First bulk is starting, ?'s within (beware: long)

[Matt]

Quickly, my stats (from a basal calc):
Input Weight is: 178.5 in U.S. Pounds
Input Height is: 72 in U.S. Inches
Input Age is : 28
Input Gender is: male

The Metabolism Results Are:

1873.3 calories per day is your Basal Caloric Rate.
2435.4 calories per day recommended for your Active Caloric Rate.
No less then 1373.3 calories per day recommended for safe consistent Weight Loss.
(BTW, this didn't change if I used the aerobic exerciser selection.)


Initially started as a endomorph, but I'm much more of a mesomorph body type now. I'm at 178 and 9.8% this morning. Planning an eight week bulk, followed by an eight week cut (If I need that much time). This will take me right up to my next family vacation and a maintenance period of a month or three.

I'm thinking of starting off with 3000 calories per day, but I'm questioning if it should be higher. I'm coming off the CKD this week and not exercising other than a little light cardio. I want my muscles ready for the bulk.

My bulking diet will be 305020 on lifting days, and 404020 on non-lifting days. My simple thought is that the extra carbs will help with energy on the lifting days, and the extra protein on non-lifting days will help with repair. (If this is hair-brained, someone please tell me.) I keep my diet extremely clean, low-gi except after workout. Even though I could afford to take in some extra calories from things like waffles, etc, my tastes have changed enough that I'll maintain the strict diet.

Daily diet will look something like this, its still pretty rough, but a work in progress, I start this coming Sunday:

7:00am - Kashi Go Lean cereal with skim milk and blueberries (Sam's Club has two quarts of BB for $5!!!)
9:30am - hard boiled eggs, koeplingers health bread with Natural PB, and a banana
12:00 - 8 oz. chicken breast, 2 cups romaine or green leaf lettuce, 1 bell pepper, Ken's Northern Italian dressing
3:00pm - pretzel and cottage cheese (maybe, haven't worked it out yet)
6:00pm - dinner will always change but will shoot for something along the lines of lunch with good carbs included
8:00pm workout
9:00pm - PW shake with dextrose
10:30pm - oatmeal with lots of skim milk



lifting days = 225g P, 375g C, 67g F
non-lifting days = 300g P, 300g C, 67g F

(these are both based on 3000 calories right now.)

My workouts will most likely be a four day split:

Sunday: Back and Bis
Tuesday: Chest and Abs
Wednesday: Legs
Friday: Delts and Tris

2-3 excercises per body part, low rep (minimum 6) with heavy weight. Need some balancing work on chest and bis, most others are to scale, especially delts, tris, and legs. I'll probably switch my exercises after the first four weeks.

Other guidelines include, minimum one gallon of water per day, minimum of 8 hours sleep per night (haven't had that in the last 6 years), vitamins (multi, C, calcium, B12, glucosamine) and for the first time creatine.

Being my first real bulk, I'd like some input on the key areas of nutrition (amounts and ratios), and any advice on the split.