bulking/cutting

If you eat at maintenance, include a good amount of protein (~1g per lb body weight), you can shift your body comp to be more muscle / less fat %. But it's a slow process. People do the bulk/cut cycle because the muscle builds faster, but at the expense of some fat as well, hence the cut afterwards.

The weight gain while in a deficit is like water weight. If you continue an intense workout regiment while in a deficit you will lean out and maintain most of your muscle.

Winter's approaching.. good time for a bulk phase perhaps

If you eat at maintenance, include a good amount of protein (~1g per lb body weight), you can shift your body comp to be more muscle / less fat %. But it's a slow process. People do the bulk/cut cycle because the muscle builds faster, but at the expense of some fat as well, hence the cut afterwards.

The weight gain while in a deficit is like water weight. If you continue an intense workout regiment while in a deficit you will lean out and maintain most of your muscle.

Winter's approaching.. good time for a bulk phase perhaps

yup

while bulking will i see a good amount of muscle definition or will i look fatter?

That depends on if you do a 'clean bulk' or a 'dirty bulk'

I'm in a "bulking phase" (yeah, for winter, cutting again for summer). I've been told to expect 0.3lbs of fat gain with every pound of muscle gain. I'm not sure where my maintenance is right now but I've read anywhere from 5% (around a 100ish) surplus to 500 calorie surplus a day. But again, I need to figure out maintenance first I guess. I think it's around 2000-2300 for me (150lbs, 5'9"). Last week I averaged 2120 net and seem to have lost a pound. This week, so far I'm at an average of 2300 net.

It's hard to give generic advice as everyone's body and capability of building muscle is so different.

For example, I gain muscle easily (and fat too, unfortunately) so I can build muscle while leaning out at the same time. Then again, I build muscle from cardio (18 inch calves just from power walking and jogging) so it's hard to give advice to people who face different problems than I do (like the skinny folks who lift heavy but struggle for every ounce of muscle).

Best general advice is lift heavy, get enough rest and eat at least one gram of protein for every lb of body mass. Other than that, it'll just have to be experimentation. Try eating at maintenance levels for a few months (but bear in mind the protein requirement) and see what happens. If you're disappointed with the results then increase your calories from "clean" sources (lean meats, rice, vegetables) and see what happens then.

One way to build muscle and not put on so much fat is to increase your calories but also increase your cardio. That way you get the extra nutrients you need but you combat a bit of the extra calories. If you're going to do that though, keep the cardio low intensity and relatively short - you just want to burn a few calories, not dig in to your muscle building ability.

The way to go is experiment, experiment, experiment.

Personally, I found most of the advice you find on websites etc, don't work for me. I build both muscle and fat very easily, so have found a CKD diet combined with cardio (LISS and HIIT) and heavy weights means I can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. I certainly wouldn't recommend that approach to a newbie or a skinny hard-gainer, though....

if you are going to bulk and then cut how many calories do you add or subtract from maintance? also if i am going to do this how often, how much, and what types of exercises do i need to do?

There are people who will swear by rather aggressive bulk cycles for people who are just starting to bulk. End result is (anecdotally) faster mass gains for both lean AND fat, and it would require a longer cut cycle. ("fulking" if you will). I have nothing to support this comment, just sharing based on several opinions that I read on bodybuilding.

If it were me, I would bulk conservatively at about 10 to 15% above maintenance calories.

1g/lb LEAN mass in protein MIN
.35g/lb bodyweight in fat MIN
remainder in carbs

^ general guideline.

EDIT: Also, whether or not you'll "appear" to be more muscular/cut after a bulk phase depends on both the success of the bulk, AND what your current physique is.

I think people who are already lean and muscular tend to look a bit fatter (but obviously very muscular), and people who are just slender but not very muscular tend to end up looking more muscular.

It IS kind of scary, but you've got to convince yourself that it is worth it. Maybe try putting your scale away and just do measurements. This is what I'm going to do:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/373609-where-would-i-measure-if-i-wanna-track-muscle-gain


Check out this post for a good starter routine:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/373801-two-day-full-body-strength-training-routine

Or I'm doing the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women.