Thread: Novice help

Hello, I'm 19 and started lifting recently. Started at 70kg 188cm and gained 7kg in 3 weeks, around 5 of them in the first week, also in the first week my waist like went from 73 to 78-80cm, but stayed the same since then, so I suplose so far I'm just gaining lots of water weight and glycogen, or so I hope. The issue is, people often advice to stay just barely above maintenance or at maintenance and gain strength, which I don't comprehend. Even in a surplus I already stalled. I started ss with 40kg squat, 60 bench, 30 press, 60 deadlift, after three weeks I already managed to fail on 70kg squat, 67.5 bench, 42.5 press and 97.5 deadlift. It coincided with me eating less because I didn't have the time. Also I exercised a bit before that, so I thought that maybe I'm gaining weight so fast has something to fo with muscle memory. Anyway, what would oyu suggest on nutrition? I started eating more now, today I'll see how it goes for the first time since my failed sessions on mon and wed. Thanks

Do you track your food intake (calories)? It's not totally clear how much you've been eating.

Originally Posted by DougyF7

Do you track your food intake (calories)? It's not totally clear how much you've been eating.

I started with 3500, but then stopped counting the exact amount, just estimating, I'm fairly good at it. Then for 2-3 days I dropped my intake to around 2500 and my sleep was bad because of my work, and after that I had three sessions, one I barely managed to hit my goals, two after that I failed on everything. Then I started eating more and now, again, estimating, it's 3500-4000 calories. My goal is 1234, or at least 1223 without becoming too fat, which for me is without having my gut sticking out and having 4 chins, don't care much about abs now