gaining. eating surplus now can't gain? help

Hi all
I have been at this for a few months. At first I gained 5 lbs in about two months which is slow. I up my cal about about tthousand so before I was eating total of 1960 a day or so and gaining. When I noticed I stopped gaining I added another 1,000-2,000 cal a day and eat anywhere from 1980-4,000 a day averaging about 2600. Why am I not gaining now? I actually lost about 3 of the lbs gained. Yet I am at a higher surplus now and am tracking every single thing I eat and researching cal amounts to be sure before I log it in. I log in any exercise as well. This is frustrating to see my goal failing when I'm working hard to achieve it and I feel like I'm going backwards. I drink several protien weight gain drinks a day to and do extra cal. As well.

Replies

  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
    Eat more til you start gaining. Peanut butter, nuts, avocado, oils, whole eggs....etc (calorie dense foods)
  • jdscrubs32
    jdscrubs32 Posts: 515 Member
    Hi all
    I have been at this for a few months. At first I gained 5 lbs in about two months which is slow. I up my cal about about tthousand so before I was eating total of 1960 a day or so and gaining. When I noticed I stopped gaining I added another 1,000-2,000 cal a day and eat anywhere from 1980-4,000 a day averaging about 2600. Why am I not gaining now? I actually lost about 3 of the lbs gained. Yet I am at a higher surplus now and am tracking every single thing I eat and researching cal amounts to be sure before I log it in. I log in any exercise as well. This is frustrating to see my goal failing when I'm working hard to achieve it and I feel like I'm going backwards. I drink several protien weight gain drinks a day to and do extra cal. As well.

    If I am not reading the above right, I apologise but are you consistently eating at 2,600 every day or averaging between 1980 - 4000 a day? If its the latter, you need to be more consistent with hitting more or the less the same target every day. When I was bulking on 4,000 daily, if I wasn't more or less hitting the number daily, weekly and monthly I didn't gain.
  • sjohnson__1
    sjohnson__1 Posts: 405 Member
    edited December 2015
    It's not uncommon for your metabolism to speed up a little to compensate for the excess food you're eating. Also, if you ramped your calories up quickly, and you were previously eating very few or in a deficit your metabolism could have had a delayed response, thus the reason behind the early weight gain that slowly leveled off.

    My advice is to slowly increase your daily calories -- 100-200kcals every week -- until you're gaining a consistent LB/week or whatever your goal is.
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  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    what are your stats?

    do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?

    not sure how you can be consistently eating 4000 calories a day and not be gaining..
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    How much are you exercising? What is your net average intake?
  • jdscrubs32
    jdscrubs32 Posts: 515 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    what are your stats?

    do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?

    not sure how you can be consistently eating 4000 calories a day and not be gaining..

    From how I read it @ndj the OP doesn't seem like they are constantly eating 4,000 every day as they said "eat anywhere from 1980-4,000 a day averaging about 2600" so if the OP stuck to one calorie amount each day the OP might have a better chance of gaining.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    jdscrubs32 wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    what are your stats?

    do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?

    not sure how you can be consistently eating 4000 calories a day and not be gaining..

    From how I read it @ndj the OP doesn't seem like they are constantly eating 4,000 every day as they said "eat anywhere from 1980-4,000 a day averaging about 2600" so if the OP stuck to one calorie amount each day the OP might have a better chance of gaining.

    @jdscrubs32 sorry, I missed that part...

    OP - I would still suggest getting a food scale and eating a constant number of calories. I would suggest starting at 3000 consistent calories and see what happens...
  • Hi thanks for the responses ok to clear your questions I am eating about 1,000 or more cal OVER my recommendation amount from what this website gave me to gain from 108 to 115lbs in 5 weeks so I am eating way more than what it tells me I need to eat in order to gain. this is why I am confused. If I eat a regular of 1,000 cal over the amount needed to gain a lb a week. Why am I not gaining more let alone atleast a lb. This is my ?. So example. I am supose to eat 1980 cal a day to gain 1 lb a week. I am actually eating even more then that at about 2500 a day and many days even another thousand over that which is a very high surplus. Does this make sense? 1980 needed to gain a lb a week. Am actually eating 2500+ per day consistently
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Below are the basic questions that remain unanswered ...
    What are your stats?
    Do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?
    How much are you exercising?
    What is your net average intake?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Hi thanks for the responses ok to clear your questions I am eating about 1,000 or more cal OVER my recommendation amount from what this website gave me to gain from 108 to 115lbs in 5 weeks so I am eating way more than what it tells me I need to eat in order to gain. this is why I am confused. If I eat a regular of 1,000 cal over the amount needed to gain a lb a week. Why am I not gaining more let alone atleast a lb. This is my ?. So example. I am supose to eat 1980 cal a day to gain 1 lb a week. I am actually eating even more then that at about 2500 a day and many days even another thousand over that which is a very high surplus. Does this make sense? 1980 needed to gain a lb a week. Am actually eating 2500+ per day consistently

    do you use a food scale to weigh all food?
    what is your activity level?
    what is your height, weight, age, gender?
  • ndj1979 wrote: »
    Hi thanks for the responses ok to clear your questions I am eating about 1,000 or more cal OVER my recommendation amount from what this website gave me to gain from 108 to 115lbs in 5 weeks so I am eating way more than what it tells me I need to eat in order to gain. this is why I am confused. If I eat a regular of 1,000 cal over the amount needed to gain a lb a week. Why am I not gaining more let alone atleast a lb. This is my ?. So example. I am supose to eat 1980 cal a day to gain 1 lb a week. I am actually eating even more then that at about 2500 a day and many days even another thousand over that which is a very high surplus. Does this make sense? 1980 needed to gain a lb a week. Am actually eating 2500+ per day consistently

    do you use a food scale to weigh all food?
    what is your activity level?
    what is your height, weight, age, gender?

    Lol yes I measure my food, activity level 3x week dance for 30 min. 30yr, 5'3 fem. And after each basic work out I eat a heavy snack with high cal.
  • Below are the basic questions that remain unanswered ...
    What are your stats?
    Do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?
    How much are you exercising?
    What is your net average intake?

    Already replied
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    Hi thanks for the responses ok to clear your questions I am eating about 1,000 or more cal OVER my recommendation amount from what this website gave me to gain from 108 to 115lbs in 5 weeks so I am eating way more than what it tells me I need to eat in order to gain. this is why I am confused. If I eat a regular of 1,000 cal over the amount needed to gain a lb a week. Why am I not gaining more let alone atleast a lb. This is my ?. So example. I am supose to eat 1980 cal a day to gain 1 lb a week. I am actually eating even more then that at about 2500 a day and many days even another thousand over that which is a very high surplus. Does this make sense? 1980 needed to gain a lb a week. Am actually eating 2500+ per day consistently

    I feel like I'm a little lost. It seems like you are saying you eat more than 1000 calories over what mfp tells you to eat, but to gain a pound a week you need to eat 1980? So are you eating 3000 calories daily?

    How about this:
    How much does mfp tell you to eat to maintain your weight?
    How much does mfp tell you to eat to gain 1lb per week?
    Are you logging your exercise and eating back the calories?
    How long have you been eating at this level?
    Were you restricting calories for a long period of time prior to trying to gain?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Hi thanks for the responses ok to clear your questions I am eating about 1,000 or more cal OVER my recommendation amount from what this website gave me to gain from 108 to 115lbs in 5 weeks so I am eating way more than what it tells me I need to eat in order to gain. this is why I am confused. If I eat a regular of 1,000 cal over the amount needed to gain a lb a week. Why am I not gaining more let alone atleast a lb. This is my ?. So example. I am supose to eat 1980 cal a day to gain 1 lb a week. I am actually eating even more then that at about 2500 a day and many days even another thousand over that which is a very high surplus. Does this make sense? 1980 needed to gain a lb a week. Am actually eating 2500+ per day consistently

    do you use a food scale to weigh all food?
    what is your activity level?
    what is your height, weight, age, gender?

    Lol yes I measure my food, activity level 3x week dance for 30 min. 30yr, 5'3 fem. And after each basic work out I eat a heavy snack with high cal.

    food scale - yes/no?
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Below are the basic questions that remain unanswered ...
    What are your stats?
    Do you use a food scale to weigh all solid foods?
    How much are you exercising?
    What is your net average intake?

    Already replied

    Replied does not equal actually answering the questions asked of you. Getting advice requires basic information from you. If you seriously want answers then you'll provide the very basic information that multiple people requested.
This discussion has been closed.