Excellent article - The Truth About Bulking

[tony4100]

Quote

Not too much. I would aim for 10% above maintenance as a mim¡num.

Personally I am eating 20% above maintenance on training days, and 10% below maintenance on non-training days. Bit of an experiment but have put on a kg and dropped 1% bodyfat in 4 weeks so far. I have done zero cardio. Not enough time to draw a definitve conclusion yet however.

Just wondered how you are getting on with this approach? Having just re-read this thread now I am have started eating a bit more to gain some mass.

I am looking to follow something similar. I tried cutting to 10% - but because I had no muscule base people said I started to look ill, so I stopped at 14%. Reading other threads I think I have done the right thing.

[SunTzu]

I got into body building last year after losing 4 stone and then realising I looked like a beanpole. Since then I bulked hard, and put on about 12kg (7kg of lean muscle) but then had to cut hard as well which has been a bit brutal. Will definitiely try and bulk slower and steadier this time round.

As it is I'm still at about 12% bf and I'm struggling to get down to 10%. I've never been one for cardio but slowly getting into it now to help.

Sun

[Kieran]

Thanks this article is going to help me a lot. when i go to stop cutting I'll eat maintenance then I'll add 10% of that maintenance every 2 weeks or so? I presume I'd regularly have to recalculate my maintenance every time my weight changed and recalculate when i alter my activity levels?. I think I'll try and get my extra calories by upping the healthy foods I've been eating whilst dieting and eating more carbs but being careful to make sure they are healthy complex carbs, rather then just eating tons of junk without counting calories. I hope i can get away with eating the refined sugars I've been missing for first meal and post workout to create insulin spikes. like washing down a powder with bottle of lucozade every so often etc or having some sweets post workout. I wouldn't do this daily though because I'm planning to get dextrose to put in morning and post workout shakes. or is my science way off? sorry if I've gone off topic.

[xTomTickles]

Thank you for the article, haven't been weight training for that long so this information is highly appreciated. I've just created an Excel Spreadsheet where I am going to add my weight and Body Fat every month to see my progression on adding 1.5 to 2 pounds of muscle a month. Not 100% sure what my Body Fat is at the moment, but I am a slim person.

[sam-534]

you guys are talking about maintenance? how is it i work that out for me personally?