15 lb. difference between the pictures
I woke up this morning to a 175.4 lb. read on the scale. My strength gains have been tremendous during my first true bulking experience. I have never been at this weight before and feeling so good. I remember I may have kissed the 170.0 lb. mark many years ago, but my body did not compose of as much lean body mass as I possess now. That was when I had fallen into a form of depression because I just discovered I had psoriasis and turned to fast food and alcohol as temporary ailments. Poor nutritional health, not stretching before training, and lack of proper form while performing weight training exercises led to rotator cuff injuries, mild tendonitis in my wrists and elbows, and ultimately lost complete interest in exercising altogether. I lost my drive and fell off.
After a
year or so, I slowly found my groove back and too many more years of climbing
before I said, “screw it, let’s do a competition.” Which left me feeling very weak and small,
which led me to this bulking experiment.
I’ve learned that you have complete control of your body and your
practice in eating and exercising contribute to your body’s overall appearance. It all comes down to science and if
calculated and planned correctly, there is no magic or mystery to why your body
has changed for better or worst.
It has been
recommended by Kane Sumabat aka ‘Timbawolf’ and other sources online that to
achieve the best bulk (bulking without experiencing too much fat gain) is to
undergo periods of bulking at a rate of up to 2.0 lbs a week (the slower the
better if you have the time and patience) and then undergo periods of cutting,
then repeat the cycle to achieve desired physique. This is what Timbawolf called a “2 steps
forward 1 step back” approach. Yes, you
can eat a crapload of food and just gain weight as fast as you can but you will
almost definitely gain much more fat in the process because your body can only
build muscle so quickly (~1 lb. of lean body mass per month for naturals). This quick bulk method will result in a very
long cut phase to lose all the fat that has accumulated. And yes, you can absolutely bulk at an
incredibly slow rate with a very small caloric surplus of say 100 calories or
something, but the results are so slow, it is almost unnoticeable.
Without any
plans for another competition, I think the optimal leanness level for that
beach body look is between 6%-10%. 6%
might be too lean for comfort in my opinion, so I’ll just shoot for anywhere
below 10% bodyfat. I will shoot for a fat
loss rate of about 1-2 lbs. a week (slower the better, yet still measurable) by
keeping calories from all macronutrients as high as possible. I will slowly cut carbs out first in 200-250
calorie increments (~45-60g carbs) every time I reach a stand still in my
progress, like this:
Current
macros: 230g P, 500g C, 90g F (~3700
calories)
Start by
dropping 60g carbs: 230g P, 440g C, 90g
F (~3450 calories)
Once weight
loss stalls, drop another 60g carbs:
230g P, 380g C, 90g F (~3200
calories)
And, so on…
No plan is
optimal without stopping at every step to analyze progress and making changes
when necessary. I wish it can just be
easy and black and white but when it comes to your body with training and
nutrition, it is all gray. There is no
one right way to do this and it is only experimenting and trying new things that
will uncover a better way. It is a
lifelong goal to discover the BEST
WAY
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