Shox bulking log

[Shox]

Okay, so im starting my bulk tomorrow since my wages have dropped. Current stats:
Height: 6 ft 2/3
weight : 81kg
waist: 35in (measured at largest part of belly)

Lifts:
Bench (50-55kg 5x5)
Squat (unsure, about 60kg 5x5)
Military press (30kg 5x5)
Pull ups (NONE. LOL)
Chin ups (can do about 3)
Deadlift (80kg 1x5)

I will be following stronglifts 5x5 to the letter and eating around 3000 - 3500 calories a day to start with, then go from there (see if i need to add more etc). I will start with 45kg on bench, 50kg on squat, 20kg on military press, 70kg on deadlift and will attempt to add weight every session. My aims for the next month are to put on a few kg's, hopefully get to a 60kg bench for 5x5, and 80kg squat 5x5, and also be able to do 1 good form pullup, and get back down to a 34 inch waist. Too ambitious maybe? We'll see. I'm going shopping tomorrow then going to the gym, but a typical days diet will look something like:

breakfast: 60g oats with milk + whey shake
10am: Banana
Lunch (12pm): 1x wholemeal pitta with peanut butter + half a tin of tuna + pint of whole milk
Snack 2pm: 1x wholemeal pitta with peanut butter + half a tin of tuna
Pre workout: 50g of oats in a shake with water
Post workout: 1x whey shake + 1 pint of whole milk
Dinner (5-6pm): Usually some kind of meat (i.e chicken/pork chop etc), with potatos, and veg.
8-9pm: No sure what to have here, another pint of milk maybe, or a whey shake?

It equates to around 3300 calories, 131g of fat (is this too much?), 263g of carbs, and 215g of protein.

Advice is welcome.

I will update tomorrowm and possibly be posting pics

Thanks, Shox

PS: I will be using livestrong myplate tracker to track my food for the first couple of weeks till i get a feel of how much i need to eat to make up the calories. Does anyone know if i can get any foood tracking software for my mobile (symbian s60v5 operatng system)

[Shox]

Okay so had my first session today. Was shocking, havnt been to the gym for 2 months and i've lost 10kg on my bench :O

Squat 5x5 50kg (fairly easy, will progress next session)
bench 5x5 45kg (hard... failed the last rep of last set, used to be able to do this with 55 kg =[)
inverted row, 10, 8, 6
pressups 15, 10, 6
crunches 3x25

drank quite a lot of milk today, needed a shit hardcore after the gym :p surprisingly it was fairly solid

Im not bothered if nobody reads this im going to continue to post anyway to help myself track my own progress

[Shox]

Alright did workout B today, here it is:
Squat 5x5 55kg (alright, will try to add 5kg next session)
Military press 5x5 - 25kg (fairly hard but think i can progress with 2.5kg next session)
Deadlift 1x5 - 70kg (not too hard, will progress next session)
Chin ups - 2,2,2
Reverse crunches - 20, 15, 15

Anyone reading this? lol

[AD69]

Hi Shox, do you post on Menshealth with the same user name?

Any reason for not starting with the bar on squats, etc? And adding 5kg on squats? Not really following SL to the letter if doing this. Should be ok if you have got experience, but time spent on form at lower weights will work out better in the long run (i.e. you can go further without stalling/deloading).

I'd set your goals at 3 and 6 month intervals, rather than a month.

And the best way to get people to post on your log is for you to read and post on other people's log. They'll get to know you and start posting on yours.

Keep up the good work.

[Shox]

yeh i post on menshealth with the same username, cheers for the reply. I started with those weights because i've done stronglifts on-and-off for about 6 months before, and i've reduced my lifts by about 20-30% as suggested in the FAQ.

[coryK]

Looks like we're in pretty similar situations. I've been fooling around with stronglifts for a few months as well, but only recently decided to take it seriously. Took my heaviest lift weights, reduced them by 30% and started over, just like you. Pretty confident with my form, but still want to take a video and post it for some criticism here sometime soon.

Your diet is substantial! I've tried getting 3000 calories in one day, but would up throwing it all back up. So I'm trying to steadily increase my daily average of caolories and hopefully get closer to 3000 that way.

As for the correct amount of fat, I'm not an expert or anything, but the typical reccomended daily intake for a 2000 calorie diet is around 60 grams. But with your higher calorie intake, that number's gonna go up. So, to figure out what's right for you, I think we need to find out how many of your calories are coming from fat, and also break down the types of fat that you're eating. According to the USDA, 20-30% of your daily calories should be calories from fat. To figure out how many calories from fat your getting from a single serving of something you: Calculate calories from fat grams by multiplying each gram of fat by nine. The resulting number will be equal to the number of calories your body is taking in from fat grams. Do that for everything you eat in a day and if it the total equals roughly 30% of that day's calorie intake, then you're right on track. Also, the USDA suggests that saturated fats make up no more than 10% of your daily fat intake.

Sounds kinda complicated, but I think that's all you need to get a good idea of how much fat is too much.

Keep lifting and all the best!

Cory

[Shox]

yeh, well i think higher fat levels are inevitable, since
i'm eating more and trying to keep carbs low, cheers for the input. I'll be keeping an eye on ur log I found it helps if u slowly incorporate milk into ur diet(preferably whole milk), 1 pint for a few days, then add a pint till u get up to about 5-6 pints if u need to increase ur appetite. Then once you've got there, you can replace the milk with 'real' food. Just have a pint of milk with each meal and it's easy enough to drink.

Also, i'd appreciate someones input on my situation; it seems even though i've been eating around 3500 calories a day, ive actually been LOSING fat. Is this even possible? My weight seems to have remained constant, but in just 1 week i've lost half an inch on my waist.

Here's yesterdays diet (an average day), i think it's pretty good but critiques welcome (im working on having a bit less fat and maybe a bit more protein):
Breakfast: 50g of oats with 400ml of milk, and a pint of milk + 1 scoop of whey
mid morning: tablespoon of natural peanut butter + 1 pint of milk
Lunch: Tin of tuna with mayo, in two wholemeal pitta.
Snack while at work; 2 pints of whole milk lol (tried organic since it was on special offer), and 2 peppered steak slices( i know these arent ideal because of the pasty, but hey they were buy one get one free and give me a protein hit lol)
dinner: Roast dinner

This adds up to about 3500 calories, 170g of fat, 296g of carbs, and 209g of protein, workout day today so ill be updating later



My fat intake is about 40-45% of my daily intake lol, but is this expected of a lower carb diet (since im eating the RDA of carbs for someone on a 2000 cal diet, the extra cals have to come from somewhere right? and i guess fat is ideal with 9cals per g)

[strengthforall]

Well shox you're losing fat cause having more healthy fat in your system burns fat I forot what the cause was but I think it was along the lines of having fat to spare or something. Your diet looks pretty good but if you are trying to bulk incorporate some white rice cuz it digests faster which means more food intAke. Oh and eating beef is fine don't worry bout it and diets can go two ways



Hi carb- 45% carb/5% fat/ 50% protein
hi fat- 45% cArb/55% protein

just realize bulking and also trying to maintain fat ain't easy

[Shox]

yeh, i expected to put on fat..cheers for the response, but im happy my waist seems to be dropping. I had some white rice today in a home made rogan josh.. mmmm

so my workout for today was
Squat 60kg 5x5 (getting harder now, gonna start adding 2.5kg each session)
Bench 45kg 5x5 (wahey made my 5x5 this time, but it was hard...dont know what the hell has happeend to my bench but ill add 2.5kg next session and hope it progresses as my other lifts progress)
inverted row - 7, 6, 5
press ups - 15, 10, 6 (Dont know why i performed so poor on the last set, i think its due to lack of sleep, ive had about 4 hours sleep due to work, but should be getting a good nights sleep tonight )
had to leave out reverse crunches as the gym was closing, i could only get their late tonight due to work.

I've read that having a higher-fat diet causes ketosis, which makes sense, but apparantly you're sposed to feel groggy when ketosis is happening but im feeling more energetic than ever, so i have no clue whats going on haha

Food wise i'm just trying to eat as much as i can, but from whole foods. I rarely eat crap, but occasionally when im at work ill have to grab some crap to eat (meat pastries etc) to get a protein hit (although this is rare and fits in with stronglifts 'eat junk 10% of the time'). Milk has really helped me get 200g+ of protein a day and meet my calorie requirements, been on probably about 4 pints a day of whole milk and i love it

[strengthforall]

wait shox do you warm up man?

squats are hell man just hell. once i went up to 135 lbs i started sweating real nasty and like i couldnt wear cutoff cuz the bar would slip
its good that you got a workout in man . i get 4 hours of sleep a day and that keeps me going
ketosis really? never heard of that

well theres an article on this site saying that it really depends who we are. some of us feel better with high fats some with carbs.

well my diet is a pretty good mix between fats and carbs. im not worried about fat gains cuz my metabolism is crazy. i eat like 6-8 meals a day.
my eating habits are funky. last month all i ate was a high carb low fat high protein diet and now im eating a mix. and like 2 weeks ago half of what i ate were veggies o.o

[Shox]

lol yeh, i always warm up, start with the bar for 2 sets, then depending on weight im doing ill warm up with like 50% of the weight too

My metabolism is pretty fast too, ive got a bit of a belly now but thats from ridiculously bad eating and drinking 4 times a week for the past year (1st year of uni), i should be really fat :p

Ya, ketosis is where your body switches to using fat as it's primary source of energy (happens if u have really low carbs in ur diet, its pretty much the basis of the atkins diet i think)

[Shox]

Gonna post some stats to help me keep track now; according to this: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
I'm 17.72% bodyfat, so ill be updating this.
Stats:
Waist: 35.5 inches at largest part of belly
Abdomen: 34.5 inches
Arms: 13 inches
Height: 6'2
weight: 82kgs

[strengthforall]

nice i warm up with up to 80% of the workweight and its great for me

you lucked out there man.

you have a lot of space to improve bro ill be checking up

[Jimmie]

Thanks for checking out my training log shox and your doing really well with a very good start, dont worry about your bench, it will get better, just dont rush it, if you dont manage 2.5 go for 2 on the next workout, but Im sure you will do fine.
Good to see you sorted your diet, it sounds spot on. The last time I did 5x5, I never increased my calorie intake, I got to a point where I coulden't get any stronger and changed my workout which from there I went downhill. I have this time round increased my calorie intake, 3 pints of milk, 2 shakes, 2 tins of tuna a day, increased the shopping budget by £70 a month. At the moment I some times forgot to eat and drink my shakes due to being busy, not until 4-6 hours has gone, than I think bogger, I haven't eaten lately. .
As for 8-9pm, I always have a protein shake before I go to bed, the down side to this is you may find yourself wanting a piss pretty early in the morning.
I plan on being here for long time, I have decided to commit to 5x5 stronglift 100%, no more fooling around with other crappy workouts. Will read your logs daily.

[Shox]

okay todays workout was hard...
Squat: 62.5kg 5x5 (hard, didnt think i was gonna make it up on the last rep of the last 2 sets, but i managed to get my 5x5 )
Military press: 27.5kg got my 5x5 here, didnt think id make the last rep but managed it
Deadlift: 75kg 5x5, managed this, but i feel my technique is weak on deadlift...
Chin ups: 3 (last one using leg momentum), 2, 2
Also did some russian twists instead of planks when i got home.

Feeling pretty dead now and i've got to cycle to work in 1 hr 15 mins, eugh!!!