Skinny-Fat Guy, Advice on Bulking Plan

Training Beginners
1

Background: I have a bad case of skinny-fatness. I have skinny arms, a thin frame, skinny legs, and a bit of a gut/back fat/flabby chest. Now this was worse a few months ago, but I went on a diet and shed around 15 pounds over the summer. But still, it’s pretty bad.

So I’m looking to bulk up to get some muscle on my frame because losing the fat first is becoming extremely frustrating, and I’m still gonna look pretty terrible after the fat is all off. But I’m very nervous about starting a mass phase because I’m an ectomorph who packs fat on easy. So here’s a bulking plan I was considering doing:

Basically I’m planning switching off with high calories/carbs days and low calories/low carb days. The high calories/carb days would be the days that I lift while the low carb/cal days would be either rest or cardio. So it would look something like this:

Monday: Low Cals/Carbs + Rest
Tuesday: High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Wednesday:Low Cals/Carbs + Cardio
Thursday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Friday:Low Cals/Carbs + Cardio
Saturday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Sunday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting

Would be this a plausible way of doing things? Perhaps going +500 maintenance on lifting days and -500 on rest/cardio days? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

2

It’s a plausible method to fail by.

Or you could simply lift hard and eat a slight caloric surplus (approx. 500 or so).

You do realize that your rest and recovery periods are when your muscles actually grow. You plan to eat well on lifting days and then cut cals on recovery days.

3

I don’t see the need to eat 500 cals below maintenance three daya a week. If you are training hard and getting your cardio in, you’re not going to get fat eating 500 over maintenance four days a week.

It takes about 3500 excess calories to build a pound of pure fat. Even if you were gaining muscle/fat at a 1:1 ratio, which is not so good at your level, you’d barely add a pound of fat a month, if your numbers were precise. If you did it your way, you wouldn’t gain any fat but you probably wouldn’t grow much either.

So I think you can afford to be more aggressive with your calories in general. Obviously the specifics of your diet and training are very important but as far as what you’ve posted, this is what I would do.

4

I realize my post wasn’t altogether clear. I would recommend you bump your low days to maintenance days. Keep in one low day if you’re really paranoid, that should be more than enough.

Your high days can start at 500 over but you might find you can go higher and gain faster without getting fat. That’s what I would expect…

Good luck.

5

I’m actually an FFB who lost 50 pounds around a year and a half ago, if that change things at all. I’m just nervous that going on a big bulk would cause me to gain fat at a rapid rate. According to Shugart’s FFB handbook, I’d be gaining muscle/fat at a 1:4 ratio as opposed to a 1:1 ratio.

6

[quote]BeetleBlue wrote:
According to Shugart’s FFB handbook, I’d be gaining muscle/fat at a 1:4 ratio as opposed to a 1:1 ratio. [/quote]

Don’t take everything everyone says as gospel. If you go on a clean bulk and do some cardio, you won’t gain (much) fat.

7

[quote]BeetleBlue wrote:
Background: I have a bad case of skinny-fatness. I have skinny arms, a thin frame, skinny legs, and a bit of a gut/back fat/flabby chest. Now this was worse a few months ago, but I went on a diet and shed around 15 pounds over the summer. But still, it’s pretty bad.

So I’m looking to bulk up to get some muscle on my frame because losing the fat first is becoming extremely frustrating, and I’m still gonna look pretty terrible after the fat is all off. But I’m very nervous about starting a mass phase because I’m an ectomorph who packs fat on easy. So here’s a bulking plan I was considering doing:

Basically I’m planning switching off with high calories/carbs days and low calories/low carb days. The high calories/carb days would be the days that I lift while the low carb/cal days would be either rest or cardio. So it would look something like this:

Monday: Low Cals/Carbs + Rest
Tuesday: High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Wednesday:Low Cals/Carbs + Cardio
Thursday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Friday:Low Cals/Carbs + Cardio
Saturday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting
Sunday:High Cals/Carbs + Lifting

Would be this a plausible way of doing things? Perhaps going +500 maintenance on lifting days and -500 on rest/cardio days? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. [/quote]

Ugh who cares dude, just eat healthy and train hard (with a reasonable program), there really is no need to measure your carbs/calories until you are at a high level of development and want to get extra shredded etc.

6-7 healthy meals a day should be fine, 3 solid, 3-4 shakes in between.

If you are getting too much fat, dont eat that many carbs after lunch-time, or add in some steady cardio after 2-3 of your training sessions.

If the scales aren’t going up, eat more.

Not being able to train properly for a year really let me put things into perspective. You fuckers starting out make things waaaaaay too fucking complicated.

Getting big muscles is all about CONSISTENCY with your diet & program.

It is not hard to find out what a ‘a high protein healthy meal’ consists of these days, and for a good program just read CT’s shit.

You do not need to bulk, or cut, or whatever. Just do what I said above and eventually your body will recompose itself.