Bulking How Its Done

Training
61

[quote]trivium wrote:
Last year I got frustrated with being small and seeing no progress, so one day I decided that it was always going to be better to be big and fat, than skinny and still fat (160 with no abs). I just focused on adding lbs to the bar, and lbs to the scale every week. I paid no attention to calories/macros, and ate 4 meals a day until I was literally sick. In 6 months I was up a lot of weight, and I was one hell of a lot stronger (been hovering at 200+ since mid summer). People started to make all kinds of jokes/comments about it, and my extended family was blown away by the weight gain. I also found that I hope to one day be strong enough to do a PL event. I think I would enjoy it.

My only rule was that I was not going to eat empty calories, and that I was going to always work harder/do more than last time to earn my calories. I didn’t get any worse than I already was.[/quote]
Why not be big and not fat?
You don’t HAVE to be fat.
Don’t limit yourself.
Why not do a PL meet now?
There are no minimum strength requirements.
PL’ers, as big and scary as some of them are, are THE nicest people in the world at a meet.
You will get nothing but total encouragement and support.
It is a great experience.
Go for it!!

62

Like a moth to a flame…so, so predictable yet so, so sad.

63

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]Smashingweights wrote:

[quote]JoabSonOfZeruiah wrote:
How do you guys go about a bulk.

I want to demolish the notice that people around here are limiting their gains by dieting as soon as their abs begin to blur from the 1% body fat increase

Would your advice be different for an underweight kid vs a normal weight or the same to teach certain skills i.e. track macros etc…[/quote]
Dieting is just regulating your food choices and portions.
Some diet to add muscle
Some diet to lose bodyfat.
“Bulk” and “cut” are stupid terms that should be thrown out with the bath water.
Both approaches to dieting should be the same IMO.
Track calories and macros and make small incremental adjustments based on your results.
If you aren’t doing this you are just guessing.[/quote]

If you aren’t doing this, you are justifying your own laziness and lack of discipline. Really, why would anyone want to carry around excess fat? You will slow down your lean mass gains drastically.

Example:

Bulk for 6 months, cut for 3 months. Result: Maybe 5 months of lean mass progress in 9 months.
Intelligently track macros and make small adjustments For 9 months: 8 months of lean mass progress in 9 months. [/quote]
Makes sense and I plan to take this kind of approach after I get leaner. Btw smashing you got a pretty good physique.

64

I actually have an account on fitday and it really helps with knowing how much macros are in common foods I eat but I think I should also get the myfitnesspal app on the phone.

65

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]trivium wrote:
Last year I got frustrated with being small and seeing no progress, so one day I decided that it was always going to be better to be big and fat, than skinny and still fat (160 with no abs). I just focused on adding lbs to the bar, and lbs to the scale every week. I paid no attention to calories/macros, and ate 4 meals a day until I was literally sick. In 6 months I was up a lot of weight, and I was one hell of a lot stronger (been hovering at 200+ since mid summer). People started to make all kinds of jokes/comments about it, and my extended family was blown away by the weight gain. I also found that I hope to one day be strong enough to do a PL event. I think I would enjoy it.

My only rule was that I was not going to eat empty calories, and that I was going to always work harder/do more than last time to earn my calories. I didn’t get any worse than I already was.[/quote]

This.

I’m in this club, or was anyway.

It works. Or it did for me.[/quote]
Can someone please help me understand why people do this? I’m not flaming or judging I just don’t really see the logic in it… What purpose does this serve over say tracking ur food and eating in a sensible surplus? Im not talking about reasonable amount of fats gains. im talking about the people who become or close to obese. If someone has another point of view as of now it just seems nothing more than being lazy to me.

66

[quote]ryan.b_96 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]trivium wrote:
Last year I got frustrated with being small and seeing no progress, so one day I decided that it was always going to be better to be big and fat, than skinny and still fat (160 with no abs). I just focused on adding lbs to the bar, and lbs to the scale every week. I paid no attention to calories/macros, and ate 4 meals a day until I was literally sick. In 6 months I was up a lot of weight, and I was one hell of a lot stronger (been hovering at 200+ since mid summer). People started to make all kinds of jokes/comments about it, and my extended family was blown away by the weight gain. I also found that I hope to one day be strong enough to do a PL event. I think I would enjoy it.

My only rule was that I was not going to eat empty calories, and that I was going to always work harder/do more than last time to earn my calories. I didn’t get any worse than I already was.[/quote]

This.

I’m in this club, or was anyway.

It works. Or it did for me.[/quote]
Can someone please help me understand why people do this? I’m not flaming or judging I just don’t really see the logic in it… What purpose does this serve over say tracking ur food and eating in a sensible surplus? Im not talking about reasonable amount of fats gains. im talking about the people who become or close to obese. If someone has another point of view as of now it just seems nothing more than being lazy to me. [/quote]

I have done it this way 2 times. The first time I was 20 years old in the USMC and went from 130lbs to 180 lbs. at 5’8". my only rule was to not let my belly measurement get over 2 inches bigger. Results were great, all my weights sky rocketed and I remained fairly lean and felt god. Now fast forward 12 years. I had a few very young kids and I did it again. I went from 195 to 230 in the span of 4 months or so (lots of milk and steak). Results were I got super strong and super chubby. I felt terrible and seeing the pictures I looked terrible.

So I see a benefit of this early on but now I would do it slower and more targeted. I think the biggest difference is age be it actual or training maturity. I agree with both ways, however it really depends on timing. At age 39 soon to be 40 it’s all about slow gains now.

67

I gotta say, this recent trend is inspiring me to start counting macros instead of just winging it.

To the guys who have their diet in check:

What is your macro distribution?
How much time out of your day does counting macros take?

68

Myfitnesspal is a really great app.

I think Brick summed it up nicely with focussing on around 1g/ lb of body weight and total daily calories. To add to this, especially for the naturally leaner guys, I suggest not being afraid to push the limits with different food amounts and macro breakdowns for some time to determine individual things such as carb sensitivity, genetic rate of muscle growth, how strength gains are affected etc.

69

Bulking natural or assisted? It is a whole different the one from the other.

70

[quote]niksamaras wrote:
Bulking natural or assisted? It is a whole different the one from the other. [/quote]

Good point. I’m no expert on PEDs, but I had an old friend whose mantra was that you can’t get fat if you’re taking in enough test each week -lol.

S

71

[quote]BrickHead wrote:

[quote]Angus1 wrote:
For the ones here who count macros is there a good program or website that you can just write in your food amounts and it work the macros and calories out for you or do you guys write it all down and work out the macros yourself?

I’m asking because I have never really kept a serious count of my macros and would like to experiment and see if I can get into top condition with the adding / subtracting X amount to the current base approach.

I imagine there must be some good online programs out there?[/quote]

Fit Day is my favorite. There are also nutrition software programs you can buy. Just google “nutrition calculator software” or “nutrition calculator applications”.
I agree with brick and use fit day.Once you get it set up even with your custom foods It’s very quick and easy to use.
[/quote]

72

[quote]ryan.b_96 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]trivium wrote:
Last year I got frustrated with being small and seeing no progress, so one day I decided that it was always going to be better to be big and fat, than skinny and still fat (160 with no abs). I just focused on adding lbs to the bar, and lbs to the scale every week. I paid no attention to calories/macros, and ate 4 meals a day until I was literally sick. In 6 months I was up a lot of weight, and I was one hell of a lot stronger (been hovering at 200+ since mid summer). People started to make all kinds of jokes/comments about it, and my extended family was blown away by the weight gain. I also found that I hope to one day be strong enough to do a PL event. I think I would enjoy it.

My only rule was that I was not going to eat empty calories, and that I was going to always work harder/do more than last time to earn my calories. I didn’t get any worse than I already was.[/quote]

This.

I’m in this club, or was anyway.

It works. Or it did for me.[/quote]
Can someone please help me understand why people do this? I’m not flaming or judging I just don’t really see the logic in it… What purpose does this serve over say tracking ur food and eating in a sensible surplus? Im not talking about reasonable amount of fats gains. im talking about the people who become or close to obese. If someone has another point of view as of now it just seems nothing more than being lazy to me. [/quote]

Some people just don’t want to track everything they put in their mouth. It’s that simple, and honestly if people like this are happy with their physique it obviously works. For some the work in the gym is the focus, not the work in the kitchen. Fat people JUST DON’T CARE how they feel or if they are healthy.

Now that being said, my guess is, most guys in this category that are in good shape probably only eat “healthy” foods. Not McDonalds for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

73

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]ryan.b_96 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]trivium wrote:
Last year I got frustrated with being small and seeing no progress, so one day I decided that it was always going to be better to be big and fat, than skinny and still fat (160 with no abs). I just focused on adding lbs to the bar, and lbs to the scale every week. I paid no attention to calories/macros, and ate 4 meals a day until I was literally sick. In 6 months I was up a lot of weight, and I was one hell of a lot stronger (been hovering at 200+ since mid summer). People started to make all kinds of jokes/comments about it, and my extended family was blown away by the weight gain. I also found that I hope to one day be strong enough to do a PL event. I think I would enjoy it.

My only rule was that I was not going to eat empty calories, and that I was going to always work harder/do more than last time to earn my calories. I didn’t get any worse than I already was.[/quote]

This.

I’m in this club, or was anyway.

It works. Or it did for me.[/quote]
Can someone please help me understand why people do this? I’m not flaming or judging I just don’t really see the logic in it… What purpose does this serve over say tracking ur food and eating in a sensible surplus? Im not talking about reasonable amount of fats gains. im talking about the people who become or close to obese. If someone has another point of view as of now it just seems nothing more than being lazy to me. [/quote]

Some people just don’t want to track everything they put in their mouth. It’s that simple, and honestly if people like this are happy with their physique it obviously works. For some the work in the gym is the focus, not the work in the kitchen. Fat people JUST DON’T CARE how they feel or if they are healthy.

Now that being said, my guess is, most guys in this category that are in good shape probably only eat “healthy” foods. Not McDonalds for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. [/quote]

I’ve been counting out my food as i have been told to by zraw and it actually becomes pretty habitual and easy. Once u’ve eaten the same meal 3 times a day for damn near 3 weeks it becomes quite easy.

I NEVER in my life weighed or counted my macros (thats why i ended up like this). When u start counting macros you will realise how little or much you eat.

For me when i compare my food intake now to what it was i was eating a hell of a lot of food.

I could easily put away 4 cups of rice at one meal. If it was pasta make that 5 cups (easily).

I always thought it was over rated, only now do i realise i what i was doing!

74

[quote]JoabSonOfZeruiah wrote:

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]Smashingweights wrote:

[quote]JoabSonOfZeruiah wrote:
How do you guys go about a bulk.

I want to demolish the notice that people around here are limiting their gains by dieting as soon as their abs begin to blur from the 1% body fat increase

Would your advice be different for an underweight kid vs a normal weight or the same to teach certain skills i.e. track macros etc…[/quote]
Dieting is just regulating your food choices and portions.
Some diet to add muscle
Some diet to lose bodyfat.
“Bulk” and “cut” are stupid terms that should be thrown out with the bath water.
Both approaches to dieting should be the same IMO.
Track calories and macros and make small incremental adjustments based on your results.
If you aren’t doing this you are just guessing.[/quote]

If you aren’t doing this, you are justifying your own laziness and lack of discipline. Really, why would anyone want to carry around excess fat? You will slow down your lean mass gains drastically.

Example:

Bulk for 6 months, cut for 3 months. Result: Maybe 5 months of lean mass progress in 9 months.
Intelligently track macros and make small adjustments For 9 months: 8 months of lean mass progress in 9 months. [/quote]
Makes sense and I plan to take this kind of approach after I get leaner. Btw smashing you got a pretty good physique.[/quote]
Why wait till you are leaner?
Why not start now?
Thank you for the compliment.
I don’t like posting photos online but I thought an avatar of myself would give me more credibility lol

75

If you are making progress without accurate tracking and records I suspect it is inconsistant and unlikely to continue for more than a year or so. Taking the ‘tumble weed’ approach to process control is never effective for long. When evaluating cause and effect or making changes/adjustments records are inavluable.

If I wish to drive to Austin and have a map, I still need to know if I am starting from Dallas or Lubbock to plan the trip.

76

[quote]ishinator wrote:
I gotta say, this recent trend is inspiring me to start counting macros instead of just winging it.

To the guys who have their diet in check:

What is your macro distribution?
How much time out of your day does counting macros take?
[/quote]
Macro distribution is pretty individualized.
You will more than likely need to experiment and see how your body responds.
Standard dietary outline: you have to have a plan so you know when to deviate from it
Select your total calories- obviously it’s different if you gaining or losing weight is the goal
For the sake of example lets say you are 200 pounds and we start with 15 kcals per pound.
3,000 calories
Start your diet with 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight- 200-300 g
Lets go right in the middle with 1.25 per pound, 250 G of Pro - 1,000 kcals
Take 50-60% of your remaining calories and apply that to carbohydrates
60% = 1,200 calories = 300 grams of carbs
The rest you fill in with fats
800 calories = 89g of fat

Sorry if that’s confusing but it really is pretty simple.
Adjust from here based on results.
Add, subtract, tweak and switch things around to find what’s optimal for you.

77

It also takes very little time at all.
Especially if you are like some of us here and eat the same things most of the time.

78

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:

If I wish to drive to Austin and have a map, I still need to know if I am starting from Dallas or Lubbock to plan the trip. [/quote]

I like this and haven’t thought of it that way before.

79

For those that use the my fit pal ap, do you just ignore the calorie suggestions? I weigh around 205 and am looking to drop to probably 185-190 and I sit for most of the day, so the ap suggested 1700 cals and around 60g of protein, so… Guess I’ll just ignore that?

80

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
For those that use the my fit pal ap, do you just ignore the calorie suggestions? I weigh around 205 and am looking to drop to probably 185-190 and I sit for most of the day, so the ap suggested 1700 cals and around 60g of protein, so… Guess I’ll just ignore that? [/quote]

You can change it to whatever you want. Go to More, then Edit Profile.