Bulking and cutting

I've asked a few nutritionists about bulking and cutting at the same time. They've all told me the same thing "It will take a longer period of time". Now, I understand that professional gymnasts get bulky and muscular over time. I am 17 and I've only got all the time in the world but I want to see results a bit quicker.

 

How can I approach bulking but keep my bodyfat at a low percentage at the same time? If someone can help me get detailed info about what I need to do exactly.

 

I am currently practicing gymnastics at a club. We practice 2 hours in the after noon and 2 hours in the evening. I also add 1 hour of HIIT in the morning to lower my body fat percentage. I know 5 hours of working out sounds a lot and may be the reason to why I am not gaining muscle but how can I approach gaining muscle and keeping my bodyfat relatively low. (look for the range of 8-5% tbh because I might be competing in a year's time or so)

This will be best posted in the nutrition forum as the answer has a lot to do with your diet. The short answer is that you're going to need a bunch of protein. There is a bit more to understand and I'd recommend that before you respond to any posts here you go to the nutrition forum and read the stickies thoroughly (there are many pages of reading, all of them valuable so don't stop short). Also search the forum for the word "recomposition", as these posts may apply to your situation (although you don't say what your current BF% is).

 

In summary: Devour the nutrition forum. 

Alright so I read a lot of the stickies and from my understanding I need a caloric surplus to bulk.

I have also gone through a few articles too. My bodyfat is about 12-14%. I am looking to take it down to 5-8%. I understand that I should bulk first then start losing fat. I did some calculations and I ended up with getting that my caloric maintenance is at 2000 calories (more or less). For lean mass I should be looking at 500+ calories. So I should be consuming about 2500 calories per day. Hopefully this will minimise my fat gains.

My HIIT burns about 900-1000 calories and I am really not sure about my gymnastics training. But essentially I am burning A LOT. So do I need to increase my caloric intake more than 2500?

I have Whey Protein Isolate. I know that I should be taking 1.5x my bodyweight (lb). But I am wondering if I should go on a High protein-Low carb diet.

 

What do you guys think?

Short version:

 

You need to have an approximate idea of what you are burning in gymnastics. Estimate at 4 METs. For you, according to what you posted, that is about 400 kcal per hour.

 

So, to truly maintain yourself properly (a very, very key word), according to what you are saying you do (using your information), you need to have 2000 kcal + 1000 kcal for HIIT + 400kcal * 4 hours = 4600 kcal. Holy crap. No wonder you aren't growing.

Are you talking HIIT - like sprint training or HIT- circuit weight training?

 

In any case HITs calorie burn is typically overstated.

HIIT for an hour (every day?) is not typically Rx'd.

 

So yeah if you use Josh's numbers you should gain.

 

Keep in mind even if you gained 10 pounds of muscle in

the next 4 months - if you weigh 140 now and go up to 150 say,

your bodyfat will go from 13 to 12%. Not a big change.  If you then

cut 8 pounds of fat over 2 months and go back down to 142 you'll be at 7.5%.

That assumes 100% muscle gain and fat loss, which doesn't happen in the real world.

 

That's over six months. Hard to see it happening much quicker.

Longer if you want even a bigger cut.

 

My feeling is to not get fixated on numbers. Train your best and eat well.

13% isn't fat, and I'm sure you can lower it gradually just with reasonable eating,

more maturity and development over the next year. But that said, if you want

to go for it, then do your best with it as well. 

 

Good luck!

My HIIT varies from day to day. Some days it's plyometrics, some days it's power and resistance. some days it's maxing out on a heavy bag and doing bodyweight exercises. Generally speaking, I do get a good 900 burned calories from it or so.

 

I have checked my bodyfat and it is somewhere around 13.5 - 15.5. I can honestly say that I am going to be cutting down till 8% or even lower then progressively bulk. I don't want to bulk too fast since I don't want it affecting my performance. I'd prefer a good amount of strength over mass and medicore strength.

 

In the past 3 days I've dropped a bit of weight (I say weight since I'm not sure if it's purely fat) because I'm currently on a caloric deficit. I was also working out to my maximum.

 

Thank you guys for your responses. I respect that you're helping me but I guess I've decided to just keep on cutting then gradually bulk it out.

Ignore your first week of weight lost honestly. It's mostly water and reduced intestinal bulk. You'll put it back on quickly

when you re-start eating normally.