increasing calories when switching from cutting to clean bulk?

[ascendant]

well, just finished cutting up, and had my calories all the way down to about 1800 a day. so far, over the past 3 days, i upped them to 2400cals and i'm feeling hungrier than ever oddly enough, even hungrier than i used to be on 1800cals.

so, just wondering how quickly i should be able to up my cals to maximize muscle gains while making sure to keep it clean and not gain any fat? i was always used to doing fairly dirty bulks, and want to try to keep my bf% under 10% year-round from now on, so my main priority is to maiximize muscle gains while minimizing fat-gain while i bulk. just not sure how quick i can up my cals at this point without risking storage as fat? the 2400 cals seems fine so far, but it's already a 600 cal jump in 3 days. not sure from this point how much i should be able to safely ramp them up daily/weekly till i get to where i want to be for my clean bulk caloric intake? thanks in advance guys.

[audis4]

wow 1800 cals...why so low?
Anyways, I would start out at your maintenance cals at jump up around 500 per week until you hit your desired amount.

[timtim]

staying below 10%, go up 200 calories every 3 days till you start to see fat increases. when this happens cut back 200 calories and see what happens over the next 2 weeks. this is how i do my caloric increase. might not work the same for you but its an example.

[IBdmfkr]

1800 isn't that low, many people believe their maintainance is much higher than it really is IMO. I dipped to 1200-1500 at times on my contest diet for a day at a time. Ascendent glad to see you're on the right path as far as staying leaner during the offseason, not many people understand the concept.

I'd do as timtim suggested as well and slowly ramp them up, honestly if you're taking in whole foods that are all quality calories you don't need more than approx 3000 to see LBM gains, if you include cardio you could go higher than that. I'm under 3000 as of now and making considerable gains although I do have days that I jump it up significantly to keep my metabolism guessing.

goodluck and btw how low did you get BF % and your weight etc?

[1buffsob]

well, just finished cutting up, and had my calories all the way down to about 1800 a day. so far, over the past 3 days, i upped them to 2400cals and i'm feeling hungrier than ever oddly enough, even hungrier than i used to be on 1800cals.

so, just wondering how quickly i should be able to up my cals to maximize muscle gains while making sure to keep it clean and not gain any fat? i was always used to doing fairly dirty bulks, and want to try to keep my bf% under 10% year-round from now on, so my main priority is to maiximize muscle gains while minimizing fat-gain while i bulk. just not sure how quick i can up my cals at this point without risking storage as fat? the 2400 cals seems fine so far, but it's already a 600 cal jump in 3 days. not sure from this point how much i should be able to safely ramp them up daily/weekly till i get to where i want to be for my clean bulk caloric intake? thanks in advance guys.

Are you bulking natty?

If aas and am cardio are utilized, you can catch the "rebound" coming off a cutting diet and still stay quite lean.

[ascendant]

1800 isn't that low, many people believe their maintainance is much higher than it really is IMO. I dipped to 1200-1500 at times on my contest diet for a day at a time. Ascendent glad to see you're on the right path as far as staying leaner during the offseason, not many people understand the concept.

I'd do as timtim suggested as well and slowly ramp them up, honestly if you're taking in whole foods that are all quality calories you don't need more than approx 3000 to see LBM gains, if you include cardio you could go higher than that. I'm under 3000 as of now and making considerable gains although I do have days that I jump it up significantly to keep my metabolism guessing.

goodluck and btw how low did you get BF % and your weight etc?

thanks for all the info and feedback guys. been a while since i've been on here, but wanted to just respond real quick.

well, been ramping them up gradually as you guys suggested. up to about 3100 right now and still no fat gain, but also not any significant lean mass gains either.

as far as how low i got my bf%, just down to about 5.5-6%. i know that's not that low, but i let it get up there to about 13% till i finally decided i gotta keep it lower year-round. i spent about 2 1/2 months cutting, and by that point i was done.

so, i finished my stats at about 5.5-6%bf, weighing in at 180lbs. i still have quite a bit of catching up to do to get back where i was before, but i'm about 6 months in now and doing pretty good so far, especially considering i still haven't started gear again yet.

[ascendant]

Are you bulking natty?

If aas and am cardio are utilized, you can catch the "rebound" coming off a cutting diet and still stay quite lean.

already answered your question in my last post but yes, bulking natty right now. i got a cycle ready, but holding off till i get back to my genetic potential first before cycling again. only about 6 months into working out again after a 2 year layoff, so i'm thinking a few more months of bulking natty before i start cycling again.

i've heard of people using the rebound of a cutting diet to use for starting a bulking cycle to take advantage of the glycogen overload a muscle will initially do right near the beginning. keeping that in mind for later down the road. thanks for the info though.

[ascendant]

just to update, i now have my cals up to about 4200/day and still no fat gain and the muscle gains are still pretty slow. not sure why my metabolism is so up there at this point, but i've only put on a few pounds of lean muscle since i started bulking last week, which is very slow for me personally. gonna wait a couple more days then up it another 200-300cals. don't remember my macros off the top of my head, but they're something like 370carbs, 320pro, and 80fat. i also do a big cheat meal once a week. anyway, just figured i'd post this cause i was surprised that at about 180lbs and 6%bf i'm still not making significant gains even at 4200cals.

[Haro3]

1800 isn't that low, many people believe their maintainance is much higher than it really is IMO. I dipped to 1200-1500 at times on my contest diet for a day at a time. Ascendent glad to see you're on the right path as far as staying leaner during the offseason, not many people understand the concept.

I'd do as timtim suggested as well and slowly ramp them up, honestly if you're taking in whole foods that are all quality calories you don't need more than approx 3000 to see LBM gains, if you include cardio you could go higher than that. I'm under 3000 as of now and making considerable gains although I do have days that I jump it up significantly to keep my metabolism guessing.

goodluck and btw how low did you get BF % and your weight etc?

when you say you jump ur diet up every couple days is this a cheat meal or is this clean calories just consuming more food? as of now i eat the same thing every day and cheat once a week im not really sure on how the cheating thing works as far if i should rotate my diet etc. dont mean to hijack jus saw opportunity to ask

[audis4]

when you say you jump ur diet up every couple days is this a cheat meal or is this clean calories just consuming more food? as of now i eat the same thing every day and cheat once a week im not really sure on how the cheating thing works as far if i should rotate my diet etc. dont mean to hijack jus saw opportunity to ask

carb load/refeed while cutting.

[IBdmfkr]

Currently while bulking I have increased calories slowly to around 3400-3700, one day every week or two I try and get them upwards of 4200-4500 by adding say another 100 complex carbs to the mix or occasionaly by taking in something calorie dense more on the unhealthy side (this is very rare though). I also do a lower day as well to compensate for the calorie increase where I drop say 100-150carbs. Hard to explain, you'd have to see a weekly layout of my diet, but so far it's working great.

[svarturer]

I B

i would like to see your diet AND workout programs, the things you are doing are really interesting ...
can you pm me if you dont wanna post ? i would be greatful

[Haro3]

same here

[IBdmfkr]

I'll start a thread when I have time to sit and put it all down.. It changes frequenty as when I hit a plateau I instantly change things to keep making progression. But I'll give you what I'll be doing the next 4-6wks.

[JohnboyF]

This may help..... It's I** old post but i like the layout and very informative.

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread.php?t=251475

[IBdmfkr]

Yea those are o.k. if you want to wing it but I've changed many things since those diets which I've found to work much better..

But they are a great starting point for sure until you can learn your body or take the appropriate time to pre-prepare meals to individually suit your nutritional plan.

[JohnboyF]

But I (We ) will be waiting on your thread.. when u get time!