GaryRuns Member

Vegetarian trying to gain weight? Nuts, nut butters and oils are your friends! Shoot, they're friends to non-veggies as well. All that fat is just loaded with calories, easy to eat, and delicious, if I do say so myself. If you want other ideas take a look at the following thread for "hard gainers", people who have a hard…

It's a bit tough to see what your rate of gain is from the graph @alexmose2. If your rate of weight gain is on the order of 0.5-1% of your body weight per week you're golden. For example, I'm around 175lbs atm and so my rate of weight gain should be between 0.8 and 1.7 pounds per week for a "lean" bulk. I typically try to…

There's a really detailed thread on "hard gainers", which is what you're describing yourself as. Take a look at it: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1

I've used Jefit forever. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than pen and paper? For me, yes. I like having graphs showing my progress, or lack thereof, without having to input something I wrote down into something else. It stores everything in the "cloud" so you don't generally have to worry about the loss of your data. Not…

I've personally started reducing my rest time between sets. Most research on hypertrophy that I've seen shows that as long as the limiting factor in a particular set is the muscle, or group of muscles, you're working you will gain. The rest time just needs to be sufficient enough such that cardio, for example, won't be…

Ugh. The A/C in my gym was out last week as well. Thankfully it was a deload week anyway so I just skipped the gym altogether. I hope it's fixed today. Been around 100F (38C) where I am.

You can try that, but it's very difficult, if not outright impossible, to have that much control over your calories. You can have 3 extra grams of fat in that chicken thigh, which you probably couldn't even tell was there and which is 27 calories and you've already blown your 25 calorie allowance. And labels on packaged…

That's really close to how I approach it, although I will occasionally not lift at all. For the most part any lifting I do during my deload I consider a place holder so I don't get lazy when it's time to start the next meso. Just got email from my gym, showers and hot tub back in business. Oh hot tub how I've missed thee!…

Ever watch a dog with a toy in it's mouth, where it rapidly shakes the toy side to side? That's what I felt like after lifting Friday. 😂 Definitely time for a deload week. How does everyone else deload? I cut my volume load by at least 25%, up my cardio a bit and at least try to get some yoga and other recovery activity in…

You weren't addressing me, but I'm gonna answer anyway. :p The answer is yes, dietary fat is more easily converted into body fat, but that won't happen unless you're in a calorie surplus. And even then things aren't as simple as "don't eat fat and you won't get fat". You need some fat for proper hormone function, and a lot…

I'd start with something like an estimate from https://fitnessvolt.com/weight-gain-calculator/. The general recommendation is to aim to gain between 0.25-0.5% of your body weight per week.

You'll definitely reach a point where you have enough weight on the bar that you won't want to take a fully loaded bar off your squat j-hooks and drop it to your catches. On a side note, I'd say the majority of any injuries I've experienced in the gym weren't from performing lifts but from doing dumb things like trying to…

If I were still into running I'd do the race. You can always adjust your bulk/cut cycle timing but you can't adjust a race day. If you do decide to run the race then the best advice I can offer is to absolutely stay on top of your protein intake and make sure the rest of your calories are enough that you don't lose weight…

Thanks @alexmose2 and @steveko89. I've managed to curb my weight gain, slightly. And yeah alex, cheescake is my weakness. It's SOOOO good! :'(

As a reformed runner I can tell you it's almost useless to try and bulk while training for a race, unless you're very genetically gifted and 100% on top of your recovery (and a LOT younger than me :D ). The best you can typically hope for while training for a race is to maintain lean mass. If at all possible it'd be almost…

My "clean" bulk has become "dirty" the last few weeks. My kiddos high-school graduation, and associated celebratory eating, dates with sneak attacks by cheesecake, etc., have really thrown me off the last 3 weeks. Gotta get this back under control. I started out with a solid 0.5-0.7lbs/week. It's now easily 1lb/week.…

If you've been consistently strength training for two years, applying progressive overload, then three months is a pretty short bulk for you. Also, consider your timing. I made the mistake of cutting during the winter, including over the holidays. For me that's much harder to do than, say, over the spring/summer when I can…

I've gotten used to eating 3,000 calories per day now and the gain train has been chugging along. Unfortunately my kiddo's high-school graduation and relatives visiting from out of town has caused my little engine, gaining about 0.5lb/week, to go full on locomotive, gaining1lb/week. Ugh. I'll have about 3 weeks to "bulk"…

I know it's different for everyone but I could never skip breakfast. I'm always ravenous in the mornings. So don't feel bad @alexmose, you're not alone in that one!

In general, if your body fat isn't too low and your lifting program properly applies progressive overload and you have sufficient recovery in your fitness plan and your calorie deficit isn't too large, you can expect to keep making gains. A lot of that just depends on your experience level and genetics, and they'll almost…

That's too short a time period to say anything about what's actually going on. Your diet has just changed so your body is probably doing all kinds of things to get accustomed to that, including retaining water and digestive changes, as @wiigelec mentioned. The best way to track weight is with some type of a trending app.…

I do reverse hacks and honestly I have trouble connecting with them from a mind-muscle connection perspective. But I'm stubborn and continue to try. I certainly can get deep with them.

I'm 55 and I like the challenge of cutting and bulking, but I'm still fairly new to resistance training. Going on year 3 now. This is really only my second bulk and the first one was pretty dirty so it took me a long time to cut the fat off and get down to 10% bf. This is my first "clean" bulk. About 1.5 months into it. No…

I did legs yesterday too. It went fairly well and I'm a little sore, but typically it takes me a good 24hrs before my soreness hits it's max value. And I did RDLs so I expect some posterior chain pain. (There's a rhyme they'll never make a children's book out of!) Today is a rest day. May do some abs just to burn off some…

I need to do this. I'm just too lazy to maintain my form, or too vain to go light enough to maintain it, for heavy CDLs. But then I feel like I should be doing heavy CDLs to build up strength, even though mostly I care about hypertrophy. Anyway, I managed to take them out of this meso, but I'm going to struggle to not put…

Just a side note, you reference losing fat while maintaining, or even gaining, muscle as an "impossible task". It's not. If you eat sufficient protein, keep the calorie deficit small such that you're only losing around 0.5% of your body weight per week, and you are consistent with a well designed, progressive, lifting…

You sure you didn't accidentally grab a Richter scale graph from a recent earthquake @sardelsa? 📈🤔 Just teasing, of course. You can afford a little extra. I'm amazed everyone hasn't done a little dirty bulking, given all the lock downs. I know I did. Another plus, your cut timing is perfect for summer.

There's a huge thread for folks who have a hard time gaining weight. Check it out. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1

I hear ya. I've never been one to overly stress about my weight, but after working so hard to get down to what I did it's a mental struggle to switch things to go the other way. Hang in there. In my own case, I went to maintenance for two weeks, at 2700 calories, and then to 3000 the last two weeks to try and start gaining…

"Cardio" is a bit of a loaded term. Are we talking about HIIT training multiple times a week or some low intensity stuff? And there's at least one study, the details of which escape me at the moment, that says to avoid running if your primary fitness goal is based on resistance training. They're not entirely sure why but…