Super fucking car drives!!!
Hell yeah dude!!!
Keep up the hard work!!!
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First off, props on the new PR!
Second…
Didn’t you go up in calories last week as well? You were also concerned with waist a few days ago… sounds like impatience is getting hold. Don’t let it.
You hit a new PR today and the week has just started, stick with the calories you were at last week and continue making progress as you have been.
Unless you want to go full Powerlifter Deluxe mode and start making smores between sets and aiming for new PR’s regardless of bodyweight (sarcasm, don’t do this). You’re doing fine, don’t adjust shit from week to week or else you’ll find yourself in limbo as you have been.
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Thanks boss!
That’s great advice, yeah I guess I don’t see any real reason to up calories considering it looks like I might be able to progress with the current setup, definitely not trying to go deluxe mode. 
Thanks a lot!
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I am wondering something about bodyweight and calories right now.
So far, I upped the calories to 2900, but my weight has been flat for 2 weeks (or actually sligjtly down).
In addition to gym which takes up 1:15-1:30, I am walking around 17,000 steps per day, I feel I may actually still be in either a small caloric deficit or exactly maintenance.
I’m just under 173lbs at 6 foot
Obviously, not jumping the gun, would it be fair to up calories if the bodyweight stays flat through this week? I’m guessing given my total activity level (walk + gym) I might actually need to go over 3000 (or either cut the steps in half). When do you up calories if the goal is to gain muscle mass?
@Andrewgen_Receptors
I read somewhere the goal should to be to gain 1.5kg/3lbs per month
Could it also be meal timings? Should I try to time the meals exactly at the same time everyday? I just weighed myself right now (before sleeping) and I’m weighing 78.5kg/173lb, I have a feeling tomorrow morning’s weigh-in will be under 172… which is exactly the opposite direction I’m trying to go
I think I might just be doing too many steps. 17,000 steps is roughly 9miles/14km. A bit too much?
This is in the last 3 weeks. Bro you have training ADD.
To answer your question, you can increase calories if you really want, but 3 weeks ago you were saying “3 more weeks of cutting” and have gone from 2100 to potentially over 3000 calories per day for maintenance. My point is that if you want to cut, then cut; if you want to bulk, then bulk; just dont try to do both at the same time.
You need a 1 month, 3 month, 6, 9, and 12 month goal IMO. Without those, I am a little worried you will continue to do 2 week bulk and cut cycles with inconsistent training.
IF you want to bulk, my honest opinion for un-geared individuals is to not be more than 500 calories surplus daily - you should reasonably be able to gain about 2lbs of muscle per month (again, without gear and assumed non-newbie gains). I would stick to a mild bulk, if that is truly your goal, at about 250 calories surplus daily. Yes, that is conservative, but I don’t think it is wise for you to go hard on the bulk until you can focus on the big picture.
I don’t want this to come off insulting, I want it to be eye-opening.
By the way, a simple equation for maintenance calories (accuracy pending) is:
bodyweight in lbs x 15 = maintenance calories
A more complicated one (Mifflin-St Jeor) is:
((10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) + 5) x activity factor) (see below)
Unpopular Opinion: I would also ignore your step counter. Unless you are getting your heart rate to a significant range (at least Low intensity) for more than a minute, it is basically pointless IMO. Cows do a shitload of walking, but that’s not exactly the physique we’re after either.
Also, meal timing is probably irrelevant unless you are doing intermittent fasting. I mean, dont slam down 90% of your daily calories in one meal, and don’t go starving yourself unplanned, but otherwise you’re probably okay on meal timing.
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Good to see things starting to move for you.
What does the “absolute end” look like to you? Did you settle on a definitive goal?
I did cut down some, from 82kg to 78kg, I think in hindsight that was a generally good move, I didn’t lose any strength and managed to chop around 2 inches off my waist and now I feel more comfortable going in a surplus.
That being said, as I said earlier, now I want to focus on gaining some real muscle mass for the next 4-6 months and see where it goes before cutting again. I know I still have a lot of fat to lose in the long run, but I just can’t keep cutting anymore when my bench is barely 1 plate and some.
Ideally now, my goal in 1 month (December 30th) is to have gained 1-1.5kg (79.5kg BW) quality muscle mass, and the goal at the 6 month mark (30th May 2022) is to have gained 7-9kg, so bodyweight around 85-86kg (188 lbs). So I am indeed trying to “bulk” up a bit because I just can’t cut at the moment because there is basically nothing to cut down to.
So there you have it, that is indeed the “goal” for 6 months and the month-to-month goal. Of course say something goes terribly wrong and I’m at 34 inch waist then I would likely have to “readjust” the goal, but that is why I’m saying, I think I should be eating just enough of a surplus to gain 1-1.5kg at most per month in bodyweight because I know even then not all will be muscle. The waist size is a good indicator if things are going good or down the drain.
It will be something like this if things go well:
Bodyweight: (currently 78.4kg average - 30 Nov 2021)
- 30 Dec 2021 - 79.5kg average, waist <= 32.5
- 30 Jan 2022 - 81.0kg average, waist <= 32.5
- 28 Feb 2022 - 82.3kg average, waist <= 32.5
- 30 March 2022 - 83.6kg average, waist <= 32.5
- 30 April 2022 - 85.0kg average, waist <= 32.5
- 30 May 2022 - 86.2kg average, waist <= 32.5
Bench Press:
- 30 Dec 2021 - 165, 3 x 5
- 30 Jan 2022 - 180, 3x5
- 28 Feb 2022 - 195, 3x5
- 30 March 2022 - 205, 3x5
- 30 April 2022 - 215, 3x5
- 30 May 2022 - 225, 3x5
These ^ are the big month-to-month, 6 month goals I have in mind right now given my current:
BW: 78.5kg
Waist: 31.5 inches
Bench 3x5: 155
Squat 3x5: 205
Again I want to do these, and thats why I continue to monitor all these measurements but obviously if I’m not gaining strength and just gaining BW thats probably fat. Thats why those goals are going to go hand in hand absolutely.
@dagill2 those are the big goals I have right now ^.
The “end” goal where I would be satisfied is really too long out to plan for now, but ideally it would just be lean and enough muscle mass to look “good” on my frame (yeah I know its vague), this will take some time, hopefully under 1.5-2 years though
For now, I sitll don’t know my true maintenance, it could just be that my body is adapting so sticking with 2900 calories for some more time is not a bad idea, but I sitll want to hit those BW and bench goals in line with each other over the next few months (and esp the deltas in the month-to-month),
Let me know your feedbacks on this. I have to do stuff pretty carefully because I can’t YOLO bulk like the fast metabolism guys nor can I YOLO cut like the fat guys, so my approach thougth is:
- Follow above plan for 4-6 months and monitor very careful, too fast weight gain is likely going to get me in a rut, too low strength gain with high bw gain will get 100% me in a rut, too low weight gain and low strength gain will get me nowhere AKA spinning wheels right where I am.
- After 4-6 months if everything has gone well, I should really be ready to do a proper cut back down to 30 inch waist, which will likely be 5-6kg of weight loss, at the the end, i’ll be back at 80kg (176 lbs BW) but hopefully with a much better body composition. Given my wrist size of 6 inches and a small waist, I don’t believe i need to become a mass monster 190 lb person to look great but thats my current speculation only.
@throwawayfitness @mnben87 and anyone else, your thoughts are appreciated as well.
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I agree it’s too far out to plan for, but not too far out to visualise. I find that vision of the end goal is a powerful thing to be able to call on when necassary. When shit gets really tough and your mind and body want to quit, that grand vision of what you’re trying to achieve can be the difference between succes and failure.
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Yeah, I know what I’m trying to achieve as a general idea, I won’t quit thats for sure, willing to bet money on that. At the end, we only get one life, I still think if I can hit those 6 month milestones month-by-month I will be in a good spot.
Now, hitting those milestones and optimizing to make sure that it goes as planned is what has usually fucked me up in the past. But again, the type of focus and dedication I have on this now I haven’t had for much else before in my life except University and career… 
Whenever I have tried “bulking,” I have almost always fucked up. I have now realized I just absolutely can’t bulk like the lean, fast metabolism guys so this time I have broken it down into steps, every day and every week I need to make sure that there is progress towards those milestones.
By 6 months, its the small stones that will build the path from one end of the pond to the other so let’s see.
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Thank you for clarifying your goals.
With this in mind, you put a lot of emphasis on body weight with only waist measurement withstanding - i think this is a bit misplaced, but we can always see how it goes. It is important to remember that you will have to be in a surplus if you want to put on muscle, but simply stacking on lean muscle without some fat isn’t possible without gear.
If you want to add 2-3 pounds of muscle growth per month, you will need to increase calories from 500-750 calories daily surplus over maintenance (i know we aren’t 100% on maintenance calories yet). I will say that 750 cal daily surplus is likely to put on more bodyfat than i think you want. IMO i think you should stick with 500 cal daily surplus, thus meaning you should expect ~2lbs bodyweight increase per month.
I will warn you that your goals for bench are very ambitious considering many lifters will work a year for ~20lbs extra on a lift. Luckily for you, your bench weight is still relatively low - making this more achievable. To reach this type of goal, i’m going to suggest 5/3/1 programming my Jim Wendler. It stacks powerlifts in your weekly schedule and prioritizes these lifts - they are well known for putting on overall mass via triggering Central Nervous System response, something you will need to be more in-tune with to be crushing PR’s like you want to be doing. Links as follows:
I’m not going to say you need to destroy your wallet on Brain Candy or Plazma (though Plazma has solid reviews by MANY people) or Mag-10, but the intent of those supplements should still be met.
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I don’t see myself as any sort of mass monster lol (and I am 5’10" @210 lbs). Just other people seem to have gotten really small / underdeveloped.
It’s all perspective. Don’t worry so much about the waist. Worry about how you look. If you had the same amount of fat as you currently do, but weighed 200 lbs, your percentage would be lower, and you would look pretty jacked. I have a V-taper with a 36-37" waist.
That 36-37" waist would not look good without the muscle, but with muscle, it looks pretty good.
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certainly wouldn’t consider 190lbs a mass monster either 
looking thicc over there though 
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Thanks man! My back is probably my best muscle group.
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Yeah I guess that is true, 750 is too aggressive for someone like me, maybe 300-500 can work. Right now I’m at 2900, I’ll see if my weight is still stagnant, if it is then I can always up to 3100 and see. I think 2 lbs per month would be 250 caloric surplus per day right? I wonder if 500 is a little too high for “lean bulking”?
Never heard of these before, seems like these are not the standard protocol supplements (looks very OTC) what sorts of things do they have on it and will they help specifically with hypertrophy?
I’m willing to try it out if doesn’t fuck my body up lol (just seems like these are very non-standard supplements compared to whey etc).
Here’s a T-Nation article by @Christian_Thibaudeau that i think can better explain how you should be dieting to meet your goals. I certainly cannot add value to this article, and me trying to explain it likely wouldn’t do it a justice.
Brain Candy, Plazma, Mag-10 are Biotest (T-Nation brand) supplements. You don’t need them, but it is worthwhile to understand what they DO. I only bring it up because 5/3/1 specifically mentions them in the protocol. Also, most lifters don’t consider protein shakes to be a ‘supplement’ as they are more accurately categorized as a dieting tool (just letting you know).
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Hah, from that article
Where a lot of people go wrong is their nutrition. Lifters will do one of these two things: fail to eat enough food to support growth, or eat way too much in the hope of forcing even more growth.
I felt the pain reading that.
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you, like many others (including myself) were “a lot of people” in this situation. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we can learn to right our wrongs =)
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Yeah,
I think in accordance to my 6 month plan, #2 from the article (controlled bulking) sounds really good. The surplus he suggests is 300-700, with 500 in the middle. I will try for 350-450 since I am a bit on the fatter side and since caloric aren’t measured 100% perfectly there’s a chance I’ll likely be a bit over. I am fortunately tracking every diet detail.
Very well written article, still at 2900 calories but might up it next week. Goal is definitely to build muscle and then cut down later on.
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I feel that, I’ve been there. It turns out I don’t train hard enough to need 3 burgers as a post workout.
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So true, what a jackass moves I have made in the past with dieting…