Eating at maintenance level, but gaining weight?

Da_Chozen_Juan

I am a 20 year old male, 5'11 and weigh in at about 182lbs. 8 weeks ago, I got off my diet (which I lost 75lbs from), and decided to focus on building a bit more muscle/strength. I wanted to start at maintenance to test out the waters a bit, then possibly start bulking. My maintenance caloric range should be between 2300-2550 calories a day. On days I work out (lift weights primarily), I eat about 2450-2500 cals, and on my rest days I eat around 2300-2350 cals. When I started eating at maintenance 8 weeks ago, I weighed in at 175lbs. I have been able to add at least 5lbs every week to almost every lift thus far since increasing my cals, but I am still somewhat concerned over gaining 7 lbs over 2 months. 40% of my cals come from carbs (complex carbs), and 30% from protein and fat. Any advice?

sijomial

How much weight gain in the first month compared to the second month?
(Reason I'm asking is that you may have got a water weight bounce immediately after the transition which may skew your figures.)

Da_Chozen_Juan

sijomial wrote: »

How much weight gain in the first month compared to the second month?
(Reason I'm asking is that you may have got a water weight bounce immediately after the transition which may skew your figures.)

Before this morning, I weighed myself around week 4 or 5 and I remember weighing in at 178. I do feel/look a bit more bloated though, for what it's worth.

sijomial

It sounds like you have to chose between cuttings cals to find maintenance or accept you have gone straight into a bulk!
Probably worth tracking your weight more closely while you are trying to fine tune your calorie balance.

veggiecanner

question is how did you figure out you maintanace calories. if you gaining or loosing you are not maintaining or eating maintanace calories. I know there are calculators but finding the correct calories is some thing you have to figure out your self by adding or subtracting a small amount over sever weeks while closely weighing your self every few days. do it till your where you want to be. It's not much different than weight loss.

nxd10

Like veggiecanner said. You adjust until it works. You've done great. If you're gaining drop 250 calories and see how you do.

Da_Chozen_Juan

veggiecanner wrote: »

question is how did you figure out you maintanace calories. if you gaining or loosing you are not maintaining or eating maintanace calories. I know there are calculators but finding the correct calories is some thing you have to figure out your self by adding or subtracting a small amount over sever weeks while closely weighing your self every few days. do it till your where you want to be. It's not much different than weight loss.

I figured it out using multiple cookie-cutter caloric calculators online. It looks like I'm just going to have to do a bit of experimentation and manually find my maintenance range. Would you recommend weighing In every few days over weighing in at a designated time and day once a week?

Da_Chozen_Juan

sijomial wrote: »

It sounds like you have to chose between cuttings cals to find maintenance or accept you have gone straight into a bulk!
Probably worth tracking your weight more closely while you are trying to fine tune your calorie balance.

No wonder my strength was building up quicker than usual. And here I thought I might not even need to bulk because I'm making all these gainz on maintenance haha.

looney9708

Have you taken measurements?