First off,

I would like to say I have body image issues.

And I am not happy with the body I have now.

Even though I've been hitting the gym for two years,

I'm 5'7" 150lbs, and about the 15% to 20% bodyfat range

My goal is to be at 170lbs at about 10-12% bodyfat,

I am impatient and have been eating clean at 250-500+ caloric surplus, and it's hard to stick to it because every few months I get sick and have a tough time forcing myself to eat. It's as if my body can't go over 150lbs?

Is there any harm in eating a huge excess (1000+ calories or more) adding dirty foods to my current diet to reach 180lbs and go on a cut for 2 months to reach 170lbs with a low body fat %? I know I will gain a belly, but after 2 months cutting clean to a low body fat %, will the body look any different if I just did it the slower way?

William,

I can sympathize with your struggle but nothing worth having is gotten easily. Physique transformation requires patience, persistence, and unwavering drive. If it was easy, everyone would look like a physique model. Quick and easy just doesn't produce true sustainable results.

The choice is your as to how you want to deal with your goal. If you decide you want to bulk by any means possible (including adding in some high calore junk food days), just realize you are taking one step forward and one step back. The reason being is the "growth" you will experience will be 25% muscle and 75% fat on average. When you then go to the cut phase, you will be doing drastic limitations on your calorie intake to burn the fat. Unfortunately, this will have the opposite effect. You will lose the majority of the fat but also a good amount of the hard earned muscle. Your body is not designed for rapid fluctuations in calorie intake unless you are supplementing with steroids and artificial growth hormone to over-ride your body's normal hormonal reactions to such actions.

If you do lean gains, 95% of what you gain, albeit slowly, will be lean mass. You will not need to do drastic calorie and macro manipulations, potentially harm your metabolism and hormone levels, and it will be sustainable. You will have built a solid physique and also trained your metabolism to be a muscle building/fat burning machine for now and the future. In my opinion, this is the best route to go for the natural athlete. At the end of the day the choice is yours and many people have successfully reached their goals doing traditional bulking and cutting. Unfortunately, it works for the minority of lifters especially those embarking on the journey without the assistance of external drugs.

John

William, I agree with John. At 15-20% body fat you are not "fine tuned" enough to be able to add optimal muscle due to your hormonal status. I NEVER advise a "bulk" unless you are under 12%. When you reach this percentage your hormonal profile will allow you develop muscle at a more optimal rate with the added benefit of staying lean. A lean, slow bulk is 100% the way to go.

William,

Everyone here just gave you a good advice. If you go for fast BULK you are going to gain muscle and gain more on fat. May I remind you that burning fat is really depressing! Most of the people I know usually take this route. Guess what.. yes, they look bigger.. BIGGER fat! and most of them give up and lose motivation in the gym to burn those fat because it takes a long run to get rid of them.

Now, LEAN gain is very slow in progress but the good thing here is.. you are building muscle mass. Majority of the fitness fanatic were taking this goal. SLOW but SURELY.

I agree with everyone here. I've been doing a bulk for a few months and now am trying to cut all that extra fat I've gained and it is pretty frustrating for me so I can tell you things will definatly go a different way from here on out.

@getbiggetlean everyone is spot on bro.

But don't get frustrated, there are other ways we can help you. Stay away from getting super fat on a "bulk", its just utter bullshit man.

Post for us your current routine and daily macros. We can take look and try to make necessary changes to improve your results.

The community has got your back bro!

What I don't get is how do Natural Bodybuilders have an offseason weight where they stay lean and a competition body weight where they're even leaner? Is it just years of training, and cutting 250-500cal a week or every other week before stepping on stage? Similarly, can a person just bulk and do keto with BCAA's or will the excess Body fat still show, but with a low body fat %, would it even be noticeable?

Anyways,

My routine isn't anything special. I'm thinking of switching to Layne Norton's PHAT training which is posted on SimplyShredded or a Push/Pull routine?

I haven't been able to push more weight on my routine for all my lifts for weeks now. And I get gassed out the longer I get into my workout. I don't know if this is lack of motivation, nutrition, lack of rest, undiagnosed depression, or a big nasty combo of all of them. Or if I should buckle down and get a pre-workout???

My exercises are basically similar to the routines Scott posted for each body part in his early videos, and some things I see off Buff Dudes on youtube and Twinmuscleworkout videos on youtube. It's as follows:

M-Legs + Abs + 30 min slow incline cardio

T-Chest & Shoulders + Abs + 10 minute H.I.I.T.

W-Arms-(Biceps & Triceps) + Abs + 30 min. slow incline cardio

Th-Back + Abs + 10 minute H.I.I.T.

F-(Either the Big Three Lifts + OHP or focus on the weaker lifts of each body part of the weak or focus working on form and Time Under Tension Exercises)

Sat & Sun. Rest

Macros: 192g Protein/ 166g Carb/ 103.5 Fats (Take note that this is the macros after adding 500cal to my maintenance calories)

I include Micronutrients from vegetables such as Spinach, Kale, & Mushrooms from time to time. And the only supplementation i take is Whey Protein Isolate and Creatine Monohydrate.

I'm getting 75g protein from Whey Protein shakes (3 shakes) and only 25g to 43g of protein from lean meats. I'm not sure if this is okay or if i should cut the shakes and focus on getting my protein from lean meats. I do have to admit that eating meat has become sort of a chore. And there are days where I can't stomach protein because it's simply not that tasty. Any tips?

@getbiggetlean I think you will find that during an offseason, where natural lifters stay lean, they do so but just aren't as lean as they would want to be for competition. Someone who is 9-12% body fat is lean, and when they get into competition, they are about 6-7%. It is definitely a case of training hard, but I think you'll find calories are mainly cut prior to competition if there is any excess body fat which needs shreding. Otherwise, calories are probably kept about the same all year round if fat levels stay the same.

Take a look at @Scott_Herman for example, and he sticks around 7% all year round, by eating a clean diet, training his ass off, but maintaining a caloric surplus to continue building muscle. Doing HIIT as well as eating clean and tearing it up in the gym is what keeps you lean, but to build muscle you need to be eating in a surplus.

As for 'bulking' on a keto diet, the reality is you will still be eating more calories than you need if you are doing a 'bulk', and therefore you are bound to store excess fat.

In terms of your training, your split looks good. If you continually get tired and burnt out, it might be time to take a DELOAD week. If you're eating in a 500 calorie surplus already, then it shouldn't be because of a lack of food. How long do you sleep each night? 7-9 hours?

As long as you are getting your protein, the source doesn't matter too much. Though if you're sick of meat, why not have some greek yoghurt or some eggs? Also, try spicing up your meats with things like chilli, cayenne pepper, ginger, black pepper, curry powder, etc. That saves you from having boring old chicken all the time.

Hope that helps!

Jordan