well I just noticed a big flaw in my plan. My work out program that I'm doing has this week as an unloading week and next week as an off week. This is not a good time to start bulking. I'll figure something out.:mad:

mike, your original post just made me feel so grateful for being a female.. I can image how hard it is to eat more while you're trying to gain muscle when it's been all about losing weight. but it's all monitoring, so really it's all the same. i had a friend in high school that lost almost 100lbs, got down to about 150, and then bulked back up to like 210... he does body building competitions now :)

anyway, i have a question for you. for guys to gain, what's a usual timeline? do you guys measure your gain by weight? how long should it take a guy to build, say, 20lbs of muscle?

thx!

IMO to gain 20#'s of MUSCLE would take a year or more, without steroids. With Steroids it could done much quicker, but everyone is different. I plan on measuring my gain with a body fat caliper and as long as 2/3 of my gain was mucle I planned on going through with it, if I found that I was gaining too much fat I would abort my mission.;)

I was talking with a good friend the other day that is in to body building and he said something that I really believe, even though my plan here begs to differ. His thinking is that you shouldn't "bulk" until you get to 3% BF. 3% is a little extreme but I see his point, which is... as long as you have a decent amount of body fat, which I do, eat at maintenance to bulk muscle. This will allow your body to burn fat while building muscle, instead of putting on muscle AND fat.

I was actually considering that as well, eat at maintenance for a couple months, then go from there with my cut b/c I can see a considerable amount of fat in my mid section right now.

Regardless of what I do, I will monitor everything here and look for some good changes.

Not sure if I agree with that right there, but yeah like you I feel the sentiment. It's best not to gorge yourself to bulk regardless of your situation, but especially if you're still not out of the woods wrt major fat loss. Right now I'm bulking too, just trying to lay down some baseline mass overall before I start doing body-part specializations in the new year (my goal is to be beach-ready in June). I'm eating a lot, but I'm trying to do it cleanly, with tons of veggies and lots of meat.

a.vannice, I'd personally be happy if I could put on a sustainable 3-5 lbs of lean mass by the end of the year. It's going to be tricky with the holidays coming up wrt avoiding putting on fat. In addition to the scale I use a measuring tape to get an idea of muscle sizes as well as checking size and condition visually in the mirror.

yeah I'd like to be beach ready by May/June.

I took pics, weighed myself (175.2#), and checked my body fat (Suprailiac = 8mm, which is ~12.7%)
Your results:
Estimated body fat: 12.7%
Fat weight: 22lbs.
Lean weight: 153lbs.

Based on your results, you are:
Lean: 14.8% and under
Ideal: 14.8% to 20.2%
Average: 20.2% to 25.8%
Overfat: 25.8% and over

on a side note. I'll try to take my pics in the same location, same lighting, and in front of the camera.... not the mirror. I find that my pics in the mirror make me look much leaner than I really am.

This should keep me honest ;) but I probably won't take any pics with my midsection relaxed until I get my bf% down to the single digits... maybe never.

Looking good, Mike...almost posted somethin' embarrassing on your FB profile when it popped up ;).

Keep us posted...and motivated!

cjohnson... on FB or FD? I didn't think just anyone could see my facebook. I may have to look into that. I'm new to the whole FB scene.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...g?t=1291248858

After seeing these pics, I definitely feel uneasy about bulking. I need to lean up more. I don't look like 12.7% BF either, looks waaaay higher. BTW I swear I have a butt! My jeans don't show my best feature. ;)

I couldn't access your Facebook from this site but it gave me the comment box. Want me to type something in and see what happens?

Continue to admire your dedication to your fitness!

You are definitely ready for the beach! :D And, um... I live at the beach btw... ;)