Trying to gain weight and enjoying the journey

sjsprigs

I know what its like to be tall and thin (my body type would fall in the category of ectomorph = which in 'layman terms' is someone like you and me who is naturally thin and carries less fat and has a fast metabolism so struggles to gain weight but finds it easy to lose weight)

Although I like nice food most of it home cooked for nutrition and taste and better on the purse strings, I do find it hard to consume tons of calories. (you may find it hard to eat at times like me)

Since my fiancé who is very active and healthy and who has a super figure (my opinion) started using this app (my fitness pal) about 2 weeks ago she has become fascinated by the detail it shows and the nifty Barcode scanner device (I'm not trying to go off at too much of a tangent here - so bear with me)

Long story short she got me into this app and since using it for the first time this week from Monday I have been hooked.

I am 6'0 and 154 lbs or 11 stone. I have an office job so am not burning many calories walking around my office. I am getting married this year in June and that being one reason but for other reasons I want to gain weight but more naturally and sustainably = or what I mean is I don't want to look at this as a "Diet" because diets don't work, lifestyle choices do!

I have been following a maintainable lifting program I designed myself since the beginning of 2015, the last two weeks of lifting I was less focussed on fuel intake or ripping/repairing muscle to gain weight, I just wanted my body to get used to routine of lifting Monday to Friday. Goal achieved.

Now this week I have stepped up my lifting. Lifting heavier weight and probably tearing muscle now (as I have that ache feeling all the time now this week - which is bearable) BUT the good thing about monitoring my calories when I set my profile on the 'myfitnesspal' as sedentary. I set my goal to be able to be 12st 6 lbs or 176 lbs an increase of 22lbs or 1.5stone. So I know I need to consume lots of calories so have set my target to 2600 per day. The first few days I found it hard to eat that much, on the Wednesday I consumed 2769 calories and the myfitnesspal app when you lock it at the end of the day when you don't intend to eat anymore food the app says if I kept it up for 5 weeks I would be 11st 3lbs or have a gain of 3lbs (positive) now yesterday I consumed lots and surprised even myself I hit 3266 (it was hard to eat that much as I am not a natural for eating loads) when I saved the days data it said if I keep up this much volume of calories daily then id be 11st 12lbs in 5 weeks (feeling chuffed)

Although I have until June to hit my target anything more is a bonus anything just shy of 22lbs is also a bonus and positive in my eyes.

I found it funny and I may not be the only one to notice this but on the Wednesday this week when I had exceeded my calorie target of 2600 by consuming 2769, My fiancé asked if id join her for a slow but long run of 10k - so being positive and helping her aswell as my self said sure... I got back home just over an hour later and manually told the 'app' that id run 10k and it said id burnt 956 calories in that run!!! Ahh Man!!! I thought to myself and laughed. so the way I see it is cos I ran slow I would have been fat burning (even skinny people like me carry unwanted fat)

Anyway to anyone else here who reads this I am a regular Joe who just wants to see and feel gains by eating healthy and as naturally as possible added with weight training. I would be happy to share updates of my progress as I go along.

(I'm no expert but this is just my experience up until now)

If it helps anyone to know I do ride a road bike/mountain bike on the odd weekends and walk around golf courses occasionally so am cardio active also which can make it real hard to gain weight because that topped with my fast metabolism means I burn everything.

Anyways (if you are still awake)

Thanks for listening and if I can help you let me know just by talking the let me know.

Thanks

Steven
(England)

89nunu

a guy, 6 foot, 154 pounds, lifting and biking? You are not going to gain much on 2600 calories unless you are about 80... maybe.
How old are you?

I'm female, 25, 5'11" 168 pounds and gain on 3100!

got to: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
pop in your numbers (including how much you workout) and it should give you a much more accurate idea of what you should eat

Springfield1970

I hope you ate those cardio calories back!! That's another 956 calories to get in there! Cardio kills bulks! To build muscle you need excess calories as well. Just because you ran, you were back in deficit, possibly even eating your muscle so beware.

Ps you are going to put fat on. It's unavoidable, but you can keep the ratio low by doing a 'clean bulk' which means keeping the calorie excess to 500 per day. You can check your maintenance figures at Scooby's website as mentioned by the previous poster.

I can tell already that you're not eating enough.