Should I gain weight

[Dlk93]

I'm 5'9", 175#. 4000+ calories a day. On GOMAD.

Squat: 225x3x5 (just got back to 225 from deloading to 185 from very bad hip flexor pain)
Press: 125x3x5
DL: 290x3x5
BP: 175x3x5 (de-loaded from 205, bc of "tendinitis or something" in my arms)

My lifts aren't slowing. Been on the program for about 2 months . I weighed 155 when in school. I graduated=more time=started to "workout". Got up to about 165 then found SS and GOMAD, which put me up to 175. But I appear to be lingering around 175. The only time I neared 180 was when I was gulping down two Mass Gainer shakes (about 3200cal total). But that got expensive and not worth the mere 5# increase. Should I just hover around 175?

[Christopher Anderson]

I'm assuming that you're pretty young being that you just graduated so attributing the stalled weight gain to your metabolism would be a safe bet. Are you using whole milk for GOMAD? Also you will sometimes have to eat dirty to get the weight moving on the scales, so if you're all about eating chicken and rice then you may want to throw more into your plan. Also what are you doing for work? If you're busting it doing manual labor as a job then yeah, you will need to eat more to gain. Just eat through your sticking points.

[Dlk93]

23 years old. Delivery driver at the moment so no manual labor (unless carrying a 5# pizza to a customer counts? no? Ok..) Whole milk, yes.

I think it's the eating "clean" that's killing me the most. Trying to manage 2000+ calories in chicken, tuna, ground beef and quinoa has become a challenge for me. Definitely saw a faster weight increase when dirtying things up, but it just ate at my conscious (no pun intended).

Regardless, I know what I have to do to gain: eat more. But my real question is SHOULD I gain more, given that my lifts aren't slowing down.

[Bryan Dobson]

Eat some of that pizza. When I was in high school delivering pizza the biggest perk was the undeliverable and Unpicked up takeout pizzas. Why in the hell,are you eating "clean"?

[Dlk93]

Depending what our definitions of "clean" and "dirty" are, dirty gets expensive and from time to time I give a damn about my general health and well being, call me crazy. (If it'll earn me some cool points with you I just got 4 McDoubles and snorted the patties and cheese.) worked at Pizza Hut for about 2 1/2 years (pathetic right) so sort of already wore out the free pizza deal; but it's still a viable option.

But again, I know what I WOULD need to do if I wanted to gain. I'm asking, should I, given the stated facts about my lifts.

[Bryan Dobson]

I think you could stand to gain 30 pounds.
Get your work sets up 200 pounds on squat, 75 on press
200 on deadlift and 100 on bmch

[Dlk93]

200# press for 3x5? Sheesh. Don't set the bar too low for me....

[Bryan Dobson]

Your young and not a cripple.
These numbers are not necessarily a goal for LP but you should make your way towards them.

[Dlk93]

I'll set ~200 as a goal. Will I lose my chiseled chesticles and my razzzzzzor abzzzz? Jk, @ 175 I hardly have a chest, let alone chesticles.

[Dlk93]

Like I said, I've only been at it for ~2 months. We'll see where I'm at in 4-6 months.