Ive been bulking for 8 months now. I’ve learned a lot in the process through trial and error but have figured out most of the basic stuff. I am hesitant to post this, cause everyone just tears my posts apart. All I ask is if you’re gonna call me a troll, just don’t post in this thread cause I’m looking for helpful advice which many of you obviously have.
Anyways I’ve gained 50lbs so far, which makes me 6’2 190lbs. I want to keep increasing my overall mass, however I am starting to get fat on my lower belly. Its not a ton of fat, just above my tolerance level. The rest of my body has little fat though, except my hips which is less noticeable. I know if I start cutting I’ll lose fat all over which isn’t what I want.
The rest of my body could still use some decent size, especially arms and chest. Before I ask my next step I’ll tell you a bit about my diet. I estates that I get around 3000-3500 calories a day. I don’t eat any fast food or junk food, but a lot of meat and carbs. I also take a mass gainer shake in the morning and at night, although less than the reccomendation amount.
There is a pretty good amount of fat in some of the foods I eat, mostly because I find it hard to get the calories I want without the extra fat. I hadn’t been doing cardio, but play basketball once a week. I want to know what I should do to get rid of unsightly fat and still gain mass.
If I clean up my diet I dont think I’ll get enough calories for a surplus, so I’m leaning towards throwing in some EST, haha yeah I read that article, maybe twice a week. Will this cause a loss in size, especially worried about arms and chest.
I don’t really know what EST is… cliffsnotes plz?
If you are set on cutting at all, do something quick-hitting and get back to gaining. The shorter your cut, the less likely that you will give up muscle in the process (and the less time you will waste not gaining). Lyle McDonald’s RFL (google for PDF) is a good option, but really anything quick, restrictive, and designed with muscle-sparing in mind will be best.
It will suck (you won’t be eating much of anything but lean protein and veggies), but it should clean you up enough to stave off the psychological discomfort so you can get back to putting on size, which should be a priority based on your weight relative to your height.
DO NOT waste much time cutting just because you are a little soft in the lower part of the mid section (abs or low back). That is a very difficult part of the body to keep super-sexy-lean year-round, and you will never get big if you fixate too heavily on that area and let it keep you from eating hard and training hard.
ESt stands for energy systems training, fancy way of saying cardio that’s technically more correct. Yeah I’ll look into that, how long should a cut be to maintain muscle mass? I’m assuming just a few weeks. Also I understand that a little fat is necessary to make serious gains, I just want to look good as well.
I’m not looking for a 6 pack by any means, I just don’t like how the area just below my belly button is starting to collect fat. Thanks for the reply though I’ll look at that PDF. Lastly should I start running a mile or so once a week as well? I’d rather start doing cardio than start eating less, but whatever is best for getting rid of fat in that area while maintaining muscle mass is what I will do.
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
ESt stands for energy systems training, fancy way of saying cardio that’s technically more correct. Yeah I’ll look into that, how long should a cut be to maintain muscle mass? I’m assuming just a few weeks. Also I understand that a little fat is necessary to make serious gains, I just want to look good as well.
I’m not looking for a 6 pack by any means, I just don’t like how the area just below my belly button is starting to collect fat. Thanks for the reply though I’ll look at that PDF. Lastly should I start running a mile or so once a week as well? I’d rather start doing cardio than start eating less, but whatever is best for getting rid of fat in that area while maintaining muscle mass is what I will do. [/quote]
You probably won’t need more than a couple of weeks on RFL if you go that route. If you don’t want to try that, you should probably look for something just as quick-hitting.
I really don’t think you should be running any kind of distance if muscle retention is your goal. Something like hill/stadium sprints would probably be better. Some might disagree on this, but I think short stints of quick and/or explosive work are better than steady state cardio when cutting.
Just be smart about it and get back to work on gaining as quickly as possible. When you look at the bigger picture of physique development, building the muscle now will do more for you in the long run than worrying about the lower abs and squandering your time (at best) maintaining what you already have.
Yeah I have a hill in my yard that I think Ill start sprinting, not looking forward to that. Might try and work in some stuff to increase my vertical leap, just not sure what those things are yet. I def want to keep bulking, my goal was to get to 200 by the end of May. I can’t stand that lower belly fat though, especially with summer coming up.
I mean, people who lift understand that a certain amount of fat comes with bulking, but people who don’t look at you and think “his stomache has fat on it, therefore he is fat”. haha i guess its screw what people say though. Would it be a good idea to keep doing the sprints throughout the bulk? In my mind i think that would help keep off some excess fat and maybe spur muscle growth. Thanks for the advice though you pretty much covered it for me.