Losing weight in 1st week, what am I doing wrong..

star4781

Hey Guys,

I am looking for some general advice please, as I feel that my current diet & workout programme is not correct - as I seem to be losing weight, when my goal is to actually gain in size.

I'm not sure if you are able to view my food logs from my profile, but I have been regularly hitting 3500 calories per day & this is surplus by approx 350 calories over my daily maintenance. The daily maintenance was calculated using this sites calculator when I 1st joined was set @ 3100 for a guy of my age/height (39 & 6ft 4"). I am trying to keep the bulk to as clean a diet as possible & have largely eaten Chicken/Rice/Pasta/Eggs with lots of Veg, I also try to eat every 2-3 hours to keep my metabolism racing & so far have stuck to this religiously.

My workout programme is a 4 day split, set as follows:-

Mon: Rest
Tues: Chest & Biceps
Weds: Back & Triceps
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Shoulders
Saturday: Legs & Abs
Sunday: Rest.

I tend to use the 1st three sets of a workout as a warmup, & then after that lift the heaviest weights possible for 4-6 reps max.

Every morning when I arrive at the gym I weigh myself & each day it has been slowly going down, so to double check the results I did a weigh on my Wii today & found that in 5 days I had lost 6lbs....arghhh!!

As mentioned at the start, this has been my 1st week following this strict routine & whilst I am rather alarmed at the results, I want to see if anyone has encountered this as an anomaly in their 1st week too? Or am I just not consuming enough calories?
According to the bodybuilding.com calculator a man of my weight should be consuming 4100 calories daily in order to bulkup !!!

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

FluffyxMuffy

My step-father struggled with what you've just went through.
He fixed it by adding more protein in his diet. He normally ate white meat and fish so by incorporating red meat, he got the extra protein and fat he needed. He's just as tall as you, so I remember how frustrating it was for him when he would lose weight.
Are you trying whey protein shakes? Those REALLY do help. (And some of them are not so costly.)
If you're kicking your *kitten* at the gym by all those weight workouts then give yourself more protein & healthy fat.
Best of luck!

star4781

Cheers Fluffy, it is indeed extremely frustrating to lose weight - especially when I feel am I stuffing myself silly...

As for protein, I am always over the daily recommended amount by eating lots of chicken - but I do have a protein shake every day also, so adding more protein is unlikely to help..

Thanks for the taking the time to respond though, much appreciated

exfatboy21

you definitely need to up your calories, especially on leg and back days. you can always mix simple and complex carbs in the same meal...I.E one cup of white rice w/ one cup of brown rice. if you're taking in 3850 cals and you are still loosing try going up to 4000 for about 10 to 12 days and see if you you're weight goes up some. just keep making adjustments your carbs and protein each week until you see the weight being added without the inches being added to you waist.

star4781

Cheers for the advice Exfat & Soldier, I thought 3.5k was tough - gonna be fun trying to add more, but still stay clean.

mikemc620

I would try upping your calories by 100-200 every week or two until you find that you are gaining weight. The calculator on here is just an estimate that it gives and not everyone is the same so I would not go strictly off of that. As far as the "clean eating", it really doesn't matter how clean you eat. As long as you are only in a slight surplus and getting enough protein, you will only gain minimal amounts of fat. Its when you get into the very large surplus that you see the fat gains.

star4781

Cheers Mike, all feedback is more than welcome.

With the consensus being to add more calories & that my diet/workout has not been critiqued all, then it leads to one conclusion - just stuff my face more!

From tomorrow I shall be upping the daily calories from 3500 to approx 4500 for a week, & will see how that fairs. I am kind of cheating with this extra bump, as I bought a muscle mass protein shake at the weekend & I plan to use this for the extra daily calories, as I quite like my current diet plan & really don't fancy physically eating more each day - plus its rather difficult as it is trying to find the time to fit all these meals in, especially when working in a busy office environment all week. People are giving me some funny looks each time I walk in with a bowl of chicken & rice, lol.

TavistockToad

swap anything 'light' for full fat, swap the semi skimmed milk for full fat, and put more cheese on your omlette - 20g, really?! you can do better than that!!!!

star4781

Inspiration ftw! Thanks

LishieFruit89

Your logging is off.
A 2 egg omelette with 28g cheese (a typical serving) is about 250 cals. 2 would be 500 cals. Yours is logged at 716 cals.
Log your eggs and cheese separately-the actual amounts you use.
If that entry is wrong by 200 cals, others could be too and thats why youre not gaining.

I didnt look back too far but roast or sauté veggies in olive or coconut oil if you're not. Or butter.

Snacking on nuts and nut butters will help you get up there without too much volume as well. Might be cheaper than your mass gainer thing

JoRocka

ice cream
peanut butter
bacon grease

all delicious things.

Live4theLift

Homemade Mass Gainer is what worked for me at first

1 cup oats (grinded em up in a food processor first)
2 scoops protein powder
2 cups milk
Other addins (ie blueberries, strawberries ect)

Its like 800+ cals and great for breakfast. But like its stated before me, you have greater accuracy when you log each item independently. it can make a HUGE difference. Good luck

TheFitnessTutor

Your logging is off.
A 2 egg omelette with 28g cheese (a typical serving) is about 250 cals. 2 would be 500 cals. Yours is logged at 716 cals.
Log your eggs and cheese separately-the actual amounts you use.
If that entry is wrong by 200 cals, others could be too and thats why youre not gaining.

I didnt look back too far but roast or sauté veggies in olive or coconut oil if you're not. Or butter.

Snacking on nuts and nut butters will help you get up there without too much volume as well. Might be cheaper than your mass gainer thing

Yep this is what I was going to suggest before even looking. You want to double check your intake our your output, as this is oftentimes the case in weight loss problems, and so may be your case.

DO NOT TRUST any label. Measure everything, compute it separately like suggested above.

Bodybuilding.com... What does that site know about you? Nothing.
The best thing you can do is stay on task. Add calories.

Don't sweat this stuff. It's been 1 week! You're experiencing nothing more than a shift in water weight. Unless you're telling me you suddenly created a 21,000 calorie deficit.

ditch the mass gainer. They are usually full of garbage and not worth the money. Come on, you're basically living the dream. You can't gain weight? And you need help getting calories? haha. Peanut butter, olive oil, avocado, rich bread,...um Ribeye on the grill???...or if you're feeling frisky, bacon, eggs, pizza, burger, whatever.

And just for the record, the whole eating every 3 hours doesn't boost your metabolism. Just a bunch of hoopla overexaggerated to make people buy more shakes and other stuff/crap....like mass gainers. For many people it's more of a pain in the *kitten*.

Skim milk shouldn't be bought again. Whole milk
Getting tired of eating? You might be eating too clean. ditch the brown rice and stick to white or go for more denser meals as stated earlier. Chicken with the skin, Ribeye, etc.

Drink more calories or carbs if you get tired of fitting in meals. Again, with this "eat every 3 hours metabolism " lie the industry has perpetuated,...

p.s. shame on you for training legs once a week.

star4781

Some quality tips there guys, thanks! I mistakenly trusted what was recorded on this websites database & can clearly see now that it is not 100% accurate.

2 x 2 Egg Omelette (with 24g Cheese) entry = 716 Cals

However, Split out as suggested:-

2 x 2 Plain Egg Omelette entry = 280 Cals
24g Cheddar cheese entry = 100 Cals

Thats nearly a difference 350 Cals for what should be the same breakfast, /gasp....

Thanks again for the responses, all have been taken on board gratefully

skinnyinnotime

Cheers Fluffy, it is indeed extremely frustrating to lose weight - especially when I feel am I stuffing myself silly...

As for protein, I am always over the daily recommended amount by eating lots of chicken - but I do have a protein shake every day also, so adding more protein is unlikely to help..

Thanks for the taking the time to respond though, much appreciated

If you're going by MFP's protein % it's very low at 15%, you need to up it alot more as you're lifting weights frequently.

You can manually change your macro settings. I've set mine to 40% carbs 30% protein 30% fat.

Good luck!

selina0617

Hey Guys,

I am looking for some general advice please, as I feel that my current diet & workout programme is not correct - as I seem to be losing weight, when my goal is to actually gain in size.

I'm not sure if you are able to view my food logs from my profile, but I have been regularly hitting 3500 calories per day & this is surplus by approx 350 calories over my daily maintenance. The daily maintenance was calculated using this sites calculator when I 1st joined was set @ 3100 for a guy of my age/height (39 & 6ft 4"). I am trying to keep the bulk to as clean a diet as possible & have largely eaten Chicken/Rice/Pasta/Eggs with lots of Veg, I also try to eat every 2-3 hours to keep my metabolism racing & so far have stuck to this religiously.

My workout programme is a 4 day split, set as follows:-

Mon: Rest
Tues: Chest & Biceps
Weds: Back & Triceps
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Shoulders
Saturday: Legs & Abs
Sunday: Rest.

I tend to use the 1st three sets of a workout as a warmup, & then after that lift the heaviest weights possible for 4-6 reps max.

Every morning when I arrive at the gym I weigh myself & each day it has been slowly going down, so to double check the results I did a weigh on my Wii today & found that in 5 days I had lost 6lbs....arghhh!!

As mentioned at the start, this has been my 1st week following this strict routine & whilst I am rather alarmed at the results, I want to see if anyone has encountered this as an anomaly in their 1st week too? Or am I just not consuming enough calories?
According to the bodybuilding.com calculator a man of my weight should be consuming 4100 calories daily in order to bulkup !!!

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

Hey Star-

Your problem doesn't really seem to be a problem at all (yet!) It's the first week and you are doing everything right, but you really need to wait until week 2 or 3 to see if you truly need to add in more than the 350 extra you have been doing. What's happening is your metabolism is spiking to be burning more calories, but usually, it will level out after a week or two. I suggest waiting this one out before increasing by too many calories right away! You may put on fat, and I haven't heard that to be a goal of anyone. If after this week you are still losing, you must consider increasing calories- SLOWLY! Try increasing your carbohydrates by 25 grams per week, and your fats by 5 grams per week. After 2 weeks, check to see where your weight lies. Adjust upward to maybe 40 grams of carbohydrates every week. Keep playing around with it, but be careful not to jump the gun just yet- what you are experiencing is normal, especially for someone with a fast metabolism (eating every 2-3 hours). Also, I am not sure what you are doing for cardio, but maybe cut that down to about 2-3 times per week only doing HIIT for 20 minutes. Hope that helps!

JoRocka

And just for the record, the whole eating every 3 hours doesn't boost your metabolism. Just a bunch of hoopla overexaggerated to make people buy more shakes and other stuff/crap....like mass gainers. For many people it's more of a pain in the *kitten*.

Skim milk shouldn't be bought again. Whole milk
Getting tired of eating? You might be eating too clean. ditch the brown rice and stick to white or go for more denser meals as stated earlier. Chicken with the skin, Ribeye, etc.

Drink more calories or carbs if you get tired of fitting in meals. Again, with this "eat every 3 hours metabolism " lie the industry has perpetuated,...

p.s. shame on you for training legs once a week.

100% agree.

I think one of the other things is- and it's probably more the reality- if you are a big guy- trying to fit in 6000 calories a day- CONSTANTLY... eating every 2-3 hrs helps- it's easier to do that than eat two 3000 calorie meals.

But I fully agree with this post- eat what ever- ice cream nutty butters- food. You need HIGH calorie food. It's too hard to eat a huge suprlus if you have a hard time feeling full if you are only eating lean chicken and veggies- you need some pure high calorie rubbish. it's great!!! Living the dream baby- living the dream!

Tedebearduff

Hey Guys,

I am looking for some general advice please, as I feel that my current diet & workout programme is not correct - as I seem to be losing weight, when my goal is to actually gain in size.

I'm not sure if you are able to view my food logs from my profile, but I have been regularly hitting 3500 calories per day & this is surplus by approx 350 calories over my daily maintenance. The daily maintenance was calculated using this sites calculator when I 1st joined was set @ 3100 for a guy of my age/height (39 & 6ft 4"). I am trying to keep the bulk to as clean a diet as possible & have largely eaten Chicken/Rice/Pasta/Eggs with lots of Veg, I also try to eat every 2-3 hours to keep my metabolism racing & so far have stuck to this religiously.

My workout programme is a 4 day split, set as follows:-

Mon: Rest
Tues: Chest & Biceps
Weds: Back & Triceps
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Shoulders
Saturday: Legs & Abs
Sunday: Rest.

I tend to use the 1st three sets of a workout as a warmup, & then after that lift the heaviest weights possible for 4-6 reps max.

Every morning when I arrive at the gym I weigh myself & each day it has been slowly going down, so to double check the results I did a weigh on my Wii today & found that in 5 days I had lost 6lbs....arghhh!!

As mentioned at the start, this has been my 1st week following this strict routine & whilst I am rather alarmed at the results, I want to see if anyone has encountered this as an anomaly in their 1st week too? Or am I just not consuming enough calories?
According to the bodybuilding.com calculator a man of my weight should be consuming 4100 calories daily in order to bulkup !!!

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

I didn't read anything outside of the topic.. .first week you wont see anything ... once you've been on a deficit for 4-5 weeks and there is still no difference ask away.

What your doing wrong is expecting instant results.

star4781

Lots of sensible advice from the recent posters, once again thanks for the input.

Whilst I understand this is the 1st week, I was just soo shocked at losing 6lbs in such a short period - especially when I was trying to go in the other direction. I'm sure a lot of the dieters on this site would love to see this result, but I'm not one of them - & I just wanted to check if my plan of action was flawed in some non-obvious way....

I appreciate the support however & have taken all the comments on board, I have been slowly increasing the calories this week & upping the Carbs/Fat amounts daily - so am curious to see what this weekends weigh-in will result at.

Cheers

Tedebearduff

Lots of sensible advice from the recent posters, once again thanks for the input.

Whilst I understand this is the 1st week, I was just soo shocked at losing 6lbs in such a short period - especially when I was trying to go in the other direction. I'm sure a lot of the dieters on this site would love to see this result, but I'm not one of them - & I just wanted to check if my plan of action was flawed in some non-obvious way....

I appreciate the support however & have taken all the comments on board, I have been slowly increasing the calories this week & upping the Carbs/Fat amounts daily - so am curious to see what this weekends weigh-in will result at.

Cheers

Sorry your other problem is that you are using 2-3 different scales from the sound of it ? stick to one scale and one only to measure your weight on.

I weigh 190lbs at the gym scale, 206lbs on the fat % calculator and I weigh 198lbs at home... I only measure at home... also how do I know this I seriously did this today with a guy at the gym who didn't understand how he gained so much weight after his work out ... he weighed himself on the scale in the change room when he got there and then the body fat % machine after his work out which was more.

Regards,
Brad