Fat % During bulk

[tgzerozone]

Was wondering what sort of fat percentage everyone sits at during a bulk. I'm currently on about 16% give or take, up from 14% when I started.

Managed to gain approximately 3 kg in muscle the last 1.5 - 2 months with obviously a little fat gained as well.

I have not really been doing Cardio (I do a very Physical Cardio like job twice a week though, probably not best as it is 5 hours per go low intensity) but think it might be time to introduce this. Thinking of bulking up to 85 kg this year (Currently at 72 kg) and then cutting, and a bigger bulk next year.

[Ninja]

Ive been well over 20 % while bulking, but this doesnt suit me as my body weight gets over the 100kg mark and takes ages to get back into shape when i wnt to cut. :x I try to stay in the region of 15%. Im a classic endomorph though so if you have a faster metabolism might be easy for you to lose the weight.

[thatwaslight]

if you can see 6 abs your doing it wrong

[tgzerozone]

I see one BIG abb...

[tgzerozone]

Ive been well over 20 % while bulking, but this doesnt suit me as my body weight gets over the 100kg mark and takes ages to get back into shape when i wnt to cut. :x I try to stay in the region of 15%. Im a classic endomorph though so if you have a faster metabolism might be easy for you to lose the weight.

Seems I am a mesomorph but have always been skinny (Not ectomorph skinny, just not eating enough), so assuming I might not struggle that much to cut it. So best not to go over 20 max right?

Currently eating 3500 to 4000 cals a day, and still only picked up 2 % fat since I started (1.5-2 months). And admittedly, the 3500 to 4000 cals are not always low/good fats. I've only now started trimming off the pork fat and lamb fat etc and still doing about 10 eggs a day with yolks included.

[greemah]

I try get lowish fat during a bulk to avoid having to spend too much time cutting. Once I can't see my 6 pack I start cutting, which I'm guessing is around 14% maybe

[tgzerozone]

As said, I do have a 1-pack. haha.

I am currently managing 1 pound of muscle per week. From opinions it seems that that is pretty much up there with max muscle gains. Happy about that at least.

I think I'll give it another few weeks and then I'll cut out a little bit of fat if it doesn't stay the same.

[hhhh1]

what makes you think its muscle youre gaining?

[Ninja]

what makes you think its muscle youre gaining?

^this

A pound a week is huge, thats over 20kg per year. I can pretty much say for sure that you either have freakish genetics and should turn pro, or what you are gaining is a mixture of extra water you are holding, fat and new muscle. If you cut youd lose the fat but also a lot of water. Dont take to much notice of the scales bro! Use the mirror and your tape measure

[tomleegolf]

if you can see 6 abs your doing it wrong

Im doing it wrong. 18kgs in 13 months gained and i still have abs. Fml shit genetics

[tgzerozone]

Well, I calculated how much weight I gained, then calculated how much of that weight was fat, and then I looked at how much weight I started at and how much of that was fat at that point. Looking at all those numbers I came to about 1 lbs per week.

Starting weight: 66 kg

Weight now: 72

time between starting and weight now. 8 weeks

Fat percentage started: 14 %

Fat percentage now: 16 %

Starting weight lean mass: 56

Lean mass now: 60

Lean mass gained in 8 weeks= 4kg

Lean mass per week: 500 odd grams.

Maybe I did something wrong, dunno how to calculate water etc, probably can't.

Same scale and all. The mirror also says I'm bigger and medium shirts are starting to sit to tight. Have one pair of jeans that still fits.

Anyways, apologies if I did the calculations wrong, I'm new to this. Luckily I can see I am making good gains so not to worried about the figures, just trying to keep log of what is happening.

[hhhh1]

not saying you're wrong necessarily, or that 500g/week muscle is unattainable in some situations, its just often when people are like "i gained x amount of muscle" a large part is fat/water/glycogen weight/food in stomach. how did you measure body-fat?

[tgzerozone]

Yup, understandable, as said, I don't profess to be a genius on the subject and most people on this forum knows way more than me about bodybuilding. I'll just throw Give or take in there, but at least it is some sort of a gauge. Even if it is less and it is water etc, it still pretty good gains natural I think. I'm also very sure that as I get a little bigger, obviously the gains are going to become much harder. I started out small and there was room for much improvement in the beginning, which as said will inevitably slow down the further I go.

I do caliper tests at the gym for fat measuring. I'll do another one on Monday again to be sure.

I also do weight checks first thing in the morning before eating etc, so not really much food or water I think at that point in the morning. I normally hit the scale at 74-75 in the avo, and 72 in the morning.

And further, I'm not a big headed guy or anything, so it was not intended to "Show everyone what I could do". . Just working hard at it and impressed with what I have achieved in the last 2 months. I didn't think the gains were going to be that good and it kinda surpassed my expectations.

[hhhh1]

yeah i had pretty good gains in the first few months after i started, and yep gains will surely slow down...how long have you been lifting for?

[tgzerozone]

Been lifting 8 weeks now. Aiming for a 7% fat on about 78 kg by the end of winter. Probably won't make it, but good to set the goal high, lol.

[Ninja]

Awesome that you have your goals set high, stick with it and good luck bro!

[tgzerozone]

Yup, had a messed up Monday, couldn't hit the gym and diet was CRAP. Back into it today.

[BIGKIWI]

Don't get to high fat % it will stress you out and usually make you over diet and lose muscle when trying to get it off. Stay leaner and keep lower fat % you will be usually just as strong be healthier and if eating properly may gain more muscle than bulking diet. You won't have to change much to compete etc either and the food will be easier to accustom to. I do cardio even in off season to keep metabolism ticking over and stay that little bit leaner

[tgzerozone]

What percentages fat do you favor BigKiwi?

[nate225]

Agree with Justin, but dont suggest you focus on his desired levels of BF. Justin is a genetic FREAK and was also heavily enhanced. Unless you wanna play that game your off season and gains will likely be different to his. Really saying you wont be able to stay as lean all year round, or gain as many lean kilos to fat kilos as he would when bulking.

I went up to 15.5% BF when bulking recently, and having started dieting I'd have to say its probably not ideal being any higher than that!! I gained some serious weight (16kg in 6 months) but I reckon less than half of that was muscle (from body comps it looks like around 6kg of that was muscle).

[tgzerozone]

Yup, understood. I'm definitely not going to compare myself to him! :wink:

It's good to get a few numbers though just to see what others think.

Think I'll do some measurements tonight again and another set of fat % clips on Monday. Might have to start cutting those egg yolks! Fiance is going to be "impressed" at the rate the eggs are going to go then.

[tgzerozone]

Nice, up to 74 kg now. Still haven't done damn fat test, gotta get my ass in gear. Gains seem to start coming faster again. I was sitting at 71-72 for sometime, and suddenly I've just shotup quicker again adding 2 kg's in no time.

[Dinahlady]

Saw your pics. Don't get too caught up on fat % at this point in time. If you just worry about gaining muscle mass and do a clean bulk your fat % will go down by proxy and you will look bigger and leaner for it. The %age being 16 or whatever doesn't mean that literally the amount of lbs of fat on your body is "high" for bodybuilding at all or even generally for a person, especially if you are just starting out.

If you want to get bigger then work on building. I don't see the point in cutting or adding lots of cardio if you haven't bulked up much muscle to cut down to. You'll look leaner as you add muscle mass if you do it right so the fat gain isnt necessarily going to be linear once you get a balance between diet and training, trainig is obv a huge part of it. In terms of diet juts try and keep the fats as low as you can without stressing too much about it and protein above 200 a day and the rest clean carbs to make your calories. The thing thats gonna add the most fat if anything is having high everything pro/carbs/fat and from crappy sources....

(inb4 "a calorie is a calorie" not frm that school of thought thx)

IMO just keep gaining till when you look in the mirror you are absoultely hating your fat gain more than you are mirin your muscle gains. But i'd give it a bit more of a chance if I were you.

[southernsamurai]

Saw your pics. Don't get too caught up on fat % at this point in time. If you just worry about gaining muscle mass and do a clean bulk your fat % will go down by proxy and you will look bigger and leaner for it. The %age being 16 or whatever doesn't mean that literally the amount of lbs of fat on your body is "high" for bodybuilding at all or even generally for a person, especially if you are just starting out.

If you want to get bigger then work on building. I don't see the point in cutting or adding lots of cardio if you haven't bulked up much muscle to cut down to. You'll look leaner as you add muscle mass if you do it right so the fat gain isnt necessarily going to be linear once you get a balance between diet and training, trainig is obv a huge part of it. In terms of diet juts try and keep the fats as low as you can without stressing too much about it and protein above 200 a day and the rest clean carbs to make your calories. The thing thats gonna add the most fat if anything is having high everything pro/carbs/fat and from crappy sources....

(inb4 "a calorie is a calorie" not frm that school of thought thx)

IMO just keep gaining till when you look in the mirror you are absoultely hating your fat gain more than you are mirin your muscle gains. But i'd give it a bit more of a chance if I were you.

Dinah Einstein LOL!

Eat, lift, sleep repeat....... Simple

Keep an eye on the mirror and clothes etc

[Dinahlady]

Saw your pics. Don't get too caught up on fat % at this point in time. If you just worry about gaining muscle mass and do a clean bulk your fat % will go down by proxy and you will look bigger and leaner for it. The %age being 16 or whatever doesn't mean that literally the amount of lbs of fat on your body is "high" for bodybuilding at all or even generally for a person, especially if you are just starting out.

If you want to get bigger then work on building. I don't see the point in cutting or adding lots of cardio if you haven't bulked up much muscle to cut down to. You'll look leaner as you add muscle mass if you do it right so the fat gain isnt necessarily going to be linear once you get a balance between diet and training, trainig is obv a huge part of it. In terms of diet juts try and keep the fats as low as you can without stressing too much about it and protein above 200 a day and the rest clean carbs to make your calories. The thing thats gonna add the most fat if anything is having high everything pro/carbs/fat and from crappy sources....

(inb4 "a calorie is a calorie" not frm that school of thought thx)

IMO just keep gaining till when you look in the mirror you are absoultely hating your fat gain more than you are mirin your muscle gains. But i'd give it a bit more of a chance if I were you.

Dinah Einstein LOL!

Eat, lift, sleep repeat....... Simple

Keep an eye on the mirror and clothes etc

Farkkk whatever !

basically yeah....

But this idea doesn't work for people with ridiculously overcomplicated minds (ie me).... Obviously he has decided he wants to lift and get big but somewhere along the line this has become complicated with fat gain etc... So my response had to be even more complicated to counteract that.

nt srs but yeah.