Not Gaining...Weird?

Like you I had unknowingly been undereating for years simply due to not knowing/caring what my maintenance calories were and not tracking. As @TavistockToad said above, your maintenance calories might be in or around 2800. Give it another week or two and if you still aren't gaining, increase the calories again by another 250. During my first bulk last year, I had to keep doing this until I started to gain at 4,000 calories. When I stopped, my maintenance calories seems to be in or around 3,100. You have to be patient when bulking as well. Give it a month and if you aren't gaining, increase calories.

dpr73 wrote: »

So I have been 138lbs (male, 21, 5'7) for three years now. I have always wanted to bulk but never really dialed in by weighing everything and tracking...I recently (last month) upped calories and started counting to get to about 2700 calories (200 above maintenance) and found that not only have I been under eating for a while (I was probably eating around 2100 for a few years when I wasn't counting) but I'm not even gaining on 2700 calories. In fact, I upped calories to 2800 recently and ate 2600-2800 all week and actually may have lost a really small amount (like .2 lbs) do you guys have an explanation for this? It seems weird...

I eat super healthy to get calories in (think turkey, chicken, whole grains, oatmeal, peanut butter, protein shakes, Greek yogurt, whole grain granola, fruit, cottage cheese, etc...) could this be the reason I'm not gaining? My protein macro is usually hitting around 220 grams

Where are you getting 2700 is your maintenance? I would imagine some calculator...these calculators aren't gospel...they're just a reasonably good starting point based on statistical averages...you can't just plug in you info and "bam"...that's your maintenance...it's just an estimate...you have to make adjustments as per your real world results.

I'm 42 and maintain on 3000+ calories per day...I train hard, but I also have a desk job...you're 21...I'm not shocked at all that you're not gaining on 2700 calories.

Hey there DPR, hope you're well?
Gain is a bit of a catch-all term that doesn't necessarily reflect your goals-- for instance I coach javelin throwing to a range of ages and abilities and their gains are measured very differently to the gains that a body-builder, for example may want to achieve. As the other good folk here have said, measuring every ounce of food is needed for those prone to fat, like me, who eat the same amount of food whether hard training or slobbing their way through a period of re-habilitation-- the reason in fact that I'm 5'9" and 220 lbs right now...

At your age, you would do well to treat your stomach as a furnace- your metabolism is flying, your testosterone and HGH production is at a high and your muscles are ready to build build build!!!
Instead of counting your calories in, how about measuring your expenditure and ensuring that you are working towards hard-gaining on muscle mass.
Your body has its favourite foods, in this order (gross): sugars, muscles, fats

In order to make your body retain the muscle that you build, body-builders use additional proteins to block the transport of muscle components as fuel. With sufficient protein "buffer" (about 2g per kilogram of body weight, max-- you pee the rest out if you take more) the body then goes to the next available store: fats. Dirty word eh? Don't want fats near me!!! One of the stupidest edicts that any health board ever came out with was that fats are bad for you-- over-eating saturated and trans, sure, however the group are absolutely essential to a healthy body and utterly awesome for weight trainers looking to gain.... EFA- ESSENTIAL fatty acids....


Instead of trying to blind with science, I'd break it down like this:

Stop counting calories-- as a hard-gainer if you feel hungry-- chow down!!!

Ensure that the carbohydrates you eat are the complex types-- Sweet potato, brown rice, brown pasta etc.

Don't be afraid of red meat-- you ever see the muscles on a bull?

Work hard at each training session and define some goals for yourself, ie. I want to bench 70kg by October 1st and then get a plan together to achieve that...

Last and quite important-- Lower reps at high weight tells your body you want more strength, muscles grow. With a strong strength base, when it comes to March and you want to get pumped for the beach-- up the reps and drop the weight

All the best to you
Steve Bode

steveabode wrote: »

Hey there DPR, hope you're well?
Gain is a bit of a catch-all term that doesn't necessarily reflect your goals-- for instance I coach javelin throwing to a range of ages and abilities and their gains are measured very differently to the gains that a body-builder, for example may want to achieve. As the other good folk here have said, measuring every ounce of food is needed for those prone to fat, like me, who eat the same amount of food whether hard training or slobbing their way through a period of re-habilitation-- the reason in fact that I'm 5'9" and 220 lbs right now...

At your age, you would do well to treat your stomach as a furnace- your metabolism is flying, your testosterone and HGH production is at a high and your muscles are ready to build build build!!!
Instead of counting your calories in, how about measuring your expenditure and ensuring that you are working towards hard-gaining on muscle mass.
Your body has its favourite foods, in this order (gross): sugars, muscles, fats

In order to make your body retain the muscle that you build, body-builders use additional proteins to block the transport of muscle components as fuel. With sufficient protein "buffer" (about 2g per kilogram of body weight, max-- you pee the rest out if you take more) the body then goes to the next available store: fats. Dirty word eh? Don't want fats near me!!! One of the stupidest edicts that any health board ever came out with was that fats are bad for you-- over-eating saturated and trans, sure, however the group are absolutely essential to a healthy body and utterly awesome for weight trainers looking to gain.... EFA- ESSENTIAL fatty acids....


Instead of trying to blind with science, I'd break it down like this:

Stop counting calories-- as a hard-gainer if you feel hungry-- chow down!!!

Ensure that the carbohydrates you eat are the complex types-- Sweet potato, brown rice, brown pasta etc.

Don't be afraid of red meat-- you ever see the muscles on a bull?

Work hard at each training session and define some goals for yourself, ie. I want to bench 70kg by October 1st and then get a plan together to achieve that...

Last and quite important-- Lower reps at high weight tells your body you want more strength, muscles grow. With a strong strength base, when it comes to March and you want to get pumped for the beach-- up the reps and drop the weight

All the best to you
Steve Bode

First, he isnt a hard gainer. He is average like many of us. Second, you dont pee out protein. Excess is converted to glucose through glucenogenesis. Third, protein can range from 1.5g to 2.2g per kg of bw.

I found it hard to find maintenance, which I now know is 3350 calories. I am bulking it so am at 4000 calories and the upward weight progress is like ice melting, slow. Keep tweaking your calorie intake and you will get there. I think there is a window of what maintenance is. Like I know I can eat 200 calories above my perceived maintenance and not gain. There is a lot of literature there saying increase between 200 and 500 calories but in my case I increased by 650 calories and that for me is the bare minimum to actually start increasing in weight. The body is an interesting creature and can sometimes be hard to get a handle on. Good luck.