caseythirteen Member

That's awesome on the strength gains!! Sorry about the knee though. I hope it heals for you soon.

It really is a nice area. People who make fun of NJ rarely see the beautiful parts of it and judge it only on the north end of the Turnpike. My husband was amazed at what else there was to offer when we would go back and visit.

Are you relatively new to lifting too? If so, you are primed for great newbie gains! On a completely different subject, just noticed where you are from. I was born and raised in Monmouth County! Don't live there anymore but loved growing up there.

Like Holly said, it's hard with not knowing your body type, but with being 99lbs currently and doing a nice slow bulk you might find that at the end of it you don't even want to cut! You could very well love your look after a 10lb gain. Good luck!

I agree that stuff shouldn't just start disappearing because support has ended. My main machine is Windows 7 but I have an XP virtual machine and haven't noticed any issues yet. Not sure it would be the same though.

It could be the force of the pounding instead of just the motion that's causing the pain. Swimming sounds like a good option or even elliptical or bike since that's motion without the pounding as well. What about your running sneakers? Are they old? If they start to wear out then that could affect your body also. I can…

Sounds great! Sucks about the knee though. Does it just hurt while running - could you do something else for cardio? Not that it's necessary but I know some people just like doing it occasionally (me included).

I disagree! Two hundred calories in a day is really not hard to achieve if you aren't logging accurately. When I make a recipe, I always enter it myself. I can tell you that it has never matched up to whatever site had the recipe in the first place. Ingredients are different, portions could be different - it all matters…

Probably because she asked for lower sodium options and those things usually have high sodium levels.

I think that initial weight gain can be hard to adjust to for everyone. It should level off in a few weeks, especially with only a minor increase in calories right now.

Not necessarily. Lots of women aren't regular enough, or observant enough, to notice. Also, you could continue to spot enough for them to think it was their period.

I decided to bulk because I was already fairly lean and I wanted more out of my lifts. I knew I couldn't do that as well with staying at a deficit or even maintenance. Mine got cut short but depending on where I am in the Fall, I might try again. We shall see!

So so true! I'm sure you will look great no matter what so try not to worry/think about it too much.

Ha ha ... sounds like a good workout! I think getting an accurate weight is so hard for some people - me included. I fluctuate a lot based on my cycle (which is more like 40 days instead of 28), sodium content, higher carbs the day before, etc. It makes it really difficult to figure out what TDEE is sometimes! I'm sure…

Yup, that's how I do it too! Good for you for realizing the best way to do it is based on your own results over time. Sounds like you are on the right path!

Keep in mind, that if you bulked and were able to gain some muscle mass - losing what you want to look the way you want might not ultimately end up being 15 lbs. If you go for a specific weight goal, you might end up losing what you hoped to gain from a bulk in the first place. So what I'm saying is maybe try not to go for…

Love this!

Good for you!!

I'm going to be the oddball and not include squats. I know they are so important but they really are my least favorite and since we're talking fantasy here ... I'll do what I want! So .... deadlifts chest press chin ups push ups running Those are the things I enjoy the most and leave me feeling accomplished. Not a good…

I'd say I qualify but unfortunately I don't have many pictures besides what's in my profile. I took "befores" but was short sighted and deleted them because I didn't like what I saw. I definitely regret that now! For me it was not really about losing much weight, but changing what I saw in the mirror. I'm 5'5" and started…

A timer helps me. I start the stopwatch on a regular old Timex so I make sure I take an appropriate amount of time between sets (whether that's 30 secs or 2 minutes depending on what I'm doing). I realized long ago that I have a very bad sense of time so this absolutely helps to keep me on track.

No one. I've just read a lot, watched videos and keep learning as I go.

You did an amazing job - congratulations!

Yea - everyone is doing great! Love to hear about women who are doing it slow and steady with no drastic measures. I would definitely love to keep seeing updates here (or your logs) since the cut really is part of the process. Holly and Sarah, thank you - I really appreciate that! My problem is my bottom half. I'm totally…

Started in Oct. '12 with about 55%, worked up to about 125% over the next 12 months or so with a few set backs, back injury in Dec. '13 and now at about 95%. Taking it slow coming back because I know that if I try too much too fast it won't be a good result.

I'm a big fan and if you find that you like them, I highly recommend ordering from their website instead of getting them from GNC/local store. I find that they are so much fresher this way and actually taste a bit better. Personally, I'm not a fan of the cookie dough or any of the chocolate ones. I like Cinnamon Roll,…

This! Calculators are just estimates and IMO, it's always best to go based on your own results. If you have tracked as accurately as possible over the last few weeks than you have all the info you need to know what your maintenance is.

I do this to an extent but I have to be careful with how much of a deficit I create during the week. If I don't keep to at least close to 2000/day during the week then I start to get really hungry and the weekend ends up worse. So it's a minor deficit during the week to allow for what I know will be over on the weekend.…

I agree that during a bulk, going for higher carb and fat is a bit easier to get those calories in. Yummy and calorie dense things like avocado, nuts and ice cream are the way to go for me! Right now I'm aiming for maintenance-ish so I've set my calories to 2200 (knowing weekends are always over so will likely average…

Any fabric store would have one. Or if you order from Amazon, then they have body specific ones that you can do as order add-ons if you are ordering enough.