Gaining weight is harder than I thought, any tips?

dave_in_ni

I came off a big diet, got my weight down to where I wanted so I could build some muscle. I am 6ft 170lbs, I am eating around 2300 cals per day and my weight hasn't budged, I am finding it harder to eat much more to be honest, my protein intake is minimum 140g per day carbs also fairly high and I try to keep fats around 30% of my daily intake. I am not sure what more I can do. I'm not sure how I ever got over weight in the first place to be honest because I am eating more now than I ever did then, the only difference now I guess is I am eating healthy and worrying about macros where as I lived of takeaways in the past and never heard of macros

comptonelizabeth

Others will be more knowledgeable than me,but that sounds low to me. I started at 51k and mfp set the goal at 1980 to gain but I've been exceeding that and eating around 2300. I find it hard to eat more too. I managed to do it by snacking a lot on (reasonably! )healthy stuff and adding whey powder for protein.

comptonelizabeth

Ps meant to say I'm only 5 ft. 3 ins. 119 pounds at start.

TavistockToad

if you're getting your fruit and veg, and hitting your protein target, eating a doughnut or a bowl of ice cream to hit your calorie goal isn't going to negate the nutritional benefits of the rest of the food you eat.

Full fat dairy, peanut butter, avocado, nuts and seeds, beef over chicken, salmon over white fish.... bagels, rice, spaghetti and cereal to hit your carb goals.

dave_in_ni

TavistockToad wrote: »

if you're getting your fruit and veg, and hitting your protein target, eating a doughnut or a bowl of ice cream to hit your calorie goal isn't going to negate the nutritional benefits of the rest of the food you eat.

Full fat dairy, peanut butter, avocado, nuts and seeds, beef over chicken, salmon over white fish.... bagels, rice, spaghetti and cereal to hit your carb goals.

Tell me at the moment I eat complex carbs would switching to simple carbs help or would that go straight to fat?

Beef I tend to avoid as its harder to measure the fat content, I mean chicken's chicken, its easy to measure, beef especially things like mince or sausages in hard to measure.

TavistockToad

dave_in_ni wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

if you're getting your fruit and veg, and hitting your protein target, eating a doughnut or a bowl of ice cream to hit your calorie goal isn't going to negate the nutritional benefits of the rest of the food you eat.

Full fat dairy, peanut butter, avocado, nuts and seeds, beef over chicken, salmon over white fish.... bagels, rice, spaghetti and cereal to hit your carb goals.

Tell me at the moment I eat complex carbs would switching to simple carbs help or would that go straight to fat?

Beef I tend to avoid as its harder to measure the fat content, I mean chicken's chicken, its easy to measure, beef especially things like mince or sausages in hard to measure.

carbs don't 'go straight to fat'... excess calories are stored as fat if they aren't used... by you following a progressive overload lifting programme, you will use some excess calories for repairing and building muscle, and some will be fat.

you're just making life harder for yourself by only eating low calorie meat!

trigden1991

You say that you were overweight before, so you obviously can consume a caloric surplus. Moderate the surplus and you're good to go!

Anvil_Head

dave_in_ni wrote: »

I came off a big diet, got my weight down to where I wanted so I could build some muscle. I am 6ft 170lbs, I am eating around 2300 cals per day and my weight hasn't budged, I am finding it harder to eat much more to be honest, my protein intake is minimum 140g per day carbs also fairly high and I try to keep fats around 30% of my daily intake. I am not sure what more I can do. I'm not sure how I ever got over weight in the first place to be honest because I am eating more now than I ever did then, the only difference now I guess is I am eating healthy and worrying about macros where as I lived of takeaways in the past and never heard of macros

At 6' and 170 lbs (especially if you're also working out), 2300 calories probably still has you in a deficit, or barely at maintenance. How long has it been since your weight has changed (other than the usual daily fluctuations)? Bump your calories up 100/day, week by week, until you start seeing a slight gain.

Don't obsess over simple vs. complex carbs, fat content of your meat, etc. You're inevitably going to gain some fat during a bulk no matter how "clean" you eat or how meticulous you are with your food selection. As long as you're reasonably hitting your macros, adding some calorie dense food choices to establish a surplus is fine.

Dano74

dave_in_ni wrote: »

I came off a big diet, got my weight down to where I wanted so I could build some muscle. I am 6ft 170lbs, I am eating around 2300 cals per day and my weight hasn't budged, I am finding it harder to eat much more to be honest, my protein intake is minimum 140g per day carbs also fairly high and I try to keep fats around 30% of my daily intake. I am not sure what more I can do. I'm not sure how I ever got over weight in the first place to be honest because I am eating more now than I ever did then, the only difference now I guess is I am eating healthy and worrying about macros where as I lived of takeaways in the past and never heard of macros

You have entered "fun land". Congratulations!

Understandably, you're clinging to a lot of bro-science in regard to complex and simple carbs and their "effects". Complex tend to be more nutritionally varied but calorically, there's little difference and that's where the rubber meets the road (nutrition, however, DOES matter for health and longevity).

As has been noted, you're still in a deficit and honestly, probably plateauing as your body has adjusted to your intake and activity level.

The fun part? Eat a donut if you're shy on calories. Drink some chocolate milk. Drink some *gasp* orange juice. Eat a crapload of peanut butter. Arguably, you'll want to increase by 100 or so per week and see how your body reacts but man, oh, man. The fun you can have in getting those calories in- and liquid calories are super easy to nail down when you're feeling full.