How Keith does it
Keith does not sit at one weight all year. He runs cutting and bulking cycles. He finds the bulks hard: it feels like losing what he worked so hard for to get lean. In his words, eating more is a psychological thing, and you have to push past it, otherwise you will never grow.
Step one: come out of the deficit slowly
Do not jump straight from diet calories to eating whatever you want. Raise your calories in steps over a couple of weeks and watch your weekly average weight. Use the TDEE calculator as a starting estimate for maintenance, then adjust from what the scale actually does.
Expect the scale to go up a little
More food means more food and water in your body, and more carbohydrate stored in your muscles. A small jump in the first week or two is normal, and it is mostly not fat. Judge the trend over three or four weeks, not one morning.
Option one: maintain
Maintenance means eating roughly what you burn so your weight stays fairly steady. It is the right choice if you want a break from dieting or are happy where you are. Keep weighing a few mornings a week and look at the weekly average. If it creeps up for three or four weeks in a row, pull calories back a little.
Option two: a lean bulk
If you want to build muscle, you need to eat a bit more than you burn. A review written for natural lifters suggests a surplus of roughly 10 to 20% above maintenance, aiming to gain about 0.25 to 0.5% of your body weight a week as a beginner or intermediate.1 For someone weighing 75kg, that is roughly 0.2 to 0.4kg a week. Gaining much faster than that usually means more fat than you need.
Keep training hard and keep progressing. A surplus without hard training is just weight gain. How to build muscle in Ireland covers the training side.
The hard part: your head
After months of watching the scale go down, seeing it go up feels like failure. Your stomach looks less flat, your clothes fit differently, and every instinct says to stop eating more. Keith finds this the hardest part of a bulk.
A few things help:
- Decide the plan before you start. How long the bulk lasts, how fast you want to gain and when you will cut again. Then you are following a plan, not reacting to a mirror.
- Track strength, not just weight. If your lifts are going up, the bulk is doing its job.
- Remember the cut will come. Bulking is not giving up your progress. It is the part that gives the next cut something to show.
The habits that keep working
- Protein at every meal. It matters just as much when you are building. See how much protein per day.
- Keep logging, at least some of the time. Even a week of tracking each month shows whether calories have drifted.
- Keep training on a schedule. The sessions you did while cutting are the same ones that build muscle now.
- Plan the weekends. Weekends and eating out works for maintenance too.
Starting out?
The free Day One pack gives you a calorie starting point, a shopping list and a checklist. For the whole method, read how to lose weight in Ireland.
Questions about life after fat loss
Why did my weight go up when I stopped dieting?
More food means more food and water in your body and more stored carbohydrate. A small jump in the first week or two is normal and is not fat. Watch the weekly average over a few weeks.
How many calories should I eat after a cut?
Raise calories in steps towards your estimated maintenance and adjust from your weekly average weight. The TDEE calculator gives a starting estimate.
How fast should I gain weight on a bulk?
One review for natural lifters suggests about 0.25 to 0.5% of body weight a week for beginners and intermediates. Faster than that usually adds more fat than you need.
Why is bulking so hard mentally?
After months of losing weight, gaining feels like going backwards. Setting the plan in advance and tracking strength, not just the scale, makes it easier to stick with.
Sources and limitations
- Iraki J et al. Nutrition recommendations for bodybuilders in the off-season. Sports (Basel) (2019). A narrative review: suggests a surplus of about 10–20% and a gain of about 0.25–0.5% of body weight per week for novice and intermediate lifters. Written for bodybuilders, so treat it as a starting range, not a rule.