Hello all,

Been away from the forums for a while, but not away from fitness!

Anyway, I officially started my bulk about 11 days ago, and I'm already freaked out about my progress.

When I began the bulk, I looked like I did in the final pictures from my progress thread here (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=4200&page=2&pp=20)

I kid you not when I say that only 11 days later, I look almost as fat as the "before" pictures on page 1 (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=4200) of the same thread. It took me ten weeks of extreme fitness and dieting to shed all that fat off, and now it's only taken 11 days to put almsot all of it back on!!!! This is completely unacceptable.

I feel like I'm doing everything right. I was maintaining at 2600 calories a day over the summer for four months, which was perfect. Didn't gain or lose a pound, and didn't notice any fat gains. Three weeks ago, in preparation for the bulk, I slowly started cycling my calories up to 3200, addding only about 100 additional calories a day. I've been at 3200 "clean" calories a day for 11 days now, and I'm fat as a school bus.

My diet is super clean. I'm basically eating all the same foods at the same times that I was during my diet/maintenance, only more of them. My workouts have been awesome. I'm doing Max-OT and have already noticed significant strength gains.

Nevertheless, I've added nearly an 1-1/2" (!!) to my gut, and seen no muscle increase whatsoever. I realize that bulking will inevitably add some fat, but this is ridiculous. At this rate, I will be 40% BF by the end of my bulk. I am also taking creatine, which I realize will cause me to retain a lot of water, but this seems extreme.

I have no idea what I could be doing wrong. Are certain body types just not made for bulking?

You might be a tiny bit high on the cals, but I don't think there's anything to worry about. You're about a month behind me, in the bulking phase...been there.

PM to ya shortly.

Brian

I gained about 2" on my waist when I first started bulking 6 weeks ago. Came on really quick and has leveled off ever since then.

What type of cardio have you been doing. Have you tried carb cycling to slow the fat gains?

My first bulking phase was 3 months ago, and I was counting calories then, I ate 200-250 g of carbohydrate, 140-150 g of protein and 30-35 g of fat daily. More or less I was eating 1800-2200 calories daily.

Now, at my height and age, this should simply become my maintaining calories intake, but I think that my body has adapted to consuming 1200-1500 calories daily, my BMR has lowered to adapted to the intake I've been taking for the last 6 months of low calorie diet (slow-cutting). So the result is, I gain a bit mass plus additional fat around the mid-section.

What I'm trying to say is, since we've been cutting for quite some time, our BMR has lower to maintain a proper balance of energy production, so by uptaking our caloric-intake, some or most of this calories are turned into bodyfat because of of our metabolic rate, which is just starting to adapted to our new caloric intake.

But I wouldn't really trust counting calories anymore, because outside the lab, it's just impossible to count the exact amount of calories consumed by your body. By the way, this is just my assumption. I give this opinion, because everytime I bulk, I gain little aditional size, but usually my lower abdominal becomes loose (covered again with fat).

Thanks guys. These replies make sense and I feel better now. I was having a "moment".

I figured it would take 2 - 4 weeks of monitoring my bulking progress to be able to assess exactly where my calories should be, which is why I was so bummed that I gained so much so quickly.

So far, the workouts are going great. I'm increasing lifting weight like never before!

Probably eating too much. But first, if you were maintaining weight at 2600 calories and now you're up to 3200, that's 600 X 11. That's not even two pounds of fat. I feel gross after eating a lot for a couple of days. I lose the leaner more trimmed look quite quickly.

So don't worry too much about it, because it's probably just retention of water, but I'd consider cutting calories back.

This is one of the reasons i don't like bulking much. It's too easy to look like crap quickly. I've done it enough to know that personally I'd rather put on muscle slowly and keep a thinner look, because then I don't have large portions of my life where I feel disgusted with myself.

I feel gross after eating a lot for a couple of days. I lose the leaner more trimmed look quite quickly.

So don't worry too much about it, because it's probably just retention of water, but I'd consider cutting calories back.

This is one of the reasons i don't like bulking much. It's too easy to look like crap quickly. I've done it enough to know that personally I'd rather put on muscle slowly and keep a thinner look, because then I don't have large portions of my life where I feel disgusted with myself.

Man, talk about experiences, you're absolutely 1oo % correct men... :tu: After finish cutting, (well not cutting really, let's just say maintaing with a bit deficit) my body was lean and cut. So I plan to bulk... not too sure it was a good plan though, cause just one week from my bulking, it seems I've gain pounds, but the scale nor measurements say so...

But one thing is for sure, it's either fat or water retention, I'm not quite impressed with my new body right now, I open my dress and like,..."Eeeww!!... is that my body? You gotta be kidding... what did I do wrong?! :d_eek:

My point here is that I'm so used seeing my body quite lean and cut, then all of a sudden, all of this water retention is killing me mentally. Anyway, if it's just water retention, how would you know it is? Does it jiggle too like fat? How does it feels when you pinch it? I'm asking this because during my maintaing, my tummy is firm when I flex it, but after I eat large, it still jiggle even if I flex it, but after a day or so, it's firm again... Just hoping to here some advice... :tucool: