Lacking carbs

gareths1980

Hi all, I have been a gym goer for years but constantly had trouble gaining weight since my teens (now36). However looking back since I am using the myfitnesspalapp I have the error of my ways and seen I have never consistently eaten enough!

I started using the app on Jan 1st (78kg) and since then I have eaten between 3000-3500 calories but 7weeks in still only gained 3kg max. I am using 60/20/20 split. I always hit my protein target, sometimes go over my fat but always a minimum of 150-250g short on carbs.
I like to try and eat healthy, and not keen on eating too many 'bad' things. I have started looking at drinking the extra carbs in the form of dextrose, multadextrin, etc. But don't like how much sugar they contain, as I can't see any alternative of eating that many healthy carbs!

Any help / advice would be muchly appreciated.

Springfield1970

You should be going for a 1lb (.5kg) per week gain, with the heavy lifting, you get get half of that being muscle.

In other words, perfectomondo!
As you get bigger, your calories may need to go up.

Also, are you following a progressive weight lifting routine along with your bulk?

ndj1979

is that 60 protein and 20 fats and 20 cabs?

gareths1980

Thanks @Springfield1970, it just seems painfully slow going, especially as if I have a low cal day or two, I loose the gains instantly!!
I don't follow a routine so to speak, but I do train 3 days per week doing 6/8 reps 4/5 sets depending how strong I feel that day. Usually doing the basics of deads, bench, squat, military press etc.
I tried the 5x5 liftstrong but found the first week too light and the regimented approach was very boring and if somebody else is on that piece of equipment it totally throws me off course.

gareths1980

ndj1979 wrote: »

is that 60 protein and 20 fats and 20 cabs?

@ndj1979
Sorry it's 60c (525g), 20p (175g), 20f (78g)

Springfield1970

Hi, you won't lose the gains instantly, not if your overall weight is up. What you may see is loss of water weight, and glycogen loss, resulting in a drop in scale weight the next day.

Have those high calorie peanut butter type foods ready to keep your calories up!

Gamliela

Drink more of your calories, eat dense calorie foods like nut butters, avocado. Eat snacks between meals and no uneccesary movement. Cut down on water. Eat 300 to 500 over daily maintenance amount.

pinggolfer96

3kg actually sounds like good progress for 7 weeks IMO

ndj1979

gareths1980 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

is that 60 protein and 20 fats and 20 cabs?

@ndj1979
Sorry it's 60c (525g), 20p (175g), 20f (78g)

FYI - fat and proteins are minimums it is OK to exceed them. I would suggest bumping your carb percent down to 50 and bump your protein and fats up to 25 ....

psuLemon

gareths1980 wrote: »

Hi all, I have been a gym goer for years but constantly had trouble gaining weight since my teens (now36). However looking back since I am using the myfitnesspalapp I have the error of my ways and seen I have never consistently eaten enough!

I started using the app on Jan 1st (78kg) and since then I have eaten between 3000-3500 calories but 7weeks in still only gained 3kg max. I am using 60/20/20 split. I always hit my protein target, sometimes go over my fat but always a minimum of 150-250g short on carbs.
I like to try and eat healthy, and not keen on eating too many 'bad' things. I have started looking at drinking the extra carbs in the form of dextrose, multadextrin, etc. But don't like how much sugar they contain, as I can't see any alternative of eating that many healthy carbs!

Any help / advice would be muchly appreciated.

You do realize that dextrose and multadextrin are sugars? So anything with these as ingredients are going to have sugar... and sugars are carbs.. and more importantly, sugars are beneficial to a bulk. So it's impossible to find a drink with those ingredients that don't contain sugars.


Out of curiosity, is there a reason you want to concentrate on those sugars? I recognize they are the fastest digesting sugars and I do realize they are highly advertised as a post workout performance combination.

Also, in the effort to look at the whole picture... sugar isn't a bad thing. And it can be incorporated in an overall solid diet. So recognize that it's important to look at the whole and not just the components, because it might distract you from reaching your ultimate goal. More often than not, people struggle to reach their bulk goals due to personal dietary limitations they put on food.

Yi5hedr3

Try 20/20/60. Much better.

gareths1980

psulemon wrote: »

gareths1980 wrote: »

Hi all, I have been a gym goer for years but constantly had trouble gaining weight since my teens (now36). However looking back since I am using the myfitnesspalapp I have the error of my ways and seen I have never consistently eaten enough!

I started using the app on Jan 1st (78kg) and since then I have eaten between 3000-3500 calories but 7weeks in still only gained 3kg max. I am using 60/20/20 split. I always hit my protein target, sometimes go over my fat but always a minimum of 150-250g short on carbs.
I like to try and eat healthy, and not keen on eating too many 'bad' things. I have started looking at drinking the extra carbs in the form of dextrose, multadextrin, etc. But don't like how much sugar they contain, as I can't see any alternative of eating that many healthy carbs!

Any help / advice would be muchly appreciated.

You do realize that dextrose and multadextrin are sugars? So anything with these as ingredients are going to have sugar... and sugars are carbs.. and more importantly, sugars are beneficial to a bulk. So it's impossible to find a drink with those ingredients that don't contain sugars.


Out of curiosity, is there a reason you want to concentrate on those sugars? I recognize they are the fastest digesting sugars and I do realize they are highly advertised as a post workout performance combination.

Also, in the effort to look at the whole picture... sugar isn't a bad thing. And it can be incorporated in an overall solid diet. So recognize that it's important to look at the whole and not just the components, because it might distract you from reaching your ultimate goal. More often than not, people struggle to reach their bulk goals due to personal dietary limitations they put on food.

I do realise dextrose, etc are sugar. That is why I'd rather NOT drink them, some I've looked at are 87g / 100g sugar!!
I'd rather get the carbs/sugar from naturally sources as in fruit, veg, etc. And not supplements. But to get the extra carbs I'm looking for I would need to eat a lot of low GI food. I was after some ideas of best food to eat to get carbs up.

cwolfman13

3 Kg in 7 weeks is pretty spot on...personally, going faster than that would be less than optimal...the faster you go, the more fat you're going to put on.

gareths1980

ndj1979 wrote: »

gareths1980 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

is that 60 protein and 20 fats and 20 cabs?

@ndj1979
Sorry it's 60c (525g), 20p (175g), 20f (78g)

FYI - fat and proteins are minimums it is OK to exceed them. I would suggest bumping your carb percent down to 50 and bump your protein and fats up to 25 ....

Thanks @ndj1979, I will try as you suggest, I've always thought 525g was high especially after I've looked at other people's stats.

psuLemon

gareths1980 wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

gareths1980 wrote: »

Hi all, I have been a gym goer for years but constantly had trouble gaining weight since my teens (now36). However looking back since I am using the myfitnesspalapp I have the error of my ways and seen I have never consistently eaten enough!

I started using the app on Jan 1st (78kg) and since then I have eaten between 3000-3500 calories but 7weeks in still only gained 3kg max. I am using 60/20/20 split. I always hit my protein target, sometimes go over my fat but always a minimum of 150-250g short on carbs.
I like to try and eat healthy, and not keen on eating too many 'bad' things. I have started looking at drinking the extra carbs in the form of dextrose, multadextrin, etc. But don't like how much sugar they contain, as I can't see any alternative of eating that many healthy carbs!

Any help / advice would be muchly appreciated.

You do realize that dextrose and multadextrin are sugars? So anything with these as ingredients are going to have sugar... and sugars are carbs.. and more importantly, sugars are beneficial to a bulk. So it's impossible to find a drink with those ingredients that don't contain sugars.


Out of curiosity, is there a reason you want to concentrate on those sugars? I recognize they are the fastest digesting sugars and I do realize they are highly advertised as a post workout performance combination.

Also, in the effort to look at the whole picture... sugar isn't a bad thing. And it can be incorporated in an overall solid diet. So recognize that it's important to look at the whole and not just the components, because it might distract you from reaching your ultimate goal. More often than not, people struggle to reach their bulk goals due to personal dietary limitations they put on food.

I do realise dextrose, etc are sugar. That is why I'd rather NOT drink them, some I've looked at are 87g / 100g sugar!!
I'd rather get the carbs/sugar from naturally sources as in fruit, veg, etc. And not supplements. But to get the extra carbs I'm looking for I would need to eat a lot of low GI food. I was after some ideas of best food to eat to get carbs up.

Then more whole grains, rice, and starches. Although, why limit low gi fruits? Most of the high gi fruits have highly beneficial vitamins and minerals; bananas are one of the highest in potassium which supports electrolyte balance.

I can understand limiting supplements.

pbryd

It sounds like you're doing fine. My carb of choice is weetabix and banana with semi skimmed milk.

Some days you want to have a break from eating too clean because of the volume of food involved, on those days it's fine to have something with more fat, such as a burger or two.

883xlsportster

pinggolfer96 wrote: »

3kg actually sounds like good progress for 7 weeks IMO

That is in line with my gain over similar time frame so sounds good to me too ;-)

Yi5hedr3

20/20/60 probably better.

gareths1980

Progress report - I have dropped back to 79.5kg but had a sickness bug last weekend so lacked food/water intake. Maybe down to my new creatine supply as I'm constantly feeling bloated!! So decreased my dose slightly to see if that makes it more tolerable.

I have tweaked macro %, inline with your comments, And added more almonds/fruit/raisens etc, to my diet and now easily hitting over 3000cals per day. So will track my progress and maybe increase intake if needed.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

psuLemon

gareths1980 wrote: »

Progress report - I have dropped back to 79.5kg but had a sickness bug last weekend so lacked food/water intake. Maybe down to my new creatine supply as I'm constantly feeling bloated!! So decreased my dose slightly to see if that makes it more tolerable.

I have tweaked macro %, inline with your comments, And added more almonds/fruit/raisens etc, to my diet and now easily hitting over 3000cals per day. So will track my progress and maybe increase intake if needed.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

If creatine is causing you issue, just drop it. I had to do it because it gave me crazy GI issues.

Feel better though.