Gaining but starving!

DrNadya, I'm with you on trying to bulk up without getting too "fat". I don't think anyone likes cutting.. But in order to bulk, you have to eat. I'm currently involved in a community 12 week body transformation challege. And, because I seem to be addicted to numbers and graphs, I'm actually keeping track of my daily caloric intake, as well as lift and body stats on a weekly basis. I'm at 3500 calories, which was very difficult to get to in the beginning. Now, like you, it seems that I'm hungry every few hours even though I'm eating quite a bit more (and a lot more protein). Despite this, I'm finding that I "feel" like I'm hitting my caloric goals pretty consistantly, and I "know" that I am because I'm tracking it. If you are tracking things regularly, feel free to experiement a little bit. Knowing the numbers gives you control - lets you actually see the cause and effect. If you eat more calories and find you are gaining too quickly, back it off. If you are loosing weight, eat more Also, its great if you can track your body fat.. I just borrowed some BF calipers from a friend of mine so I'll be tracking BF for the next 12 weeks also to see exactly how "clean" my bulk is going.

'Trying' to do a healthy bulk. I know that us females can only put on about 0.5lb/0.25kg per week without it just becoming fat, and I don't want to have to cut afterwards so am aiming for a 'clean' bulk.

Problem is, I am starving all the time, and so find myself restricting what I eat out of fear I will overeat! I choose 'healthy' options with plenty of fibre to fill me up, but I feel like I could eat ten jars of peanut butter spread on a dozen boxes of oreos!

Result - so far have actually managed to lose weight on a bulk, and although my lifts are going up it is getting harder to increase my weights each week.

I think I would actually eat more if I was less hungry. Does anyone have any bright ideas???

It's funny that it's easier to cut then bulk isn't it. I went straight to bulking after my cut down to 123lb. I had no choice! I tried to maintain but my body was HUNGRY. So I turned it into a bulk. Gained about .25lb muscle and .25 fat a week for 6 weeks.

Liked the results so much I've decided not to cut and am currently (fingers crossed) maintaining at 1750 plus ex cals. It's a miracle!

I have to jump through all sorts of hoops to not overeat though. It's flipping hard.

I took a look at your food diary - no wonder you're starving! I think you could get a better calorie 'deal' instead of 30g of cocoa, for a start - you could have one-and-a-half Oreos for that! Could you cope with just zero-calorie drinks, giving yourself more for actual food? And you eat them so often, surely you must have started to LOOK like a bag of porridge oats - for a more satisfying meal, how about half a pack of savoury rice with chopped chicken/quorn mixed in? Or if you haven't got many calories left, how about a big plate of boiled vegetables with thin gravy poured over them? Also, I noticed your fat intake is very low, perhaps because you don't eat bread at all. Do your dietary supplements make up for that or is it something you need to watch?

Personally, I would stick to your diet for approximately 11 seconds - so WELL DONE YOU!

There is always room to make time if it is important to you. Meal prepping is not something that takes days to do if you have a plan.

I know - I reckon I could live on porridge when it is all cold and miserable outside! It is just so quick & easy to pop in the microwave. I am always so busy that I don't have time to spend preparing food, and it tends to be eaten either at my desk or on the move (but not porridge on the move, even I have not figured out how to do that one!) :laugh:

It's really important for your goals to make time to prep your food. If I can do it you can! I run a business, lecture at a college, am a single parent with no family support and train for triathlon 400 hours a year. There's no way I could net 1750 cals without my home cooked meals with lots of veg, salads from home, and other appetite tricks I do. It wouldn't last a couple of weeks, let alone a lifetime.

One of the best things I read here was to eat the same types of food you normally would whether your cutting, maintaining or bulking. It was a lifesaver. Sod all that diet food.