Due to being a former fattie I decided a year or so ago to minimise weight gain and decided that I would cut down to 165 lbs (@ 1 lb per week) and then bulk up to 175 lbs (@ 0.25 - 0.5lb per week, rinse and repeat on the assumption that each time I cut I would be a little bit leaner at 165 and in turn more muscular each time I bulked to 175. Then I decided to keep the cut at 165 (still at 1 lb per week) but reduced the bulk to 172 (@ 0.2 - 0.25 lb per week) as I felt my best look was between 165 and 168 and at 175 I tend to lose all definition in my abs (outline is still there but a bit blurred). With the above protocol am I just spinning my wheels?
What sort of time frame are you looking at for this? I'd be curious to see your real world results doing something like that over a long time frame. We know that muscle gain rates are pretty low unless you are a newbie, so 1 lb of actual muscle gain a month is probably around what we can expect realistically.
Assuming weight loss / gain goes as planned and at a starting weight of 165 I would be aiming for a slow bulk of 25-30 weeks and then the weight loss phase would hopefully be 6-8 weeks.
That sounds like a good plan to me. I've advocated more ambitious bulking in the past, and I think that probably still works pretty well for newbies who are struggling to put on weight. But for non-noobs who aren't taking hormones, it doesn't seem like there is a big payoff. The main thing with 'slow bulking' is that you don't see results on the scale so it doesn't feel like you're making progress. And really... at a rate of 1lb a month of muscle gain, you won't really notice much in the way of results unless you're looking at them at a much longer view, like six months to a year. What sort of calorie surplus are you aiming for each day?
I am for 100-150 surplus which sometimes proves difficult to prdict, like last week I lost 0.4lbs but this week I will gain approximately 0.9lbs so balances out over longer periods.
Yes I put on 0.9 lbs so over the two weeks it averaged 0.25 per week. This week the diet went to pot, long weekend away with friends and 3 days of heavy drinking involved, put on 8 lbs and it's slowly coming off
8 lbs is not bad for me, put on 19 lbs over Xmas / New Year once with just 3 bad days in that whole week
