infinity,
I think you should read the “Time to get some MASS” thread that Patricia started a while back. Having been a beanpole before, too (135 lbs. @ 6 ft), I can understand your concerns about not wanting to get too much fat (esp. after having meticulously taken it off with T-Dawg).
One thing I have learned from training the past 8 years of so, is that muscle is the hard part, cutting out the fat is the easy part. It takes hard work in the gym, and hard work with the fork, to gain good, quality muscle. For me, it is not really that hard to cut. 2 weeks of hard dieting can get me down to see my 6-pack, since my body’s set point is around 15% (I rarely go over 15%-16% no matter how bad I eat).
If you go in with the mentality: “I don’t want to lose my abs and all the hard work I put into cutting,” then your bulk will not go well. It will either be short-lived or short-changed in results by a lack of eating.
When you bulk, if you go high in calories, expect a little bloating to occur. This is just a retention of water which accompanies an increase in calories. If you go low in calories one day, you will lose much of the bloat. But some days, when I’m bloated, I look like a whale! The next day, I’ll be back to my semi-ripped self. I made the mistake a few years back of stopping a good bulking stage when I felt like I started looking too “bloated” and fat, not realizing that much of it was only temporary.
When bulking, just focus on packing on the mass, eat clean, but eat a lot. After a while of locking in the gains (with slightly above maintenance calories), then it’s time to cut again. Cutting is the easy part. Trust me.
Not saying you should bulk now, since you already said that you’d keep dieting until down to around 10%. But my personal opinion is that you should pack on some muscle. 6’4" and 193 lbs. shows that you are in need of LBM.
I’m currently 205 lbs. @ 6 ft. tall. Going to try for 225 lbs. Currently bulking, and it’s going well. If you need any advice or further info., feel free to PM me.