Has Anyone Been Able to Lose Fat Even While Bulking?

[nas_is_illmatic]

So basically, I'm slightly chubby right now and wondering if I should try bulking. I'm 5 foot 6, 150-153 lbs and while I'm not completely out of shape, I'm not sure fit either. I've tried doing caloric deficits in the past but haven't seen any results from that in terms of adding definition. Because of this and since my lifts aren't very good, I was wondering if anyone has been slightly chubby (read, not skinny-fat, not skinny, but slightly overweight) and still managed to add definition even though they were bulking? My overall goal from bodybuilding is to be as strong as possible at a sub 10% body fat. Thus, I don't really care too much about adding muscle (muscle mass/looking big is not important to me), but I'm worried that even on a slow bulk, I'll just add fat and look like crap. Any advice?

[MCrow]

It's not likely since for the most part you have to be in a caloric surplus to build muscle and by nature being in a surplus adds some fat as well. You can do things to minimize fat gain, but you are bound to gain some fat while bulking.

[Locavore]

Given your goals, I think you need to focus on cutting. But you can do it slowly (which is a good idea in general)-- maybe even try eating at maintenance or maintenance + 10% on lifting days, maintenance - 20% on other days to try to pull off a nice recomp.

[Archaic2021]

Look up Body Recomp.

[csb5731]

I think that leaning out while gaining much overall mass is unlikely unless you are a very exceptional individual. Normal people under certain circumstances might experience it for a short time (i.e. when I've previously been cutting for a long time and switched to a slight caloric excess I have a couple times seemed to lean out for a few weeks while putting on weight, but it didn't last all that long, and I don't know if I was actually adding much actual tissue weight). It's really not something you should anticipate happening.

But eating around your maintenance calories and following a solid diet while focusing on progressing at your lifts seems like a valid strategy (“recomping”) for someone of your stats. Worth giving it a shot for a few months.

[Brahesthetics]

it's quite possible to do so
lift hard, get a lot of protein, and eat a slight maintenance or deficit.

[Cape1]

So basically, I'm slightly chubby right now and wondering if I should try bulking. I'm 5 foot 6, 150-153 lbs and while I'm not completely out of shape, I'm not sure fit either. I've tried doing caloric deficits in the past but haven't seen any results from that in terms of adding definition. Because of this and since my lifts aren't very good, I was wondering if anyone has been slightly chubby (read, not skinny-fat, not skinny, but slightly overweight) and still managed to add definition even though they were bulking? My overall goal from bodybuilding is to be as strong as possible at a sub 10% body fat. Thus, I don't really care too much about adding muscle (muscle mass/looking big is not important to me), but I'm worried that even on a slow bulk, I'll just add fat and look like crap. Any advice?

If anyone has managed to build muscle at a calorie deficit, I would love to meet them and learn how they created body mass from nothing....actually less than nothing..

Sorry for the sarcasm but the notion of gaining lean mass while dieting is usually the stuff E-Books are made of.. That is to say Science Fiction.

You can certainly time your nutrients in a way to mitigate muscle loss on a diet which can sometimes shed the elusion of increased mass. Also, over the course of, say, 20 weeks (arbitary number), you could have weeks where you spike calories strategically. However, take it from me, in the end, when you try to tackle two opposing goals at once, you generally half-ass both.

Pick one and do it well.