Bulk up or lean muscle ??
- Thread starter Rudeboy1
- Start date
Soldato
Completely depends on what look you prefer, do you want to get as big as possible or just ripped? Being skinny it will be easier for you to become ripped but that's not saying you will not be able to get huge either.
Associate
it really depends on what your goals are.
if you're training purely for "aesthetics", then you should try going on a "lean bulk". but it will take a lot of time and isn't my favourite approach.
if you're training for strength, adding a bit of fat would be a good idea (I don't mean become morbidly obese, but in the 10 to 15% bodyfat region).
whichever path you decide to take (or even a mix of both and YES it is possible), you will need to be in a caloric surplus and not be afraid of eating. a lot.
if you're training purely for "aesthetics", then you should try going on a "lean bulk". but it will take a lot of time and isn't my favourite approach.
if you're training for strength, adding a bit of fat would be a good idea (I don't mean become morbidly obese, but in the 10 to 15% bodyfat region).
whichever path you decide to take (or even a mix of both and YES it is possible), you will need to be in a caloric surplus and not be afraid of eating. a lot.
Man of Honour
Ideally they should be the same thing, there's no point in going nuts with food and just piling a load of fat on alongside any muscle which is what the more old school thinking on bulking is.
Lean bulking is the way forward, it shouldn't be used as an excuse to eat all the pies while spouting "It's ok I'm bulking!!" though all the half chewed food in your trap.
Lean bulking is the way forward, it shouldn't be used as an excuse to eat all the pies while spouting "It's ok I'm bulking!!" though all the half chewed food in your trap.
I thought bulking referred to the excess calories on a daily basis and nothing to do with eating crap.
if you eat crap you will feel like crap. (lethargic)
people who bulk also cut to shift the fat so they are not constantly over eating but they aren't likely to have visible abs very often.
if you eat crap you will feel like crap. (lethargic)
people who bulk also cut to shift the fat so they are not constantly over eating but they aren't likely to have visible abs very often.
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Man of Honour
A lot of people use it as an excuse to just eat everything within reach, with the excuse of it's ok I'll be cutting soon whereas in reality they're just making life much harder for themselves.
My first ever 'bulk' was a very dirty one as I had no idea what I was doing 
Im talking pizza's 3-4 times a week, a tub of ice cream a week etc. When I came home from uni after this my mum just told me I had got super fat, it wasn't until I took a picture of myself in the mirror I realised this! Not making the same mistake again!
Just lost about 5kg in about 6 weeks after getting back into it so I have a better base to start a lean bulk from. It's all about adjusting anyway. If you are putting on too much weight/fat then lower your calories
Im talking pizza's 3-4 times a week, a tub of ice cream a week etc. When I came home from uni after this my mum just told me I had got super fat, it wasn't until I took a picture of myself in the mirror I realised this! Not making the same mistake again!
Just lost about 5kg in about 6 weeks after getting back into it so I have a better base to start a lean bulk from. It's all about adjusting anyway. If you are putting on too much weight/fat then lower your calories
Associate
you don't have to only eat mcdonalds and kfc when you're bulking up. a lot of people do but as arknor said, you'll feel like crap.
the key is to control the amount of fat you're putting on but not to be afraid to put a little bit on. you can get some cheap calipers online and get a rough bodyfat percentage every week and log it. as soon as you go overboard, control your calorie intake (or up the workload). it's all about calories in vs calories out. If you love eating (like I unfortunately do), exercise more. if not, just eat less. it's not rocket science.
the key is to control the amount of fat you're putting on but not to be afraid to put a little bit on. you can get some cheap calipers online and get a rough bodyfat percentage every week and log it. as soon as you go overboard, control your calorie intake (or up the workload). it's all about calories in vs calories out. If you love eating (like I unfortunately do), exercise more. if not, just eat less. it's not rocket science.
Associate
in my experience they don't work. i've got a £50 one and it says that I'm 48% bodyfat (38% in the morning).
a set of calipers can be found for 6.99 and is more accurate. you can just use a 3 skinfolds method and get a good estimate
Oooooh... something controversial! 
Bulking refers to the old idea of eating everything and getting huge; lean muscle is simply doing this slowly.
Personally, I think the important this is just to start training. Full stop. And then build your diet around your objectives. Gaining muscle mass is a very slow process and slowed further by trying for 'lean' tissue.
Learn about diet, mmacronutrients and insulin and you will be well away.
Bulking refers to the old idea of eating everything and getting huge; lean muscle is simply doing this slowly.
Personally, I think the important this is just to start training. Full stop. And then build your diet around your objectives. Gaining muscle mass is a very slow process and slowed further by trying for 'lean' tissue.
Learn about diet, mmacronutrients and insulin and you will be well away.
Soldato
The simplest way to look at it is that
a) you need an excess of energy intake relative to your total daily energy expenditure to grow new tissue* - combined with the appropriate resistance training in order for the surplus to actually be used for growth - we all know what happens if you eat for 3 people and don't do any exercise
b) you can physically only build so much lean tissue over a day/week/month - it's like having a team of workers building a house; you can pay them more to work faster, but after a certain point, no amount of money will be able to make them work any quicker - so excess calories beyond a certain point will just end up contributing to an expanding waistline.**
Therefore it's a balance of seeing how much food you can eat whilst weight gain still stays within an acceptable rate.*** For a non-ehanced lifter, muscle gain is a slow process and you want to spend as much time building as you can and as little time having to diet down, so getting fat makes no sense - better to float between 'beach lean' and slightly fluffy vs spending all year trying to get diced then putting on 23kg in 6 months, getting depressed and then spending forever trying to get rid of it.
Read this which will explain it better, especially in terms of why a normal average joe shouldn't emulate what a professional (i.e. PED-using) bodybuilder should be doing.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
*for the obese with huge energy availability (from their excess of fat) and newbie lifters, muscle gain on a calorie deficit is possible - the leaner you get and the less inexperienced you are, the harder this becomes.
**the amount of a surplus you can get away with will be determined various things (some people just have better genetics for nutrient partitioning, a teen full of hormones and still growing vs. someone middle-aged, the closer you are to your genetic potential the slower the rate of growth, so a surplus may have to be tiny etc), so there isn't a blanket answer for how much you should over-eat, although WHAT you should be eating is a different matter and more easily answerable.
***usually this can be something like 2-3lbs a month for newbie male lifters, 1-2lbs for intermediates and 0-1lbs for more advanced males (females it gets halved).
a) you need an excess of energy intake relative to your total daily energy expenditure to grow new tissue* - combined with the appropriate resistance training in order for the surplus to actually be used for growth - we all know what happens if you eat for 3 people and don't do any exercise
b) you can physically only build so much lean tissue over a day/week/month - it's like having a team of workers building a house; you can pay them more to work faster, but after a certain point, no amount of money will be able to make them work any quicker - so excess calories beyond a certain point will just end up contributing to an expanding waistline.**
Therefore it's a balance of seeing how much food you can eat whilst weight gain still stays within an acceptable rate.*** For a non-ehanced lifter, muscle gain is a slow process and you want to spend as much time building as you can and as little time having to diet down, so getting fat makes no sense - better to float between 'beach lean' and slightly fluffy vs spending all year trying to get diced then putting on 23kg in 6 months, getting depressed and then spending forever trying to get rid of it.
Read this which will explain it better, especially in terms of why a normal average joe shouldn't emulate what a professional (i.e. PED-using) bodybuilder should be doing.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
*for the obese with huge energy availability (from their excess of fat) and newbie lifters, muscle gain on a calorie deficit is possible - the leaner you get and the less inexperienced you are, the harder this becomes.
**the amount of a surplus you can get away with will be determined various things (some people just have better genetics for nutrient partitioning, a teen full of hormones and still growing vs. someone middle-aged, the closer you are to your genetic potential the slower the rate of growth, so a surplus may have to be tiny etc), so there isn't a blanket answer for how much you should over-eat, although WHAT you should be eating is a different matter and more easily answerable.
***usually this can be something like 2-3lbs a month for newbie male lifters, 1-2lbs for intermediates and 0-1lbs for more advanced males (females it gets halved).
Associate
that's a great way of explaining it! completely agree
Caporegime
What Somnambulist said, on point B though you can start riding a bike to help build/repair quicker, obviously not really advised until years after lifting.
Associate
you'd have to be careful with your training parameters when doing so depending on your goals. but that's a whole other topic
mine seem fine £25 salter ones
18% body fat I think lol...
usually hoovering around 58-62% hydration which I think is totally normal.
only about 1 stone over weight though maybe a bit more.
I'm not fat/chubby but I'm not exactly skinny either so I'd guess that's roughly correct, the body fat slowly rises as my weight does and slowly goes down as expected.
I think I know what you're trying to say, but that's not how I'd describe it at all!
Bioelectrical impedance is a very unreliable method for gauging body fat. If you can control all of your hydration variables (not as stated by the scales...) at best you can measure trends.
Lean body mass or muscle, but not "lean muscle".