Hello everyone,

I'm new to this board as you can see. I have a question. How does one bulk up, while still maintaining a low BF%, or even burning more fat in the process? With a high calorie intake and minimal cardio, how do you keep the fat off? I've been cutting for the past month, and now that I have my BF down to a respectable level, my next goal is to add muscle mass. I have a clean diet, so that isn't an issue. So I assume I just eat more, lift heavier, and do less cardio, but what's going to ward off the fat?

I don't really know if there is a perfect answer for you. Eating more is obviously the way forward, but it's a question of getting the balance right so that you don't put on too much fat.

Personally I think it's inevitable to increase your bodyfat % when bulking, the aim is just to limit how much it increases.

To accomplish this, I would say the main aim is to maintain a very high protein diet - this is what your muscles use to grow, after all. People generally say to aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, but you probably should aim for a little more if you want to bulk, maybe 1.2g or 1.4 per pound. Make up the rest of your daily calorie intake with good carbs and fats (these are still essential in any diet) and you should be ok. It's really a question of trying something, monitoring the results and adapting the diet as necessary. Also doing some cardio isn't necessarily going to hurt your bulk, and might infact keep the fat level down. Just favour short, high intensity cardio sessions using something like HIIT.

Ah yes, the 'bulking without gaining fat' issue.

As Willapp said, its inevitable to increase your bodyfat during bulking. You can NOT lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Anyone who tells you its possible is either lying or is taking steroids. I personally dont know why people hate the idea of adding a bit of body fat during bulking. I mean, youve only been cutting for a month and you say youre down to a respectable BF%. Obviously it doesnt take you long to cut, so why not bulk up nicely and cut for a month after.
The only way youre going to keep your fat-gains down as much as possible is to eat as clean as you can whilst making sure youre getting the perfect calorie count for muscle gains. This will however make your bulking harder. During a bulk, I literally try eat whatever I see (as long as Im getting 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight every day) as I want the best gains possible.

I see what you mean about being okay with gaining bf% if you're also getting muscle, but this is tough if you're a woman. Since my body wants to carry a much higher bf%, I really have to keep an eye on it. Raising my muscle mass and therefore metabolism has helped, but it still feels like I'm fighting nature tooth and nail - too much protein and I'm down to an unhealthy bf%, but if I add a bunch of carbs, I'm going to blow up like a balloon. Let me know if you have any ideas on making it easier!