Mental barrier to gaining weight
alexmose
Posts: 792 Member
Hi all,
I am 5’3’’ and spent the last year going from 126 to 113 pounds. I didn’t love the way I looked so I hit the weights and started gaining weight to add on more muscle.
Now, I am feeling kinda sad that my efforts are going to waste. I’m now 117 pounds, gaining 4 pounds in just a month a don’t see much progress. At the beginning of December I was at 21% body fat.
Am I gaining weight too fast for results (aka am I just getting fat)? I lift at least 3-5x per week and am trying to get bodypump certified so I am focusing on my upper body (I am a female).
On another note, how did you all get over the mental barrier of gaining weight for your first bulk? Any advice is appreciated!
I am 5’3’’ and spent the last year going from 126 to 113 pounds. I didn’t love the way I looked so I hit the weights and started gaining weight to add on more muscle.
Now, I am feeling kinda sad that my efforts are going to waste. I’m now 117 pounds, gaining 4 pounds in just a month a don’t see much progress. At the beginning of December I was at 21% body fat.
Am I gaining weight too fast for results (aka am I just getting fat)? I lift at least 3-5x per week and am trying to get bodypump certified so I am focusing on my upper body (I am a female).
On another note, how did you all get over the mental barrier of gaining weight for your first bulk? Any advice is appreciated!
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Replies
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how much weight are you wanting to gain? a pound a week is the max you want to be gaining really, when only 0.25 of that is going to be muscle.
i think you may need to look at your expectations over such a short period of time.
which lifting programme are you following?2 -
TavistockToad wrote: »how much weight are you wanting to gain? a pound a week is the max you want to be gaining really, when only 0.25 of that is going to be muscle.
i think you may need to look at your expectations over such a short period of time.
which lifting programme are you following?
I am doing Stronglifts. I lifted a lot during my weight loss year but I would still consider myself a beginner.
Also, do you think I gained too much too fast? Should I cut for a week?0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »how much weight are you wanting to gain? a pound a week is the max you want to be gaining really, when only 0.25 of that is going to be muscle.
i think you may need to look at your expectations over such a short period of time.
which lifting programme are you following?
I am doing Stronglifts. I lifted a lot during my weight loss year but I would still consider myself a beginner.
Also, do you think I gained too much too fast? Should I cut for a week?
i don't think you should cut, no, but i think you should reduce your surplus by 200 cals.
how long are you planning on bulking for?2 -
TavistockToad wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »how much weight are you wanting to gain? a pound a week is the max you want to be gaining really, when only 0.25 of that is going to be muscle.
i think you may need to look at your expectations over such a short period of time.
which lifting programme are you following?
I am doing Stronglifts. I lifted a lot during my weight loss year but I would still consider myself a beginner.
Also, do you think I gained too much too fast? Should I cut for a week?
i don't think you should cut, no, but i think you should reduce your surplus by 200 cals.
how long are you planning on bulking for?
I was planning to bulk until I hit 120 or until early Feb, whichever comes first (that’s when bodypump cert should be finished$.0 -
As a female I would actually recommend gaining no more than 0.5lb per week from now on. Don't worry about what is already gained. If you try to cut down again you will just lose momentum and progress, and it will just set you back.
In terms of the mental aspect, it is tough no matter what. But focusing on the positives helps... gains in the right places (woah check out my delts and glutes!), strength, looking at progress of other people who have bulked and learning that the fat gained will come off (it's like a gift wrapped present...you will have to have patience before you open it, and just because it's covered doesn't mean the goodies aren't inside). Also with each cycle it becomes easier and you learn to trust the process more and more.13 -
Here is my progress via month-end weigh ins averages:
Sept 19 113.71lb
Oct 19. 113.11
Nov 19. 111.68
Dec 19 110.93
Jan 20 110.99
Feb 20 109.65
Current 111.00
Bf 18.8% currently
Eating 2200 cals currently, PHUL, 5’3’’ femal 23 yo. Bodypump once per week (girl’s gotta teach), cardio 30 mins 2-3x per week on elliptical LISS, occasional abs 😂. Feeling a bit chunky after a big weekend of eating, but I’ve been heavier. Still working the weights, lifts going up SO SLOWLY. Thoughts?0 -
It seems like you are maintaining or very slowly losing. Is that your goal or are you trying to gain?1
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Attempting to gain. Upped calls over the months from 1800 to 2200. Just started 2200 last week. Will eval end of next week. Slowly gain is goal. I know it looks bad but damn this is tons of food
Bf is rheno scale. Not accurate but looking at trends.0 -
Yea keep upping the cals, add a shake, oil (or other fat) to your foods, an extra snack like nuts, and have milk or juice with some meals3
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My thoughts are that you could either maintain and recomp for a while if the notion of gaining really freaks you. Or try and gain really slowly. Like a pound a month. If you do the latter you have to accept that the changes you see may not be pleasing to your eye. But unless you parade around in a bikini all day, no one else will really notice or care. And if they do, they aren’t worth crying about.
I’m sitting here feeling overfull as I type this ( I like the feeling though as I’m a bit of a glutton) . I’m 4 months into my first proper gaining phase. I don’t like what I see in the mirror: a loss of any ab definition. But I feel like my legs are getting more muscular. So I’m focussing on that and the progress in the gym.3 -
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happysquatter wrote: »
Lifting progress is more of a focus than 2 years ago. I do PHUL, teach Bodypump once a week, cardio 2-3x week 30 mins. Unfortunately, I just had to drop weight bc I finally accepted the fact that my squat and lunge was not low enough. Bench press is stuck at 80lbx4 for the past 3 months which sucks so much. DL has progressed slowly, talkin 2.5lb and/or an extra rep every 3-4 weeks.0 -
Good to see you’re making DL progress!
For the Bench, you could try
(a) microplates
(b) swap out DB flyes on the hypertrophy day and put in bench for volume instead.
One or both of those should slowly increase your power day lifts
Sounds like you have full active weeks! Cheers 🙂1 -
happysquatter wrote: »Good to see you’re making DL progress!
For the Bench, you could try
(a) microplates
(b) swap out DB flyes on the hypertrophy day and put in bench for volume instead.
One or both of those should slowly increase your power day lifts
Sounds like you have full active weeks! Cheers 🙂
Will do. Occasionally like today I get over trained. Such is life.0 -
Currently the daily fluctuations kill me. Such as today I’m 111.8 lbs, almost 1 lb higher than yesterday. Could be a number of things, water retention, salt, etc., but ugh! It’s discouraging to see the scale move up. I JUST started 2200 last week so too early to tell it that too much or just right. Rant over.0
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Do you weigh daily using a trend weight app? That can help sort through the fluctuations over time so you know you are on the right track. Ultimately you have to keep in mind that fat gain doesn't come on suddenly, it takes time, so a huge jump will be water and food weight.5
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You might be overdoing it on the cardio if you're lifting is stalled. If it's low intensity cardio then you're probably fine. If you're doing higher intensity activities, 2-3x per week, then that could be an issue depending on age, genetics, sleep, calorie surplus or deficit, etc. Also, I took body pump for more than a year while I was running. It is primarily cardio, so if you're not counting that as cardio you should be.
If you're weighing yourself daily you really need to use something like Libra or Trendweight. A person's weight varies too much day to day to base things like calorie adjustments and health assessments on the daily value. You need to watch the trend instead.3 -
You might be overdoing it on the cardio if you're lifting is stalled. If it's low intensity cardio then you're probably fine. If you're doing higher intensity activities, 2-3x per week, then that could be an issue depending on age, genetics, sleep, calorie surplus or deficit, etc. Also, I took body pump for more than a year while I was running. It is primarily cardio, so if you're not counting that as cardio you should be.
If you're weighing yourself daily you really need to use something like Libra or Trendweight. A person's weight varies too much day to day to base things like calorie adjustments and health assessments on the daily value. You need to watch the trend instead.
Thanks. I only do LISS on the elliptical and I count Bodypump as cardio. I currently use happy scale.1 -
112.6 lbs today. What??? Thinking it’s time to drop 100cals. Back to 2100 and reassess. Seeing the scale jump 2lbs in one week..,that makes me think I am on a dreamer bull.0
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