Most effective offseason bodyfat percent for building mass?

[Gymratforlife]

Do you guys think it is possible to gain good amounts of muscle mass during the offseason while maintaining 10% bodyfat? Even for some one that gets fat easy? I am carb sensitive and have experimented with different ways of bulking and when I go to high on the carbs the fat piles on. I would like to stay lean all year so i dont have to kill myself pre contest but I also dont want to undermine my gains off season.

 

[Gunsmith]

The more I learn about this sport the more I relize that their are so many ways to eat right , it seems that everybody has the "ideal" way to go about it with what foods to eat and what not to eat and so on.
I don't think that you need to be fat or get fat to add muscle , I do think that if you add 10lbs of solid muscle and statyed at the same body fat that you would not be as strong as if you gained 10lbs of solid muscle and 20lbs of fat/fluid , but body building is not a power event , that leads to the argument that it makes you stronger so the more weight you lift the bigger and more muscles you get?
take it for what its worth I persoanly don't think that gainign a shit load of weight will be benificial at all to a body builder , its just to damn hard to get the fat off later.

I'm going to hire a trainer and I firmly believe that I can cut some body fat and gain muscle at the same time.

 

[AWN2004]

Do you guys think it is possible to gain good amounts of muscle mass during the offseason while maintaining 10% bodyfat? Even for some one that gets fat easy? I am carb sensitive and have experimented with different ways of bulking and when I go to high on the carbs the fat piles on. I would like to stay lean all year so i dont have to kill myself pre contest but I also dont want to undermine my gains off season.

I think you should at least look like a bodybuilder in the off season if you are a competitive one. 10% is a pretty good place to be in my opinion. Chris Aceto's books mention the same thing. If you are training hard, resting, and eating enough then the muscle will come. The trick is not to over eat. I see guys bump up the carbs and then forget that all that protein they are eating is carrying a ton of calories as well. They get fat and then that leads them to believe they are carb sensitive. In reality they just have their ratios too high. It all depends on the individual but over eating has no place in anyone's life and particularly a bodybuilder's

 

[Gymratforlife]

I think you should at least look like a bodybuilder in the off season if you are a competitive one. 10% is a pretty good place to be in my opinion. Chris Aceto's books mention the same thing. If you are training hard, resting, and eating enough then the muscle will come. The trick is not to over eat. I see guys bump up the carbs and then forget that all that protein they are eating is carrying a ton of calories as well. They get fat and then that leads them to believe they are carb sensitive. In reality they just have their ratios too high. It all depends on the individual but over eating has no place in anyone's life and particularly a bodybuilder's

I am going to place carbs around my training time to start for 2-3 weeks and then add a little more until I am happy with the gains I guess. It seems like I used to grow on 3k calories just fine then I got greedy and all hell broke loose. Even though I was eating clean it still got me fat and I was doing around 500g of carbs per day.

 

[Pain]

Up to you ...

Most freaks I know that pack on a lot of size every off-season probably go significantly higher than ten percent bf. That is not to say you can't make solid gains at ten percent, but if you have to stay on a nearly contest type diet to stay at 10%, I would not do it. The psychological benefit of being happy and content diring your growing months, I think, outweighs adhering to some imaginary body fat # just cuz. Though, as it was said above ... look like a bodybuilder, not a slob lol. When people ask if you compete, and they mean in competitive eating ... not physique sports ... ya might cut back

 

[Ashop]

I dont like letting myself get pat 15% at MAX anymore and I prefer even lower.

 

[Shelby]

Do you guys think it is possible to gain good amounts of muscle mass during the offseason while maintaining 10% bodyfat? Even for some one that gets fat easy? I am carb sensitive and have experimented with different ways of bulking and when I go to high on the carbs the fat piles on. I would like to stay lean all year so i dont have to kill myself pre contest but I also dont want to undermine my gains off season.

You might want to look into carb cycling.

I would also highly suggest hiring someone to help you with offseason nutrition - there are plenty of good (and inexpensive) guys to choose from on this board.

It will be WELL worth your investment, trust me.

 

[penance]

yo, there was a similar thread about this a couple of months ago:
http://www.professionalmuscle.com/f...best-bodyfat-bulk.html?highlight=bodyfat+bulk

 

[almard]

Some people look fat when they get to 10% but other they get up to 15% and still look lean...find what works for your self as we are all diffrent.