Gaining Weight and Belly Fat

[avio]

I am currently 145lb and my goal is to be 170-175 before I start cutting, right now I am only working towards mass.

My question is how can I make gains and avoid getting a bigger belly? Most people told me while gaining mass, it happens unless you start doing serious cardio to burn off the fat in which case you will also be killing your mass gains sort of...

IS there a way to avoid belly fat gains and gain mass overall?

What should I do, what times to avoid eating, etc?

I eat from the time I wake up to the time I sleep almost, every 2.5-3 hours. My last serving before bed is usually a 12g casein protein shake with lots of carbs (frozen yogurt, oats, banana, peanut butter).

Any feedback appreciated, I am a rookie and only been training for the past 9 months, I have gained weight from 116 to 145 in about 9 months. Because for my height 5'8, I was extremely under weight... my younger brother got me into bodybuilding because he was already doing it plus I wanted to gain mass since I was so under weight and looking much smaller compared to him lol

How to avoid belly fat, at the same time gain mass? Or is that not possible?

[GBA]

It's possible. If you eat too much you'll get fat. Just lift hard and eat a lot.. if you start putting on some chub, eat a little less or lift harder. Or eat more every day and do some cardio.

[kamjah]

also keep in mind, if you are bulking, a lot of the appearance of your belly may come from bloating. my belly changes size throughout the day, and i'm on a cut. but aside from that, you can't control where the fat decides to go

[BB_Surf]

I had a hard time getting past this. If you want to get bigger, you need to put on fat.

So, suck it up. Eat like an animal, lift hard and then cut.

Don't shove snickers bars down your face, just bulk clean

[headhuntr]

Here's how it works. While bulking your diet will have to consist of a caloric surplus, which means that you will be consuming an amount of calories per day that exceeds your caloric maintenance level. Most people will advise you to eat at around 300-500 calories above this level in order to gain mass at a good pace. If you want to gain mass at a faster pace, you will need to consume even more calories, but keep in mind that the faster you gain mass, the more fat you will pack on as well. If you keep your foods clean and keep your macros (protein, carbs, fats) in check (check out the forum and the BB.com site to see what a typical clean bulk diet looks like) then you should minimize your fat gains. By keeping your caloric surplus low, you will gain mass at a slower speed, but you will also reduce the amount of fat you pack on. It's virtually impossible to bulk without gaining an ounce of fat, accept the fact that when you are bulking you are bound to pack on some fat regardless of how low your caloric surplus may be and regardless of how clean the food you're eating is. But don't worry about it, once you gain an amount of muscle mass that you're happy with, just go into a cutting phase and that unwated fat will be gone before you know it. You'll love the results if you do it right. Patience and perseverance are the key. Try and eat as healthy as possible and you'll do just fine. Good luck!

[avio]

I am only eating clean foods. I guess I will have to live with a bit of belly fat, and yes my belly size does go down throughout the day.

Thanks for all the advice!

[Bigbear6708]

id try doing like a 2 week 'mini cut' then slowly ramp the calories back up..might kick start your metabolism...but on a bulk body fat is going to happen...just cut hard w/ discipline when its time to cut!