It hasn’t been quite a year yet, but about 10 months. The pic on the left is from last March (149lb), the pic on the right is from yesterday (156lb).

I maintained that March look through July, then I did a slow bulk up to 160, and am now cutting back down a bit. I am definitely stronger and lifting heavier than I was before, but I honestly expected to see more of a change. I have been focusing specifically on my chest and shoulders (hitting them both twice a week with a variety of exercises), but to me they look exactly the same. Unfortunately I didn’t take measurements before. I’m worried that the ~7 lbs of difference between these photos is mostly just distributed fat and water.

On the one hand, even being able to “maintain” for this long is a significant accomplishment for me. I was 25 lbs heavier a few years ago (all fat) and I’m in my 40s, so it’s only going to get harder from here. On the other, if I do this comparison again in a year, I will be disappointed to see no improvement in muscle size. I am taking measurements today to ensure that I have something more objective to compare to in the future, but for now I’ll ask Reddit. Do I look the same to you? Was this a wasted “bulk”?