6000 calories a day and not gaining weight.
ScottJTyler
Posts: 72 Member
I'm 25, 1.8m and 88kg. Lifting 6 times a week. Currently eating 6000 cals a day and maintaining. Pretty uncomfortable most of the time and force feeding.
My goal is to get to around 100kg.
Any ideas why I might not be gaining any weight?
My goal is to get to around 100kg.
Any ideas why I might not be gaining any weight?
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Replies
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Lucky basterd!
Eat more.-3 -
How long have you been eating 6000cals for? are you consistent? are you otherwise health. unless you have been consistent over at least a few months you can't really judge0
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ScottJTyler wrote: »Any ideas why I might not be gaining any weight?
You're burning more than you think and eating less than you think.
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If you are uncomfortable and force feeding to get 6000/day, maybe look into more calorie dense foods. Looking at your diary, it appears that you don't eat snacks. Try smaller meals every few hours instead of 3 (or 2) large meals a day.0
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Oh, the force feeding and discomfort sounds bad. Try focusing on some fats to up your cals with less volume. 6 days a week of working out sounds like you might be burning lots of cals. What if you had rest days? Could you still get bigger without requiring so many cals?0
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I have a friend who's on the same boat as you mate! There are some supplements out there that can aid, however I'm not so sure what they're called (to make you feel hungrier)
Before you do that though, are you sure you're measuring everything accurately? Because I know of some people that guestimate their caloric intake, they think they're getting in a ton, but they're actually undereating0 -
By the way, how's your daily fiber intake? and out of concern, your current macro ratios?0
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Having a naturally low appetite, even only 6000 is difficult so any more and I wouldn't be able to keep it down. I already eat nuts, hummus, oil, chocolate, protein powder etc.If you are uncomfortable and force feeding to get 6000/day, maybe look into more calorie dense foods.
Just wondering if anyone had any insight other than 'eat more' e.g. macronutrient quantity and timing manipulation. Also wondering if the thermic effect of food comes into play at such high quantities.
That sounds interesting thanks I'll look up those supps.TyronnePanaino wrote: »There are some supplements out there that can aid, however I'm not so sure what they're called (to make you feel hungrier)
Before you do that though, are you sure you're measuring everything accurately?
I track everything as accurately as possible using scales, packets and measuring jugs.
Fibre is around 50-100g per day and macros are C:F:P 750:233:225. My diary is public so you can see for yourself if you like.TyronnePanaino wrote: »By the way, how's your daily fiber intake? and out of concern, your current macro ratios?
Thanks for responses.
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Are you 100% sure you are eating 6,000 calories?0
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Why do you specifically want to weigh 100kg?0
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I'm pretty sure you can buy protein powders made for bulking and are 1,000+ kcals.-1
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Tapeworm.0
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Muscle goes on slower than fat, and you may still be burning off some fat weight as you build lean mass. From what I have read: 1 - 2 lbs of lean mass per month is aggressive. So given you are not losing, you are probably pretty close to where you need to be. Measurements (size and body fat) might be better indicators at this point..0
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Have you been been tested for hyperthroid?0
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Taking a quick look at your diary:
1) I often eat more protein than you do per day, and I am a tiny female!
2) Lager does not count as a decent calorie source. It is 'empty' calories and burns off very rapidly with no nutritional benefits (sorry dude)
3) I suspect you are not measuring quite as accurately as you think
4) You are concentrating all your eating into too few sessions per day, no wonder you feel like you are force feeding yourself!
Ideas:
1) Eat at least 6 meals a day. Set your watch so you eat every 2-3 hours, and stick to it. you will not feel so bloated and your tummy will thank you for it
2) Increase your protein, aim for about 30-35% (I know this is hard when you are not a meat eater, so add vegan protein powder to your meals - e.g. mix it in soups/stews)
3) Add coconut oil (warm it up so it is liquid) to your shakes
4) Meal prep in advance so you are never faced with 'what shall I eat?', as this makes it easier to get your macros in
5) I would avoid appetite stimulants, as they rarely work and the idea is to help your body naturally grow in response to increased damand to build muscle
6) Avoid caffeine (this includes in chocolate) as it is an appetite supressant
However...
Do you really need to be bigger? Is your gain just at a plateau due to 'stale workout', and what you really need is a change in your workout routine to get things going again? Is your body trying to tell you it needs a break from the bulk and that it want's to maintain for a bit in order to consolidate the gains?
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Can't tell from a look at your diary if this may be an issue for you, but be sure you are using accurate entries from the database as well.
I have found some to make my entries off by as many as a couple hundred calories, so if you are eating quantity of something with a bum entry that could be skewing your counts high as well.
Though from what I could tell it looks like you are matching entries up to weights and package labels pretty good. I always like to keep an eye on MFP math.0 -
I don't know, maybe they have a better sense of humour over there?
OP - Sorry if I caused any offence - I wish I had your metabolism, my bulk will probably consist of a measly 2400.
OdesAngel - not sorry at all - maybe you should give OP some advice instead of policing his thread.
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Kestrelwings wrote: »Taking a quick look at your diary:
1) I often eat more protein than you do per day, and I am a tiny female!
2) Lager does not count as a decent calorie source. It is 'empty' calories and burns off very rapidly with no nutritional benefits (sorry dude)
3) I suspect you are not measuring quite as accurately as you think
4) You are concentrating all your eating into too few sessions per day, no wonder you feel like you are force feeding yourself!
Ideas:
1) Eat at least 6 meals a day. Set your watch so you eat every 2-3 hours, and stick to it. you will not feel so bloated and your tummy will thank you for it
2) Increase your protein, aim for about 30-35% (I know this is hard when you are not a meat eater, so add vegan protein powder to your meals - e.g. mix it in soups/stews)
3) Add coconut oil (warm it up so it is liquid) to your shakes
4) Meal prep in advance so you are never faced with 'what shall I eat?', as this makes it easier to get your macros in
5) I would avoid appetite stimulants, as they rarely work and the idea is to help your body naturally grow in response to increased damand to build muscle
6) Avoid caffeine (this includes in chocolate) as it is an appetite supressant
However...
Do you really need to be bigger? Is your gain just at a plateau due to 'stale workout', and what you really need is a change in your workout routine to get things going again? Is your body trying to tell you it needs a break from the bulk and that it want's to maintain for a bit in order to consolidate the gains?
Increasing protein isn't necessary and probably is a bad idea given his caloric load and appetite issues. Since protein is likely more satiating it's going to cause him to feel fuller. Additionally given that caloric load his protein requirements aren't going to be nearly as high as someone in a deficit.
30% of 6000 calories coming from protein is about 450g protein which isn't at all necessary.
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What are your daily activity levels outside of the gym and how much cardio are you doing in addition to your resistance training?
Are your lifts going up regularly on your 6/week schedule?
What I'm looking at here is whether or not you can also make a reduction in energy output and you may also be able to reduce your training load to 4/week and make things more efficient, but that depends on what you're currently doing and how your recovery is.0 -
thanks for apologizing to OP, it's hard to admit when your wrong. You have
I don't know, maybe they have a better sense of humour over there?
OP - Sorry if I caused any offence - I wish I had your metabolism, my bulk will probably consist of a measly 2400.
OdesAngel - not sorry at all - maybe you should give OP some advice instead of policing his thread.
have a fabulous day.
Op, you're getting lots of awesome advise on this thread.
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I agree that you may have an easier time breaking up some of that food into a couple snacks. I would say protein intake is adequate.0
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Kestrelwings wrote: »
1) I often eat more protein than you do per day, and I am a tiny female!
2) Lager does not count as a decent calorie source. It is 'empty' calories and burns off very rapidly with no nutritional benefits (sorry dude)
3) I suspect you are not measuring quite as accurately as you think
4) You are concentrating all your eating into too few sessions per day, no wonder you feel like you are force feeding yourself!
1) I think 200-250g per day is plenty.
2) You're right (dammit!) but beer is a fairly rare occurrence.
3) Like I said I do the best I can with measuring to the gram/ml. I also check different entries to make sure the foods I am entering have all the right data.
4) The breakfast, lunch, dinner thing is just the default setting which I haven't changed. I eat at least every 3 hours if not more often.
Coconut oil is a good shout I'll start having that again. Was just put off by the fact it is saturated fat but it's probably not important. I'll look more thoroughly into the caffeine content of dark chocolate as I had no idea! So thanks for that.What are your daily activity levels outside of the gym and how much cardio are you doing in addition to your resistance training?
Are your lifts going up regularly on your 6/week schedule?
What I'm looking at here is whether or not you can also make a reduction in energy output and you may also be able to reduce your training load to 4/week and make things more efficient, but that depends on what you're currently doing and how your recovery is.
I see your logic but I am trying to create a calorie surplus in order to gain muscle efficiently. Reducing volume goes against this so sadly isn't an option. I do no dedicated cardio; heavy walking lunges are plenty for me.
Thanks for the interesting input.
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What does your workout routine look like? If you're spending at least 30 minutes at a time working out, 6 days a week seems like it could be more than what's needed to stimulate muscle growth. In other words, what SideSteel is stating is that perhaps cutting the overall volume down may not be a bad thing (depending on how much weight lifting you're actually doing).0
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ScottJTyler wrote: »Kestrelwings wrote: »
1) I often eat more protein than you do per day, and I am a tiny female!
2) Lager does not count as a decent calorie source. It is 'empty' calories and burns off very rapidly with no nutritional benefits (sorry dude)
3) I suspect you are not measuring quite as accurately as you think
4) You are concentrating all your eating into too few sessions per day, no wonder you feel like you are force feeding yourself!
1) I think 200-250g per day is plenty.
2) You're right (dammit!) but beer is a fairly rare occurrence.
3) Like I said I do the best I can with measuring to the gram/ml. I also check different entries to make sure the foods I am entering have all the right data.
4) The breakfast, lunch, dinner thing is just the default setting which I haven't changed. I eat at least every 3 hours if not more often.
Coconut oil is a good shout I'll start having that again. Was just put off by the fact it is saturated fat but it's probably not important. I'll look more thoroughly into the caffeine content of dark chocolate as I had no idea! So thanks for that.What are your daily activity levels outside of the gym and how much cardio are you doing in addition to your resistance training?
Are your lifts going up regularly on your 6/week schedule?
What I'm looking at here is whether or not you can also make a reduction in energy output and you may also be able to reduce your training load to 4/week and make things more efficient, but that depends on what you're currently doing and how your recovery is.
I see your logic but I am trying to create a calorie surplus in order to gain muscle efficiently. Reducing volume goes against this so sadly isn't an option. I do no dedicated cardio; heavy walking lunges are plenty for me.
Thanks for the interesting input.
You are making the assumption that you are at a minimum effective volume for growth if you are claiming that you absolutely cannot reduce training volume and/or frequency. Now to be clear I'm not suggesting you have to, but I would certainly question the necessity for 6/week training as being optimal. If you're that advanced that you require that high of training volume then so be it but I'd call that into question.
Additionally though my point still stands about energy expenditure. How active are you outside of the gym and can you decrease energy expenditure by reducing NEAT/etc?
Specifically with my first paragraph in this reply, when you say "reducing volume goes against this" that only is true if you are reducing volume below the threshold at which you will effectively grow.
If your volume is above and beyond what you require to stimulate hypertrophy then logically you may have room to reduce it.
I'd also be curious as to the progress in your lifts and whether or not you're making continual gains in strength with 6/week training. Additional recovery time may benefit progress, but that's something you would have to answer. If you're able to keep pushing along and make progress on that schedule then more power to you of course.0 -
ForecasterJason wrote: »30 minutes at a time working out, 6 days a week seems like it could be more than what's needed to stimulate muscle growth.You are making the assumption that you are at a minimum effective volume for growth
Depends on the person and their level of advancement. Muscle growth is stimulated by an increase in volume. The level I am at requires the volume I do.Additionally though my point still stands about energy expenditure. How active are you outside of the gym and can you decrease energy expenditure by reducing NEAT/etc?
I have a fairly active job but that won't change. Unless I go about on a mobility scooter to save the calories from walking :joke:.
Let's just say that my training is fine, I am progressing and recovering well and my main question is: How can I consume more calories/increase appetite? Or if anyone has had similar experiences with high calorie diets and no weight gain and how they solved it. Thanks
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Well, make no mistake, 6000+ calories a day every day is no small feat. Anyone on the planet is going to struggle with this.
Furthermore, it appears that you don't eat meat and that's just going to make it even harder.
Having said that, your macros and food choices seem nicely varied (for not eating meat) and you're definitely hitting some of the tricks you need to hit to hit 6000 consistently. Fatty foods and treats like chocolate help a lot of course. Beer does help too, don't worry about the negative advice you got there. My last bulk, I drank a minimum of one large, heavy beer every day (at least 500 calories) and that helped fill in some of the spare calories. Not a lot of nutrition but who cares, you need calories. You're getting plenty of nutrition already with that kind of caloric load so beer isn't going to hurt a thing.
My suggestion? You are already doing it to an extent but - more caloric drinks. Calorie-laden drinks are perfect for adding calories while adding minimal fullness. You're doing a decent amount of fruit juices which is good, but when I added up the quantities it was fairly low. I'd say you average 32 ounces (1/4 gallon) of drinks a day. Get that up. Way up. Double or quadruple it. Drink fruit juice, coconut water, vitamin water, gatorade, whatever floats your boat. Soda may be a problem (carbonation will only made you feel more full/bloated/gassy). But yeah, don't drink any water. Make sure every liquid has calories. If you're gonna make a protein shake, use whole milk. Throw some Hershey's in there while you're at it. And a little MCT for that matter (any sort of quick-digesting fat really). Your protein shakes look to be around 300 calories each, that could double or triple easily if you threw some heavy liquid, sweetener, fats in there. And it really wouldn't take a lot of extra work or prep to do.
Even if you just doubled your drink intake, you'd add 500 calories a day (roughly 32ounces at about 15 calories an ounce - depending on the drink of course). If you downed a gallon of caloric drinks every day you'd add 1500 calories a day. This is easily doable, I drink way more than a gallon a day myself. Plus there's minimal prep and storage involved. Just keep a drink by your side all day.0
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