You really want to figure out how many calories you can handle to maintain. It is vital that you know this so you can make adjustments easily. In my opinion, you should focus on “lean bulking” or whatever the hell you want to call it. Basically, a more methodical method of bulking by eating a few hundred calories about your maintenance, bumping them up if progress is stalling for ~2-3 weeks.
You, being early in your training career, will probably lean out a little while adding quality muscle, or at least minimizing fat gain while you are gaining. Treat a bulk like a cut and you should have no problem keeping the fat off. When most “bulk”, it’s easy to justify some pizza slices or ice cream.
Haha sorry man you are right I don’t know what the hell its called. I just call it lean bulking cause I see guys that are cut and they are still gaining muscle and size. And when I think of bulking I think about someone just eating as much as they can and what ever they can.
I usually eat around 3000 calories a day and my weight is pretty consistent. I think I have decided to just go ahead and cut and try to get lean and then try to gain size. Now if I were to cut do I have to lift with light weight and high reps or can I still lift heavy? I just don’t want to lose the strength that I have gained, and I know some programs I have looked at have said that you don’t need cardio to cut and others have said the opposite.
[quote]Ss0714 wrote:
Haha sorry man you are right I don’t know what the hell its called. I just call it lean bulking cause I see guys that are cut and they are still gaining muscle and size. And when I think of bulking I think about someone just eating as much as they can and what ever they can.
I usually eat around 3000 calories a day and my weight is pretty consistent. I think I have decided to just go ahead and cut and try to get lean and then try to gain size. Now if I were to cut do I have to lift with light weight and high reps or can I still lift heavy? I just don’t want to lose the strength that I have gained, and I know some programs I have looked at have said that you don’t need cardio to cut and others have said the opposite.[/quote]
dont change your training style. just start by lowering calories by 500(removing from carbs and far primarily), when your weight loss stalls, you can add cardio or reduce calories further. just dont go to extremes.
also, if you serious about competing you might want to hire a coach to take over. Shelby Starnes is good and has reasonable pricing.
If you cut, lift the same way you gained the muscle. Give your body a reason to hold on to the muscle.
I also don’t recommend cutting for you. I see no benefit of doing that at this point. You should focus on slowly adding muscle, which can make you look leaner in the long run even if you are sporting a little more bodyfat.
Can keep the calories the same, but make your carb sources super clean -cut out all sugar including fruit and stick to green veg, salads and brown rice.
Sweet, thanks guys for all of the advise, I am really glad that I can keep the routine that I have had. I will start cutting my calories by 500 and hopefully I will start tightening up and then gaining some size. I have one last question, does anyone know where I can find a diet plan or know where I can get some meal plans. I hate asking so many questions but it would greatly help me out if I had some meal plans to follow. I work from 5:30 to 5:30 and then I hit the gym. I will have to prepare all of my meals on Sunday so it is just easier for me to follow a meal plan rather than to try and come up with things to cook. I hope eventually I will know what I am doing and I won’t need a meal plan. Like I said earlier guys thanks for all of the help and hopefully I get to start posting pics with progress instead of posting all these damn questions haha.
[quote]Ss0714 wrote:
Sweet, thanks guys for all of the advise, I am really glad that I can keep the routine that I have had. I will start cutting my calories by 500 and hopefully I will start tightening up and then gaining some size. I have one last question, does anyone know where I can find a diet plan or know where I can get some meal plans. I hate asking so many questions but it would greatly help me out if I had some meal plans to follow. I work from 5:30 to 5:30 and then I hit the gym. I will have to prepare all of my meals on Sunday so it is just easier for me to follow a meal plan rather than to try and come up with things to cook. I hope eventually I will know what I am doing and I won’t need a meal plan. Like I said earlier guys thanks for all of the help and hopefully I get to start posting pics with progress instead of posting all these damn questions haha. [/quote]