I've been misguided.. Help me toward the right direction.

[hawk14dl]

Hello, hello. My diet has been on a terrible path because of some 'direction' I got from bb dot com.

I'm a natural lifter. Been lifting for a couple of years now. I follow a powerlifting routine with some hypertrophy at the end (although, I will admit I just started this).

I'm 6' tall.
When I received my "advice", I was around 175lbs and about 18% bodyfat. The "advice" I was given was to eat everything. Everything in sight. And when I was full, go back and eat some more.

It worked. I'm up to 185-187 lbs now. The only problem, my body fat skyrocketed. My stomach is the only thing that has gotten any bigger in the last 3 months.

Since then, I've found this forum and figured out I was doing it way wrong. WAY wrong.

So here's my question: should I go on a cutting diet now? Or a maintenance diet? Or even a clean bulk?

I don't know what to do. And my gut is bugging the crap out of me.

[--->>405<<---]

well if u were 18%bf and have gained even more that tells me ur prob 20%+

judging by the "my gut is bugging the crap out of me" comment i would suggest cut.

out of curiosity, what made u think u should eat everything and anything? was it just because the guy on bbdotcom told u?

[hawk14dl]

There were a number of replies over there that suggested a dirty bulk was just as efficient as a clean bulk, and easier. And for power lifters, I suppose that might be ok. Bigger = stronger was their 'logic'.
I guess it just took a little while for me to figure out, their definition of bigger wasn't necessarily aimed toward muscle.

And yes, BF is over 20% now.

I guess the reason I believed their replies, was the fact they were all stronger then me. Which wasn't a smart decision in hindsight. The phrase "eat big, lift big, get big" kept coming up. And I guess I fell for it.

[--->>405<<---]

hey man u learned something right! u wont fall for that again i bet!

read this:

CUTTING:
http://forums.steroid.com/nutrition-...1-cutting.html

LEAN BULKING:
http://forums.steroid.com/nutrition-...ulking***.html

let me know what u think about the info in the stickies and how u think it pertains to u. basically we need to know ur maintenance cals and then create a deficit.

estimate ur bf% based on this chart:


lets see where u think u are.

[hawk14dl]

Yes I've definitely learned. You guys here are definitely smarter them those bozos.

As far as bf, I havea weight watcher scale that says I'm 23%. I think I'm probably close to that.

I've been reading the stickies and definitely know what it will take. I just wasn't sure if I should go through a cut, or just maintain my TDEE and build my lbm to my weight.

What is an ideal bf% to build strength at? (Meaning, what should I cut to before I stick to tdee) if that question makes sense

[--->>405<<---]

weight watcher scale is more than likely not accurate which is why i provided the pics.

personally if i were you id cut to at least 12%.. this will put u not too too lean, but lean enuff to try to add some mass. ideally 10% is better, but also harder to get to.

u may want to google BOD POD for your area. this will help you pic down ur bf% in a much more accurate way. maybe not right now, but sometime in the future.

BOD POD:


posting a pic of urself without a shirt from the front with hands down at ur sides as well as a leg shot will help. also u could post a pic from behind. we need to get close on ur bf% so we can use ur stats to estimate ur calories.