Weekends off, unless you fancy a swim

I was on a fat-burning regime from Dec 2011 to November 2012. Had always been skinny-fat ie 12 stone but 22% bodyfat.

Dropped to 10st and decided enough as I was really skinny so I wanted to start adding muscle.

Are you quite short then if I may ask?

6ft

Same as me - you must have done a serious number on yourself to go from 22% to 6% and add all that weight. Well done.

10st at 6ft though

Add all what weight?

My weight only went down then recently has gone up.

Im currently 10st 8.

It's like I can't read i'm the polar opposite, I had the size on side but losing the fat was the trouble. And because I did it in an uneducated manner I ended up just skinny. Taken forever to correct

"Will try to but find it pretty difficult to physically eat that many calories as it is without eating unhealthy food. It doesn't help that milk seems to give me diarrhoea as it is perfect for extra relatively healthy calories."

I know the feeling. I got stuck around the 3000 calorie mark, but then I started integrating more liquid calories into my diet, since they're less likely to fill you up.

5kg of Instant Oats from MyProtein can be purchased for just £10. A couple of scoops will get you close to an extra 400 calories, which is more than a sufficient surplus with which to bulk.

Best of luck

Still struggling, particularly with what to eat on rest days. Do I eat the same amount of calories as workout days, given my muscles are sore and in need of protein/energy, or do I cut it to maintenance?

Depends on how fast you want to bulk, I wanted to do it with the least amount of fat so I ate maintainence on rest days.

Your body is still recovering on workout days. You should eat the same amount of calories.

As long as you're progressively increasing the weight you're using and increasing the tension on your muscles, you should see growth almost entirely in the form of muscle from a 300-400 caloric increase (with that surplus consumed every day).

If you're gaining fat, simply drop your calories a little.

I'm so paranoid about getting fat again I never seem to be able to keep bulking for too long.

I have the same problem, I was considering cutting after just 8 weeks because me lower abs were starting to disappear!

If you are gaining fat, it means your surplus is too high.

Only a certain amount of muscle can be gained per week, so if you have a caloric surplus greater than the one required to achieve such muscle gain, some will be stored as fat. Try cutting your calories a little; it won't help you reduce fat, but it will prevent you from putting more on