How can you tell when it's time to stop bulking?

[Cyp180]

No mate I didn't dirty bulk. I ate clean food, just lots of it, to the point that I was literally force feeding myself. I can't even remember the last time I had junk food.

Dirty bulk is when you start on 2250kcals, at ones up to 5000kcals. (Not just junk food)

 

[IndividualMan]

rethink your approach to bulking, man.
I myself did a dirty bulk, lots of food, etc.
Its never worth it. just run a small surplus and up it whenever progress stalls.
if you up the food and dont get stronger/bigger, just fatter, you up the drugs by 10-20%.
Do that for a few years and you will be big.

 

[eery]

Mate I don't know what to say, it was my first bulk. I am rather new to this. Only been lifting for about a year, and achieved solid results so far, except for this bulk which sidetracked me a little.

This is what I ate:

Breakfast:
450g Total fage 0 yogurt
200g Protein powder
50g Penut powder
30g cocoa powder
1lt Sugar free Almond milk

Lunch:
(oven-baked risotto)
125g rice
350g potatoes
80g mozzarella
25g parmesan
20g butter

(oven-baked chicken)
1 Chicken leg: approximately 350g

Dinner:
360g oven baked Salmon
400g peas
150g philadelphia light

That's said, I estimated this to be at around 4500/5000 calories.

200g protein powder? bruh..


your weight gain is very excessive by the sound of it, but what is the mirror and measurements saying?

 

[juicebro]

If you're only eating 200g carbs the I imagine most of that weight is real weight...fat. Speaking of. Why would you eat that much fat and so little carbs? It's harder for your body to store carbs as fat. Fat is just...fat. You are over eating protein which is essentially an expensive source of carbs.

 

[Elektrobot]

I can tell I am gaining muscle, my arms, chest, and legs all look noticeably bigger and fuller compared to when I was leanest

Does your training log show that you are gaining strength / muscle, or are your eyes just seeing puffed up tissue?

Don't let your eyes deceive you. Look for the results in your training log. If it doesn't show that you are growing, .... then you aren't growing- and it's time to stop.

I’m currently eating between 4,500 and 5,500 calories a day, high protein with around 200 g of carbs.

Usually I would say that if your log book is stalled, it's time to add more food.... but I don't think you have a solid understanding of nutrition and should probably just stop and learn what you are doing.

 

[latrinelove]

If you're only eating 200g carbs the I imagine most of that weight is real weight...fat. Speaking of. Why would you eat that much fat and so little carbs? It's harder for your body to store carbs as fat. Fat is just...fat. You are over eating protein which is essentially an expensive source of carbs.

I am sorry but where do you see that I am eating a lot of fat?

 

[Elektrobot]

Mate I don't know what to say, it was my first bulk. I am rather new to this. Only been lifting for about a year, and achieved solid results so far, except for this bulk which sidetracked me a little.

This is what I ate:

Breakfast:
450g Total fage 0 yogurt
200g Protein powder
50g Penut powder
30g cocoa powder
1lt Sugar free Almond milk

Lunch:
(oven-baked risotto)
125g rice
350g potatoes
80g mozzarella
25g parmesan
20g butter

(oven-baked chicken)
1 Chicken leg: approximately 350g

Dinner:
360g oven baked Salmon
400g peas
150g philadelphia light

That's said, I estimated this to be at around 4500/5000 calories.

How did you come up with this food plan?

Why da fck are you eating 200 grams of fat and 500 grams of protein ?

 

[latrinelove]

200g protein powder? bruh..


your weight gain is very excessive by the sound of it, but what is the mirror and measurements saying?

I can definitely see my arms and my chest have gotten slightly bigger, definitely fuller, but the belly is back and I can barely see my abs at this point.

Anyways, I adjusted it down to 3000, and this time I am counting carbs and calories. Will hover around 3000 until March, then cut to 2000. I can fix this and I am sure there are gains underneath. Just not the amound and overall result I expected.

I am also dropping the Deca and lowering test to 350mg. I feel like I made little to no gains from the Deca, and I can't justify putting up with the excessive night drenching sweats anymore.

 

[Biggerisbetternl]

Hello folks,

I’ve been bulking for the past 40 days and have gone from 71 kg to 82 kg. I expect a few of those kilos to be water retention from the Deca and from the 30-day Anadrol 50 mg run, which I finished last week.

I’m currently eating between 4,500 and 5,500 calories a day, high protein with around 200 g of carbs. I don’t have a naturally lean body type. I was overweight most of my life and managed to get reasonably lean (~15% body fat) this summer.

I’m starting to look bloated again, and the plan is to continue this bulk until the end of February. I can tell I am gaining muscle, my arms, chest, and legs all look noticeably bigger and fuller compared to when I was leanest, and I know some fat gain is expected. I’m just worried about crossing the line where the bulk becomes excessive fat rather than muscles and lean mass, and I’m unsure how to gauge that.

How much body weight/mass is typically reasonable to gain during a 4-month bulk?

For context:
Age: 38
Height: 175 cm
Training: 5 days/week, hard, 90 minutes per session
Calories: 4,500–5,500 daily

Current cycle:
Test C: 400 mg/week
Primo: 600 mg/week
Deca: 250 mg/week
HGH: 3.6 IU/day
Retatrutide 1 mg/week (for lipids/ALT management)

Post bulk I will gradualy starting the cut to settle at around 2000 calories for following next few months. I will also be dropping the Deca, loweing Test to 200mg, Primo to 400mg and HGH to 2 IU. Will also taitrate Reta up to 5mg a week, and add injectable L-Carnitine.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Do you have a baseline of weight and bodyfat? You said you were around 15% this summer, how did you measure? Personally I would not bulk more than 5% up from my bodyfat goal. Unless you want to cut for half a year..

 

[Mac11wildcat]

All you are describing means it's time to start using slin...that's what more than a few of my gym bros would recommend ...
I'm not ....

Insulin for this use case is a shovel disguised as a ladder. Only gonna dig a deeper hole.

 

[Cyp180]

I can definitely see my arms and my chest have gotten slightly bigger, definitely fuller, but the belly is back and I can barely see my abs at this point.

Anyways, I adjusted it down to 3000, and this time I am counting carbs and calories. Will hover around 3000 until March, then cut to 2000. I can fix this and I am sure there are gains underneath. Just not the amound and overall result I expected.

I am also dropping the Deca and lowering test to 350mg. I feel like I made little to no gains from the Deca, and I can't justify putting up with the excessive night drenching sweats anymore.