I just ended my first bulking phase and thought that it was time that I start documenting and keeping track of what I'm doing. I started eating healthy and lifting weights on Jan. 1 of 2004, with a vague idea about what I was doing. I knew enough to eat tuna and cottage cheese, but not much else. About two weeks after I started, I stumbled onto this site. Here's my stats:

6 foot even
180 pounds
33 years old
BMR = 1879
Caloric maintenance = 2743

So let's get to the cycles...

1-1-2004 to 4-22-2004
Just trying to get more fit
180 pounds - 170 pounds

I started this whole thing in a very unfit state, getting so sick of myself at the end of last year that I knew I had to make a change. Unfortunately, I have no "before" pictures from this period. I read all over that you should do it, and I just neglected it. I had a basic diet of Raisin Bran, tuna, cottage cheese, bread and whey. Not bad for no knowledge. Of course I wasn't looking at numbers at all. My strength during this time did go up very fast and my weight dropped 10 pounds. By early April, I was getting really tired of feeling restricted. I decided that 10 pounds lost was a good reason to bulk and try to put on some more muscle.

After picture:
http://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/4-22-2004A.jpg

4-10-2004 to 6-4-2004 (8 weeks)
Bulking cycle
170 pounds to 180 pounds

It's interesting to be back where I started. Now I wish I had the before picture from 1-1-2004, because I had nothing back then, now I have almost doubled what I was lifting when I began only 5 months ago. I won't go into the whole breakdown, but my diet for this cycle consisted mainly of Raisin Bran, chicken breasts, many turkey sandwiches, milk, cottage cheese and a lot of fruit. I decided to target 3500 calories a day on a 50/30/20 ratio (c/p/f). For the first two weeks, I had a hard time eating this much. For the middle four weeks I really nailed it... I ate completely clean and always reached between 3500 and 4000 calories. For the last two weeks, I was hesitant to hit 3500 because I started to gain a lot of fat again. I also took AST micronized creatine during this period in addition to whey and a multivitamin. I tried taking Arginine for about 4 weeks after reading about it's nitrous effects, but stopped because I wasn't really getting anything from it.

Please excuse my farmer's tan...

After pictures:
http://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/6-5-2004A.jpghttp://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/6-5-2004B.jpg
http://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/6-5-2004C.jpghttp://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/6-5-2004F.jpg
http://hacketts.20megsfree.com/jsf/6-5-2004E.jpg

Next cycle
6-5-2004 to 7-16-2004 (6 weeks)
Cutting cycle
Goal : Lose 8 pounds

For my next cycle I'm going to make a real effort to do a well planned cutting phase. At this point, I'm so sick of eating from my bulking phase that cutting is welcome. I think losing 8 pounds in 6 weeks is reasonable considering that a few of my pounds now may just be water weight from the creatine. For this cycle, I'm nixing the creatine and just using whey and my multi. Here's the diet that I'll be following:

Non-Workout Days (totals as calculated by FitDay)
Fat : 45g, 407 cal, 21%
Carb : 171g, 27g fiber, 584 cal, 30%
protein : 172g, 689 cal, 36%
Total calories : 1,930

Workout Days (totals as calculated by FitDay)
Fat : 47g, 422 cal, 17%
Carb : 230g, 27g fiber, 820 cal, 33%
protein : 241g, 965 cal, 39%
Total calories : 2,450

Workouts:
Sat : Chest/forearms
Sun : Legs
Tue : Back/biceps
Thu : Shoulders/triceps

No cardio... heh.