How many lbs should I be going up on a scale week to week to be "on track" during a lean bulk?

How many lbs should I be going up on a scale week to week to be "on track" during a lean bulk?
how much is too much (aka: getting too much fat)
how much is too little (aka: not getting enough muscle)
I do not want to dirty bulk.

I honestly have never done it and I plan to eat +200-300 to my TDEE to start, but I am unsure how accurate I will be and will need to adjust as I go.
I essentially want to look at the scale week to week and be able to say

"oh shit, I'm putting on lbs too fast, eat less"
or
"oh shit, I'm not gaining enough lbs, eat more"

until I hit the perfect increase amount. How much should one be increasing weekly to be lean bulking correctly??

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You should only be gaining about 0.5 a pound per week on a lean bulk

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      So at the end of the month I should only be going up 2lbs total the entire month on a lean bulk? seems pretty low but if that's accurate I can try and shoot for that!

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        2lb is good, that's 8lb in 4 months... that's a lot of weight and if you're comfortable you can extend that to 6 months. particularly if you account for the generalization that not all, half at most, will be lean mass.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          1lb a week would likely just give you an excessive amount of fat. if you're cool with that, then fill your boots. it might even be advantageous, but you have to be down with being fluffy.

          Well I'm 100% not down with gaining fat, so maybe shooting for 2lbs a month is the way to do it. I do plan to cut back and forth between bulk and cut regardless

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            That's how you do it. 2-3lbs a month is ideal. Although I recommend you do it for 8-10 months. Yes you'll gain 25lbs, but that's just a moderate 4 month cut.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              2-3 seems the generally accepted in this thread so far, so that may be my goal as well, sounds reasonable.

              My schedule is as follows:
              >4-5 month bulk, 0.3-0.5lb/week. admittedly, i tend to overshoot. you know, what's a little more butter in the pan... im bulking etc..
              >3 week aggressive cut. 1.5lb+/week
              >4 month bulk, again 0.3-0.5lb
              >8 week cut ( i've extended this to 12-14 before) lean feels good, but i always want more.

              may I ask why you vary those cut cycles so much? like you do a 3 week, then bulk again, but then 8 week cut? then i assume you bulk again and then back to a 3 week?
              why not just bulk 4, cut 4? rinse repeat? or?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            My schedule is as follows:
            >4-5 month bulk, 0.3-0.5lb/week. admittedly, i tend to overshoot. you know, what's a little more butter in the pan... im bulking etc..
            >3 week aggressive cut. 1.5lb+/week
            >4 month bulk, again 0.3-0.5lb
            >8 week cut ( i've extended this to 12-14 before) lean feels good, but i always want more.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    150(if you can be that accurate)-300kcal is good. keep track of your weight, i do daily, then calculate a weekly average. if that moves up its working. Otherwise, you can fail to achieve maintenance in an upward direction

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >if that moves up its working.
      That's my question though. HOW MUCH "up" am I supposed to be seeing to be doing it correctly?

      that anon says 0.5lbs gained a week?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        1lb a week would likely just give you an excessive amount of fat. if you're cool with that, then fill your boots. it might even be advantageous, but you have to be down with being fluffy.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I have been bulking for the last 13 months (weight did stall for 2-3 months tho).
    Have gained 14kgs (51 to 65kgs) while still having my upper 2 abs visible. Will keep bulking until I hit 1/2/3/4 (will hit in around 12 months). Is this a good strategy?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Will keep bulking until I hit 1/2/3/4
      1/2/3/4 what?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        60kg ohp 100kg bench 140kg squat 180kg DL

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I'm dumb af, I see what you meant now

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >weeks
    >months
    Why not just use body fat% as a goalpost "shifting point"? for your cycles? cut to 12% bf, bulk to 15% and then cut back to 12. Seems logically reasonable doing it this way since even 15% is lean enough to not be fat and you can safely cut back to 12% from 15 without much fuss.
    each cycle will leave you with more lean mass and visually looking fitter as you head back to 12%.

    Not to mention each cut cycle should (in theory) be easier than the last since you've packed on additional muscle from your last bulk.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    since the end of august 2022 until today (feb 23 23) ive gained 2.65kg. I started at 67.1kg, and my last weeks average was 69.75kg. I dont think ive gained any fat (in reality i most likely did, but its disproportionate to the amount of muscle ive gained so its not noticeable)

    im planning on bulking for the remainder of this year. if i start gaining about 200 grams per week, ill be somrwhere around 80 kilos in december or early 2024. but ill see, perhaps ill go slower than that. im in no rush

    wagmi

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >6 months to gain 5.7lbs
      anon what? I'm pretty sure you can gain more than 1lb a month safely without accruing fat

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I know i can. But im in no rush whatsoever, so i wont bother eating more than i am right now, even though i can

        Im currently eating about 2650 cals per day (as per myfitnesspal) and on most days i get about 150g of protein, although im not worried if i dont get close to 1g/lbs of bodyweight, as long as i get about 0.7g/lb im happy (even though i rarely go that low)

        Honestly, the reason im going this slow is because this is my first proper clean bulk that im doing, in the past ive gained a lot of fat and not that much muscle comparatively, so im being really conservative with my numbers, some would say too conservative, but its working for me and ill keep doing it for the rest of this year

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          How tall are you?
          Nothing wrong with doing things at your own pace.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            pretty short (168 cms, i think thats 5 5 or barely 6 inches in imperial measurements)

            im 19 btw

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              70kgs is a good weight at that height if you can get low bf%.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                yeap. ill cut down to that weight once i bulk up between 75 and 80 kgs

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Plus my lift are going up

          I can do more weight for the same amount of reps on different exercises

          For example, i can bench press (no bounce at the bottom and controlled eccentric) 75kg for 10 reps with about 3 reps left jn the tank. a few months ago i could barely do 67.5 for 10 reps @ 0 rir.

          Granted i have imrpoved my periodization as well, but being in a caloric surplus definitely helped i think

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The slower the better. Honestly, frick timeframes, just bulk until you start noticing you get fat.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >The slower the better.
      There's such a thing as TOO slow though. Imagine if it takes you 1 year to gain 2lbs.
      That is not a reasonable pace.

      I don't care about timeframes so much as I care about having reasonable week to week month to month general goals. The only way to know if something is being done right is to measure results and adjust accordingly along the way

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