Q: how would you suggest to become bigger/buffer plus getting cut as well im 17 and weigh 180 i am happy how i am but i would really love to become more bulk and cut is it possible to become both at the same time? if so what supplements do u believe is best? i have a meal plan with contains about 2900-3100 calories but i would really love to make it 3900 what breakfast meal do you suggest to become most effective. thank you

A: It sounds like you are in pretty good shape already, which means it will be pretty difficult to both increase muscle mass and lose fat at the same time. On the plus side you are at the best age to accomplish something like that so it may not be impossible. If you want to try that route, my advice would be to make sure your diet is as clean as possible and to slowly increase your calories by about 200 per week from the current maintenance level until you are noticing that your weight in increasing. You want this weight increase to be as gradual and slow as possible. My usual advice of a gain of 1 pound every two weeks should be considered the FASTEST you can afford to gain weight -- slower would be better. Make sure to read my Diet article to find out what foods and meals to eat. You can also fill out my Fitness Guide to get a sample diet plan.

In addition to very careful diet control I would recommend that you do a little bit of HIIT cardio (read up on 'HIIT' using the search feature in the upper right of the page) -- limited HIIT does not have the possible muscle-burning side-effect of regular cardio and can serve to provide a little additional fat control. Just make sure you are still gaining weight very slowly. And of course you will want to continue to do heavy whole-body weight training through it all with relatively high volume.

If you do everything well and with some luck you may be able to accomplish your goal of building muscle at the same time as losing fat. Just keep in mind that it is a very vewry ambitious goal for somebody already in good shape so be prepared to choose a new course of action in case it's just not happening -- you'll then want to alternate bulk and cut cycles as you take turns on focusing first on building muscle and then on losing fat.

As far as supplements, I very rarely recommend them (aside from plain creatine monohydrate and whey protein) simply because they are rarely effective, always way overhyped, and often have unwanted and sometimes even dangerous side-effects. At your age there is simply no reason to resort to supps when you are entering the 5-10 years of prime muscle-building fat-burning age. If you are not getting enough protein from regular foods you would do well to add protein whey powder as a supplement. And if you want a little extra bulking boost you can try creatine monohydrate -- just remember that creatine typically increases water retention so it's next to impossible to become more cut while supplementing with it. Hope that helps, good luck!