Weight Gain Q?

[Grunter]

Hey Jordan

Really enjoying the Barbell Medicine podcasts/Q&A's you and Austin are putting out, keep up the great work.

Something came up on a recent q/a about weight gain and you suggested the lifter add a glass of milk to every meal and see if it moves the dial and basically titrate up the calories to keep the dial moving up.

My question, once your weight hits a plateau, is there a prescribed amount of calories to get it move up once again? ie: add 200 cal and it will move, or more like keep adding bit by bit and see what the number is?

I've been finding it difficult to keep adding calories right now to break over this weight plateau as I feel full most of the time and sometimes get nauseous. I would like to add some liquid calories to an additional 300 cal but wondering if I should add more.

My stats:

43 yr old male with wife and 4 kids
BW went from 160lb in Jan/17 - 174lb yesterday
Moderate to severe chron's disease, currently on Humira, with 2 small bowels resections since Sept 2010.
Lifts:
SQ - 275#
Dead - 325#
Bench - 195#
Press - 130#

These are all 3 sets of 3 fyi.

Thanks again

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Hey Jordan

Really enjoying the Barbell Medicine podcasts/Q&A's you and Austin are putting out, keep up the great work.

Something came up on a recent q/a about weight gain and you suggested the lifter add a glass of milk to every meal and see if it moves the dial and basically titrate up the calories to keep the dial moving up.

My question, once your weight hits a plateau, is there a prescribed amount of calories to get it move up once again? ie: add 200 cal and it will move, or more like keep adding bit by bit and see what the number is?

There is no set number, but I like the 100-500cal range depending on context.

I've been finding it difficult to keep adding calories right now to break over this weight plateau as I feel full most of the time and sometimes get nauseous. I would like to add some liquid calories to an additional 300 cal but wondering if I should add more.

Yea, eating is going to be uncomfortable at times, which is a bummer I get for sure. That said, you'll get used to it.

43 yr old male with wife and 4 kids
BW went from 160lb in Jan/17 - 174lb yesterday
Moderate to severe chron's disease, currently on Humira, with 2 small bowels resections since Sept 2010.
Lifts:
SQ - 275#
Dead - 325#
Bench - 195#
Press - 130#

These are all 3 sets of 3 fyi.

Thanks again

My other question is why are we doing sets of 3?

[Grunter]

I had a feeling mentioning the 3's would raise questions.

I started failing and I knew two things, recovery was an issue and my form will need work. So being that it's a bit harder for me to control my recovery with having crohns and coaching is not going to happen at the moment, I tried switching to doing 3's.

I'm still able to add 5# to the sq and dead weekly and 2.5 on the presses.

I'm doing one heavy day with the threes and one lighter day 5x5 at 10-15% less for some volume.

I suspect it's not the best way to go about things.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I had a feeling mentioning the 3's would raise questions.

I started failing and I knew two things, recovery was an issue and my form will need work. So being that it's a bit harder for me to control my recovery with having crohns and coaching is not going to happen at the moment, I tried switching to doing 3's.

I'm still able to add 5# to the sq and dead weekly and 2.5 on the presses.

I'm doing one heavy day with the threes and one lighter day 5x5 at 10-15% less for some volume.

I suspect it's not the best way to go about things.

I mean, if you're making progress keep it going, but I would encourage you to train 3x/wk and stick more to 4-6's than 3's

[Grunter]

Thanks for the advice Jordan, I will try to incorporate 4-6 range, just an fyi...

My weekly training goes like this:

Heavy = 3x3
Light = 5x5 with 10-15% drop from Heavy day.

Each week increase by 5lb on deads and squats and 2.5lb on pressing.

So,
Monday - Heavy Bench/Light Press
Tuesday - Heavy Squat/SGDL
Wednesday - Heavy Press/Light Bench
Thursday - Heavy Dead/Light Squat
Friday - Heavy Bench/Light Press

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Thanks for the advice Jordan, I will try to incorporate 4-6 range, just an fyi...

My weekly training goes like this:

Heavy = 3x3
Light = 5x5 with 10-15% drop from Heavy day.

Each week increase by 5lb on deads and squats and 2.5lb on pressing.

So,
Monday - Heavy Bench/Light Press
Tuesday - Heavy Squat/SGDL
Wednesday - Heavy Press/Light Bench
Thursday - Heavy Dead/Light Squat
Friday - Heavy Bench/Light Press

Yea that's not so bad. If it's working well, keep going!