bodybuilding; after cutting

kingkam21

So I just got off a mini cut to lose 5lbs and I am satisfied with my results. However I am disappointed with my weight fluctuation at the moment during my lean bulk.
So I have never actually used the calorie calculater that this app provides because I worked construction for 3 years and worked out and I new that this app wouldn't be able to calculate activity like this. So now that I'm not working in the labor field, I'm trying to find my new maintenance and bulk.
During construction I ate 4500+ calories a day to gain 1lb a week. Once I quit working construction i decided to cut some fat by just eating less food.
After losing 5lbs I am back on a lean bulk and have been on a lean bulk for 3 weeks now.

Cutting to the chase- after my cut I weighed 168.5, and my goal is to be 180 by December.
The calculator tells me to intake 3400 calories a day to gain .5lbs a week so after my cut I decided to fallow the calculator for the first time because I'm not working construction anymore (I have my settings for the most activity, for the highest calorie preference).
So my first week of bulking I weighed 171 and my second week 173. So I was obviously gaining to quick. So I looked at my calories closer and I was eating egg sandwiches every morning for breakfast and forgot to count calories in the mayo. So without counting the mayo, I was eating 3600 a day but after counting the mayo, I fixed my calories to 3400.
After I decided to count my calories on the mayo, I started to loose weight from 173 down to 169.5 in one week.
And I know we can fluctuate between 5lbs from water weight, but I'm consistent on my weigh ins, weighing myself from Friday morning on an empty stomach to Monday mornings to find best results.
My question is (because I don't want to waste precious time), after 3 weeks I should be at 170lbs but I am currently at 169.5. because I am just getting back onto a bulk, does my first week or 2 weeks count? I'm assuming my body needs time to catch-up? Am I doing something wrong? I have never have weight fluctuation like this with my first week of bulk 1lb heavier and my second week ,2lbs heavier and my third week losing 3.5lbs???? Any advice will help, thank you!

kingkam21

I decided to post this because I don't want to waste my 4th week of my lean bulk and I'm worried that I am actually losing weight and I don't want to weigh any less on my 4th week.

RoxieDawn

Let's look at this a little closer.

You weighed 171 and presumably gained 2 pounds from eating 200 calories more from mayo which if you take 200 calories X 7 days that is 1400 calories more and not 2 pounds worth of weight gain..

And because you took off the mayo calories and lost from 173 back down to 169.5.. This is not possible and you are way over thinking this. You said it yourself.. "I know weight fluctuates"..

Weight fluctuations are huge when eating more in general and adding additional exercise presumably more volume and increased intensity in your strength program? You body is/will hold on water weight, etc..

If you pay attention to all the fluctuations from day to day, and then keep cutting calories and then upping calories again, over and over again, you will not make very good progress.

It sounds like you are not only over thinking this, you may not be ready mentally to handle the weight gain, all the fluctuation that come with weight gain, have you considered that you may want to want to do maintenance/recomp for a while.

And do not just use scale weight for bulking measurements... bad idea.. to me.

And if you want to put on mass, and are serious about getting to 10lbs gain by end of Dec. first you still have time to get there and you will never be wasting the next weeks of gainz unless you cut calories again to compensate over and over gain. I question if you have the weight gain calories adjusted upwards correctly as you are certainly no longer that same TDEE as you were working construction..

kingkam21

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Let's look at this a little closer.

You weighed 171 and presumably gained 2 pounds from eating 200 calories more from mayo which if you take 200 calories X 7 days that is 1400 calories more and not 2 pounds worth of weight gain..

And because you took off the mayo calories and lost from 173 back down to 169.5.. This is not possible and you are way over thinking this. You said it yourself.. "I know weight fluctuates"..

Weight fluctuations are huge when eating more in general and adding additional exercise presumably more volume and increased intensity in your strength program? You body is/will hold on water weight, etc..

If you pay attention to all the fluctuations from day to day, and then keep cutting calories and then upping calories again, over and over again, you will not make very good progress.

It sounds like you are not only over thinking this, you may not be ready mentally to handle the weight gain, all the fluctuation that come with weight gain, have you considered that you may want to want to do maintenance/recomp for a while.

And do not just use scale weight for bulking measurements... bad idea.. to me.

And if you want to put on mass, and are serious about getting to 10lbs gain by end of Dec. first you still have time to get there and you will never be wasting the next weeks of gainz unless you cut calories again to compensate over and over gain. I question if you have the weight gain calories adjusted upwards correctly as you are certainly no longer that same TDEE as you were working construction..

I know that I am over think this but I also know what my goal is and how hard I am willing to work to reach it. I started bodybuilding 11 months ago at 130lbs and today I'm 170 and even leaner than I was at 130 and people think I'm on steroids or taking some type of growth hormone, but the truth is, that I've never had creatine or whey protein my whole life. Just real food. I made great progress because I work my *kitten* off. I know I'm doing good now. I Hurd this saying "if you are first and want to remain successful, you need to act like you are in second". Every day, every week, and every month matters to me. Because time is everything. I know this was a stupid question to post but because I a! Still new at this, I just don't care. I want as much advice as I can possibly get so I'm never questioning my body.
Your advice helped me and I do appreciate this! This is the mindset that I have to be successful in fitness! And I do my best to motivate others! Do great things!!

Like I said- your advice helped and I appreciate that! At the end of my cut I found that I was loosing .2lbs a week from eating 3k calories a day or less and this calculator clocked me at 3100 calories for maintenance, so I just decided to agree with this. So I believe my maintenance is in the low 3k.
I am reaching out to others that are more advanced than I am, to better myself.
Like I said I don't want to waste another week of no gains. I just don't know how accurate this calculator is. I went from 4500+ calories a day to 3400 calories a day which is a huge change

kingkam21

During construction I had to eat over 4,k calories to grow. But this calculator never gave me a caloric intake over 3600, so I'm basically wondering, how accurate this calculator is now that I'm using it? I tried using this calculator when I worked construction and at the time it told me to eat about 3300+ which was way off for me at the time. So I'm wondering if it can be off now?or if I'm doing something wrong