Getting Discouraged
dpr73
Posts: 495 Member
I have been bulking since June 8th when I thought I dropped 10 pounds randomly to 130. However, a couple days into the bulk I got back what I thought I lost to 138 (my usual weight that I maintained this whole past year). However, I want to build muscle and strength so took the plunge into a bulk (plus. I like to eat and thought I would be happier with a little more food). I am now getting really discouraged, I am weighing in at around 146 (8lbs above what I weighed to start basically) and I am afraid I am gaining way too fast. Everyone around me (my bros and friends) just recommend that I just eat frequently, as they have done this before and succeeded pretty well (all have gained quality muscle) . But I just feel like maybe I'm different and can't gain the same... My clothes fit the same although I am noticing pants getting tighter in the legs (not waist). I made a mistake and didn't start by taking progress photos or measuring or anything (as my two brothers never did that stuff). Anyway, should I loosen up and continue what I am doing? I am loving the new strength and my eating habits (which are about 6 times a day...3 meals and 3 snacks basically). But just don't want to end up obese as I used to be (200lbs and 5'8 all through my teens). So basically this is my background:
20years
Male
146lbs (now)
5'8
Moderately active (I have a pedometer that logs me close to 4 miles a day and frequently over 5 not including workouts and about 20 flights of stairs...I take stairs everywhere...also, I am up every morning during weekdays at 5:30 for school)
Workout in addition to that 5 days a week
Meals:
Breakfast:
pb sandwich and banana
OR
a little over a cup yogurt and banana with a drizzle of honey and about 1 moderate scoop of peanut butter (with a smaller sized spoon not a big one)
OR
bagel, 2 fried eggs (in a little oil and I mean a little), as much fruit salad as I want (as an example) probably close to 1.5 cups
Snack:
Cliff bar or chobani yogurt or protein shake with 1 1/4 cup milk and 1 scoop whey
Lunch:
Sandwich with cheese turkey mustard or chicken salad or leftovers from dinner
About 2 cups grapes
Snack:
Chobani yogurt
OR
1 cup cottage cheese and some fruit salad (like a cup)
OR
cliff bar
dinner:
About 9 oz (raw) protein (usually fish or chicken) occasionally a hamburger (8oz before cooking) or something but I try not to have too many sides with this
With leaner proteins: about half a plate of veggie (some times my mom puts some Olive oil on it) and about a half cup of starch like potato or rice (not a big starch guy at dinner)
Snack:
Protein shake prepared same as above, cottage cheese with fruit salad as above, or Chobani flip yogurt, on weekend I may have a serving of ice cream but I don't really indulge in sweets...
Am I overdoing it? I'm just really unsure and I'm not sure if this weight gain is a bit of water or mostly fat of mostly muscle. I just don't know and my family doesn't really let me weigh food so I don't count too closely (though in my head if I try to be honest I would put this intake close to 3000 cals sometimes a bit less sometimes a bit more...)
20years
Male
146lbs (now)
5'8
Moderately active (I have a pedometer that logs me close to 4 miles a day and frequently over 5 not including workouts and about 20 flights of stairs...I take stairs everywhere...also, I am up every morning during weekdays at 5:30 for school)
Workout in addition to that 5 days a week
Meals:
Breakfast:
pb sandwich and banana
OR
a little over a cup yogurt and banana with a drizzle of honey and about 1 moderate scoop of peanut butter (with a smaller sized spoon not a big one)
OR
bagel, 2 fried eggs (in a little oil and I mean a little), as much fruit salad as I want (as an example) probably close to 1.5 cups
Snack:
Cliff bar or chobani yogurt or protein shake with 1 1/4 cup milk and 1 scoop whey
Lunch:
Sandwich with cheese turkey mustard or chicken salad or leftovers from dinner
About 2 cups grapes
Snack:
Chobani yogurt
OR
1 cup cottage cheese and some fruit salad (like a cup)
OR
cliff bar
dinner:
About 9 oz (raw) protein (usually fish or chicken) occasionally a hamburger (8oz before cooking) or something but I try not to have too many sides with this
With leaner proteins: about half a plate of veggie (some times my mom puts some Olive oil on it) and about a half cup of starch like potato or rice (not a big starch guy at dinner)
Snack:
Protein shake prepared same as above, cottage cheese with fruit salad as above, or Chobani flip yogurt, on weekend I may have a serving of ice cream but I don't really indulge in sweets...
Am I overdoing it? I'm just really unsure and I'm not sure if this weight gain is a bit of water or mostly fat of mostly muscle. I just don't know and my family doesn't really let me weigh food so I don't count too closely (though in my head if I try to be honest I would put this intake close to 3000 cals sometimes a bit less sometimes a bit more...)
0
Replies
-
Bumping0
-
I have no experience with bulking, but see a few points that you could help clarify to get an answer.
1) how long did it take you to gain those 8 lbs?
2) Are you lifting? (you never specifically mention that)
3) are you tracking calories? (because I personally am unable to look at that meal plan and figure out how many calories are in there)
If you are not tracking yet, start tracking and weighing your food right now. It will make all the difference
4) do you know your TDEE or maintenance calories?
5) do you know the difference between a clean and a dirty bulk?
ETA: so I see you are not tracking, but please try to find a way to start doing so. Just explain why you want to weigh the food.
And start taking pictures and measurements right now. Always great to look back at while cutting.0 -
I have no experience with bulking, but see a few points that you could help clarify to get an answer.
1) how long did it take you to gain those 8 lbs?
2) Are you lifting? (you never specifically mention that)
3) are you tracking calories? (because I personally am unable to look at that meal plan and figure out how many calories are in there)
If you are not tracking yet, start tracking and weighing your food right now. It will make all the difference
4) do you know your TDEE or maintenance calories?
5) do you know the difference between a clean and a dirty bulk?
1) I started on June 8
2) yes I lift 5 days a week with a specific (college lacrosse) workout plan
3) no. I do rough estimates but my family cooks most meals and though I would say they are healthy and i am aware of portion sizes, I don't measure because my family looks down on it and wouldn't really allow me to.
4) based off of most resources I look at, I believe maintenance is at 2500 or so.
5) yes I do.
My main concern is that I'm gaining too fast. But I just don't get how this intake (which is really just my maintenance plus about 3 snacks in between my meals) could make me gain too rapidly. My waist doesn't seem to have changed and my strength is increasing but based on the scale I am pretty concerned
0 -
Bump0
-
Chill out.
You're not going to get fat over night... it would take a long time to reach 200 lbs and your old ways. You would notice something is off along the way. Since you won't or cannot track your intake (you're an adult by the way, but that's a whole different issue), I would say continue eating the same sort of schedule/habits and adding weight to the bar.
Take pictures along the way, keep tabs on your measurements, and continue to monitor your weight progress (I'd aim for .5 lbs a week).0 -
OP - you have already started several threads about bulking and received advice such as in this one - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32959257#Comment_32959257
asking the same questions over and over and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere.
pick a lifting plan and stick to it; eat in a consistent surplus; consistently hit macros/micros; accept that fat gain is gong to happen.
0 -
Regarding the family telling you not to weigh food, a white lie saying your lacrosse coach is asking you to start controlling diet for wouldn't hurt here. If your family is preventing you from hitting your goals, that is ludicrous. You need to tell them to drop it and that you are doing this because it is important to you. You are in college bro, if you are still listening to your parents about stuff like eating habits, you need to start laying down the law here. You are an adult.
If you aren't tracking calories, you honestly can't get disappointed right now if your results are not what you want. You NEED to make sure you are getting sufficient cals, and guesswork is never going to pan out. Bite the bullet and track it. The annoyance of tracking is much less painful than the disappointment of lack of results. Missing a day once or twice a month is no big deal, but never logging is a great way to get bad results.
I just punched in your TDEE cals into Scooby's calculator, your TDEE is 3000 calories based on the activity level you provided. If you don't gain at this level, you may need to bump your TDEE by 100 calories every two weeks until your start to climb 0.5lbs/week: scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
Your weight is going to wildly fluctuate, especially bulking, since you will be eating more food, retaining more water, etc. The key is to weigh frequently, log it, and then plot it in a spreadsheet to find the trend over time.0 -
Track now...
I track my calories and the first week was hard....i always felt hungry...0 -
I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly. i would log but my environment just doesn't allow for this to happen. I know this is an efficient way to do things, but is it really the ONLY way to ensure good progress?0
-
OP - you have already started several threads about bulking and received advice such as in this one - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32959257#Comment_32959257
asking the same questions over and over and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere.
pick a lifting plan and stick to it; eat in a consistent surplus; consistently hit macros/micros; accept that fat gain is gong to happen.
I wouldn't say I am doing nothing. Bulking is a new thing I am not entirely familiar with. I lift very frequently and finally decided to make progress. I understand that weighing and counting is most efficient, but sometimes there are constraints. Namely, I live in a big, very close family that cooks all their meals at home and frankly has the mindset that weighing is abnormal. While I want to make progress, I value not worrying the rest of my family with my habits.
I keep a decently good eye on what I eat, and for 85% of what I put in my mouth, I know the calorie count of. This is way I am shocked by a gain of 8lbs in 5 weeks and feel discouraged. I was more seeing if this is a routine jump in the first few weeks or not. I am sorry if the mass of posts has bothered you.
0 -
I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly. i would log but my environment just doesn't allow for this to happen. I know this is an efficient way to do things, but is it really the ONLY way to ensure good progress?LolBroScience wrote: »Chill out.
You're not going to get fat over night... it would take a long time to reach 200 lbs and your old ways. You would notice something is off along the way. Since you won't or cannot track your intake (you're an adult by the way, but that's a whole different issue), I would say continue eating the same sort of schedule/habits and adding weight to the bar.
Take pictures along the way, keep tabs on your measurements, and continue to monitor your weight progress (I'd aim for .5 lbs a week).
0 -
How often were you weighing before you started trying to gain?I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly.
Nobody has an exact weight -- you have a weight range. Your weight fluctuates up and down on a daily/hourly basis, based on a whole bunch of factors (like water weight, sodium intake and the weight of the food mass in your system). Do you know what your typical range is? Most people range across 2-5 pounds, but some people have a wider range. My point is that you didn't gain 8 real pounds. Your weight range is probably 138 +/-5 pounds, and the additional 3 is probably mostly water and food mass in your system.
0 -
How often were you weighing before you started trying to gain?I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly.
Nobody has an exact weight -- you have a weight range. Your weight fluctuates up and down on a daily/hourly basis, based on a whole bunch of factors (like water weight, sodium intake and the weight of the food mass in your system). Do you know what your typical range is? Most people range across 2-5 pounds, but some people have a wider range. My point is that you didn't gain 8 real pounds. Your weight range is probably 138 +/-5 pounds, and the additional 3 is probably mostly water and food mass in your system.
I had been weighing approximately monthly for a year. I think the highest I ever saw my weight was 140 maybe one time. Every other weigh in was very often directly at 138 or close to it. That's why I was so shocked when last month I fell to 130 all of a sudden. And then I went into this bulk and this month hit 146 so easily. I'm honestly baffled by how unstable this has been0 -
I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly. i would log but my environment just doesn't allow for this to happen. I know this is an efficient way to do things, but is it really the ONLY way to ensure good progress?
it's quiet common to see a rapid jump the first week when you increase.
Secondly as a male under 140 pounds at 5'8" you should be concerned- or at least aware that that isn't normal.
I'm a healthy fit female and I weight in at 160-165 at 5'8".
Secondly- if you find your trend-line and weight gain to rapid for to long- just drop the surplus back by 50 calories or so. If that doesn't do it- drop another 50.
But if you aren't counting/properly tracking- you can't possibly know how much food you are eating. So get a handle on that before you freak out.0 -
I perfectly understand that fat gain will happen, but I just don't know how I've gained so rapidly. i would log but my environment just doesn't allow for this to happen. I know this is an efficient way to do things, but is it really the ONLY way to ensure good progress?
it's quiet common to see a rapid jump the first week when you increase.
Secondly as a male under 140 pounds at 5'8" you should be concerned- or at least aware that that isn't normal.
I'm a healthy fit female and I weight in at 160-165 at 5'8".
Secondly- if you find your trend-line and weight gain to rapid for to long- just drop the surplus back by 50 calories or so. If that doesn't do it- drop another 50.
But if you aren't counting/properly tracking- you can't possibly know how much food you are eating. So get a handle on that before you freak out.
I am not aware that this is unhealthy. I would like to have more muscle and weight but I don't think I look bad at all or unhealthy. Also, isn't 165 above healthy on the BMI. I know you can still be healthy above the BMI but I don't think 5'8 and 165 is the lower limit for a male.
0 -
above healthy for me or for you?0
-
OP - you have already started several threads about bulking and received advice such as in this one - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32959257#Comment_32959257
asking the same questions over and over and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere.
pick a lifting plan and stick to it; eat in a consistent surplus; consistently hit macros/micros; accept that fat gain is gong to happen.
I wouldn't say I am doing nothing. Bulking is a new thing I am not entirely familiar with. I lift very frequently and finally decided to make progress. I understand that weighing and counting is most efficient, but sometimes there are constraints. Namely, I live in a big, very close family that cooks all their meals at home and frankly has the mindset that weighing is abnormal. While I want to make progress, I value not worrying the rest of my family with my habits.
I keep a decently good eye on what I eat, and for 85% of what I put in my mouth, I know the calorie count of. This is way I am shocked by a gain of 8lbs in 5 weeks and feel discouraged. I was more seeing if this is a routine jump in the first few weeks or not. I am sorry if the mass of posts has bothered you.
Jason - is that you??0 -
OP - you have already started several threads about bulking and received advice such as in this one - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32959257#Comment_32959257
asking the same questions over and over and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere.
pick a lifting plan and stick to it; eat in a consistent surplus; consistently hit macros/micros; accept that fat gain is gong to happen.
I wouldn't say I am doing nothing. Bulking is a new thing I am not entirely familiar with. I lift very frequently and finally decided to make progress. I understand that weighing and counting is most efficient, but sometimes there are constraints. Namely, I live in a big, very close family that cooks all their meals at home and frankly has the mindset that weighing is abnormal. While I want to make progress, I value not worrying the rest of my family with my habits.
I keep a decently good eye on what I eat, and for 85% of what I put in my mouth, I know the calorie count of. This is way I am shocked by a gain of 8lbs in 5 weeks and feel discouraged. I was more seeing if this is a routine jump in the first few weeks or not. I am sorry if the mass of posts has bothered you.
Jason - is that you??
I'm sorry?
0 -
OP - you have already started several threads about bulking and received advice such as in this one - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32959257#Comment_32959257
asking the same questions over and over and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere.
pick a lifting plan and stick to it; eat in a consistent surplus; consistently hit macros/micros; accept that fat gain is gong to happen.
I wouldn't say I am doing nothing. Bulking is a new thing I am not entirely familiar with. I lift very frequently and finally decided to make progress. I understand that weighing and counting is most efficient, but sometimes there are constraints. Namely, I live in a big, very close family that cooks all their meals at home and frankly has the mindset that weighing is abnormal. While I want to make progress, I value not worrying the rest of my family with my habits.
I keep a decently good eye on what I eat, and for 85% of what I put in my mouth, I know the calorie count of. This is way I am shocked by a gain of 8lbs in 5 weeks and feel discouraged. I was more seeing if this is a routine jump in the first few weeks or not. I am sorry if the mass of posts has bothered you.
Jason - is that you??
I'm sorry?
are you sure you are not forecaster jason???
he used to come on this board and say the same thing about his family and why he could not bulk....0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.2K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 895 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.2K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions