Bulking is Done! - 22 Weeks Bulking Progress

After 22 weeks my bulk is finally over! After the holidays, I honestly couldn't wait because I was tired of being fat and couldn't wait to start cutting! Although it felt good at first to eat "bad" foods again, it got old pretty quick. Foods that I enjoyed while cutting started not to taste as good anymore and it got to be a chore to down it all. 


The end result of my bulk?... 19 lbs gained in 22 weeks. I didn't quite gain the 1 lb per week I set out to do, but I think that was probably a good thing. After 8 weeks, I started to feel like I was gaining a lot of fat so I may have subconsciously started eating less and consciously implemented more no carb/cardio days.


People may think I'm crazy, but I definitely enjoy cutting a lot more than I do bulking. After reaching low bodyfat percentages, it's difficult to be fine with being any fatter. 


Here are my starting and ending measurements:

	Starting	Final	Difference
Weight	164 lbs	183 lbs	+19 lbs
Chest	41.5”	43.5”	+2”
Shoulders	49”	50”	+1”
Arms	15”	15.5”	+.5”
Neck	15”	15”	+0”
Waist	31”	33”	+2”
Hips	37.5”	39.5”	+2”
Thighs	23”	24”	+1”
Calves	16”	16.5”	+.05”

Obviously, I gained inches everywhere on this bulk, but I"m happy with the 2" inches gained in on my chest measurement since I did put an emphasis to improve it. I'm also happy with only gaining 2 inches in my waist, which is down from the 35" inches I was at the same time last year. 


One thing I didn't mention in my previous progress post is that I removed my leg days from my lifting schedule. I felt like my legs and especially my hips/glutes were getting out of proportion, thus ruining my aesthetics :) You can see that I gained 2 inches in my hip measurement despite despite not training hips at all for the last 6 weeks.


Overall, I'm happy with the end result. I have never been this big, strong, or "lean" at this weight before. Below are all my progress pictures that I during this bulk going from from left to right. (The pictures aren't perfectly aligned because I tried to scale the images all to about the same head size...and I got lazy with cropping.)


I'm not sure why the first picture's lighting is totally different but this was taken sometime around August when I was maintaining my lean condition for the summer. As you can see in the pictures as they progress, the cuts and tan decreases and the fat and size increases.

Looking at this picture sure does make me miss being at low bodyfat percentages!


Now that I'm done with bulking, I'm excited to start cutting and have actually been doing so for the past week and a half. It sure has felt great to start shedding the fat and seeing more cuts again! :)