11 lb gain in 2 days

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fpoitr
fpoitr Posts: 6 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi all,

I'm a 42 year old newbie that is currently at 153lbs from 142lbs. I have started to become active by going to the gym. I generally try to get in 3 work outs on the weeks that I don't have my kids. I started working out to improve my mood with depression and I find that it helps the symptoms. I do cardio and I wanted to bulk up. I feel like I had lost a lot of weight do to stress. The heaviest I have weight is 170 lbs and I was down to 136lbs. I have increased my calorie intake to 4000 calories a day and I noticed that I gained 11lbs. My goal weight is 70 - 173 lbs. I'm worried that I am gaining to much weight too quickly.

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  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    I wouldn't ever draw specific conclusions after only 2 days - you'll need a longer term trend to really draw meaningful conclusions.

    That said, how did you come to the conclusion that 4k calories was the right number for you? I'm roughly the same age, and size (I've got about 8 lbs on you) and I can bulk on 3,000 calories.

    Some of the weight gain is likely water being retained due to the new workouts, but if you continue to gain weight too quickly, dial back the calories a bit. There's a finite limit to how much muscle mass you can put on based on your workouts and genetics, so anything above and beyond that will be fat gains - which I presume you want to avoid.
  • selina884
    selina884 Posts: 826 Member
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    You need a big poo
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    edited March 2016
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    That's gonna hurt!

    Bulk on a number that gets you gaining a pound a week over several weeks.
    Trial n error
  • vivrevotrevie
    vivrevotrevie Posts: 80 Member
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    Similar thing happened to me over the weekend. I went away for the weekend with friends, was careful about what I ate for the most part, but drank more than I usually do in a weekend (a few drinks), walked around the city for a few days, one of our dinners was at a Mexican restaurant (lots of salty deliciousness), and I was in a car for 5 hours at a time. I got on the scale and saw a 7 pound increase. It was definitely water retention because it is all gone now, 4 days later, and I definitely did not burn 7 pounds off with exercise. It would be almost 25,000 calories to burn.. With one spin class giving me a 600-700 calorie burn max... it couldn't have been exercise.

    If you think about it, that would have meant you consumed an extra 38,500 calories in two days, which just doesn't seem likely. That is 5 times what you say you are eating. I would suggest reducing your sugar/salt intake over the next few days and drinking a lot of water to help flush it all out! It helped with me :)
  • Scamd83
    Scamd83 Posts: 808 Member
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    4000 calories sounds far too high, the most you should be gaining is maybe 2 lbs a week at most and ideally less than 1 lb a week. But 11 lbs in two days is mostly just going to be water retention. You need to reevaluate those calories though. I can bulk on 250 calories above maintenance, I dare say that's where you should start out at.
  • Mapalicious
    Mapalicious Posts: 412 Member
    edited March 2016
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    selina884 wrote: »
    You need a big poo

    seconded
  • upoffthemat
    upoffthemat Posts: 679 Member
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    Sounds like a lot of water weight. If you just started exercising your body may naturally be storing more water to help your muscles restore.
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
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    I'll agree with the 4000 calories being much too high. I'm 21 176lbs around 11-12% body fat. Working out 6 days a week and I'm currently gaining steadily at 3300-3500 a day. A lot of that will mostlikely be do to water weight and your body storing carbs, along with a lot of food in your system. Do you weight yourself pre or post eating everyday? Also be aware of a significant fluctuation in weight from day to day. One day I can be 173 and then the next I can be nearing 180. Try and weight yourself under the exact same conditions everytime and look for a steady increase in your highest and lowest fluctuations.

    Be careful bulking to high since you will gain a significant amount of fat faster than you think especially since you're only lifting 3 days a week. You won't notice it at first but before too long you'll have more pudge than muscle. I made the same mistake during my first bulk falling under the typical bro tip of "eat anything and everything you see"

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