Looking for experience/advice

T

thecarguy

0
Alright, I've been working out for about 20 weeks now, and my initial concern was to lose weight. I'm ~5'10", and 20 weeks ago I weighed in at 198lbs. I'm now down to 170lbs thanks to HIIT 4x a week plus minor to moderate lifting afterwards. I'd estimate I'm about 10-11% BF at this point (started at 25%). I still have a little bit of a donut around the midsection, but its small, and nothing like it used to be.

Now, I'm looking to add some bulk (I'd love to get back to 200lbs but with muscle this time :)), but I don't want to undo all the hard work I did removing the fat. I've searched and read stickies here, and I'm leaning towards starting the "Art of Waterbury" program, and doing ~20min of HIIT on the off/light cardio days. However, the main concern I have is, I want to add muscle, but I really don't want to have to add all the fat back in a 'bulk' phase just to try and 'cut' it off again later. I did a lot of hard work to get down from 25% BF, and I really don't want to undo it just to add muscle!

My question is, is this just the nature of the beast? Or can I add muscle while not adding fat? I see a lot of people in the gym who have large muscles but also low BF% so I believe its possible somehow... is it possible to eat a caloric excess, but not pack the fat back on? Can someone with experience please enlighten me to cutting versus bulking. I don't want to wate time by not eating enough and not gaining, but I would really hate to undo all the hard work I've done thus far. Even if I have to supplement differently/not supplement (I'm not taking anything right now), or even it if takes longer, I just don't want to get fat again! Any thoughts?
 
Okay, first let me say, you aren't the only one who feels this way. I know exactly how you feel, seeing as how I lost 30+ pounds of blubber, and hated the idea of having the fat come back, while gaining the muscle.

This is how it works though. Everyone, based on their bodyweight, activity levels, and metabolism has a special number that dictates how much they need to eat just to maintain their weight. When you are losing fat, you eat less, and poof, you lose fat. When you want to gain, you eat over that amount. If you get sloppy and eat way over, sure your body will respond to the lifting, and add some muscle, but you'll also pack on fat. Not cool. The trick is to adjust your numbers, and try to eat just enough extra to give your body enough to put on weight. If you don't eat enough, as you said, you'll put in a lot of hard work, and won't really make any progress.

Basically, it can be done, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. You really have to be on top of your eating, eating just a couple hundred of 3 or 4 hundred extra calories. You will find what works. Until then, you just have to make adjustments and keep upping the calories slowly. Good luck, friend.

Oh, and congrats on the healthy weight loss.
 
Basically what MarkMyWorlds said is how you get it done. Just adjust your calorie surplus until you find what fits for you. To keep a minimal fat gain, your surplus would be lower, though your gains would be slower the fat percentage would stay lower. Which then would be less of a cut afterwards. Just takes a lot longer time, and keeping strict on diet.
 
First off, thanks for the answer! What sort of cut versus bulk time windows are normal and healthy? I.e. 4 weeks bulk, then cut until BF% is acceptable? 8 weeks? etc.?
 
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