve my waist to hip ratio. I'm glad to say that after about a month I gained .5 inches on my hips so I went from 35 to 35.5 but sadly I also gained .5 on my waist so I went from 26 to 26.5. My ultimate goal is for my waist to stay 26in but for my hips to be 38in. I know gaining fat is inevitable while trying to bulk but im a bit stuck on what I should do to not gain so much fat around my waist. Should I continue bulking and then cut once I get to my desired hip meadurement, or should I tweak something right now while I'm working towards my desired hip measurement so I dont gain too much fat around my waist?

Replies

  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    kontehhalima wrote: »
    Hello! So I'm trying to build muscle for bigger glutes and to improve my waist to hip ratio. I'm glad to say that after about a month I gained .5 inches on my hips so I went from 35 to 35.5 but sadly I also gained .5 on my waist so I went from 26 to 26.5. My ultimate goal is for my waist to stay 26in but for my hips to be 38in. I know gaining fat is inevitable while trying to bulk but im a bit stuck on what I should do to not gain so much fat around my waist. Should I continue bulking and then cut once I get to my desired hip meadurement, or should I tweak something right now while I'm working towards my desired hip measurement so I dont gain too much fat around my waist?

    From what I have read, where you gain your fat is genetic. So, deciding where it goes is not up to us....
  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited October 2020
    Some cardio. like walking on your off days, will help , pushing a prowler or a sled if you have access to one. You can cycle your carbs- have the bulk of your carbs around your weight training time. Rest days can be lower carb. Continue until you get too fluffy, then cut.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Don't eat as much of a surplus.

    You can't know your fine line between enough surplus for adding muscles, and extra for adding fat too fast.

    But you sound like you have discovered you are over it.

    So eat less, still in surplus, just not as much.

    Then of course you'll have to do a cut later anyway.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,024 Member
    Have a moderate surplus and PATIENCE. Muscle takes time to build regardless of whatever diet you're on. Personally when I competed, I bulked up by like 30lbs over my competition weight to gain mass. But of course I gained a lot of fat to do it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • kontehhalima
    kontehhalima Posts: 44 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Have a moderate surplus and PATIENCE. Muscle takes time to build regardless of whatever diet you're on. Personally when I competed, I bulked up by like 30lbs over my competition weight to gain mass. But of course I gained a lot of fat to do it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    I see, I think my surplus might be a bit too large. I'm eating about 2500 calories and im only 5'2 119lbs. Maybe If I cut it down it might lead to less fat gain.
  • kontehhalima
    kontehhalima Posts: 44 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    Don't eat as much of a surplus.

    You can't know your fine line between enough surplus for adding muscles, and extra for adding fat too fast.

    But you sound like you have discovered you are over it.

    So eat less, still in surplus, just not as much.

    Then of course you'll have to do a cut later anyway.

    thank you for the response! Yes I think my surplus is a bit too large for my height and weight which is 5'2 and 119lbs and im eating about 2500 calories. I'll definitely cut it down and in another month I'll take my measurements again and see where it takes me.
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    There are a couple of things we need to know in order to better help you:
    • How long have you been lifting?
    • Are you applying a well designed, progressive overload program for your lifting plan? Brett Contreras has good stuff for glute building, for example.
    • What, approximately, is your body fat percentage?

    If you're fairly new to resistance training then really the only thing you need to pay attention to as far as nutrition goes is protein intake. Make sure you get about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. If you don't know how much lean mass you have you can overestimate by simply using your body weight, within reason. For example, since you weigh 119lbs try to get 0.8x119 = 96 grams of protein per day. You can simplify further by just eating your body weight in grams of protein per day. That means you'd shoot for 119 grams per day.

    If you're new to resistance training and your body fat isn't very low you can even build muscle while in a calorie deficit as long as the deficit isn't very large, but I'd probably recommend eating at maintenance to maximize gains since your stats indicate you're not overweight.

    You have to use a well designed program to insure you're not wasting your time in the gym. Don't just go and lift. If it's not Brett Contreras then find a glute-building program from someone else who is reputable and has a proven track record.
  • kontehhalima
    kontehhalima Posts: 44 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I would keep your surplus 0.5lb per week or under to minimize fat gain. Also make sure you are following proper training and getting enough protein.

    However while you can help guide muscle gain with progressive hypertrophy training, where fat is distributed is up to genetics and with enough gain eventually the fat gain will catch up. You can run mini cuts to lower your bodyfat and then resume bulking if you want, or just wait it out until you finish bulking. I usually just go until I have to cut. Sure I get a bit fluffier than I'd prefer but it is worth it since that bulking momentum is really where the results are.

    And if you add cardio and carb cycling you are really in the end just lowering your surplus, so however you do it is up to you.

    Thank you, this was helpful! I think my surplus was a bit too high and I just found out that I was drinking a lot more of my protein shake than I realized😅. I also think I'm eating a good amount of protein which is 130g. I think so far I'm doing things correctly in terms of form and progressive overload (every two weeks i increase my load) and I do about 15-20mins of cardio after weight training. I didn't think about doing mini cuts in between but honestly I think I might just bulk and then cut, it seems like even though I gain fat around my waist I tend to lose fat around my waist faster then anywhere else. I'm excited to keep working out and see where my progress takes me!
  • kontehhalima
    kontehhalima Posts: 44 Member
    GaryRuns wrote: »
    There are a couple of things we need to know in order to better help you:
    • How long have you been lifting?
    • Are you applying a well designed, progressive overload program for your lifting plan? Brett Contreras has good stuff for glute building, for example.
    • What, approximately, is your body fat percentage?

    If you're fairly new to resistance training then really the only thing you need to pay attention to as far as nutrition goes is protein intake. Make sure you get about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. If you don't know how much lean mass you have you can overestimate by simply using your body weight, within reason. For example, since you weigh 119lbs try to get 0.8x119 = 96 grams of protein per day. You can simplify further by just eating your body weight in grams of protein per day. That means you'd shoot for 119 grams per day.

    If you're new to resistance training and your body fat isn't very low you can even build muscle while in a calorie deficit as long as the deficit isn't very large, but I'd probably recommend eating at maintenance to maximize gains since your stats indicate you're not overweight.

    You have to use a well designed program to insure you're not wasting your time in the gym. Don't just go and lift. If it's not Brett Contreras then find a glute-building program from someone else who is reputable and has a proven track record.

    Woowww thank you this was extremely informative! I'm eating about 130g of protein and doing lots of glute based workouts like deadlifts, squats, split squats, hip thrusts, leg press, hip abductor, etc. I increase my load a little bit every two weeks too and my body fat is about 23%. I'm not entirely new to weight training, ive been doing it on again off again and haven't been consistent with it for more then 3 months. I just started again in the beginning of September when gyms opened and I am extremely determined to keep going to get to my ultimate goal of a more shapely bottom. Hopefully I do everything right and I can get my body to look the way that I want as much as I can, but also be realistic with how I may end up looking.
  • alexmose
    alexmose Posts: 792 Member
    2500 sounds reasonable for your weight height and activity

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