How to Bulk Without Getting Fat (Full Winter Arc Guide)

Summary

Vincent compares three bulks from his training history. His first two involved gaining weight too quickly and adding substantial body fat. In his more controlled bulk, he gained about 2.6 kg over 16 weeks while getting stronger.

His main message: A bulk is not a license to eat as much as possible. Aim for gradual weight gain, consistent training, and patience.

Key Strategies and Lessons

• Find maintenance before bulking. Track food intake and average body weight for roughly two weeks. If your weight stays stable, that intake is a useful estimate of maintenance. Use an online calculator as a starting point, then adjust based on your own data.
• Transition gradually if coming off a diet. Vincent recommends reverse dieting to help establish maintenance before starting a surplus, rather than immediately overeating after a restrictive cut.
• Use a modest calorie surplus. Make small adjustments—generally around 100–200 calories—and evaluate the effect using average weight trends. Vincent’s current approach is to add about 100 calories if his weight and strength have plateaued for around two weeks.
• Track trends, not individual weigh-ins. Day-to-day weight can fluctuate. Vincent used weekly averages and kept calories steady for several weeks when his weight was rising gradually.
• Prioritize nutritious, sustainable food choices. Avoid forcing food or relying on calorie-dense junk food simply to make the scale go up.
• Support training with appropriate nutrition. Vincent recommends keeping protein high, maintaining adequate fat intake, and adjusting carbohydrates to meet energy needs. He found that eating more carbs before and after workouts—and sometimes during them—helped fuel training.
• Train hard enough to provide a growth stimulus. He emphasizes challenging sets close to failure, while noting that constantly training to failure can create substantial fatigue. Leaving one or two reps in reserve may reduce fatigue for some lifters.
• Keep training and activity consistent. Vincent maintained a similar five-day lifting split and continued playing badminton, making changes in weight and calorie needs easier to interpret. He also encourages cardio and daily steps for general health and conditioning.
• Use deloads when needed. After feeling fatigued from frequent failure training, he took a deload week and kept calories similar during it.
• Be patient. Muscle gain tends to slow as training experience increases. Vincent’s goal is to gain strength and body weight gradually rather than repeat an extreme bulk-and-cut cycle.

Presenters and Sources

• Vincent — Presenter; discusses his bulking experiences and training data.
• Sam Sulek — Referenced for Bulking 101.
• Vincent’s Cutting 101 video — Referenced for his approach to estimating maintenance calories.
• InBody measurement and an online calorie calculator — Mentioned as data or estimation tools.