Some Advice on the Next Steps

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Its my 1st year into weightlifting and i never cutted to start i started at about 25-27%bf at 6"2 with no muscle max bench was 90lbs

Now a year has passed an ive dropped 5%bf and raised my max bench to about 325 for a rep

My diet is very poor with relying off of protein powders for my protein intake averaging about 70g a day and alot of kidney beans white rice , ceareals with sugars, peanutbutter an honey sandwiches, the odd whopper wedsneday every month and a bag of chips evey 2 weeks

I have lots of concerns tho

On my shoulders where my shoulder would meet. My chest just above there ive got some nasty strech marks as well as on my biceps and aome adding just recently just below the bicep on the joint where the bicep and forearm meet

Is my high bodyfat going to cause my gains to stop because there is no room? My goal is just to get as big as possible as fast as possible and as cheap as possible . Will cutting help me gain more muscle mass? I have about a 2300 calorie diet with most coming from carbs. Will a 3000 calorie diet add more muscle mass based on me so far or will it add to fat?

Eventually i want to be down to 15%bf as my main goal but can i do that by just staking mass and making the mass hypothetically eat the fat over time?

And how does everyone afford there diets like what are your personal bills for diet coming to every month?

Sry for any spelling mistakea on typing on a phone and any advice/answers are overly appreciated!!

2

Man if you would clean up your diet you would drop bodyfat quickly. Your eating is shit and that’s what is going to cause you to stop growing not how fat you are. I would keep your calories where you have them now but switch what your eating. Getting 1g of pro for every pound of lean tissue. So probably 180-200g a day this is not hard too get. 2 scoops whey 4 eggs 1 large Chicken breast 8 oz lean beef BOOM 200g of protein and shouldnt be that expensive. You need to drop all your shit carbs and food if you honestly give half a fuck about dropping weight. Your carbs should be from oatmeal brown rice sweet potatoes and fruits. Get you diet in check and your 15% is very attainable.

PS awesome work on the bench gains that a pretty big bench after only a year.
What are your other lifts and current height and weight.

3

[quote]Reed wrote:
Man if you would clean up your diet you would drop bodyfat quickly. Your eating is shit and that’s what is going to cause you to stop growing not how fat you are. I would keep your calories where you have them now but switch what your eating. Getting 1g of pro for every pound of lean tissue. So probably 180-200g a day this is not hard too get. 2 scoops whey 4 eggs 1 large Chicken breast 8 oz lean beef BOOM 200g of protein and shouldnt be that expensive. You need to drop all your shit carbs and food if you honestly give half a fuck about dropping weight. Your carbs should be from oatmeal brown rice sweet potatoes and fruits. Get you diet in check and your 15% is very attainable.

PS awesome work on the bench gains that a pretty big bench after only a year.
What are your other lifts and current height and weight.[/quote]

Hey thanks for the food advice!

My current weight is 225 6’2
and my other lifts are
dl 310x6
squat 275x6
Bench 275x6

4

Trust me man if your 220 at 6’2" you have alot of room for growing more muscle espeacially if you are not very lean. I am 5’6" and weigh 200lbs and I have alot of muscle to grow my self. Clean up your diet and continue getting stronger you have some good lifts for only a year in

5

[quote]Nakedboobsfight wrote:
Now a year has passed an ive dropped 5%bf and raised my max bench to about 325 for a rep
…
and my other lifts are
dl 310x6
squat 275x6
Bench 275x6 [/quote]
Your bench shouldn’t be equal to, or more than, your squat unless you’ve been dealing with some kind of injury. It’s one indicator that your training is lopsided and improperly designed.

What does your training plan look like (days, exercises, sets, and reps)?

It’s good that you recognize this as a crap diet, but you need to actually do something about it.
This article talks about setting up some basic guidelines for each meal:

In this thread thread, people talked about their grocery lists and budget:
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/diet_performance_nutrition_supplements/grocery_list_3

No room? Guys your height have reached 400 pounds. There’s room.

And that’s why you got fat. If your goal was better planned, you would’ve been able to monitor your muscular gains more closely and adjust things as you were going along to slow down fat gain.

Tricky question. It’s not that cutting will exactly help you gain muscle, but when you start bulking with a relatively-high bodyfat, your body is more prone to adding even more bodyfat along with any muscle. Things like metabolism, insulin resistance, and other factors tie into this.

So, in your particular case, dropping some fat and getting a better handle on your nutrition in general, most likely will make your next muscle building phase more effective.

Getting “most” of your calories from carbs can lead to fat gain if your training doesn’t warrant the demand. And no, increasing calories by another 30% when you’re already unhappy with bodyfat is not the right idea.

Depending on how you’re training now, it could be as easy as just tacking some basic cardio onto your lifiting sessions, or something as involved as restructuring your whole program.

Figuring you mean “muscle” when you say “mass”, this isn’t really how the body works. Yes, having more lean muscle on your body will increase your resting metabolic rate (you’ll burn more calories all day), but saying the “muscle eats the fat” sounds like the old line about how “muscle turns into fat when you stop exercising.”

You’ll get the results you’re after as soon as you coordinate smart training and the right nutrition towards a specific goal.