Thread: Gaining too fast

Hi guys

I've cut down and lost fat now I've been trying to bulk for the last month.

An online calorie calculator has put my TDEE at 2345. But yet even if I eat at 2400 calories I gain weight at a stupid rate at almost 1lb a day.

I'm assuming it's just water weight? At what point do I keep sticking it out to see if it slows down and what point do I start dialling back the calories?

You can't have been gaining 1lb a day for a month...

What are the actual numbers for the period you were bulking?

Originally Posted by SuffolkPunch

You can't have been gaining 1lb a day for a month...

What are the actual numbers for the period you were bulking?

No your right, this is just on the week when I started the bulk. I'll give you my numbers but I've adjusted the calories quite a lot out of sheer panic from gaining too much fat

21/04 2147 calories 152.5lbs
22/04 2278 152.2lbs
23/04 2464 152.8lbs
24/04 2466 154lbs
25/04 2251 153.4lbs
26/04 2157 155.2lbs
27/04 2159 154.4lbs
28/04 2255 153.2lbs
29/04 2252 154lbs
30/04 2252 153.8lbs
01/05 2141 154.6lbs
02/05 2071 154.6lbs
03/05 2113 153.8lbs
04/05 2103 153.8lbs
05/05 2149 153.4lbs
06/05 2210 153.2lbs
07/05 2347 152.4lbs
08/08 2353 152.6lbs
09/05 2382 154.4lbs
10/05 2355 155.4lbs
11/05 2398 155.2lbs
12/05 2400 154.8lbs
13/05 2417 155.4lbs
14/05 2350 156.2lbs
Today's weight this morning 154lbs

I hope this is clear for you. As you can see my weight has been quite erratic. I'm just trying to gain at 0.5lbs a week but it seems impossible to gauge what my calories need to be for that.

OK, so it looks like on average you were 290 calories over maintenance in that period. Your average calorie intake was 2269.

So your maintenance is around 2000.

Yes there are big swings from one day to the next but the method I used (OLS regression) is robust to noise.

I tried to regress it using calories as an input - but clearly an increase in calories triggers a disproportionate amount of weight change at the margin; which resulted in an excessive gradient.

Originally Posted by SuffolkPunch

OK, so it looks like on average you were 290 calories over maintenance in that period. Your average calorie intake was 2269.

So your maintenance is around 2000.

Yes there are big swings from one day to the next but the method I used (OLS regression) is robust to noise.

I tried to regress it using calories as an input - but clearly an increase in calories triggers a disproportionate amount of weight change at the margin; which resulted in an excessive gradient.

Nice one thanks for your help! So for a lean bulk at 0.5lbs a week does that mean I need to be looking at around 2250 calories a day?

The calorie calculators I've used seem to be way out then. But I know it's just an estimate to begin with

Originally Posted by AdamWW

Im curious about your activity level. This is a very low TDEE for someone at 5-11"

I thought so too tbh. I train 3 times a week doing fierce 5 and have an active job as an electrician. Do between 8 and 12k steps a day.

But as you can see from my numbers anywhere near 2400 calories and my weight seems to fly up?