Hey all, I have only been eating my bulking diet for exactly 10 days. However, my weight has gone up 8 pounds, no joke. I weighed 185 at the start, and today I weighed 193. I am assuming I just have a lot more food in my stomach, intestines, and am maybe holding more water? I don't look or feel like I've gained 8 pounds, but that seemed significant enough to ask about. Is it normal to gain some food or water weight when bumping up the cals significantly? I'm just afraid I'm gonna top 200 pounds and have barely moved up on any lifts...
Appropriate amount of weight gain?
- Thread starter MarkMyWords
- Start date
I went from about 2300 calories, to 3400 cals. Yeah, I have no fantasies about putting on that much muscle weight, but I also don't think I have gained that much weight in fat. That's why I was thinking it could just be that much more food in my system. I eat all day, hah.
Well, what the hell am I supposed to do? I weight 185 pounds, so 2800 or so is maintenence. I had been cutting at 2300 cals, and there is no use in eating 2800, I wouldn't progress. So I tacked on 600 cals to start adding mass. Man, this is frustrating...
Your numbers don't make sense. If you REALLY have a maintenance of 2800 calories, eating 3400 calories would let you gain a pound every 6 days or so.
I think you need to continue to experiment with your intake, try lowering calorie intake to 3000-31000 and be sure to weigh yourself same time everyday with the same clothing.
Your amount of calories for bulk doesn't seem too much to me...
Anyway, it could just be that you don't wiegh yourself at the same time all the time. You weigh a few pounds less in the morning, because of water loss, and if you wait till the end of the day, and you don't take a crap/take a piss before you weigh yourself thats a few more pounds, and like you said, still have food weight in your stomach, and water weight etc.
I woulnd't worry about it, weight isn't something that should be looked at on a day to day basis, it can change within 5 pounds or so during the day.
Now, if you happen to gain another 8 pounds next week, then, probably should take a look at the diet.
Anyway, it could just be that you don't wiegh yourself at the same time all the time. You weigh a few pounds less in the morning, because of water loss, and if you wait till the end of the day, and you don't take a crap/take a piss before you weigh yourself thats a few more pounds, and like you said, still have food weight in your stomach, and water weight etc.
I woulnd't worry about it, weight isn't something that should be looked at on a day to day basis, it can change within 5 pounds or so during the day.
Now, if you happen to gain another 8 pounds next week, then, probably should take a look at the diet.
OK, thanks for your input. I am making steady gains, I just don't want to have to short if I'm getting all flabby and ****. I have a strict diet plan, so I'm just gonna stick to my routine and see how things go.
yeah it's crazy.. when I jumped from cutting to bulking I went from 148 in the morning to 153 in just a week. I think it must be because we have so much food in our system constantly.
Like when I start my cuts I can usually drop at least two pounds in the first week as well.. so it must be that way.
Like when I start my cuts I can usually drop at least two pounds in the first week as well.. so it must be that way.
Yeah man, I was shocked when I saw my weight skyrocket. I'm glad I'm not the only one!!!
Cool cool, thanks for your input man, I appreciate it.
theleip
2
IMO that is too fast of a increase for you but here is why...
When you come out of a cut your body in a hormonal sense is primed for fat re-gain. There is a good amount of period you have to let pass before packing on the calories. Jumping from bulking to cutting like that, with that kind of increase just brings on the fat.
If you are going to go into a bulk you need to do a short priming phase. Spend a little time at maintenance, make sure you got your calories right IF you care about doing a lean bulk. IF you care about putting on the fat mass, then take the time to take your time.
If you don't, well then chow down and lifting hard.
Point being I think those calories are right...in the end. But I would take at least a month to get there. A surplus because you were in a deficit may be less than you think it is right now.
Damn, that makes me sad.
I'm already 2 weeks into this, and I have eaten spot on my numbers the whole time. I suppose I could back it off a bit, but at this point, I think I have to chalk this up as a learning experience for the next time. Thoughts?
Well, while we are talking about this...when I am done bulking and it is time to ease down the calories, does it work the same way? Would I not want to just drop down to my cutting number, and instead, eat a maintenence for a bit, then slowly drop down to a deficit?
I'm already 2 weeks into this, and I have eaten spot on my numbers the whole time. I suppose I could back it off a bit, but at this point, I think I have to chalk this up as a learning experience for the next time. Thoughts?
Well, while we are talking about this...when I am done bulking and it is time to ease down the calories, does it work the same way? Would I not want to just drop down to my cutting number, and instead, eat a maintenence for a bit, then slowly drop down to a deficit?
I doubt most of that weight that you gained is fat. I got my body fat test done yesterday.. and out of that 5 pound increase only .3 of it was fat. The rest was lean body mass, probably mostly water and food.
I think since you are two weeks into your cut, you have allowed your body enough time to adapt. Your body realizes by now that at every meal there is a lot more food where that came from! ya know? So your body would react by increasing metabolism.
So I wouldn't recommend going back into maintance.. in the future when you go from cutting to bulking I think then it'd be a good time to slowly build up the calories. I really don't think it would take a whole month though! That's a really long time. Don't you think we can give our bodies more credit for adaptation leip?
When you are cutting, though, your metabolism is much slower than while on a bulk, so if you jump from cutting right into bulking without slowly building up on the calories just like leip said the extra calories would probably be stored as fat. It all seems to make sense anyway...
I am not sure about this one, but I don't think I would go into maintance for a while.
The reason I think that is because while you are bulking your body is a calorie burning machine, your metabolism will be very high because it has to burn up all those calories. If you drop into a defecit you would take advantage of that high metabolism and get some fast results for a little while at least. I'd like to hear other thoughts on this though... maybe if you did that a lot of the weight loss would be from muscle?
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theleip
2
No need to get discouraged. Weight gain does not mean fat gain. Same time too many guys run into problems and go crazy from that cut to bulk. They get a little feed happy, put on the weight to fast and then bam jump right into a cut again. My advice to you is a little more informed because I am aware that you aren't some newb, you know what you are doing in the lifting sense. While putting on 8 pounds may not be fat, it also isn't likely muscle either as you don't have the luxury of newbie gains.
My point is before you start letting your eating get ahead of your lifting, play it smart, figure out the numbers, lift and increase eating if needed. That is IF you are concerned about a leaner bulking program.
As as going from bulk to cut, it is the exact opposite, you want to take advantage of a roaring metabolism and get it off of you as quickly (but safely as possible).
Also a lot of it has to do with how long you were in a cut. It has been a while since I have been around a lot, but last note you were in a cut for a while.
So to this...
If you were cutting for a short time and at a small caloric deficit then yeah you don't have to really worry about it. If you have been cutting for months, lost a decent amount of body fat, did heavy training, then yeah, you need to take it slow. If you did re-feeds on a regular basis you could get away with a little quicker movement, but still you have to let your hormones reset. Not to mention you also aren't in prime stage to build muscle. So not only are you ready to gain some fat, you aren't ready to build muscle, it a bad move all the way around.
So if you care about a lean bulk (and hey some don't) but if you do then you have to be more patient and slowly add the numbers.