Some thoughts on bulking after being a fat guy

barbell by lcj11768

It's somewhat frightening, the thought of putting weight back on in an attempt to get stronger. I'd been the chubby guy in all my social circles since junior high, and from April '08 to July '09 I went from 210 to 153¹. And while in the later picture I'm not totally ripped-out lean, I was losing a lot of muscle from the caloric deficit I was on, and was eating a macro split of 60p/5c/35f; pretty much ketogenic, all lean protein and fat with my only carbs coming from green leafy veggies. I basically ate nothing but eggs, chicken, pork, beef, cheese, almonds, PB, olive oil, spinach and broccoli for the last 5 months of my cutting diet. While that sort of plan may work really well for a short time to shed fat, it's not great long-term. I'm pretty scared of "getting fat" again, even though I know deep down my lifestyle and mindset has been completely changed from before and I'm not going to let myself go down that road again.

(more after the jump)


Currently I'm 5'9", ~160 lb coming back up from 153 which was my lowest. All my lifts went down as I cut down in weight, a sign that I was losing muscle along with the fat. For most people this isn't desirable and it wasn't really for me, but I think I got addicted to watching the scale keep moving downward. I got to liking people calling me skinny and commenting on how different and good I looked, but really when I'd see myself in a mirror with my shirt off I knew I was "skinny fat".

There's a big difference between being fit and "looking good" and for most people it's impractical to maintain less than 10% body fat all the time. The thought of gaining fat does scare me a little, but I know I have the keys to lose it again and do it right this time and maintain the lean mass I build up in the process. It's important I get stronger, and stay strong. My current goal is to be able to lift 1.5 times my body weight on each of the "big 3"². When I can do that, I'll drop 250 off my maintenance calories and add in 30-45 minutes of cardio per day, for 2 months.

I "eat clean"³. I'm not into getting my calories however I can, my diet consists of 90% whole foods. My wife and I have tried all sorts of variations of calorie-counting, nutrient timing, cutting out one macro or another, all with similar results. One thing I've learned is that there is a middle ground between being careless and either not eating enough or eating too little, or having an obsession with your diet similar to that of an eating disorder. Counting your calories and logging your food shouldn't take you half of your day. If it does, something's wrong. The best bit of advice I've gotten so far in my fitness journey has been "Eat your food, enjoy it, train hard, and if you're gaining fat, eat a little less" from someone on the Bodybuilding.com forums. It's really that simple, but I like everyone else I want the magic instructions that give me the results quickly. I have to keep reminding myself that food + hard work + time = muscle.

Anyway, enough waffle from me. Until next time.



¹ front view: then - now  side view: then - now
² (squat, deadlift, and bench press)
³ for the most part, but I have some whole grain cereals w/ sugar added here and there and a cheat meal 1x/week. Unfortunately this usually involves alcohol which is no good for building muscle. (I like good beer. It's a curse.)


Imbibing:
Unknown Soldier #7 (Joshua Dysart, Alberto Ponticelli)
Demo #1 (Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan)
Perelandra (C.S. Lewis)

Constant Rotation:
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Flight