“Bulking” and “cutting” are terms that a lot of burgeoning fitness enthusiasts (and let’s be honest, the people interested in these terms are almost always men) will hear in their research, but will often be clueless as to what they actually mean; their understanding will be a rough one of “rapidly gaining and losing weight for some reason.” This article will explain why bulking and cutting are done, the different types of bulking, and the results of doing all of this.
Why Bulk?
Bulking is defined as deliberately packing on poundage with the intention of simultaneously stimulating muscular development through exercise, with the end goal of later slimming down and having larger and more impressive muscular definition. Cutting is the previously mentioned act of slimming down for purposes of having a trimmer physique.
The reason that this works is a simple one: Should you want to build muscle, you do so in the same way you build a fire—the more wood you put on the fire, the bigger the fire will be. Similarly, having a surplus of calories and various nutrients (proteins, amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids, etc.) will create bigger muscles. Or, to use the proper term, will keep the muscles in a state of anabolism, literally metabolic functions of creating large molecules from small molecules—most notably the formation of protein strands from amino acids.
From Wikipedia: “The surplus of calories relative to one’s energy balance will ensure that muscles remain in a state of anabolism.”
While eating a nutritional surplus will create an optimal internal environment for building muscle, it will by definition also be an optimal environment for increasing the size of adipose tissue as well-in short, an optimal environment for putting on fat. This is why Olympic weightlifters and strongmen tend to be fairly rotund, despite clearly having muscle underneath their flab.
In addition to this, extra fat tissue will also serve as a sort of cushioning for the joints that will have to bear the enormous weight brunted by an Olympic-class weightlifter, another specific benefit of having more fat on your body-and one of the few benefits of having an excess of fat (the negatives are well-documented, and don’t need to be discussed here).
Dirty And Clean Bulking
Now that we have established that bulking is simply eating more than you usually would to pack on pounds of both muscle and fat, we can further subdivide this broad concept into “dirty” and “clean” bulking, in increasing order of complexity.
Dirty bulking is, as is probably implied, the act of eating as much as you can without any pre-planning or portioning of nutrients. This is the easiest type of bulking to achieve-just increase your portions of food. Ideally, you would largely be eating food with actual nutritional value (ie: the “Dont Eat Shit” diet) rather than just eating cake and fast food-such food tends to give one the runs, which kind of defeats the purpose of eating more calories. However, in a dirty bulk you can make some concessions for desert after eating proper food.
A clean bulk is, in contrast, one where every calorie, vitamin, and gram of protein is deliberately calculated for maximum effectiveness—i.e., how to put on the most amount of muscle while putting on the least amount of fat to make the eventual cutting easier. While it is easier to describe when comparing it to the dirty bulk, the clean bulk is much more complicated.
If you’re going to be doing a bulk at all, I would recommend what I like to call the “half dirty half clean bulk” for beginners—as implied above, this is increasing your caloric intake without deliberation and planning but still eating halfway decent food (i.e., no fast food, junk food, etc.)
How To Bulk
As mentioned before, the dirty bulk is a fairly simple process: Just look at your daily intake of food, and increase it to whatever degree you’re comfortable doing. I would recommend eating all of the proper nutrients you should have learned in grade school, just more of them-to cite a few examples, you could have a couple more eggs and strips of bacon in the morning, some more meat and cheese in your lunch sandwich, a second hamburger or porkchop for dinner, and all the fixings on the side (don’t neglect vegetables and starches like rice either). If you’re still hurting for extra calories, try a protein shake with milk and oatmeal and yogurt in addition to the meals. Or have some snacks in between meals.
While you’re eating these extra nutrients, continue to work out strenuously. You will likely notice that your lifting is stronger than it was before. That’s the anabolism mentioned above in action. You will be building muscle at this point to a greater degree than you were before, but you will likely not be able to see it due to your also gaining fat.
It is worth pointing out that a person in the midst of a proper bulk is certainly fat, but more in the sense of “burly” rather than the standard type of fat. It’s sort of hard to describe, but is visible to even the untrained eye:
Observe this fat guy. Clearly, he’s not much of a physical specimen despite his size-his belly and waist are clearly wider than his shoulders and chest.
A Sample Bulking Diet
The bulking diet below is more or less one day on my “dirty-clean” bulk, as the foods enumerated here are more or less healthy—or at the very least, are things your great-grandfather would recognize as food. This is essentially what I ate to gain weight, with no deliberation beyond the quick and fast rule of “don’t eat shit.” In contrast, a dirty bulk has been described as “eat everything under the sun”.
Breakfast: 6 eggs cooked in any style, 6 strips of bacon, toast and butter, piece of hand fruit, and a glass of milk. Alternatively make yourself a bowl of oatmeal in cream with all of the side fixings detailed before.
Snack: Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on toast, glass of milk, and perhaps some cottage cheese on the side.
Lunch: A sandwich made with a quarter pound of meat, cheese, and other ingredients (some estimation might be necessary), with a side of French Fries or brown rice. Drink fruit juice or milk for their nutrients and calories.
Protein Shake: There are many recipes that can be found, but the one I like, taken and amended from Bodybuilding.com, is: 1 cup of dry oatmeal, 2 scoops of Greek yogurt, 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of chopped almonds, 1.5 cups of milk.
Dinner: 2 homemade cheeseburgers with whatever trimmings you’d like on buns, with a side of leafy green vegetables cooked in whatever style you desire. Once again, drink fruit juice or milk.
Snack: A bowl of nuts, a piece of cheese, or something else that has good fat content.
As you can see, there’s nothing exotic or fancy about this diet, it’s really what the average person would be eating in their day, just greater quantities of it. Obviously, you don’t need to eat this exact meal every day, I cite this day of eating as an example of what to do: Just take what you would have eaten anyway, and have more of it. Throughout each week you bulk, be sure to continue exercising so you build muscle in addition to fat. If you’re really serious about gaining weight, I would reduce cardio to some degree: Instead of doing cardio twice a week as I usually recommend, just do it once a week and do another day of weight training.
Cutting
You probably have already assumed what cutting is, and your assumption is correct: It’s reducing calories and shedding your blubber. And since dirty bulking was theoretically simple, so is this. Just cut your portion sizes in half-or whatever fraction you desire-while continuing to exercise at your normal rate, if not increasing your exercise. To cite a previous article of mine, you can do your formal exercise routine (running, weights, etc.) as usual, while increasing your informal rate of exercise (I will once again advocate walking to and from places as a great way to burn calories without even thinking about it).
So, a day on a cutting diet would look something like this;
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, 1 piece of toast. Drink fruit juice, low fat milk, or water.
Lunch: A sandwich made smaller than the bulking sandwich, drink water with it.
Snack: 1 peanut butter sandwich with water, juice, or milk, and cottage cheese on the side.
Dinner: Filet of fish in olive oil with leafy green vegetables and brown rice.
Bearing in mind that you will experience some small degree of strength loss on a cutting diet, continue exercising as normal. I kept up my schedule of 2 days of resistance training, 2 days of running, and 2 days of martial arts, while also walking to and from any place that is within a round-trip distance of 5 miles-ie: if the trip to and from the destination combined is 5 miles or less, walk there. You don’t need to walk to and from casual sex like I did in school, but it certainly couldn’t hurt!
Within a month or two, you will lose your blubber and have the trim physique you desired. The only downside to this, as mentioned above, is that you will likely not be as strong as you were while fatter, due to eating a caloric deficit.
In conclusion, cutting and bulking are not really necessary for the person who just wants to get fit, get stronger, or lose weight. However, if you desire improvement of the purely aesthetic, I’d consider a regimen of this dietary technique.
Read More: 4 Fitness Myths That Are Pure Bullshit
The biggest mistake when I started lifting was not eating enough. I was a fat kid so I ate like a faggot in high school and got super skinny.
I would lift but make zero gains. One day I realized that I was fucking around and started eating right. I gained some fat, but I look way better at 6’1″ weighing 185 than at 160. Arms, chest, shoulders all actually have muscle now. I’m going to gain until I hit 200lbs, then cut to where I am now.
I am kinda fat now. I would never bulk from this point. First, I’d lose weight, then think about adding muscle.
I have a bit of a gut now, but everything else is finally getting bigger too. I get what you’re saying though.
I used to be VERY scrawny, then finally put up weight, initially to my delight, and now also got a beer belly I want to rid myself off. I guess building muscle is my only way. I never want to be scrawny again.
Try intermittent fasting. Worked for me.
bulking tips go ,here
It says my account has insufficient privilege to access this page.
I was always underwight into my 30s. I started lifting and bulking. I got about 10 pounds overweight and didn’t care until I started running again. 10 pounds slows ya down. So I tried cutting but absolutely could not control my portion size. I just can’t.
I I tried intermittent fasting instead. I lost 7 lbs in one week and have plenty of energy. I only eat from noon until 8pm and if I only eat 2 meals I don’t have to worry about portion size so much, and I am only exposed to food twice a day instead of 3 times a day.
Nice, glad it worked for ya. This approach does not do too well for me personally. I basically just have to be in the right mindset and then I can lose weight in any way you can imagine. That’s how I once lost around 90 pounds in half a year. And kept it off.
But usually I am not in that right mindset. Got some demons to hunt down that keep me eating. When that is resolved, nothing will stop me. I suppose.
IF rocks and rocks hard…
Always works for me too! Sometimes combine with keto (or a Vince Gironda Steak and Eggs thing if I’m feeling really hard core, grin)
haha, I am an epicurean I guess. I just love food. I want to taste everything that comes accross my view. I hate when I go to an office lunch at a new restaurant and two people order the same dish. When I have a good dish in front of me I can’t stop eating it until it is completely gone, even if the portion size is huge. I’ve always eaten like this and have always been under weight! Now in my 30s I have to be careful.
That would be a mistake.
In fact it would be a recipe to lose more of what lean mass you have *and* mess up your metabolism further…
A better strategy would be to build your muscle mass under that fat and *then* go on a cut. Fat is metabolically inert, lean mass metabolically active. Building your lean will help lose some of the fat whether you then go on to cut or not…
I respectfully disagree. I just can’t grow any bigger right now, it would be a disaster. I would outgrow all my clothes and feel like a piece of shit.
OK… NP… Just my opinion 🙂
Just because you think ot wouldnt work for you right now doesnt mean he is wrong.
He is correct.
And you want to do differently. Thats ok.
I didn’t say he was wrong. I said I disagree.
Diet is key. Stay away from carbs like bread(even that whole grain bullshit governments like to push), sugar and pastas. Get carbs from vegetables and limited amounts of fruit. Th rest of your diet should consist of protein from sources like chicken, fish, beef, turkey, etc, then healthy fats from either nuts, olive/coconut/canola oils, butter and good cheeses. You don’t have to be a fat fuck to gain mass like everyone believes.
Actually, I have never lost fat using any low-carb diet. I think it’s a myth. Whole grain and even normal wheat products work just fine for me. Maybe it just depends on the individual’s metabolism.
Interesting. I guess everyone’s body is different. Just like with beer in my case. A lot of men seem to love it. I’ll have one every now and then but I don’t get the love for it lots of guys seem to have. That was off-topic but, you know.
Off-topic, but a good example. I also don’t really love beer. I always thought men liked it because it tastes like shit and it takes cojones to force it down.
That’s probably why. But I’ve met people who legitimately love the taste! Beats me but hey, if it works right? Spiced rum has always been my thing.
For more bulking tips go ,here
<<fb. ★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★✫★★::::::!il656r:….,….
This is the mistake most of us make (me too!). It really is pretty simple – to get big you need to eat big… up to a point of course. Eventually you get into the finer grade stuff, and ‘bulking’ and cutting have there place here too.
It took me years and lots of those cycles to get to where I’m finally happy at 205lbs ~ 10%bf
great article, i am often jealous of my – 6ft bros, cus they seem to gain muscle and fill out so easy. meanwhile at 6’3 i eat more than a third world country and struggle to fill out. i look like a badass at 210 pounds 17% bodyfat tho so its worth it.
Yep, works the other way round (hehe) too, short people tend to have to watch every calorie to keep from blimping up.
Funny, we’re almost exact same size, % body fat, and height. I’m 6’4″, 15-17% BF about 212-215 on the regular (no lifting now). I feel your pain, I once ate literally almost as much as Michael Phelps (apx. 12k Calories a day), I was eating between 8-10k. It was fucking brutal for 7 months straight. But I got up to 259 at my peak. Retarded 1RM on all compounds, etc. Ectomorph life is a bitch. All the 5’9″-6’1″ers in the game will tell you taller thin guys have to put in a LOT more work than anyone else to get same results.
Trashed half my joints lifting heavy (and yes proper form per power lifting vets).. IFBB judge at our gym, etc. God don’t make no junk, except joints I say. My peak weight was in 2013-14.. dropped all that since, along with a lot of muscle, and took a 6 mo hiatus to heal everything the best I could. About to jump back into it time permitting. I lifted every week 3-6 days a week for 8 years straight so I feel no shame. Your body speaks, you better listen. I am done however bulking/cutting. Once back up to 220-35 (tops) I’m pleased. Funny too, tagged more puss in the 210-225 range than I ever did 240+.. but damn I felt like a God.
“All the 5’9″-6’1″ers in the game will tell you taller thin guys have to put in a LOT more work than anyone else to get same results.”
You just described me. I’m almost 6’3″, and 4x-a-week resistance training only barely moves the needle on my muscle mass, even with a heavy protein intake. Furthermore, I can’t do the weights that shorter guys do because my long limbs have to push it further.
That’s ok. I kill at volleyball. 😉
good to hear bro, its a long journey for us u damn right and 8 years is a hell of a long time. but its worth it in the end because we look like absolute tanks. keep it up!
Some reccomends in this article are controversial at least.
I do understand that this is aimed at the ideal ROK reader doing workouts and being in excellent shape, but for those who are not:
To lose weight just skip eating anything but things with high protein values. Your muscles do need protein, and you do not want to lose muscles. Fats and sugars are (far-fetched) essentially the same for your body, and you obviously have too much of that already. So, just skip _everything_ but 2 grams of Protein / kg of body weight per day – that’s .016 ouces per pound. If you intend to consume anything but protein shakes or (better!) low-fat curd, you’ll still get plenty of carbohydrates and fats anyway, so there is no reason at all for bacon, bread, fruit juice or even olive oil.
You will, unfortunately, lose out on vital vitamins and minerals, but tablets are quite fine for that. See a doctor if uncomfortable (hungry is not uncomfortable, eat a tomato).
To “bulk”, you also will need mostly proteins, so your diet can basically stay the same – just eat more. If you do shitloads of physical activity like an Ironman run you will need more energy than your body can provide, that would be a reasonable point to eat bacon, but carboyhydrates can be metabolized faster, which makes mashed fruits an infinitely better idea, and this is why runners eat that. Plus, two pounds of bacon will just make most people running a marathon vomit, while still not providing enough calories.
Stay focussed on the proteins. Lose weight, gain muscles – proteins are the key. High-protein foods are quite delicious, you can eat any (low-fat) meat you like, and most animal products are quite excellent.
I have not yet seen convincing evidence that eating a lot of protein during a caloric deficit diet lessens the amount of muscle loss. In the end, protein is going to be converted to something else before it can be used for energy anyway. That is what happens to the muscle mass. I am not sure how eating protein is going to change anything about it. Except that maybe you fool your body and it thinks: ‘Oh, here’s protein. It must be from my muscles. Alright, I will not attack the muscles then.’ Which sounds way too simple to be true.
Actually I think this is generally correct…. although when combined with lifting it can:
http://suppversity.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=protein+muscle+loss
Empirically any bodybuilder will also tell you this (if we leave aside the question as to whether they are also using AAS to maintain lean mass while cutting)
Underated comment. From my experience, eat 80-90% of your normal caloric need while eating at least 1g of protein per pound. Cut those carbs. Went from 205 to 190 in two months.
“Fats and sugars are (far-fetched) essentially the same for your body”
dear god… never heard of things like essential fatty acids or the fact that you need fats to synthesize hormones and stuff like that?
Low fat is new age crap
Proteins in excess of your body’s requirements are metabolized to carbohydrates for consumption. Carbohydrates are metabolized to fats, and carbs in your system in excess of a limit (determined by the individual, but usually less than 100g) will spur an insulin response that causes fat storage and encourages increased carb consumption throughout the day.
I find the Kwazniewski Optimal Diet ratio most effective. 1g carb : 2g protein : 5-7g fat
Nuance!
Beautiful!…
At what point should we move from bulking to cutting? I’m 5’9″, 150 lbs and burn calories like gasoline. I’m told my ideal weight should be 165, so do I try to reach that weight through bulking and lifting, and then move to cutting? What would my weight goal be while cutting?
Unless you look like Chris Hemswoth, your data looks fine as-is. You probably do not look like Chris Hemswoth, but in short: exercise as much as you can, and try to skip eating anything non-animal until you do. Losing weight will just make you look like Sheldon. At 165 lbs, you should look like Thor, otherwise you are just fat.
I’m 6’4”, 213 lbs. I look like a SWAT officer.
My problem is I have love handles that are completely strange to my otherwise well defined body. It’s super difficult to “cut” for me, as I become super hungry after 3 hours without eating (muscle mass is around 187 lbs). Even worse than that, if I actually achieve some results, my face becomes a skull… Ghost rider…
What should I do?
Same problem here and the handles won’t go away unless you go on a harsh diet. I guess it’s a very slow process of cutting
BiK3 above is correct – give it time. And eat tomatoes, pickles or something else “without” calories if hungry. Bellys are a bitch.
I also highly recommend not following the “cutting diet”.
> Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, 1 piece of toast. Drink fruit juice, low fat milk, or water.
Skip the bacon. Skip the bread. And forget fruit juice. That’s a 280 kcal breakfast, with almost no proteins. Add a glass of orange juice, and it’s 400 kcal.
> Lunch: A sandwich made smaller than the bulking sandwich, drink water with it.
That’s a “sandwich made with a quarter pound of meat, cheese, and other ingredients (some estimation might be necessary), with a side of French Fries or brown rice”
Erm… eat a quarter pound of lean (!) meat. Definitely no fries. That would be ~1600 kcal at least.
> Snack: 1 peanut butter sandwich with water, juice, or milk, and cottage cheese on the side.
Peanut butter / jelly sandwich. That’s at least 800 kcal. Eat an fucking apple.
> Dinner: Filet of fish in olive oil with leafy green vegetables and brown rice.
Another 1000 kcal. That’s 4.200 kcal. Unless you are in a WW2 trench fighting Nazis, you surely do not need those calories. Wrap the fish in aluminium foil and add spices & squeeze a lemon. Then bake for 20 Minutes at 140°C.
This will leave you – if you follow my corrections or not- with a severe shortage of proteins and – if you follow the author – an extreme plus in calories. Good luck losing weight with that. And a sure case of vitamin-everything-deficiency. If you squeeze the lemon, it will save you from scurvy, but I still would not endorse the diet. Not even mine. Eat yoghurt with fruits, at least you will survive that.
Your math is way off.
A peanut butter sandwich 800 kcal? Fish in oil, vegetables and rice = 1000 kcal?
I mean, yeah, he did not specify the exact size, but you are assuming one big sandwich.
Peanut butter has some 600kcal/100g. For a normal sandwich, you maybe use 15g peanut butter and the bread itself (some 300kcal/100g) may be, what, 30-50g? So that’s around 200-300kcal in total.
As for the fish, it depends on how fatty the fish is, but let’s assume some rather lean fish. Would be around 120kcal/100g. Take 200g of that fish and you have 240kcal. Use maybe 20g of oil to fry it (around 650kcal/100g) and you have added 150kcal. Then let’s add 400g of some random low-cal vegetables and we have another 100kcal. 50g of rice (around 300kcal/100g) and you have 150kcal plus. Result: 650kcal.
Mind you, those 50g of rice refer to the dried version. So it’s not like you really just eat 50g of boiled rice.
The difference between bulking and cutting is the type of steroid stack used.
So true…
In this day and age bulking up calories is the easy part.
Don’t forget the Kratom
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/get-out-of-my-mind-1.png
Probably, mind reading abilities are a side effect of too much kratom…
I had forgotten the kratom.
Does that make me literally hitler?
The paleo diet is excellent for informal cutting, but the “absolutely no carbs” rule is tough to follow to the letter, especially if you like athletics. Also, your brain runs on carbs.
From what I read, cutting the carbs changes the mode your body is operating after a few days. It then runs in the ketogenetic mode. Only the transition period seems to be very tough. I am not sure if that is really correct, though. There is a lot of nonsense surrounding diets and also the low-carb diet. For instance, it says sometimes ‘eat as much as you like and you will lose fat’. I tried that and I ended up gaining a lot of fat after an initial weight loss due to water loss.
Yeah, I went all day yesterday without any carbs, and I woke up this morning with my stomach telling me, “Toast with butter. 2 pieces. NOW.” I’m a fan of listening to one’s body. It generally knows.
And again, the brain runs on carbs. Unlike others, I like to use my brain … a lot. It pays the bills.
I know what you mean. After 3 days or so, the intense craving goes away. But yeah, you will definitely be a little less energetic.
“I’m a fan of listening to one’s body. It generally knows.”
I’m not sure if I should listen to my body, it usually tells me it needs pizza and cookies.
“And again, the brain runs on carbs. Unlike others, I like to use my brain … a lot. It pays the bills.” Maybe that explains this? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GeniusSweetTooth
Somebody ought to write a basic nutrition article for this site. Heck, maybe Ill do it.
So basically once I start exercising I can tell people “I’m not fat, I’m bulking”?
That’s probably what this guy says, and it’s the truth. He could snap an oak in half.
https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/6578756_f260.jpg
8/10 WB
You’re building a house, do you want to buy material from China (junk food) or HIGH quality material (real food = fruits, vegetables, wholemeal, fish).
I getting way better gains since I’ve turn to organic foods and my energy levels have increased by 100x.
I don’t know why people eat junk food, it’s like being a drug addict (no energy, feels good ONLY when you eat it, not after).
The ultimate cutting meal is chicken and broccoli. Use something like Frank’s Red Hot or a wing sauce for the chicken because they are 0g of carbs and very low on calories. With this as the main staple of my diet prior to my fight I was the most shredded I’d ever been in my life. It’s a cheap meal too and though it does get boring after awhile nothing worth having comes easy!
The wing sauce is a killer. It’s habanero or watered down anaheim pepper. Better results with cayenne. For more hot, just add more cayenne. Small amount of cream mixed in helps cayenne go down the hatch. Get enough cayenne down and it’s like a nuclear reactor. Combine with b vits, 500+ mg niacin GNC ‘fire burn’ brand and you have energy to lift and alertness and a buzz or high when the cayenne hits your brain. Mega amts cayenne get a warm burn all over your body that loostens you up. Most people can’t down that much due to the hot taste but cream helps when mixed into a paste. It coats each particle of the powder and makes an unusual addictive flavor. It’s like a drug when eaten in high amounts. 1.5 heaping teaspoon powdered cayenne is a good amount in a meal. Mixes well with soups, beans, protein foods.
Buzz / high from cayenne is real.
Bread and juice? lol
Don’t forget about Intermittent fasting when it comes to your diet. Very beneficial all around.
If anyone thought this was healthy you are sorely mistaken
This article is complete bullshit. Bulk/cut it´s a myth, maybe useful 50 years ago,
The bulking seems like sumo diet. Sumo’s eat around 20,000 calories per day. The sumo wakes at 5am and skips breakfast to lower metabolism. He trains until lunchtime sparring, stretching, exercising while periodically doing 300-500 low squat side leg kicks interspersed between each activity. Lunchtime is the first meal of the day with a stew of vegetables, rice, tofu and pounds of fish, beef and pork and seasoned with simple salt, soy sauce and kimchee. It’s a clean bulk diet. Afterwards is a nap and another five hours of training. Then the evening meal is another 10,000 cal meal of carbs and protein. Each meal is washed down with 1.5+ gallons of Japanese beer containing empty calories for needed bulk. Most sumos weigh in over 300 lbs and champions have weighed in up to 600 lbs.
https://youtu.be/e0PWtsOc8S0
Eating a highcarb 3 meals a day and doing a 100 push ups/sit ups every morning works well…add in some squats and 5 km runs to work on your core and legs, the secret is to work smarter not harder
No.
Seconded.
If you’re going to run, make it sprints. Takes less time, and honestly cardio is of substantially less value than most know.
Also, carbs make you hungry by design.
Yup. I sprint twice a week — once on its own, once in a weekly soccer game. Haven’t jogged in years. My body won’t do it.
For building muscle, sure.
It has plenty of value otherwise. Endiurance is your foundation, your base. A lot of things
can be built off that foundation.
I will admit that it has its merits, but it’s not the “weight loss secret,” at the least.
Never been a boxer who can endure all rounds without cardio (both running and drill work). But many linemen, wrestlers, sprinters, and many other sportsmen get better value from shorter runs and longer sessions practicing their movements.
Jogging is literally hitler.
“100 push ups/sit ups every morning works well”
i did crap like this at 14 years old, before even knowing what “work out” means
Do you even lift?
…
Not lifting is literally hitler.
To me, this habit of working on your body for aesthetic reasons is vaguely homosexual. Do it if you want but all this extra weight doesn’t help you move around and doesn’t really impress anyone, except yourself. I have friends who are professional bodybuilders and I admire their dedication but something seems off about someone who is just trying to look pretty, and women pick up on this.
I say build muscle that “does something” (like as part of your sport). Your ability to do something is much more greatly admired than muscles on top of muscles by men and women alike.
Disagree (largely but not completely). Some people need structure and routine in their lives. I am one of them. It is just who I am. I need to map my day out. Not just what time I wake up but what time I eat, what time I have coffee, etc. etc. If I don’t I tend to lose control of other aspects of my life.
Further, I have a very high stress job which requires a lot of steam blow off and a history of being athletic all my life. When all those factors are mixed in, need for routine, athleticism and need for stress release, powerlifting/bodybuilding is great for me. I am not talking professional level shit, but I have everything planned to the T.
When I wake up I do my 45 min morning HIIT cardio. My calories and macros are counted almost perfectly. In the evenings 5 or 6 days a week depending on the program I am doing, I have my weight lifting sessions which are planned out, recorded and analyzed in a way that many people would think I am nuts. On sunday I meal prep and pack all my meals for the week in little containers with their calories and macro info on them.
Not only does this fulfill my needs for structure and organization as well as give me a healthy outlet for frustration (read: not getting bombed at happy hour) but it is also quite enjoyable for me, puts me in contact with many attractive women and, to be frank, makes me look and feel great.
I will admit that if I hated doing this and was only doing it for the aesthetic reasons your logic would be unassailable. However, this is great for me in a lot of ways, I enjoy the process, I enjoy making improvements and it suits my general personality and psychology very well.
I’m not sure you do disagree. I am not criticizing structure and routine, just this bodybuilding obsession. Personally though, I think worrying about calories and macros is a waste of time. There’s no real science behind it.
the disagreement had to do with working on body being vaguely homosexual.
There is plenty of science behind macro and calorie diets, only there is also a lot of bullshit too. The problem is that people half ass these things and think…ok, I will do some of it. You can’t, for instance, be “kinda in ketosis” that is like being kinda pregnant. But if I drop my net carbs to 20 grams a day my body will in fact burn more fat.
Further, carbs break down to sugar and sugar is bady bad bad. When I am earing at 60/30/10 I will put on more lean muscle than if I am earing at 40/30/30. Likewise, if I am in caloric deficit I will lose weight and if I am in surplus I will gain.
One last thing: the amount of energy I will feel on a super high protein diet like 70/20/10 will be off the charts…especially if I am in caloric deficit. To say that the amount of calories and the macros don’t matter is incorrect even if they are not the be all and end all they are a very clear cut and empirically understandable metric for achieving goals as part of an overall system.
Mattering less would be number of meals a day. 6 small meals a day versus 3 meals a day? Well, for weight loss or gain zero net difference. For muscle gain, jury is out. I don’t think so. Others do.
He didn’t say “working on body being vaguely homosexual”. He said, “working on your body for aesthetic reasons”. I generally agree, but I recognize that there will be a certain amount of vanity in all of us.
Right, which is why I muted my disagreement. I think that if working on your body for aesthetic goals is something that you find is good for you then you should do it. Of course, then it isn’t aesthetic reasons, but aesthetic goals. I always err on the side of caution when disagreeing with bobo….he is right, I just thought it could use a little refining.
The trouble is your body doesn’t metabolise calories it metabolises nutrients. Calories matter in a general sense but actually, evolutionarily speaking the more calories the better. The more calories you have the less the body has to economise (should this organism have a bigger brain or sharper teeth). Therefore, in a calorie deficit (over what period? This matters), eventually you will run out of energy.
I accept that you can fine tune your macros and be slightly more lean or less… But so what? This is not likely to matter unless you are obese and loading up on sugar. Or a professional athlete trying to make a weight limit. But this focus of macros leaves out the more important micros. This is a problem.
Calories and macros are clear cut and simple but the human body isn’t. And there lies the problem. In my opinion, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by avoiding drug-like food (sugar, grains and alcohol) and eat as much as you like, when your body needs it. You will never be fat and you will always have sufficient energy for your activities. People seem scared these days not to obsessfully record everything they eat. This is inhuman to me. My cat doesn’t worry about it and neither do I.
> Some people need structure and routine in their lives.
Are you like me? And I don’t mean “structure and routine” in the sense of “a bitch nagging at me to write stuff in a planner.”
The reason I like working long hours and having two jobs is because I have terrible unstructured-time management in the first place. I suddenly change from being a lazy worthless slob to “wow, NuclearBlackMetalKampf, you’re so hard-working!” It works out a lot better than the way normies insist I must operate, especially because I’d rather work extra hours and pay someone to clean my room than have to clean my room myself. There’s a strong argument to be made for specialization given that what’s easy for Person X is hard for Person Y and vice versa.
I think part of why I’m not into muscle-bound guys is the idea that it suggests vanity or trying to compensate for a lack of something else (like intelligence or a pleasant personality). It’s cool to build strength for practical reasons, I’m going to be doing that myself in fact, but when it’s strictly a cosmetic thing that turns me off. Then again, my brother and I are both chubby chasers, so maybe it’s genetic.
I agree but think you’re wrong still.
Lifting is vaguely homo when taken to extremes. It makes you a gym rat to say the least.
But it is an undeniable truth that size matters. Being a former skinny guy, I definitely am treated differently now that I have filled out. One reason I started lifting was to improve my career opportunities, my “command presence.”
I have concluded that if you want to be respected and promoted it is better to be a little fat than too skinny in American corporate culture.
Agree. Plus would add that Englishbob’s notion of muscle that ‘does something’ is not mutually incompatible with bodybuilding.
Yes bodybuilding just for itself does have that vaguely faggy odour, but combine it with, say, martial arts and it gets very functional indeed 🙂
Same.
After moving from 165-200 pounds (over 3 years) people treat me completely differently.
Indisputable.
Anyone who’s done this has the same experience.
200lbs lean(-ish) at any height (I’m 5’10) and people treat you better, both men and women…
Note that I never said that lifting was vaguely homo.
I have never been a big guy although I am bigger than the average European. The point is though, what is more important than size is mental strength. This you build through stress and challenge (i.e. something more challenging than a gym work-out). I am talking about a challenge that may kill you or do you serious harm. That is where I come from and trust me it makes a difference when you know that you can reach across the table and crush a CEOs neck with your bare hands and he couldn’t do shit about it.
He will feel this and so will you.
And therefore, you will have respect everywhere you go.
Yes I agree there is a whole world of non physical aspects to human relations. Mastering them is called by some as”game”
Some of us CEOs feel pretty good about being able to reach across a table and crush somebody’s neck with our bare hands too btw…
I’ll see you in the Arena then brother!!! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc46599c0865da27e73daa1dfd20337e07bb52ac47c9c10143a8cc2dc388de17.jpg
Any time! Who we fighting?!!
Saying men who want to look their best is vaguely homo is literally hitler.
Indeed. And Hitler had no patience for homos…
Phrase the question another way: how much pussy do low-muscle, high-BF% men ever get? How many times, if ever, has David Futrelle gotten laid, much less gotten laid with (rarer than they have any right to be in America, particularly if you’re looking for “women who are actually available to date”) attractive women instead of getting laid with a (the rule, not the exception in America) dump-truck-physique Creature From The Black Lagoon?
There’s a reason pickup artists wear muscle shirts to clubs instead of loose shirts the average guy will wear. Lots and lots of field reports from many different sources had the same result: bigger muscles and visible abs = more attention from women. I heard it on /r/PurplePillDebate, I heard it from a shitlordy guy I knew IRL who went on to be an EOD tech in the Air Force.
A good physique is not just valuable for PUA gaming or being the “Chad” /r/incels and /r/hapas complain about, high SMV is valuable for getting good LTR material, since a woman isn’t good wife material if she doesn’t 1) maintain effort in her appearance after marriage and 2) have sex with you after marriage instead of having a dead bedroom, and such women are rare. If you want to get a good job, you want to look as attractive as possible to that employer. Same with getting a good mate.
Just because John Derbyshire and Freed Reed married foreign women doesn’t mean they let themselves go and look like neckbeards. If Matt Forney can buy attention from young, non-fat Filipino women, imagine what a FIT guy with money can get in the Phillippines.
But it’s one thing for other men to tell you what their experience was. One can still dismiss that as “they’re just exaggerating their N-count, you’re still going to be a gymcel” or “fucking Chads are bragging about fake sexual conquests” or “they’re making it up for status.”
So let’s look at what pictures women themselves gravitate to, as opposed to verbal declarations that virtue-signal and/or hamster about “looks don’t matter as much as personality,” “I want a nice guy,” etc. What women actually do (instead of what they say) cannot be as easily dismissed as the claims of another guy telling you that hot chicks worship him. What men did millions of Chinese women on the Internet–and it was overwhelmingly straight women, gay men played no role–go starry-eyed over?
http://archive.is/wFmGY
Wang Xianghong:
https://archive.is/wFmGY/ac61df8a47014dc19a925972995159a2a928d891.jpg
Chen Yi-Ting:
https://archive.is/wFmGY/ba4efd44d6b592e1f5f55114fa27f332684b7ced.jpg
Yu Sheng-Lun:
https://archive.is/wFmGY/bb695d57680addd46f78cc315c9b1943b10e47aa.jpg
Well, gee, will ya look at that. The internet clicks don’t lie.
This also matches the responses women gave in an /r/PurplePillDebate thread titled “post a picture of the most attractive man to you.” One example of a response in that thread:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/Man-from-Nowhere-mirror-500.jpg
Both feminists and anti-feminists gave responses that matched this pattern. Of course, a despairing pessimist would argue that since most responses in that thread (from Ji Chang Wook to Tom Hiddleston) were clothed facial shots of actors and models with attractive faces (good genes, high symmetry, high T, average-size and -position features that are not too large, too small, too long, too short, etc) and NOT shirtless pics of butterface bodybuilders and soldiers like Paratrooper_19D that the rest of us mere mortals who don’t have Tom Hiddleston’s face are doomed to inceldom or dating penis-repellent butterhuffers no matter how much we work out and build muscle.
But even wearing suits, or from facial shots, it was evident that their bodies and faces were low-BF% and high-muscle. Not a single “plus-size” man in that thread. No David Futrelle or TheAmazingAtheist lookalikes whatsoever, much less truly ugly fat guys like JustinRPG (from a fate-of-Western-civilization perspective, I was also very pleased to discover that generally all the pics were of East Asians and Europeans–the only nonwhites were East Asians. Not a single low-IQ African or Muslim brute, not a single guy who looked like one of the Cologne rapists or Malmo rioters. Even the BluePill women didn’t want invader cock). So the claim still holds. When it comes to sexual attention instead of just using their mate as an ATM, women wanted fit men.
Meanwhile, not all gays even want to build muscle–have you looked at /cuteboys/ recently? Lots and lots of posts about removing body hair, keeping a youthful, feminine appearance, getting a slender physique, etc., etc.–and those are just the posters who aren’t MtF and trying to transition (it should go without saying at this point that Hardblush’s popularity isn’t entirely due to female yaoi fans).
Not quite the same thing as RoK or BodyBuilding Forums readers trying to bulk up and look more high-T.
So both parts of the “only gays care all that much about six-packs” claim is false. Paratrooper_19D and his squadmates, by his own admission in an /r/incels post, don’t have the faces of models; all their physical attractiveness is from low BF% and a good-looking body. How then do they get good pussy–in hamplanet-filled America, no less–if only gay men care about six-packs and other such things?
Sorry mate I’m confused. Are you disagreeing with me or adding on?
Ditch the car and ride a bike !
Also consider your target macronutrients: 1) how many calories are needed for your regiment 2) what type of calories and when you should eat them.
A few rules I follow: no fruits after 5-6 pm. White rice/pasta/potatoes carb source during day and especially after training, but whole shell grains and brown rice at dinner time (unless you really want to go full steam ahead, then eat white anyway). Avoid dairy unless it’s high quality probiotic yogurt or small amounts of cheese, i.e. A protein burrito with cheese or eggs and cheese, and protein shakes with milk are ok too. The estrogen has to be managed well.
A quick note on milk; ‘low-fat’ milk has only about 2% less milk fat than regular ‘full-cream’ milk, and tastes like watered-down arse. The less commercial factories tamper with perfectly good food (like making it ‘low-fat’) the better off it is. So man the fuck up and drink regular milk, and remember that your body is designed to process natural fats.
Low fat milk has a lot of added sugar to make it drinkable.
THis is exactly right. I took milk totally out of my diet after realizing the amount of sugar it contains — both low fat and regular and everything in between.
In Pumping Iron someone asks Arnold how much milk he drinks and he famously says “I don’t drink milk. Milk is for babies. I drink beer” Obviously he was being a bit cheeky, but the truth is that whether bulking or cutting sugar is never a valuable substance. You take some in through fruit because the trade off with the vitamins is worth while, but other than that it is terrible for you in a lot of ways from adding useless calories to spiking and, subsequently, sinking energy levels.
I still drink milk in smaller quantities with my coffee the rest being unsweetened almond milk.
Fat through yoghurt and almonds, vitamins through fruit and nuts.
It provides little in the way of nutritional value as well as containing shit loads of antibiotics.
I have never taken milk in my coffee so I was lucky that way. Fat the same way as you….nuts, avocado, yogurt and cottage cheese. Yes, the antibiotics are another issue.
Guess milk in coffee is just a British thing like tea.
I belive that too many antibiotics lower your immune system’s ability to fight infections.
Yes. Agreed.
Embrace the saturated fat and switch to half-and-half.
You don’t wind up drinking as much, but it’s far tastier and (at least in theory) slightly better for you.
Ah, classic Arnold story! Yes of course an Arnie Joke, but read his (first) Bio, Education of a Bodybuilder, and he did indeed drink beer while bulking in his youth (and pretty much anything not nailed down too).
Of course another classic Arnold story – after he won his first (NABBA) Mr Universe and burst into Vince Gironda’s gym with “Do you know who I am?” and the inimitable Mr Gironda replied with “You look like a fat f*ck to me!”.
He soon learnt to cut…
I did read the book which is why I think the line about milk has a double meaning of being a joke, but also being ture. Education of Bodybuilder was a great book. Arnold is so much freaking smarter than anyone gives him credit for — even now.
I love the fat fuck story. Great stuff. I remember that there is a similar story about his lats which lead him to inventing the Arnold press but I can’t remember what it was now.
I have been so long off of milk that it actually tastes funny to me at this point. That said, your thinking is sound.
You know this is spot on…. the whole key to Arnie is that he has this incredibly powerful mind in there! I’m just stunned people miss it like you say… how many fields does the guy need to dominate for people to realise?
Tiny, tiny quibble about the Arnold Press, though could be wrong…. I though he stole it from Larry Scott and it was originally the ‘Scott Press’? But yeah, the fat fuck story classic Vince!
Heh, Vince Gironda (already mentioned in thread) was recommending this back in the *40s*!!
Yup. I love when Arnold talks about straight up demanding his muscles to grow. If anyone could have done it it was him. But yeah, this guy has literally dominated every single freaking thing he has ever done (except marriage) in his whole life and if he was an American citizen I have no doubt he would be the current Republican nominee.
Not sure about whether he stole it from Larry Scott or not. I will look into it. First I am hearing.
I remember when I first starting doing the double 3 day splits that he recommends. Some girl I knew who was a spin instructor told me “lifting heavy 6 days a week is no good for you” and I remember thinking “er, well, Arnold recommends…so, ya know, gonna go with him”
Heh, yeah… I did the same…. of course Arnie never mentions the Dianabol in his bio 😉
Interesting articles over at Blackdragon’s blog on Arnie and marriage – not surprising the guy couldn’t keep a marriage together he’s as Alpha as is possible… blog reckons Maria *must* have known and only pressed the nuclear button due to the public scandal and being embarrassed. You’ll love the ‘Eating isn’t cheating’ anecdotes too!
Arnie for Pres? Hell Yeah! Change that law!
But, if I am not mistaken, Dianabol wasn’t actually a banned substance. I use creatine now. In the 90’s that would have been considered cheating. Of course Arnie was on juice. Hell, he admits it now. ONe of the differences though was that Arnie used juice in his cuts, not his bulks. When you look at guys like Kai and Ronnie they are on the juice year round and then come off of it and go on a depletion diet and routine a few weeks out from competition whereas the gold era guys were going clean(ish) and would do the cycle before the completion. This is why Arnold would gain 30 pounds before an Olympia, not loose. Because it was what all the competitors were doing I don’t think you can consider it cheating. It was an even playing field. ANd while it did have associated health risks it is nothing like the year old cycling that the giants have day. What is it they say about how those guys were greek gods and these guys are greek monsters?
I read the marriage article and thought it was very interesting. There was a push some time age to get that law changed for arnie (or at least a discussion about it). He not only has never failed at anything, but he has never done less than being the bet. I have no doubt he could have won….especially in todays absurd field.
You are not mistaken… most of the golden era guys were supervised by their doctors, and even dosages were allegedly low (like 10-15mg DBol) and cycles were short.
Greek Gods and Monsters? Not heard that one but OMG spot on!
Would rather look like Arnold, or Zane, or Draper or Scott (or any of them!) than the lumbering monstrosities of today…. Lost all interest after the ’81 Olympia…
Commitment to only enter a field if going to be the best? What a life formula, eh? Can’t beat that…
Arnold ran dbol, deca, and primo year round. He ran them at an incredibly low dose compared to todays average juicer you see in the gym. It was far from cheating and was in no way detrimental to his health.
Arnold also did the classic bodybuilding diet of very low carbohydrates, high protein, and high fats. All the guys back then was basically on what we would call a keto/south beach style diet.
An excellent place to learn about the 1970s methods of training, nutrition, and drug use is Ric Drasin’s channel on YouTube.
I will check it out. To what degree do you think deca and dbol were used, in off season, at low doses (comparatively) actually for the reason which is often sited in a bullshit way — that it was just for recovery?
He has said in interviews that they experimented year round but definitely got on during contest prep. Arnold called it “tissue building”. They didnt know about post cycle therapy in those days so the last thing they would ever do is try coming off gear before shows. Deca, dbal, and primo were the main drugs around back then. If they had test, it would be super low dosages. Like 100mg a week, whereas today average joes tend to start at 100mg every other day and god only knows how much the average pro today is using. They didnt have nova or clomid or anything for sides so to prevent sides they falsely believed that it was best to slowly increase dosage week to week to a peak usage level and then slowly taper down…like a pyramid. We know today that pyramiding is bs and does nothing so the general assumption is that they never has serious sides because they just used a very low amount of drugs.
I imagine if they tried to do that with the stuff and amounts that guys like Kai use it would have killed them
Exactly. They had no knowledge of pct and no knowledge of liver toxicity with orals.
If they were abusing they would have all developed gyno or liver failure around the same time. Fact is, These guys ran fewer drugs than the average juicer at a 24hr fitness.
All spot on…
Deca and DBol for bulking, Primo for cutting… Ahhhh, as old school as it gets! 🙂
With the possible exception of Steve Michalik 😉
Steve had the heart of a champ, he just didnt know the dangers of what he was doing. If steve was born in the mid 1980s, with access to the stuff the guys have today, he would just now be entering his prime. He would probably be unstoppable.
Could have been in his day too if not for the accident and paralysis. And talking of willpower (and plus side/healing power of AAS) not many people come back from total paralysis of their legs!
Indeed; fats are one of the ONLY THREE Macronutrients: Fats, carbs, and proteins. Your body needs all of these.
http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/macronutrients.htm
Further, the absolute worst food one could put in their body, whether trying to lose weight or not, is “low fat” adulterated food items. I always eat the real food, full fat butter, full fat yogurt and cream, lots of cheese, never drink diet or low fat anything. If I never hit the gym, at my laziest, I am perhaps 5 pounds above the suggested weight for my size. Meanwhile I’ve seen so many go on these so called “diets” of chemical food and they bloat up.
If you remove fat from a food, you are removing the natural balance of fat/carb/protein. Perhaps more importantly, fat is what gives food its taste, so if you remove fat, you have to insert sugar, salt, and chemicals to give the food back its flavor, because it tastes like shit. Fat also satiates you, so you will consume more of the non-fat food than you would of the regular fat type. Mother nature didn’t screw up and put “too much fat” into anything.
I like to look to societies where the people are healthy in their native diets and obese on the American diet. My great-grandparents’ recipes are helpful here, because they lived long and never worried about being overweight.
Lately I’ve been trying to cook a bit in the Okinawan style, because they have a long life expectancy and few of the “diseases of civilization.” Today’s lunch is a pork stir-fry with cabbage, radish, egg, and bacon/butter for fat. With a small-ish portion of rice on the side, it’s very filling and hits a number of nutritional high-points.
Excellent. Yes, there is a book I plan on reading about the “blue zones” — areas where people naturally live to be 100 or more without modern medicine. It is largely diet, but also weather, stress, social factors, etc. There are half a dozen such places in the world.. I’m traveling to one in a few days.
My most recent bang was a 26 year old Asian student. She showed me pictures of her when she arrived here for college and she was hot as fuck. Today she’s barely bangable (for me anyway–I like them thin) and it’s of course 100% diet and lifestyle. She’s lazy, doesn’t exercise or walk, and eats processed foods.
What’s even funny is how certain foods have the “organic” stamp on them like like they’re the next super food. I mean aren’t foods supposed to all be organic? I guess we were just eating additives and shit all this time
Agreed. People look at me like I have two heads when I drink “Full Strength” milk in the office. They practically choke on their cookies and spew up their coffee with two sugars.
This is a good beginners intro to cutting and bulking. It isn’t as detailed as it could be and it doesn’t get very deep into the issues, but the author called it a beginners guide and as one it succeeded with aplomb.
I do think that his sample cutting diet has way to many carbs (especially in the evening) but if you have never really done meal planning before this is a good place to start.
I will say that how one eats ought to be directly related to a) the persons goals and b) exactly what they are doing for a work out.
What would be a good place to start to look for any of this information? There seems to be a bunch more sources floating around on the Internet and like the self help racket, big the reader with needless information while dually treating the reader like no other source of body cultivation works as good.
For general nutrition advice, look no further than Mark’s Daily Apple. Awesome source of how to live paleo — and the science all checks out.
There is so much bro-science and self-help bullshit out there it is easy to get lost in the mix.
I would suggest first deciding on your goals and your level of commitment. If you want to go ketogentic diet the best resource online is http://www.ruled.me/ But keto isn’t for everyone. IN fact, I find it incredibly difficult despite it working every single time.
This is the order I would suggest going in
1) Decide goal
2) Decide commitment level
3) Find workout program
then and only then
4) Search out a diet that will suit your goals, commitment level and workout. If you hmu with 1 and 2 I would be happy to suggest a couple of options for 3 and 4
Thanks for the tips! I have been training as a fighter for about a year and a half now, so the actual specifics of where my body should be at I’ll have to come up with. Aesthetics mean next to nothing if it either cuts my speed to badly, doesn’t allow me to apply at least 60% strength per strike, or cuts my flexibility. I’ll construct my goal and come back to you on this by Friday. Or sooner.
The thing about aesthetics is that they often do (though not always) coincide with functionality. I mean, aesthetics just means muscle density plus low body fat. That is usually a recipe for goodness. Yes, the powerlifters in the Olympics, should one of them ever get a clean hit on you, will fucking kill you. Those fat bastards are freaky strong. That said, If they don’t hit you with their first two swings, my guess is that you can knock them over with a strong breath. As a fighter you know the basic physics. Force=Mass x Acceleration. So you can increase the force of your strike with either power or speed. Finding a midground is best, imo, and will usually lead you to an aesthetic look anyway. Email me anytime.
What is your email? I wasn’t able to pull it off of Lulzsalad.
My chief goals, since I hover around the 200 lb Mark, would be to lose weight without looking I stared myself, add on muscle and cut so that it is very visible, especially for abs. Fighting has added to a stocky look, but weight training has been sporadic, with some days focused on compound lifts and others with leg work. I have not made dietary changes or added whey into my diet as I figured losing weight/ keeping muscle was more important. My active email is [email protected]. Any further advice would be appreciated.
The sample cut given sounds more like a slow recomp.
When i cut, i do keto. High fat, high protein, and hardly any carbs(less than 30) a day. And all carbs i eat are fiberous carbs that basically just get passed through my body. Funny thing is once i adapt to keto i feel great and i really dont want to come off the diet.
I managed to get from 120 lbs natural weight to a 150lbs natural weight. The highest I’ve been is 160 but I have to put in effort to eat enough calories for that and im a light eater. It effing sucks considering im average size considering i was skinny before yet still small overall (5’6 150 lbs) but after beginner gains you have to put in a ton of effort.
Notice how the recommendations for either gaining or losing recommends eating the same basic nutritional food. In other words, whatever your goal, don’t eat garbage processed foods!
Unless you want to compete on stage at ridiculous low bodyfats, and/or taking PEDS, consider never bulking and cutting…typically one loses mass on a cut and cannot maintain muscle at low bodyfats…..consider just picking a reasonable calorie intake, and sticking with that until bodyweight and/or strength plateaus, then adjust calories upwards slightly, and see what happens.
Everyone will reach a limit where they can no longer gain more lean mass and any further increase just adds large amounts of bodyfat, although they may be able to get stronger or make gains over longer periods of time.
In other words bodyweight will stabilize with any given Calorie surplus, equilibrium will be reached, and now this is maintenance at a slightly higher new bodyweight, equilibrium will always be reached, so just eat to maintain a certain reasonable bodyweight and milk strength gains at that weight, before upping calories and trying to become stronger at a new slightly higher bodyweight. Simple.
As you get stronger/increase volume/increase intensity at a given bodyweight, you should have a higher percentage of muscle to fat at that bodyweght. I have weighed the same for months, but gotten stronger and more muscular.
I call bullshit on the cutting strategy. Intermittent fasting is much more effective.
I never got any looks bulking. I believe leaning out is far superior
I agree. I believe you can still do heavy weight, low rep training and keep slim. Seems to me like guys who like bulking tend to be the dudebro douche bag looking types. If it works for others then cool. Just not my style.
if you want to test looks; wear shiny sunglasses just for fun. You catch the market – for sure.
This works ehh? I’m guessing because the girl looking suspects you may not catch her looking? I go to my local community college and I notice a few looks when I rock my aviators. I’m gonna pay more attention to this now.
I wear my aviators on campus and I have noticed some decent girls looking my way. I guess it seems easier to get away with scoping a person out when you think they aren’t looking. I’ll pay attention to this more often.
Dont bulk too fast. I got fat as fuck a few years ago and had to lose 50 pounds to get ripped. Aka i lost everything I put on. Just focus on 1 pound per month for 3 years. It will be pretty lean. Your face will not get chubby. You wont feel lethargic. You’ll feel confident all year round. Be patient. Work hard. 3 years goes by quicker than you think. Plus all your gains are visible, which is a lot more motivating than seeing your man boobs grow in.
To add, calculate your macros, and go. IIFYM. It really doesn’t matter where the food comes from as long as you hit your macros.
Excuse me for my ignorance but is there way to gain muscle and don’t fat at the same time?
I am now in the middle of cutting, which I have been doing for couple of months, combining with walking and skipping rope. I lost 14 kilograms of fat, lost maybe a tiny fraction of muscle.
I want to start with building muscle mass and I am worried about gaining fat also, which I worked really hard to get rid of. So you probably understand my frustration.
In theory, you will gain fat only if you eat more calories than those needed to gain muscle. If you have a body composition analyser (TANITA brand, as an example; it doesn’t matter what type of machine, as long as it works and you take your measurements always from the same machine), you could calculate where is the cut off limit, in other words, at which point you pass from loosing fat and muscle to gain fat and muscle. If you keep ingesting just that amount of calories, your fat weight will be kept unchanged, but your muscle mass will increase. If you have more muscle mass and the same fat mass, the muscle mass proportion will increase, as time passes.
And if I don’t have that analyser? Could I use calorie calculator, track progress of ingesting food and be careful so that my daily protein intake is for example 2 grams per kilogram?
No, that won’t work the same. You can take a 100% protein diet (don’t do it, by the way, it’s dangerous for your body, as it makes ammonium in your blood too high and injures your kidneys), and your liver will still transform a large portion of that protein into fat and sugars.
You really need to monitor how your body is reacting. Carefully planning what you are doing to it (in terms of diet and exercise) is not enough. I mean, if you want BIG results, at least.
You don’t need a machine. You can do it with traditional body metrics, as the army still does. It isn’t as accurate as a digital body analyser, but can still be a reliable method, as long as you learn to do your metrics with rigour.
You’ll need calipers and a measuring tape
http://teamripped.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/skinfold-calipers.jpg
http://www.sew4home.com/sites/default/files/1812-Measuring-Tape-in-Eights.jpg
Do you know how to do it or shall I give you some guidance as well? The first is good for fat proportion. The second will tell you about fat+muscle changes.
Remember: Total=fat+muscle.
Muscle=Total – fat
I am already doing that for my current cardio + cutting training so there is no need for guidance here.
So I should eat as good as I can, don’t indulge in super high protein diet, exercise and measure myself. And if I notice gaining fat more then muscle then adapt, am I right?
Yes. That should be it. If you exercise well and eat just the right amount of cals for that, your fat levels will not increase. Your muscle mass will increase, and so will muscle body percentage.
There is a lot of tricks you can learn to better use body metrics. You should always measure your fat in the waist, arms, and legs (mid-thighs). If you gain fat in the waist but not in the members, you are developing some resistance to insulin (like in diabetes mellitus), and you should eat more often, but lesser quantities. If you gain more fat in the legs, your steroid levels (natural ones, at least) are too high, and testosterone probably too low, you should eat more almonds, broccoli and less animal fat.
ideally, you’ll lose your fat percentage evenly.
You can build a table like this:
Waist: perimeter: a cms;
fat: x cms;
percent of fat: x/a x 100 %
Arms: perimeter: b cms;
fat: y cms;
percent of fat: y/b x 100%
Mid thighs: perimeter: c cms
fat: z cms;
percent of fat: z/c x 100%
You can space it from 2 to 2 weeks, or monthly, but you should keep a regular time frame for your observations, to better adapt exercise and diet requirements.
Thank you for advice. How long have you been working out?
You’re welcome.
My whole life, and this means around 4 decades. My parents were very strict, almost military about these issues, and they raised me well. I always had good exercising habits and accordingly, I am very satisfied with my body image and health. The trick is to combine discipline of the act (have a schedule and abide by it; do the best you can ALWAYS) with mental discipline (know your body, know your diet, know your sports, know your goals). It might sound hard, but with time, it’s piece of cake.
I started to actually care for my body somewhere 3 years ago. This year I made resolution to lose fat and I have been doing it good. I estimate I should lose about 3 kg more to be “flat bellied”. After then I thought about building muscle mass, hence questions about gaining muscle and keeping fat away. I really don’t want to mess everything I have worked for.
Be confident, and you’ll accomplish your goals. Study your body well, adjust when needed, and “the sky is the limit”.
Any doubts, we’ll be here to help you, don’t be afraid to ask.
Thank you for help and advice.