Didn't Gain Any Weight, Help

FrnkLft

I'm trying to bulk now, and in 3 weeks I have only gained 1.5 pounds lifting heavy and eating excess calories. And this past week especially I haven't seemed to gain anything.

I am very concerned with gaining fat, though I know it's inevitable, I do not want to overeat and gain more than is necessary. I'm a short man, and so fat is more pronounced, and more importantly it also interferes with my tape measurements.

TDEE 1910 + 200 cal spent working out 45 min + 500 = 2610 to bulk... I have been eating 2400.

Abdomen and supriliac caliper measurements have stayed the same, I didn't tape measure at the beginning (didn't have one yet) so I don't know what progress I've made there.

I've heard some guys say they gain 1 - 2 lb of muscle per week... wtf? Were their estimates inflated by the fat they were putting on?

tomg33

You musn't react so quickly to changes in scale weight whether it's gaining muscle or losing fat. There is a lot of variation in the body and you can't really account for all of it. Sometimes it just is what it is.

The reality of gaining muscle is that it is a slow process. Even if you "only" put on 1 lb of real dry muscle in a month that would be great. For a lean bulk I would recommend eating about 200-250 cal surplus per week which would result in about 2lb of weight gain per month, and hopefully most of it will be quality weight if you're training your *kitten* off in the gym. That's 12lb of real muscle in a year although you may do a mini-cut before then depending on what bf% you start and what you consider acceptable fat gain.

Think about it this way; 2lb of muscle in a week would mean you are gaining 4.5 oz of muscle per day. Does that really seem reasonable?

kdiamond

Without knowing your exact measurements/size/etc I can just put it out there that personally I would bulk at 2200-2400 calories (my maintenance is around 2000) --- and I'm a petite 5'4" 110 pounds FEMALE. So my guess is you aren't NEAR what you need, even for a lean bulk.

1-2 pounds of muscle per week...errr no. I'd say maybe 1-2 pounds a month would be reasonable for a male, even then that's tough to do, and you are definitely going to put on fat along with it. So what...then you cut.

You should probably swing over to bodybuilding.com and check out the information on bulking in the male section. You can probably find out exactly how much you should be eating...but I can tell you right now that sounds very low.