Sounds like either there's an accounting issue or you need to start adding cals above 3000 (say 3500) and see what your weight does, adding food every 4-5 days based on what your weight's average trend is doing. That's what I'd have you do anyway.
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4,000, 5,000 or 6,000 Calories?
Age: 27
Height: 6'1
Current Weight: 161.6 lbs
I went from 196 lbs down to 160 lbs in about 36 weeks using MyFitnessPal and tracking my calories (2,000/day) and macros (P:170/F:90/C:180) and using the AllPro Simple Beginner Routine I found on Bodybuilding.com. Although I lost weight I really didn't gain any strength or muscle mass. I've seen the light and now realize that Starting Strength is a better approach to take. I've also realized that I probably shouldn't have lost this much weight since now I'm a tall skinny weak guy rather than just a tall skinnyfat weak guy. This is kind of difficult to deal with psychologically cause on one hand hitting my "goal" weight of 160 should feel like an accomplishment but now it feels like I sabotaged my strength gains.
I've been trying to slowly increase my surplus to find the right weight gain per week but its driving me nuts. My weight is inconsistent, one week I'll gain 2lbs eating 3,000/day and then the next week I've lost a 1.5lbs eating 3,000/day. Not to mention today I missed reps on my lifts for the first time.
I've decided to significantly increase my calories and kind of reset my training (Greg's Training Log) to actually DO the program as written. One of the recent podcasts talks about how only .2% of people on these forums are doing the program correctly and I'm no doubt part of the 99.8%.
I've read "To Be a Beast" but I've always tracked my intake so I'm wondering if I should eat 4,000/day, 5,000/day or 6,000/day?
✓ Member
Sounds like either there's an accounting issue or you need to start adding cals above 3000 (say 3500) and see what your weight does, adding food every 4-5 days based on what your weight's average trend is doing. That's what I'd have you do anyway.
Member
Thank you for the response Jordan, I really appreciate it. To be honest, I'm actually kind of surprised by the recommendation. From reading "To be a Beast" I thought I'd be considered the underweight novice and need to gain weight like yesterday.
Is it the fact that I'm 27 that you don't suggest going between 4-6k calories?
About how many pounds should I be looking to gain per week?
✓ Member
You need to gain weight, yes, but you also need to gain weight and keep it on. Your current eating habits are not producing that and so I feel like the idea of "just eat a lot" isn't going to work. We need to add weight and keep adding weight via nutritional management that gets re-evaluated often. 4-6k calories- I have no idea if that's appropriate for you and thus, I'm not sure I can recommend it based on your current eating. As far as rate of weight gain, I don't have an easy answer to that. For a guy like you, gaining 4-5lbs per week for 2-4 weeks, then 2-4lbs for 2-4 weeks, then 1-2lbs each week there on out whilst on LP.
Member
You're the man Jordan! This is exactly what I was looking for and it really helps. I know your a very busy man so I greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Member
He is suggesting intelligence and nuance, not just add a ton of food and see what happens. The problem with 4-6,000 calories is it is a pretty wide spread. It is also undisciplined. The concern is that you're not tracking properly and thus, if you take a "just add more food" approach:Originally Posted by StartingStrength88
1. You may not actually end up adding as much food as you think you are
2. You have no real way of knowing what is optimal and what amount of calories is working
Gain weight, absolutely. But do it intelligently so that you can titrate calories up (or down) as needed and when the time comes have some actionable data to make informed adjustments accordingly.
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Thank you for your response! I feel my tracking is pretty accurate. However, I have been going kind of back and forth with tracking calories from alcohol which likely skewed my data. I'm not a big drinker so I've decided to not track cals from alcohol from here on out.
I've increased my calories to 3,500/day and plan to weigh in daily and make adjustments every week or so as Jordan suggested. I also plan on shooting for the weight gain per week Jordan outlined.
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