Going into a "bulk", wanna do it right

So, I want to try and bulk up again, after months of waiting for gyms to reopen I'm just gonna have to buckle down and get the setup that allows for it myself. I'm 6'2", managed to cut down to 247 pounds from the 285 I was at during my peak back in december. Before my calipers broke, I was able to estimate my BF% at just under 20% at a weight of 250 or so. I don't know how accurate that is since I was self measuring and my thighs defy caliper measurement (they usually end up returning a much higher number than the other two sites in the three-site method). So, I guess I'm just a heavy guy. I don't have all that much fat on me, but I still weigh a lot. This causes an issue for me, as my long term strength goals are bodyweight based. I want to one day be able to do 1xbw press, 1.5xbw bench, 2xbw squat, and a 2.5xbw deadlift.

When I first took a swing at bulking up, especially toward the end, it felt like weight on the scale was outpacing weight on the bar, which was not good in my view. Every increase I managed to get on my squat work weight seemed to be accompanied by almost equal increase in bodyweight. I'm hoping maybe I can "clean up" my eating this time around to minimize the fat gain. The first attempt I didn't really do a lot of policing where the nutrients came from, just so long as they were there. I've read your articles on nutrition, and tried to learn what I could. Your knowledge definitely seems to exceed my ability to grasp it when it comes to the biochemical details, but from what I've gathered so far your recommendations are generally to aim for high carbs from sources that aren't white-flour grains or simple sugars (except sugars contained in fruit, as in eating actual fruit), and not eat too much fat, especially from greases used to fry foods. So I'll be avoiding things like soda and fast food this time around. They weren't exactly a dietary staple the first time, but they were regular enough then that it probably made a significant negative contribution. Do you have any other recommendations to keep the weight from going up TOO much? I feel like if I end up having to walk around at 300 pounds just to get a 300x5x3 squat I am not actually getting any closer to my goals

What are your current lifts? The key to keep weight gain gradual yet productive is to manage the fat intake. How many carbohydrate grams do you consume per day? What is your current program?

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Originally Posted by Robert Santana

What are your current lifts? The key to keep weight gain gradual yet productive is to manage the fat intake. How many carbohydrate grams do you consume per day? What is your current program?

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I'm treating the time spent screwing around with sets of 12 while cutting as a layoff. I'm just going right into novice progression from scratch, did my first workout yesterday. Start weights were 195 squat, 105 press, 245 deadlift. Since they are start weights they're not close to limit sets, it'll probably be a few workouts before I start getting closer to that. I'm trying to keep fat low and carbs high. I haven't finished doing a full inventory of my meals' nutrient counts yet, doing my sandwiches is kinda tricky since the sliced deli meats often don't give numbers per slice. I am basically eating the same stuff for all of my meals except "dinner" which I leave open to change since social meals are a thing and you often don't quite have the same control over them as you'd like. But I still try to make sure that meal has what I need and minimizes anything I don't want. For example, if I end up having a bowl of spaghetti for dinner, I usually add in a 16 ounce glass of milk since the protein is probably lacking.

Got it. I would take it easy in the beginning and then ramp the carbohydrate calories up when you approach your limits. Enjoy your social life but watch the fat and booze to the extent that you can. Know what I mean?

Yeah, I actually don't really drink at all. I just don't want to anymore. I will occasionally end up having something like pizza or restaurant food for dinner, but otherwise I think the only significant fat I'm getting is from eggs and milk.

Totally fine. Get in the habit of making room for the restaurant fat by cutting fats and/or carbohydrate sources from your other meals. Basically budget the calories on as much protein as possible and you will be fine in those situations. Restaurants are the most common culprit for undesirable weight gain in most clients I have worked with.

Yeah, I figure just about any "out" eating is a weak point in a diet. You don't really have a lot of control over what's in that food. Thankfully menus AT LEAST will list calories nowadays, sadly macros are not included.