I've been obsessed with getting myself back in shape the last 14 months now.  I got really lean and about 2-3 months ago I decided to try and bulk.  I kind of had an experiment to see if I am very strict on my diet for 6 days if I could get by with an all out cheat day on Sunday.  I am 41 and while I didn't blow up and I was getting stronger it was a failure in that I felt like I was adding to much fat to fast.  Anyways so I decided to finally break down and hire this competitive body builder that is also a trainer a little over 2 weeks ago.  He wanted me to lean out a little before bulking.  He kept my calories about the same but changed my macros slightly and for the time being no cheating at all.  I am working out 6 days a week on a split with 30 min light cardio after every lifting session except 15 min on leg days.  On rest day I am supposed to cut my caloric intake almost in half and he wants me to do 30 min light cardio. I have cut the macros on rest day but have not done the cardio on rest days.  I am going to try tomorrow and see how that goes. Cardio is just getting my heart between 120-135 bpm target and keeping it there so nothing strenuous.  This week he actually cut my macros just a bit.  I really hope I am getting lean enough for him to feel like I am ready this Friday at check in.

I'll never be a big guy.  Today I was 172 when I got up and I am 5'10".  My goal is to eventually get to 190 while staying lean (10% or less bf).  I don't know if it is possible with my age and genetics but I am on a fairly good prescribed dose of Testosterone and a tiny dose of Anastrazole so I do have that benefit.

Anyways here is my progress so far.  This is today vs 2 Christmas's ago which is basically what I looked like when starting.  

I really don't know how to measure my BF.  I do in Body Scans at a nutrition store but it seems to be all over the place.  In my current pictures what does my BF look like to those who have experience calculating that?

Looks like around 15% for most men.

nice job on the progress!

While it's a fun number to talk about - bf% is a pretty meaningless number. When I'm tracking I weigh daily and keep a chart of my 7 day average, and make sure I like what the mirror is showing me.

Take daily/weekly/biweekly (whatever) progress pics and compare.

Here's last week's check and then a pic from the gym after getting pumped.  Sorry for the weird phone placement in the last pic I wanted to take one without having to hold the phone

My coach is trying to talk me into doing a masters competition.  I think that's just different age groups like over 35 etc.  He thinks I would take 2-3 months to be stage ready.  I'm not sure I want to go through the level of suck that would entail for prep but I'm going to at least go watch one some time and think about it.  I wouldn't want to start till after the holidays.  I'm not sure I'd want to do that at all but I'll think about it.

Nice progress.  Need to bring up your chest and legs though.  Don't take it the wrong way I'm trying to offer constructive criticism.

Oh I know.  You aren't bothering me.  My chicken legs are slowly progressing.  I've only been working out less than a couple years and I really on only started hitting legs like I should because of my coach the last couple months. I was just lazy with legs but I am motivated now.  I keep adding more weight.  My quads are progressing slowly but surely.  Bulking slowly right now.

I actually slipped and fell down 9 wooden stairs with my lower back taking the brunt of the fall like 1.5-2 weeks ago.  You can see my lower back at my waistline is swollen.  It's gone down more.  Luckily it didn't seem to have any effect on lifting/muscle soreness.  It was just tender to sit against certain things. My ass still has some impressive black, blue, and purple hues.

Good work!  Congrats on the progress and hard work.

How does he have your macros set up?

He makes adjustments on Mondays and Fridays often.  Right now I am slowly bulking.  My daily macros right now are 350g carbs, 60g fat, and 250g protein.  On my one rest day (Thursdays) I do a little more cardio (45 min) and my macros drop to 80/40/180.  I am not a fan of the rest day reduced macros but I think he does it that way because I do tend to lose a crap load of water weight on rest day and my Friday weigh in is closer to my "true" weight.  The dude is a pretty successful competitive bodybuilder so even though Im not a fan of everything he has me do I just do it while I am training with him and I have had good progress.  Some days he has me do a carb refeed and I eat like 500 g of carbs those days.  He's had me take rest days with no gym at all before and he usually pushes my fat way up and wants me to get a very large portion from nuts (mostly almonds) which is fine because I love RX vanilla almond nut butter and it has no sugar or any crap added so it works well in that role.  I usually have it on sourdough English muffins post workout with a protein shake.

I am accustomed to about 80g of fat a day and he had me at 85g at the very beginning of my cut.  He says I will eventually get up to 110-120 grams a day towards the end of my bulk.  I look forward to that.  I have never eaten so clean in my life.  I mostly eat whole foods.  I do eat some processed food but not crap.  Whole wheat bread with no or hardly any added sugar, sourdough bread, xtreme wellness tortillas (made with wheat and flax), rx nut butter, silk unsweetened almond milk are some examples of "processed foods".  Tons of rice, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, egg whites, whole eggs, 93% lean ground turkey, sirloin, chicken breasts, fish, tuna, shrimp. I eat veggies just about every meal but he doesn't want me to log those/count them for carbs etc, and about half a cup of berries a day and I don't log that either.

One thing worth noting is my check in pics are literally after rolling out of bed.  No pump or anything.  My arms and legs are actually very vascular but it doesn't show first thing before any food or physical activity.

Here are pics I took for my own purposes Sept 3rd later in the day and one at the gym of my legs.  I am much more vascular here.

I'm a little bloated today from a massive cheat breakfast but feeling great.  Strength keeps going up.

He keeps upping my macros but I really haven't gained much weight the last couple weeks.  Today it was actually the lowest in the last week.  My metabolism is kicked into full gear.  It doesn't matter how much i eat at each meal I am starving 3 hours later when I eat again.  All the carbs does cause more water retention and lately I sweat like a pig when sleeping.  I wake up freezing then I dry off and feel comfortable until the next time I wake up drenched.

I do a high carb day every so often and today I am supposed to eat 700g of carbs!!  I've never done more than 500 in a day.  It's going to suck by the end of the day.  With my fats and protein included I'm eating over 4500 calories today.

I feel like I'm making progress.  I've had a couple people at the gym tell me it looks like ive put mass on and they say "the right kind of mass".

My biceps, shoulders, and quads all seem to be getting a little bigger.  I'm definitely getting stronger.  Macros have not been upped for a couple weeks but hopefully soon.

This morning at the gym:

Check in this morning right around 175.  These are after rolling out of bed so no muscle pump and the pose makes my chest look smaller than it is but it's what he wants every Friday.  I've not gained much the last few weeks but continue to get stronger.  He was impressed with today's pics ans weight and bumped my fat macros from 80g-120g.  I knew he said I'd eventually get somewhere between 100-120g of fat per day but I didn't realize it would be such a big sudden bump all at once.  I love it.  I get to eat about 3700 calories a day now up from around 3300.

I'm not the strongest dude in the gym but I think I'm pretty good for my size (5'10" 175lbs) and age (41).

Here's a video of one of my heavy dumbell bench sets and some rack pull deadlifts.

My macros have been 425 carb/120 fat/ 250 protein for a few weeks which is over 3700 calories a day.  I am amazed at how slowly I am gaining weight with those macros.  He bumped them today tp 500/120/250 which is over 4000 calories a day.

Here I am at 180 this morning with my check in pics (the front view pic) and a pic I took a few days ago from the rear.  I was 165ish at the end of my cut before starting this bulk.  I am getting a little fluffier but much of it is more water retention from so much carbs.

Morning pump.

We dropped macros a bit right after Thanksgiving.  My core was starting to increase.  My weight dropped maybe 1-2lbs and has stabilized but I'm still making progress.  Changed some diet stuff to help speed my digestion as I have had some bloat with the higher macros.  I plan to keep bulking but at a bit slower pace for the remainder until spring.

From check in today.

I feel like my Triceps are starting to develop/pop more.  I'm just not as lean as I like to be right now.  Mostly my midsection but it had gone down the past couple weeks.  Macros up just a little but not as high as they were.  I'm going to Jamaica in June.  Will start  a pretty hardcore cut starting probably April 1st to be shredded for that trip.

I feel like my arms have really filled out.  I just wish my legs would follow suit lol.

Im starting to feel fat.  My muscles are still getting fuller over time but so is my abdomen.  No more updates here.

Im going to do an 8 week aggressive cut starting April 1st.  I may post pics in a new thread but I will wait till the end and just post beginning and end.

LOL.  I'm in the same boat.  I've added in more carbs/more calories.  I did heavy squats and deadlifts this morning; killed it.  But damn I feel like a fat shit.

I'm planning on a cut starting the end of March.

I decided to do one more post.  My arms are definitely growing.  I feel fat but ill do a cut in a couple months.

I hired an IFBB pro bodybuilder to be my coach starting this month.  I will probably pay to train with him twice a month also so I can make sure I'm using appropriate intensity and my form is good.  I think it will be a great opportunity to progress.  My last coach was not local.  This just became available to me.  I'm stoked.