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Is Bulking Necessary?
- Thread starter Legion Kreinak
- Start date
coolcolj
New member
You can maintain you bodyfat and even decrease it while gaining muscle. I managed to maintain mine - see my before and afters thread
You just have to be smart about your diet and zig-zag it. Most people are lazy, its much easier to pigout
The thing is, fat cells can multiply when you get to a certain point, and once you have em, you can't get rid of them, only shrink em. Ie you will never have a "thin" a skin as you once had.
That's why its good practise to get as lean as you can if you decide to bulk. No point at bulking at >15-20% BF, your just gonna hurt yourself in the long run
You just have to be smart about your diet and zig-zag it. Most people are lazy, its much easier to pigout
The thing is, fat cells can multiply when you get to a certain point, and once you have em, you can't get rid of them, only shrink em. Ie you will never have a "thin" a skin as you once had.
That's why its good practise to get as lean as you can if you decide to bulk. No point at bulking at >15-20% BF, your just gonna hurt yourself in the long run
CoolColJ said:
You just have to be smart about your diet and zig-zag it. Most people are lazy, its much easier to pigout
That's why its good practise to get as lean as you can if you decide to bulk. No point at bulking at >15-20% BF, your just gonna hurt yourself in the long run
Bulking is easier? Bulking is being lazy? Hardly...try eating a nice bulking diet...it is HARD!!!
I don't suggest being 20%bf and being a male...but nothing wrong with being 15% at all...
Remember...as long as you are a newbie and in your first several years of training...and are not that big...EVERYTHING will work. Try going from 230-260 on a maintenance diet...
B True
greddyspeed916
New member
im at 20% body fat and i want to get a lil bigger?? what should i do?? lift more til i get to where i want then start cutting, or should i drop the body fat percentage first??
Kid Dynamite
New member
You'll lose fat quick and keep most muscle if you cut after bulking because:
-Eating extra calories will speed you metabolism, and your body will be used to burning a high amount, you drop calories for a few weeks and for the most part it's still cranked up.
-Muscle burns more calories. More oxygen uptake when you do anything (even sitting on your ass) will burn more calories if you've got extra muscle. Basically...I'm not sure if I worded this too well, hopefully you'll get the point.
-Eating extra calories will speed you metabolism, and your body will be used to burning a high amount, you drop calories for a few weeks and for the most part it's still cranked up.
-Muscle burns more calories. More oxygen uptake when you do anything (even sitting on your ass) will burn more calories if you've got extra muscle. Basically...I'm not sure if I worded this too well, hopefully you'll get the point.
Like someone said your diet and timing should be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT if you wanna gain muscle without fat. in fact you should walk around 24/7 with a bagback filled with tubes of carbohydrates / insuline / amino/acids that will be released IV by a computer that measures your bloodlevels every 5 minutes and automatically adjusts your bloodbalance to favourable anabolic levels or releases some anti-cortisol agents on demand or some extra adrenaline if you are going for a heavy squat....
In fact I have the feeling that this cyborg approach WILL actualy happen by top ranking pro's in the near future. Bodybuilders are willing to try ANY trick to get that small edge against the competition, even it is potentially dangerous (DNP etc.)
Meanwhile for the rest of us, we better stick to common sense and use the frequent small meals scenario to take care that we avoid spikes in our blood so that we can bulk with a favourable muscle to fat ratio. Also the reason that you need that a few pounds of intramuscular fat is that it plays a role in the regeneration of ATP using the creatinephospate cycle etc. Also eating fats (especially the healthy fish oils) will promote the release of hormones by your body.
Sure in theory it is ppossible to saturate your body to exact demand but many people that try that will fail. In practise only bb that have been training for a very long time , like Robbie Robinson (he is NEVER more than 2 weeks away from contest time!!!) learned exactly the needs of their body and also he has the basic size and muscle maturity, so he doens't have to go thru a basic bulking and cutting phase.....
Hope that this encourages you to don't shy away from bulking just focus during this phase on the basic squats and deadlifts to assure that a great deal of that lump clay is muscle that you can refine and shape during the cutting phase adding more isolation exercises and cardio
And BTW: the proes bulk up to ridiculous fat percentages, hoovering around at 300 lbs with 30 percent fat sometimes, but than again they have special chemical assistense like lasix, DNP and T3, clenny etc to get rid of that lard, you should definately not copy their bulking scenario without those goodies/knowledge
In fact I have the feeling that this cyborg approach WILL actualy happen by top ranking pro's in the near future. Bodybuilders are willing to try ANY trick to get that small edge against the competition, even it is potentially dangerous (DNP etc.)
Meanwhile for the rest of us, we better stick to common sense and use the frequent small meals scenario to take care that we avoid spikes in our blood so that we can bulk with a favourable muscle to fat ratio. Also the reason that you need that a few pounds of intramuscular fat is that it plays a role in the regeneration of ATP using the creatinephospate cycle etc. Also eating fats (especially the healthy fish oils) will promote the release of hormones by your body.
Sure in theory it is ppossible to saturate your body to exact demand but many people that try that will fail. In practise only bb that have been training for a very long time , like Robbie Robinson (he is NEVER more than 2 weeks away from contest time!!!) learned exactly the needs of their body and also he has the basic size and muscle maturity, so he doens't have to go thru a basic bulking and cutting phase.....
Hope that this encourages you to don't shy away from bulking just focus during this phase on the basic squats and deadlifts to assure that a great deal of that lump clay is muscle that you can refine and shape during the cutting phase adding more isolation exercises and cardio
And BTW: the proes bulk up to ridiculous fat percentages, hoovering around at 300 lbs with 30 percent fat sometimes, but than again they have special chemical assistense like lasix, DNP and T3, clenny etc to get rid of that lard, you should definately not copy their bulking scenario without those goodies/knowledge
If you're not looking to put on a lot of muscle (which is what you seem to be saying by your odd maintaining diet), try a calorie cycle diet. One where you eat 20cal per 1lb on training days and 10cal per 1lb and on non-training days. your gains will pale in comparison to a typical bulking diet, but you won't put on as much mass. This cyclic diet is from Mr. X's bulking article. Check it out.
Cap'n Cooke
New member
man, i thought like this, too. i worked out for MONTHS and didn't get the gains I wanted. why not? I didn't EAT.
now I've been eating 3400+ cals/day for the past months, and I can DEFINITELY notice an increase in muscle mass. since i've been doing it cleanly, my fat gains are small, but i've still gained a bit.
it's worth it.
now I've been eating 3400+ cals/day for the past months, and I can DEFINITELY notice an increase in muscle mass. since i've been doing it cleanly, my fat gains are small, but i've still gained a bit.
it's worth it.
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