Calories: 2750-2800 (18 cal/lb, around a 20% surplus)
Protein: 200 g
Carbs: 300 g
Fat: 85g
Training:
Lyle’s bulking routine (exactly what it says)
I’ll ramp up to my 100% 6 rep max by the 4th workout, and keep trying to add weight when I feel I have some left in the tank.
Cardio: Brisk walking 30 minutes 3x a week
Supplementation:
A multi
5g creatine/day
2 double strength fish oils
glucosamine
caffeine on workout days
Your fats are pretty low (because you’re only a light fella and your maintenance cals are therefore pretty low, a 20% fat allotment in a lower calorie diet is probably not going to yield sufficient total fats for optimal testosterone support). I’d recommend getting your fats up into the 100gm/day area and keeping cals the same by removing 20gms of protein and 90gms or so from your carbs (you can stack your carbs around training if lack of energy is a concern).
Also, I hope that’s a typo when you say you’re going to walk three times per day?
Your fats are pretty low (because you’re only a light fella and your maintenance cals are therefore pretty low, a 20% fat allotment in a lower calorie diet is probably not going to yield sufficient total fats for optimal testosterone support). I’d recommend getting your fats up into the 100gm/day area and keeping cals the same by removing 20gms of protein and 90gms or so from your carbs (you can stack your carbs around training if lack of energy is a concern).
Also, I hope that’s a typo when you say you’re going to walk three times per day?
Cheers
Mav
yes its a typo. thanks for catching that.
100 gm/day- so fats would make up like 37% of my cals.
I’m curious why you threw out that 100 gm/day, would 75 g/day be sufficient?
from what I understand, you’re saying that theres a minimum req for fat intake for optimal testosterone support that is independent of body weight?
so, it’s been a week.
been eating 2450-2500 cals at the macros stated above
takin all my supps, usually spread out my cals over 4 meals or so
as for training, i’m still ramping up to my 100% so its hard to say
if I’ve really made any PRs
lyle’s routine seems great so far
I would post pictures, but am having problems with camera/moving into uni apartments so i’ll probably have them next week or so.
As for weight, although it has only been one week, I feel as if the caloric surplus isn’t enough - I take my weight every morning after I pee and a glass of water- weight is as follows:
151.4
149.9
149.8
152.4
151.2
151.2
151.6
150
I feel I have to ramp up the cals a bit, maybe to around 2600, but it has only been a week.
Opinions?
You should be seeing some weight gain almost immediately when on an appropriate energy surplus.
I’d recommend that you go up to 2800 cals/day, given that you’ve seen no weight gain so far on circa 2500. It’s better to gain a little too fast than to hang around for ever on a “bulking” diet that isn’t creating any bulk.
As for the fats issue, yes you are right in saying that there is an absolute value requirement for testosterone support, but it’s not that it’s independent of body weight, it’s independent of macronutrient percentages.
Basically, you need a certain number of grams of fat to support your hormonal health, and this does relate to your size of course. But people do tend to get confused with percentages as they are relative, not absolute values. For example, if I said I was on a 95% protein diet, most people would send me straight to the hospital for immediate renal failure treatment (“Oh my god…that’s a so much protein!”).
But what if I then added that I was on a Protein Sparing Modified Fast and was only taking 200 gms of protein per day? The percentages are still extreme, but the absolute values of protein are completely normal, and would reflect the values seen in a ‘normal’ balanced diet.
As for your specific case, I recommend higher fats for 2 reasons: 1) They are palatable and calorie dense, which are two features that you really want while bulking (and want to avoid while cutting!); and 2) for optimal hormonal response - testosterone output is optimal with higher fats (especially saturated fats), and again, this is what you want in a bulking phase.
You should be seeing some weight gain almost immediately when on an appropriate energy surplus.
I’d recommend that you go up to 2800 cals/day, given that you’ve seen no weight gain so far on circa 2500. It’s better to gain a little too fast than to hang around for ever on a “bulking” diet that isn’t creating any bulk.
As for the fats issue, yes you are right in saying that there is an absolute value requirement for testosterone support, but it’s not that it’s independent of body weight, it’s independent of macronutrient percentages.
Basically, you need a certain number of grams of fat to support your hormonal health, and this does relate to your size of course. But people do tend to get confused with percentages as they are relative, not absolute values. For example, if I said I was on a 95% protein diet, most people would send me straight to the hospital for immediate renal failure treatment (“Oh my god…that’s a so much protein!”).
But what if I then added that I was on a Protein Sparing Modified Fast and was only taking 200 gms of protein per day? The percentages are still extreme, but the absolute values of protein are completely normal, and would reflect the values seen in a ‘normal’ balanced diet.
As for your specific case, I recommend higher fats for 2 reasons: 1) They are palatable and calorie dense, which are two features that you really want while bulking (and want to avoid while cutting!); and 2) for optimal hormonal response - testosterone output is optimal with higher fats (especially saturated fats), and again, this is what you want in a bulking phase.
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Mav
cool, thanks for the explanation.
I bumped up cals and fats per your recommendation
i’ll be recording weights in the morning as usual and continuing my training regiment.
bumped up cals to 2800, and am definitely seeing some weight gain
if i take the median of the first week (which is relatively close to the mean), i get around 151.2. when i woke up today i was 152.6
looks like a little over a pound of weight gain
I have considered lowing the cals marginally OR adjusting calories downward on non workout days only
or maybe i should just keep it the same and stop OCD’ing
opinions?
in other news, my PRS have gone up around 5-10 pounds on major lifts (bench, chins, squats, deads) for the 6-8 repetition range.
so it would seem I am putting on muscle.
weekly check up.
gained about another pound, up to 153ish
since i’m pushing up heavier weight and makin PRs, I need some suggestions for how to progress with weight.
so far I’ve been doing something like:
100 x 8
100 x 7
100 x 6
(all the reps in the 6-8 range)
at this point I would increase the weight to where I could do
105 x 6
105 x 6
95 x 6 (decreasing the weight so I can stay in the 6-8 range)
and then build up until I get everything in the 6-8 range like the first example
I could really use some guidance as to how to arrange my progression (when to add weight, how to structure/pyramid my sets)
Preciate it!
There’s a million and one ways to progress; you can add sets, shoot for more reps, increase the load, increase the density (amount of reps per unit of time) etc.
They all work, some better than others, and some better for some people than for others.
For the big compound lifts, I like adding weight in a fairly linear fashion (e.g start out with a weight that allows 3 sets of 10 reps and add 5 lbs every week). Keep adding weight until you’re limited to doing triples, and then start again. Also, ensure that you add sets as your reps per set decrease, so that the total volume of work remains roughly the same (e.g. 3 sets of 10 ultimately ends up as 10 sets of 3).
I like this system as it’s psychologically very rewarding (i.e. you’re hitting heavier and heavier weights every week) and it’s inherently progressive in nature.
Late update this week, but I am still gaining weight slowly (So far I have gained around 3.5 pounds)
I’m starting my 5th week on the bulk, and have set some modest PRS so far
Progression, although it is steady, has slowed down to a snail’s pace (adding just 1-2 reps per week, and eventually bumping up the weight when I hit a certain rep range)
I suppose I’ll hit a plateau soon and at that point i’ll deload.
So today, I managed to make new PRs on my pulling exercise, but for some reason, my pushing TANKED
as in, i had a hard time doing 25 lbs less than what I usually do for both Bench and shoulder press
maybe I had a bad day? my strength really slipped here. any suggestions of what I should do and what the hell happenned?
If you are hitting the wall twice in a row, then it is time to deload. And you can always deload the exercise you are struggling and still make PR on others.
If you are hitting the wall twice in a row, then it is time to deload. And you can always deload the exercise you are struggling and still make PR on others.
heh, guess it was just a bad day
managed to add yet another rep in my last workout :D
haven’t got much of a chance to update since I’ve been swamped this week with work and school/exams. But good to know that things are going great. I finished my first cycle, made PRs, and have started a new cycle this week (deloading already)
my results from my first cycle (around 6 weeks):
Weight: + 4.5 lbs
Bench: +10 lbs
Chins: +7.5 lbs
Leg Press: + 15 lbs
Leg Curl: +10 lbs
with some small minor improvments on assistance exercises/abs
(added some reps)
I’m going to start this cycle, same amount of calories and macros, and hopefully will be making more PRs soon :]
Thanks everyone for your advice, support. It’s really nice to be putting on strength and mass after dieting so long.
