Cant seem to gain weight, are my macros wrong?

[timls168]

Stats:
41 years old, Male
5'5, 136lbs (started at 132), BF% ~18% (started ~16%)
Squats: 200lbs (115 start)
Bench: 165lbs (105 start)
Press: 95lbs (55 start)
DLift: 250lbs (135 start)
Daily Caloric intake: 2700-2800cals, C 40% F 30% P 30%

I have been "exercising" the past 15 years and just started to really "train" with SSLP the past (almost) 2 months. My lifts have been improving, but I did have to back off a bit when I started feeling knee pain after squatting. Luckily I was able to visit a SSC gym and it really helped with my form and resolved my knee pain (mostly due from knee slides, was not shoving my knees out enough and was not keeping my chest up).

I feel like my weight gain is too slow and fear that at this rate I will start to stall on my lifts earlier than expected. Likewise, given that I am already at 18% BF after only 4 lbs of weight gain, my macros might be skewed the wrong way. If so, based on my age and build, what would be a better macro profile? Likewise, am I eating enough? I track my calories through myfitnesspal so I am sure they are more or less accurate.

Thanks any help would truly be apprecaited.

[Karl Schudt]

I wouldn't worry about bodyfat at this point. Going from 16% to 18% is rather a precise measurement. How do you know this to be true?

Keep the lifts going up. When they start to get hard, add some carbs.

If I were setting your macros, I would take the protein down (150-160g), drop the fat to 70g, and fill in the rest with carbs.

[timls168]

Thanks for the response Karl! I have the weighing scale with the body fat measurement as well although I am pretty sure it's not the most accurate way, but I just try to see if the trend is going up or down.

Thanks for the tip on the macros. I will try this out for the next two weeks and will update.

[Karl Schudt]

The scale's measurement is not accurate. Disregard it and put some weight on the barbell.

Good luck!

[Adam Levine]

If you really like having a percentage that you can do on the cheap (like I do), use the Navy Body Fat formula.

It isn't terribly accurate, but it's more accurate than an electrozappy scale, and it's consistent (no wild daily swings). It gives a good sense if you're going up or down if used periodically.

I've been using it every week, just because for some reason I think the number "16% body fat" is more meaningful that "34 inch waist". In reality, it isn't, but at least it isn't a harmful delusion.

Sanity check any percentage you get (even DEXA) with an honest visual: Estimating Body fat percentage (bf %) | Largest collection of Body Fat percentage Pictures | Know your Body fat % | Lean Body Mass | Fat Mass | Fat Free Mass | Body Weight | Lean body weight. If the visual is way off, the machine is wrong.

I figure in your 40s, the healthiest range is about 18-23%. Any lower and a wasting disease like influenza or some cancers become a more serious threat since you don't have the body fat to survive them as long. Higher and you start getting health-related obesity problems. But, that won't make you a fitness model.

-->Adam

[Geoffc]

Here is an interesting approach that uses your 1RM relative to height/weight/age to calculate body fat. It put me in the same ballpark as the other BF measurements I have tried.

Body Fat Calculator – Strongur

[Karl Schudt]

Here is an interesting approach that uses your 1RM relative to height/weight/age to calculate body fat. It put me in the same ballpark as the other BF measurements I have tried.

Body Fat Calculator – Strongur

Huh. That's pretty interesting. I want to read the paper. It says I'm 15.6% BF.

[Paulbfast]

18.7% BF

I use a Tanita Dual Frequency scale. It is very sensitive to hydration levels. I measure at the same time every day. I got it because I got some skin fold calipers. When I measured it I came up with 7% body fat. I knew that wasn't right. I wasn't reading the chart correctly.

All three of these are in the same ballpark of about 20%.

Thanks for link.

[Paulbfast]

I will add that that I had a single impedance scale before. I didn't like it as well. It showed about a 3% higher body fat percentage than the dual one.

[Karl Schudt]

The impedance scales aren't really accurate. Don't rely on them. Plus, why do we care about bodyfat percentage? What does the number matter? Jim Wendler said somewhere: who cares how much you weigh? How awesome are you?

Measure your awesomeness, not your bodyfat percentage. Or, at least, don't worry about it too much.