I know I read about this in the articles… I’ve read hundreds of them and it’s hard to remember where the useful ones were so I figured I’d ask the general crowd here for opinions.
I’ll post my stats again since most of you probably don’t know or don’t remember. I have been working out on and off for a long time now, since high school (I’m now 23 so that makes it about 8 years) but have always been inconsistent. FINALLY I have gotten consistent… mainly cuz I was a fat ass back in March. ANYWAY…
Now it’s been 5 1/2 months of dieting. I have gone from 205+ pounds to 178 pounds. Today for the first time I got my bodyfat tested at my gym. The guy really seemed like he knew what he was doing and tested it 3 times. It came out to 12%. I was quite surprised since I expected something more like 15-20%. I guess I have a skewed image of myself. If my calculations are correct, dropping from 205 to 178 (assuming it was all fat which I believe it was) means I came down from ~22% to 12%.
So it’s been 5.5 long months of dieting and working out and I have leaned up to 12% from 22%. I am quite happy.
My question now is, should I start to bulk or keep dieting? I know it’s better to lean up before dieting, but is 12% good enough? I’m willing to keep dieting if in the long run it’ll be more efficient. But it’s already been 5.5 months and perhaps I need to cycle off the dieting and resume it later?
My short term goals are to look “as good as I possibly can by Christmas time.” That gives me about 4 months of time. What do you guys suggest I do? Is it feasible to do a bulking phase and then diet down again for my Christmas goal?
Just start adding more calories post workout, and add a little bit to each meal.
Honestly I think you can add some bulk while keeping that BF or maybe even lowering it. I’ve gone through a similar deal as you, been watching my diet even longer than that and i’ve gone up about 15 pounds of LBM.
Hey, good job! Good timing on the post, because I am down to 13.3% from around 20% bf. I took Mag-10 while I was fat and gained muscle. Not conventional advice, but I got into the gains. I just wanted to say way to work hard.
It’s always time to bulk. Seriously, for years I was careful about putting to much size on. Mainly because of weight class limits. I had certain goals that I wanted to accomplish before I went to the next class.
At about 25, I stopped competing fro a variety of reasons. From that point on I stayed fit and strong. Starting in 98 I began westside. That’s were i didn’t give a damn about my weight anymore. funny thing is, I put on a lot of muscular size.
I think I have been convinced to bulk. What a new world this is going to be to me. For the past 8 years everytime I have been working out it has been to cut up. Mainly cuz each time I would only make progress for a few months, get decent results, and then quit out of laziness.
But this time I’ve actually gotten the results I want and I have motivation to keep this up for the rest of my life. So I’m going to try bulking for the first time. I’ve never had the “bulking” mentality before… it’s always been, diet, diet, diet! How wierd this is going to be. Now I have to rescan all of the t-mag articles skipping the ones about losing fat and reading the bulking ones instead!
BTW, why is everyone saying to bulk? I almost expected at least a few people to say “drop to at least 10% before you bulk rather than 12%” Is it cuz I’ve already been dieting so long and have gone down from 22% so I should cycle off the diet?
12% is plenty low enough to start bulking, and you also have been cutting long enough, you need a change.
For me I noticed the cut off around 13%. That is when I really started putting on lean mass and stopped losing total weight, even though I was still losing fat. Actually I gained weight since then.
I guess drinking beer, eating cookies and ice cream does help during a cutting phase…
Do a cycle or three of mag-10/tribex+m with massive eating then go on methoxy+hot Rox. You should put on some considerable size with minimal fat and maybe even a little more while maintaining and your new LBM.
I’m as sure as I can be that I’m 12% short of doing any crazy tests beyond my reach. I went to my gym and had one of the trainers do a test with a caliper that looked quite high tech compared to the other ones I’ve seen. He also measured my bodyfat 3 times in order to ensure good results.
Of course, you might want to make up your mind yourself considering that some of the people telling you to bulk may never have even been 12% much less below it… just a consideration from a “mens fitness” type. 8)
It seems the common thought around here is to bulk and then maintain the new found LBM to keep the gains better. I have no problem with this, as it makes some sense. It alos means I get to eat burgers longer. I’m just curious as to the science behind this. Why does this seem to work?
I’m just curious as to the science behind this. Why does this seem to work?