How important is calorie count on bulk?

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Owndawg

New Member
I`m just wondering how important it is to count cals, i hear so much about caloriecounting and eatingplans everywhere.. and I think it will be hard to follow a program where it says what to eat and when to eat it for 8 weeks.. especially since I go to school and work almost every day.. :\

I`m starting on my first HST cycle on friday, and I want grow as much as possible of course..
but will it be alright if I just get enough proteins and eat like mad (mostly clean foods), and try to balance the fat, proteins and carbs? (30% pro, 20% fat, 50% carbs)?
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You have to at least plan out a basic plan, otherwise, how would you know how much protein/carbs/fat you need to consume.


If you go to the trouble of determining how much you need to eat at any given time, in order to in the least, maintain your bodyweight, you might as well, nail down a eating schedule and follow it as much as possible. Good news with bulking, you can eat more if you feel you need it, not as strict.

Think of it like this, once you determine your bulking calories, then break it down to get all your protein/carbs/fat, you have to eat this amount, no way around it, limited time or otherwise, its got to happen, so might as well follow it as best you can.

Eating right is the key, period.  I used to think this was a half truth, then I finally set my diet as it should be, wow.

Many would probably say, just eat everything in sight, but I would want my bulking phase to be deliberate, so I know exactly what Im taking in and why, this way, your not just getting fat.
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Good luck
 
Yeah, it's a pain in the butt to have to keep track of everything you eat all day long, every day.

However the results it pays makes it worth the effort.

Here's what I did to make it easy for myself. I got a free account at www.fitday.com then made myself several days of meal plans - pretty much the same thing every day with a few substitutions of equal value here and there to meet my macronutritnt needs each day.

Then I just eat the same thing every day. I'm getting good results although not a lot of variety doing this.
 
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(Owndawg @ Sep. 28 2006,07:04)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I`m starting on my first HST cycle on friday, and I want grow as much as possible of course..
but will it be alright if I just get enough proteins and eat like mad (mostly clean foods), and try to balance the fat, proteins and carbs? (30% pro, 20% fat, 50% carbs)?
smile.gif
</div>
if you want to grow as much as possible its going to take some hard work....both in the gym and on your diet.

if you dont think you have the interest or willpower to track your intake for a while then it doesnt bode well for maxing out your gaining potential. if i only had a nickel for all the folks who &quot;ate like mad&quot; but couldnt figure out why they werent gaining wgt. (btw i used to be one)

it doesnt need to be complicated. just write down what your eating now and use the fitday link to add up the cals. if your not gaining any wgt you need to eat more until you get to where your gaining @ 1lb a week roughly. in the meantime read all the posts (and main page) pertaining to gaining or bulking and in no time youll have a pretty clear picture as to what you have to do.

if it helps, i dont think you need to track 24/7 365. you DO need to track 24/7 for a few weeks/months to get a handle on actual intake and its effects (gaining (how much) cutting, maint.) after a while you can be much looser with it as youll already be &quot;tuned in&quot;.

good luck
 
I agree with bluejacket. If you aren't counting calories while bulking (really, at the very least keeping a rough estimate of total calories and counting protein) then how will you know why your bulk failed when it fails? If you are eating 4000 calories but not counting them and you don't gain a pound, how will you know how much to add to your diet? Going by fullness is a very poor indicator.
 
I made my biggest gains over the summer, in which I did not count calories. I just ate everything. I hit lots of buffets. It was fun and all, but I put on excess fat for sure. I think I could have gained as much muscle without as much fat if I were careful about calories. So no, you don't have to count them to gain, but you have to overeat to ensure you get enough calories, and by then, you are putting on excess fat too, so yes, you should count them to make sure the cycle goes optimally.
 
I agree with everyone else.
To make a successful bulk you really need to count calories. I had the luck of guessing the right amount of calories on my first bulk so i gained abour 9 lbs of mass on 2 months (around +500 kcal per day). i got stronger and stronger during those 2 months and i kept the weight after i quit bulking. I didnt see any changes in fat in the mirror but of course i put on some fat, it just wasnt enough to make a visual difference, so there must have been a good deal of quality mass.

Since i did a successful bulk, I now know what calorie-intake I need per day to put on mass and i can decide how fast it will go, thats a big plus, knowledge is power :-)
 
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