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Silver bullet gained 4 lbs of fat on his 1 year bulk...300 cal X 4 lbs over 52 weeks is 270 cal. He ate 270 cal more a week than his body needed...he stored 270 calories a week as fat.
Pretty simple calculation. ...
 
wungun said:
Yes, THAT is what I consider a proper bulk...
But most everyone here eats surplus well higher than that, you included I'll wager...
Nobody here eats just 270 calories extra a WEEK over maintenance on a bulk lol
(3500cal a pound X 4 lbs ÷ 52 weeks = 269.23cal) assuming he worked out the whole year.
270 cal surplus a DAY, at the very least, seems to be the standard here...and even 500 to 600 surplus calories a day isn't unheard of.
And that is what I am calling a waste...waste of food, waste of money, waste of effort (dieting).
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Let's requote your math.

This math here is based on the assumption that he somehow materialized the muscle out of thin air while for some reason planning his calories so that he would gain 4 lbs of fat in a year.

You do realize that synthesizing more skeletal muscle requires calories above maintenance, right?

Do you know what BMR is? It is the amount of calories your body requires to sustain itself, for the organs to work, etc. This does not include the task of building new tissues. So in order to build new tissues, you have to eat above that.
 
Would someone please explain to me the relationship in calories and muscle building?
This is what I mean....
2 individuals, one lifts 6 days a week, the other is an Xbox junkie.
Both weigh (for sake of argument) 100lbs. Assuming maintenance for Mr. Xbox is 1500cal. And assuming Mr. 6 days a week burns 400cal per workout...
They consume 1500 and 1900 calories per day...
You are saying that the lifter will not gain muscle doing this? He must eat, say 2400cal a day to gain muscle, while doing this, start putting on a pound of fat a week as well (500cal/day surplus)
 
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No, because building muscle requires excess calories.

Again, do you understand what BMR is? Because you don't seem to understand the fact that all your organs require a certain amount of calories per day, and that is where all your calories go. Then you burn a bit in your daily activities. That leaves nothing left for building new tissues, i.e. muscle.

If you lift and do not eat above maintenance, you will gain zero weight. Because physics. You cannot create matter or energy out of nothing.

If someone eats an excess of 500 calories a day while lifting, why the hell would they gain 1 lb of fat a week? Do you understand how fat storage works AT ALL? Even if you weren't lifting or working out at all, and you gained 1 lb a week, you would NEVER gain 100% fat. EVER.

This is why morbidly obese people have more lean mass than most bodybuilders.

You really need to learn a bit more about physiology before you try to school people about it.
 
Totentanz said:
All the guys on this site with decent musculature have achieved such by bulking and cutting to get to the size they want.
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I was always afraid of gaining fat, that's why I became obsessed about counting calories. I think my obsession was mentally unhealthy. 6 years later, after cutting a 1lb of pure fat per week for the last 6months (no muscle loss), I am a lot more comfortable with gaining excess fat during a bulk: because I know I can cut fat efficiently without losing a pound of muscle! This is why from now on I won't focus on counting calories but rather adjusting portions of food I eat based on how fast I am gaining weight/fat. When the time comes, when I go from 10%BF to 13%BF I will cut back down to 10% and repeat this until I reach a LBM I am happy with.
 
I have never read here or anywhere for that matter, or found research talking about how many calories it takes to make 1lbs of muscle, and how that figure relates to daily intake.

I don't assume he pulls the muscle outta thin air... But if he or anyone is gaining fat, that is food/energy that the body didn't use, and stores, correct?
Now, whatever the surplus NEEDS to be for muscle hypertrophy, Silverbullet obviously found that "sweet spot" of creating new muscle and having a caloric "buffer" of just 270cal a week averaged over 52 weeks. That is incredible to me!!

And you're right T, I probably do have a skewed, retarded view of what bulking is, in this sense... And no doubt from reading posts on this forum.
 
SilverBullet said:
I was always afraid of gaining fat, that's why I became obsessed about counting calories. I think my obsession was mentally unhealthy. 6 years later, after cutting a 1lb of pure fat per week for the last 6months (no muscle loss), I am a lot more comfortable with gaining excess fat during a bulk: because I know I can cut fat efficiently without losing a pound of muscle! This is why from now on I won't focus on counting calories but rather adjusting portions of food I eat based on how fast I am gaining weight/fat. When the time comes, when I go from 10%BF to 13%BF I will cut back down to 10% and repeat this until I reach a LBM I am happy with.
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I was in the same boat as you. I was rail thin and scared of getting fat because somehow I thought it would be permanent, and so I spun my wheels. Like you, when I finally got the sense to bulk without worrying, because you can always cut the fat later, I counted calories obsessively as well. It does suck doing all that work.

Hope your new plan works out for you. I've done basically the same. I don't count hardcore anymore. I just estimate. You can make good gains without having to be super anal about counting, just keep track of the protein and do a good estimate of overall calories and you will be fine.
 
wungun said:
And you're right T, I probably do have a skewed, retarded view of what bulking is, in this sense... And no doubt from reading posts on this forum.
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No doubt it comes from reading that carb backloading book that tries to persuade you that magic exists.

I have never read here or anywhere for that matter, or found research talking about how many calories it takes to make 1lbs of muscle, and how that figure relates to daily intake.
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There is no hard figure about how many calories are required to build muscle, but it's obviously more than maintenance. If that isn't obvious to you then something is seriously wrong. You are talking about increasing the mass of a body, that requires matter and energy to do so. Since you have no energy leftover from your maintenance calories once your organs are done getting their share, you cannot add mass to your body if you don't eat more than that.

I don't assume he pulls the muscle outta thin air... But if he or anyone is gaining fat, that is food/energy that the body didn't use, and stores, correct?
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No. Again, you need to brush up on physiology. Nobody can gain pure muscle, even on steroids. Just like nobody can gain pure fat unless they have a medical condition like AIDS or something similar. The body doesn't work that way. That's what we mean when we talk about p-ratio, which if you had read the posts on this forum, you would know what that was already. It's not mentioned in that carb backloading book because it doesn't involve magic, instead being related to your base genetics and the genetic expression caused by weight lifting. Any weight gained will ALWAYS be x% fat and y% lean mass, the % of each depends on your p-ratio. Lifting alters gene expression which improves your p-ratio from whatever your natural p-ratio is. Consuming protein also has a small effect on your p-ratio.

There is no magical way of gaining only muscle. Even bodybuilders on steroids gain fat and then start cutting 16 weeks out from a show to get in contest shape.

The only people who make this appear so are people who are building both muscle and fat, but cutting back the fat at some point.
 
I assumed bodybuilders on steroids filled their faceholes big time because, well steroids are expensive! Eat like hell and cut later...

So would you assume silver bullet consumed enough calories, seeing as putting on mass includes both fat and muscle, regardless of how much muscle you're trying to put on...?
Or should he of gotten "fatter", and been able to put on more than 16lbs of lean muscle in the process?

I am totally shocked that you of all people, don't know how many calories it takes to build 1lbs of muscle, let alone anyone else! I would think this would be a pretty big priority in university athletic departments and the scientific community as a whole....
It would be nice to have an online calculator....BMR =2500cal, daily expenditure, 900cal, "muscle growth factor" = 350cal :)
So being that no calculator yet exists, I can see why a surplus is needed, from purely the perspective of building AND making sure there is enough energy consumed to create new growth.
It would be interesting to pour over silver bullets logs...we are both similarly built...I'm just a 4/5th scale version of him.

Thanks for keeping your cool and yet again, providing valuable information Totz. ..
I would of lost my shit on me a long time ago!
 
Totentanz said:
I was in the same boat as you. I was rail thin and scared of getting fat because somehow I thought it would be permanent, and so I spun my wheels. Like you, when I finally got the sense to bulk without worrying, because you can always cut the fat later, I counted calories obsessively as well. It does suck doing all that work.

Hope your new plan works out for you. I've done basically the same. I don't count hardcore anymore. I just estimate. You can make good gains without having to be super anal about counting, just keep track of the protein and do a good estimate of overall calories and you will be fine.
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Thanks Totentanz! I'll report my results after this first bulk cycle which I just started. I am curious how well I adjust my food intake based on just visual estimation. Still aiming for at least .5lb of muscle gain per week.
 
Hey bullet... If a half lbs of muscle is what you're targeting a week, how much weight on the scale do you expect to see each week? Thanks!
 
That's a good question. When you look at my logs you will see that I always aimed for +500 calorie surplus above BMR. I am still going by that principle but this time I am going to have to take an initial guesstimate as to how much I should be eating. If I am gaining more than roughly 1lb a week I will have to lower my food consumption a little. I will monitor this every week and adjust accordingly until I dial it in. The .8 to 1lb gain per week is the rate that I was following last time around when I was counting calories and I did a pretty good job of following that trend line.
 
I should also mention that one way that I might differ from your average person is that I don't mind eating the same stuff all the time. Many people can't do that. But I never get tired of the same good stuff and I find that this helps me a lot when I have to adjust portions week to week. I eat the same snacks, rotate 3 or 4 main dishes, and have a cheat meal two, three times a week. I also leave room for some good ice cream whenever I feel like having some :)
Don't get me wrong, though, if I list the stuff I eat, you will be surprised at the wide variety of food. I believe in eating everything, but in moderation.
 
Here is the nutrition log of my last good cycle. It's an excel sheet which has multiple worksheets. It might be confusing to someone looking at it for the first time. The first page just mainly keeps track of my weekly stats, measurements, weight, calorie intake, etc. The next few sheets are just charts that follow the progress through a cycle, for calorie intake, fat intake, weight gain tracking. The last couple of sheets are everything that I was eating at the time. Yes, it's a little crazy!
 

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Could Rihad have simply changed his name to Wungun as the method of hijacking and twisting of facts is exactly the same.
 
SilverBullet said:
Here is the nutrition log of my last good cycle. It's an excel sheet which has multiple worksheets. It might be confusing to someone looking at it for the first time. The first page just mainly keeps track of my weekly stats, measurements, weight, calorie intake, etc. The next few sheets are just charts that follow the progress through a cycle, for calorie intake, fat intake, weight gain tracking. The last couple of sheets are everything that I was eating at the time. Yes, it's a little crazy!
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I thought I was anal with logging food, hopefully you now have an app like MyFitnessPal to log food etc.
 
Wungun I think you are over thinking it. When you are bulking eat in a way that you gain weight. When you are cutting chose your favorite diet and eat in a way that you are losing weight. With the aide of a progressive workout over time you will achieve a more muscular build.
 
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