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Staying lean on a prolonged bulk?

bell1986

Well-known member
Hey folks.

Has anyone utilised any good supplements/ingredients that help them remain lean while bulking?

Nothing worse seeing that fat gain after a while of cutting. I always will eat in a reasonable surplus while bulking. I personally don't believe of this maintaining that's doing the rounds on YouTube just now. I've experimented with both and always felt best/stronger while in a good 500+ calorie surplus. It does add fat on though. I don't mind it too much but I was thinking.. I wonder if anyone has utilised anything while bulking and seen fat gains to a minimum.

Would berberine/metformin be beneficial during a bulk? I have both. Would forskolin be of any use? I have the sns 95% extract their also.

What have people added in and noticed that they continue to grow but they just don't get overly fat.

Is it all to do with blood sugar control? Can we block fat storage pathways? Be interesting to hear if anyone had any good supplement suggestions.

Just be good to be able to bulk and remain fairly lean in the process.

I've heard that berberine/metformin both have a mechanism that can be detrimental for muscle growth? Not too sure how accurate this claim is. I read that people on hormones don't need to stress it as much.

What pathways store fat? Can they be inhibited. I remember evomuse - defuse use to focus on alot of these pathways and everyone use to call it a god send for holidays etc.

Anyone knowledgeable got any ideas?

Thanks
 
I can be in a surplus take berberine 3x a day, do daily cardio and stay lean while building muscle. It's just taken being very consistent with it all.

Berberine is great imo. It tricks the body thinking we are on a calorie restricted diet. No idea what the muscle gains stuff is about, I have no issue adding on muscle.

It's got many benefits besides bodybuilding like longevity. The more I learn about it the more special it's become to me.
 
Has anyone utilised any good supplements/ingredients that help them remain lean while bulking?

GDA's and Nutrient Partition supplements are very useful in keeping fat gain to a minimum during bulks/calorie surplus's. They'll help direct the excess calories towards lean tissue and store them as glycogen rather than fat stores. SNS's GylcoPhase is a staple for a fair few people on the forum and is a top notch GDA. If you're having heavier calorie intake meals/days I'd recommend adding their GlucoVantage too, that'll really prime your muscle's for increased uptake.
 
Ultimately this is going to come down to the size of your surplus, how lean you are to start and since your not natty then the amount of gear your on will play a role. You can stay leaner on a boatload of gear then you can on 300mg or trt and a second compound. Taking a gda at the right times will help but its absolutely not going to keep you lean while overeating.

If I'm running a bulk cycle and my goal is to stay lean as possible then #1. I'm starting the cycle at 10%bf or less, the leaner the better. #2 My surplus is going to be small 100-200cal on average and I would be utilizing carb cycling to get more energy on hard training days and less on days like arms or shoulders and low to no carbs on my off days. So if maitnence is 3000 and my surplus is 200 that's 1400 cal surplus per week. Leg day needs more calls then rest days so plan accordingly.

Lastly my cycle would start very low, maybe 300 test only. I would alternate between increasing food and increasing gear. When to increase is not as black and white. A easy way is food first, gear second.

So week 1 I might start on 300 t and a 200 cal surplus. When the scale stops moving I add 200 more to the calories surplus. Maybe week 5 or 6 I feel like I'm putting on more fat then I want, I might go to 400 test and 200mast and keep calories the same till I lean back out a bit. Then I add 200 cal again.

This is a random explanation but if you really look into bodybuilding and coaches you will find that many of the guys who have great off seasons are usually following these kind of guidelines, most of them carb cycle and the bigger guys use bigger surpluses with slin but that's a whole other thing and out of my wheelhouse.

The diet is #1 factor regardless of if your natty or not.
 
Ultimately this is going to come down to the size of your surplus, how lean you are to start and since your not natty then the amount of gear your on will play a role. You can stay leaner on a boatload of gear then you can on 300mg or trt and a second compound. Taking a gda at the right times will help but its absolutely not going to keep you lean while overeating.

If I'm running a bulk cycle and my goal is to stay lean as possible then #1. I'm starting the cycle at 10%bf or less, the leaner the better. #2 My surplus is going to be small 100-200cal on average and I would be utilizing carb cycling to get more energy on hard training days and less on days like arms or shoulders and low to no carbs on my off days. So if maitnence is 3000 and my surplus is 200 that's 1400 cal surplus per week. Leg day needs more calls then rest days so plan accordingly.

Lastly my cycle would start very low, maybe 300 test only. I would alternate between increasing food and increasing gear. When to increase is not as black and white. A easy way is food first, gear second.

So week 1 I might start on 300 t and a 200 cal surplus. When the scale stops moving I add 200 more to the calories surplus. Maybe week 5 or 6 I feel like I'm putting on more fat then I want, I might go to 400 test and 200mast and keep calories the same till I lean back out a bit. Then I add 200 cal again.

This is a random explanation but if you really look into bodybuilding and coaches you will find that many of the guys who have great off seasons are usually following these kind of guidelines, most of them carb cycle and the bigger guys use bigger surpluses with slin but that's a whole other thing and out of my wheelhouse.

The diet is #1 factor regardless of if your natty or not.

Dude this is great info. Thanks @Smont for posting this. I’m close to retirement and will finally be able to do a cycle. I’ll be using this info.
 
GlycoPhase, Recomp20, and XPG Ursa-Gel are the 3 things that come to mind first for me for this.

When I've used Recomp20, I've always found I get leaner even not trying to.

GlycoPhase is great for nutrient partitioning and helping to stay lean.

A lot of people talk about the positive body composition changes they experience with Ursa-Gel.
 
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