Hey gang
Been bulking for a while. Did it very badly to start off with. What with reading bulking articles which assume everyone's a hard gainer, it's very easy to believe that you need to be taking in 5000cal a day and eat a biiiiiig bowl of cereal every night before you go to bed to gain any weight.
After losing a lot of bloody weight (and developing an ED) a while ago, I assumed the above and got pretty fat quite quickly. Only after a few months of doing this did I find out that some people don't need ridiculous amounts of calories and carbs to gain. I am one of those people.
After a few more months of bulking correctly (for my body type) I have become quite unhappy with the level of body fat I'm carrying and have decided that if I ever want to get serious about this I'm gonna have to be lean.
The plan:
- Cut for 12 weeks to see how much weight I can lose (would like to trim off between 1 and 2 stone)
- After that, slowly bulk (naturally) so as to add 2lbs a month for around 2 years
- Then (when I'm around 22) I intend to cut down to a nice low level (8 or 9%) and begin my first cycle. I've decided that the look I want to ultimately achieve is not possible naturally, but there is no way I'm rushing into it. I need to do far more research and make sure that all other elements of my life are in order before I even seriously consider it.
I would like to compete at around 25 years old, hopefully on stage at around 17-18st, though this is very ambitious, but I'll see how close I can get.
The cut At the moment it's all about the cut though. I have accrued a fair bit of mass in the months I've been bulking, esp. considering that less than a year ago I weighed 8.5 stone (or 120ish lbs). My back has developed some good thickness and my shoulders, arms and legs have also gained a fair bit of size. However, my chest hasn't grown whatsoever, so I'm a bit annoyed at having to cut when I still have no chest (and a prominent collar bone). However, I blame this on my previous routine. I was following FrankieNY's routine which had only two chest exercises and I don't feel my chest was stimulated enough. I now do 5 exercises for chest, so once I begin bulking again I'm sure it will grow.
I'll be putting my food log in here. I will be taking in between 2000 and 2500cal a day. Lots of meat, lots of salad and a few carbs in there at the right times. I'll be venturing into town tomorrow to purchase some working scales (mine were £3 from Wilkos and are sh1te) and will take measurements and weight tomorrow. I'll also put up a few pics.
Sample diet below. I've realised I'll have to be quite anal and record pretty much everything in a spreadsheet if I want to get anywhere. Have attempted without doing so before, but I think that I've got to put a lot of effort and planning into this to get the fat stripped off. When I'm bulking I won't be counting cals
.
Diet Will look something like this (not included timings as sleeping patterns and meal times vary a wee bit, but each meal is between 2 and 4 hours apart).
Meal 1
50g oats
6 whites, 1 yolk
Meal 2
30g protein (15g when, 15 casein)
Wee bit of milk (and loads of water to dilute)
Meal 3
150g turkey
Undressed salad
20-30g mixed nuts
Meal 4 (pre-WO)
50g oats/ rice/ 2 oatibix
6 whites, 1 yolk/ 150g chicken/ turkey
Meal 5 (PWO)
50g oats/ rice/ 2 oatibix
6 whites, 1 yolk/ 150g chicken/ turkey
Undressed salad
Meal 6
(If I'm on a night out) 30g protein powder (blend), bit of milk, loads of water
(If I'm staying in) Stir fry veg, 150g turkey or chicken, few nuts or 300g cottage cheese
Meal 7 (only if I've been out and stayed out late (IE til 3am)
300g cottage cheese
That's my proposed diet. May be a bit low on cals, but I'll tinker with it. Any advice is welcomed.
Training 5 day split:
Day 1: Legs, abs
Day 2: Shoulders, triceps
Day 3: Deadlifts, biceps
Day 4: Lats, abs
Day 5: Chest
5 days a week will be done. Either 5 in a row and weekends off, or if I'm busy there will be a break in the week and training will be done on the weekend.
Working on increasing strength and maintaining muscle.
Cardio I am a big believer in AM cardio, but am unable to do it most days, so I'll be doing it PWO for 45 mins on training days and first thing in the morning on off days.
Cardio will either be 45 mins on the treadmill (highest incline, speed 3.0-4.0. I know that sounds low, but this treadmill is weird. I used to do it on 6.0-7.0 on the old one and it felt the same, so I'm not being lazy, it's just the machine
) or a 45 minute jog around the neighbourhood.
That's pretty much it. Not sure if I'll log my diet in here every day, but I'll try. I will be recording it every day for myself in an excel spreadsheet, which I hate doing and find incredibly anal, but it's got to be done.
As most of you know I have previous eating issues, and when I attempt any kind of calorie restriction I get very hungry, constantly think about food and have an uncontrollable urge to binge. Therefore, this will be an amazingly challenging personal battle and it will take my utmost determination and will power to stay on track. If the demons begin to rear their ugly heads again then I may have to pull the plug for now. My physique is not worth sacrificing my personal and mental wellbeing, which is what happened last time. I'm just aiming for a 3 month cut by the end of which I'll hopefully look nice and lean and ready to add some serious mass.
I'm ready to put a sh1t load of work in!
Let's see what I can do Pics (only uploaded one so far as I can't figure out how to get them the right way round. They're facing upward in photobucket. Once I figure it out I'll upload the rest
PS those two specs on my boxers are ink stains from when my pen leaked in my pocket
<message edited by AlasTTTair on 14 June 2008 19:08>