I done goofed

Snakeweasel

Right, so bit of a back story here. I lost about 2.5 stone a year ago and went from being quite round to skinny fat. I always assumed I had muscle under my fat but I was wrong! So I decided to start lifting a bit more and a few months back I started doing stronglifts, so I lift 3 times per week. I started eating more to try to gain more strength and hopefully muscle, but I wasn't tracking what I eat like I did when I was losing it. As a result I have started putting on a bit of a belly again.

I know that it is near impossible to put on muscle without putting on some fat, its just that I think I have put on too much. I have started doing cardio again, 2 times per week I either do cardio circuits/cycling/spinning or running.

My question is, is there any way to fix the belly issue without going on a cut, since I still dont have the muscle mass for it? I am enjoying seeing my lifts go up but not at the expense of looking crap. Any advice/opinions are welcome

Alf Veedersane

Have you ever tried tracking what you eat.

It's one thing to bulk. Another to just eat all the food because stronglifts.

Snakeweasel

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Have you ever tried tracking what you eat.

It's one thing to bulk. Another to just eat all the food because stronglifts.

Yeah I used to use myfitnesspal to track when I was losing weight. Would that be enough to sort out the excess fat? Just track and keep to a lower excess of calories?

mcbobbyb

If you really dont like having a belly keep loosing the weight. Eat a bit more on the lifting days to help energy levels. If you just keep overeating youll just get fat.

Alf Veedersane

Snakeweasel wrote: »

Yeah I used to use myfitnesspal to track when I was losing weight. Would that be enough to sort out the excess fat? Just track and keep to a lower excess of calories?

People don't need to eat an extra 2000 kcals a day when they're bulking.

I'm not saying you are and you will likely put on some bodyfat when you build muscle but you can limit it.

For example, say your maintenance is 2500 and you need to eat an additional 500 per day to build muscle, that puts you at 3000 a day.

If you're eating 4000 kcals/day.....

mcbobbyb

He wont loose the belly doing this though. He has to decide on one. Id loose the belly see how you look and go from there

Alf Veedersane

mcbobbyb wrote: »

He wont loose the belly doing this though. He has to decide on one. Id loose the belly see how you look and go from there

I wasn't suggesting he needed to. I was addressing the point about putting on muscle mass.

But by the same token, people have as skewed a perception of bulking as cutting, i.e. bulking = eat everything, cutting = "I'll be on next year's Trocaire box".

Track, eat a small deficit and keep lifting. Deficit doesn't need to be big. Just takes a bit longer than a bigger deficit.

JJayoo

Losing 2.5 stone in a year is pretty damn impressive

Snakeweasel

Would stronglifts be a good programme to go down work out wise? I got the sense from Alfs original post that he wasnt a fan?

I have a power rack and olympic weights at home, so it was the handiest thing for me (and I'm not too bright for following a routine)

I downloaded the defranco built like a badass programme but it seems to have a lot of cable exercises which I wouldn't be able to do.

JJayoo

Would you be happy enough to continue bulking on a small surplus? if you are still relatively new to lifting then you will continue to make gains in strength and as long as you have a surplus you will gain muscle.

Or is your main priority at the moment to reduce the BF%

Snakeweasel

JJayoo wrote: »

Would you be happy enough to continue bulking on a small surplus? if you are still relatively new to lifting then you will continue to make gains in strength and as long as you have a surplus you will gain muscle.

Or is your main priority at the moment to reduce the BF%

bulk on a small surplus, I can see bigger traps and chest but belly is racing ahead with the gains, just want to readdress this before it goes too far

Alf Veedersane

Snakeweasel wrote: »

Would stronglifts be a good programme to go down work out wise? I got the sense from Alfs original post that he wasnt a fan?

Sorry, I didn't mean to give that impression. It was just that people thing they have to just eat everything because they're doing a programme with a progressive overload and if they don't eat a million calories a day, they'll stall quickly.

It's a decent programme for a beginner to get into. It's important to have a programme because otherwise you'll just dick around doing a lot of lifting but short-changing yourself.

Alf Veedersane

Snakeweasel wrote: »

bulk on a small surplus, I can see bigger traps and chest but belly is racing ahead with the gains, just want to readdress this before it goes too far

How far are you into it and are you near struggling with anything?

Snakeweasel

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

How far are you into it and are you near struggling with anything?

Only about a month into it but I only started with the bar for OHP and rows. Guesstimated a start point for bench, squats and deadlifts on what I had been doing when I was just pricking around.

I see bench being the first thing to stall with, my one rep max is 75kg (not much but I'm happy with it seeing as it was 40kg at the start of the year) I'm meant to do 62.5kg tonight and think it will be tough, I found 60kg 5x5 tough but not impossible.

JJayoo

Snakeweasel wrote: »

bulk on a small surplus, I can see bigger traps and chest but belly is racing ahead with the gains, just want to readdress this before it goes too far

So need to workout your calories, anyone got any good calculator?

He has some videos on working out your bulking cals/macros but I think this is the easiest one to follow. Once you find your maintenance add 250 calories per week until you reach the magical 0.5 -1 lb increase per week

mcbobbyb

Snakeweasel wrote:

I see bench being the first thing to stall with, my one rep max is 75kg (not much but I'm happy with it seeing as it was 40kg at the start of the year) I'm meant to do 62.5kg tonight and think it will be tough, I found 60kg 5x5 tough but not impossible.

Don't keep trying to progress every week. If your doing that since January take a break. Back off the weight for a couple of weeks and build back up aiming to finish at a weight higher than you use now. That could be the 5x5 program though. You should mix up the rep ranges.
How much weight are you gaining a week?

Alf Veedersane

JJayoo wrote: »

So need to workout your calories, anyone got any good calculator?

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Snakeweasel

mcbobbyb wrote: »

How much weight are you gaining a week?

see thats part of my problem, not only am I not tracking my food, I'm not tracking my weight regularly and I used to track it religiously when I was trying to lose weight!

mcbobbyb

Well start there. If your gaining too much weight its mostly going to be fat. And it will only take you longer to lose it.

Taylor365

Stronglifts/Starting Strength/5x5 are all for building strength and size lifting heavy.

I'd suggest more of a PPL workout if you want to stay slim and tone. (Push/Pull/Legs)

Plenty of routines out there on the net.

Heres a good example: Coolcicada's Push/Pull/Legs Routine.

I use a variant of this with deadlifts and hamstring work on the pull day and split the shoulder work into legs day.

JohnnyChimpo

mcbobbyb wrote: »

Don't keep trying to progress every week. If your doing that since January take a break. Back off the weight for a couple of weeks and build back up aiming to finish at a weight higher than you use now. That could be the 5x5 program though. You should mix up the rep ranges.
How much weight are you gaining a week?

If you're trying to apply this kinda-periodised approach to a program like SL which is based around linear progression, I think you're missing the point. Better to exhaust linear gains from SL, then switch to TM or 5/3/1 or a split

mcbobbyb

Yes I agree but he has said he'd stalled on his bench at 75kg so to progress maybe he should change it up. Also gives the body a break.