Time For Sleeep

I'm 5'4", and I'm 150 pounds. I'm not fat @ all (size 30 waist), but I'm not skinny either, ~ 16-17% body fat. I actually have a lot of mass, and I know it's extremely easy for me to gain weight.

Anyways... my goal is to get to a solid 160-165.
@ the same time, I want to lose flab and soft spots, and basically exchange muscle for fat.

I know peopel say it's easier to bulk up, and then cut it up... but I'm lookin' for a more gradual burning fat and gaining muscle/cutting 'em up sort of deal.

So should I cut calories? or should I load up on more. How much should i intake a day? I don't want to do the bulk up thing like I said before, but I don't want to intake too few calories (which I think might be the case for me), and end up having my workouts eat away @ my muscles, cause well I lift on a fairly regular and often basis.

Doc.Booty

You have to pick one. Trying to burn fat while building muscle is an exercise in frustration.

In the stickies i mention ways to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while cutting. Check them out.

My personal suggestion is to bulk first. You won't get lean by the end of the summer, might as well start getting big now and carry it over into the winter. A lot of people I know get into cutting and when they get down to a low bodyfat, they realize that they didn't put on as much lean mass as they thought and wish they'd stayed on their bulk a few more months.

esCarbonie

word, pick one. I would say cut the fat first then work on building mass? you will be in better shape to attack the much tougher task of building muscle

SDCGTSX

My friend got skinny first and then got muscular. I think it may be harder to do it the other way since you'll be hungry all the time with all the muscle to feed. But that's how muscle guys do it, get big then cut just before a show.

Doc.Booty

If you've got muscle to feed, feed it! Put on 30 pounds of lean mass and your body needs to burn more calories to sustain it. That's normal. Your maintenance calories go up, the amount you can eat and still lose fat goes up. Dont' worry about being hungrier because you're more muscular.

If you lean out some now, and then start a bulk, you're just going to add fat again (if you don't add fat on a bulk you aren't eating enough!). Unless you are very overweight - and from your description you arent - you are going to want to bulk now, and cut it away all at once later on.

Time For Sleeep

Hmm... thx for the suggestion guys.

Well I guess I should play to my strengths and try to bulk up. I'm only supplementing with vitamins and protein, and I don't intend to add in creatine or anything else into the mix (I've been on it before).

I guess my biggest concern with bulking up is that I already have a pretty developed chest in comparison to my weaker muscle groups (example, back)... so I do'nt wanna roll around w/ muscular man tits as soon as summer ends and school begins. Haha.

For bulking up... how many calories a day would you guys suggest?