Bulking in bodybuilding is a phase or type of diet where you intake more calories than you burn or being in a caloric surplus.

When you are in a caloric surplus you tend to put on weight

Putting on weight consist of two parts: body fat and muscle mass. Most people find it hard to maintain their physique while in a bulk this is because they go into bulking at the wrong time and with a wrong technique.

I was like that too, while growing up I had a flabby look, I was literally fat, so I decided to change my life and physique. It wasn’t easy at all. When I told a friend that i was going on a routine to lose fat and get in shape he told me that I could do it ironically laughing at me and saying I would never change my physique.

I did a little bit of study and I started with the basics, going to the gym, doing a lot of cardiovascular exercises. In the first 4 weeks of the routine I lost around 20lbs which is obviously water weight and a bit of fat, I started to get in shape a little bit then I started lifting to build muscles.

Few weeks into lifting I hit my first plateau. At that point I knew nothing about dieting and macronutrients. I thought eating less food will help me to burn fat but I was wrong. I literally ate one small meal in a day, I did it for a month and it was so awful, I felt really bad, my performance hit rock bottom. I became skinny. I almost quit until I stooped on this article by Brandon carter. It change my whole perspective about bodybuilding.

I start bulking while I was still lifting

At this stage I ate around 3000 calories per day and I trained with more volume than frequency. This short story is to tell you that the right time to bulk is if you are too skinny, skinny fat, and if you want to put on muscles.

Actually I encourage lean bulk than the normal bodybuilding style, lean bulk helps you keep your physique and shape in good shape even while gaining muscle mass. In the shallow part of fitness, we are being deceived by fitness gurus and magazine that you can eat whatever the f*ck you wanna eat when bulking which is wrong,

I have seen people with incredible physique destroy their whole physique and hard work in the name of bulking. As well as cutting or getting shredded needs accuracy and tracking macronutrients so as bulking requires equal if not more precision.

I urge you all to stop use the excuse of bulking to eat unhealthy foods but trying to use the lean bulk approach in other to gain pure and quality muscle when bulking rather than excess fat.

Emmanuel Julio.