T Nation

How Long Does It Take to Gain?

Beginners
#1

So for about two weeks now I have been eating around 3000 calories a day. I made a diet plan where I eat about 6-7 meals every day every 2-3 hours. Greens and fruit with each meal all the good stuff I read about.

I’m 130 right now and 5’11. I hopped on the scale to hope to see a difference but was still 130… I was hoping for at least one pound I mean come on!
Before I use to barley eat. So will it take time for my body to get used too or whats the scoop? I know I am eating more because I have a log and im constantly hungry if I don’t get food every 30 mins to an hour or so hah.

Will it just take more time?
Thank you!

PS: I’m currently not training anything since I’m about to move to the city. I go to the school to do pull-ups on the bars and push ups.

#2

Lol, train.

#3

What are you hoping to gain in? If you aren’t training anything, isn’t it reasonable to assume you might just gain fat?

#4

Let’s say you’re eating a 500 calorie surplus and training 4 times a week, each training session burns about 400 calories.

You burn 1600 calories a week, but eat 3500 calories excess in 7 days, that gives you 1900 excess every week.

Since a 1 pound gain is equivalent to 3500 calories, it will take almost 2 weeks to see a 1lb. gain.

#5

[quote]50_Caliber wrote:
Let’s say you’re eating a 500 calorie surplus and training 4 times a week, each training session burns about 400 calories.

You burn 1600 calories a week, but eat 3500 calories excess in 7 days, that gives you 1900 excess every week.

Since a 1 pound gain is equivalent to 3500 calories, it will take almost 2 weeks to see a 1lb. gain.[/quote]

Isn’t that for a pound of fat? I have no clue about this and am merely asking. But aren’t fat and muscle quite different, considering that muscle has a higher need for calories to be maintained (Make’s me think that it would take even more calories to create new muscle, due to as soon as it is created it would start a need for more calories to maintain it?)

#6

Yeah, that is for a lb. of fat, I don’t know how many calories a pound of muscle would take so those figures would probably be low, it might take around 4000 calories to gain a pound of muscle.

So the best he could hope for is maybe a pound every 3 weeks, but that’s based on my guess for a pound of muscle.

#7

5’11", 130 lbs?

Do your friends call you the human letter opener?

Time to cut.

#8

[quote]RebornTN wrote:
What are you hoping to gain in? If you aren’t training anything, isn’t it reasonable to assume you might just gain fat?[/quote]

I’m skinny enough as it is and I am pretty sure a few pounds of fat is not going to kill me. Okay guess I will start to train then thanks!

Also I just hear of guys bulking and gaining like 10 pounds in a month so yea.

#9

10 lbs in a month is not uncommon. You must train, though.

After barely eating for so long, I’d think you would gain quickly. Again, though, you’re not demanding anything extra from your body. Start lifting and you’ll surprise yourself.

#10

[quote]JayPierce wrote:
10 lbs in a month is not uncommon. You must train, though.

After barely eating for so long, I’d think you would gain quickly. Again, though, you’re not demanding anything extra from your body. Start lifting and you’ll surprise yourself.[/quote]

10lbs a month of lean muscle? Clean?

#11

I was 126 before, so actually skinnier then u. Now I’m like 6 ft over 170 still skinny but, looking alot better then before. I’m not posting pics again until I hit 200 +.

This was just my first year lifting. I didn’t even count calories to much, just ate over 3000 to 4000 calories and lifted

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/pictures_pics_photo_body_image_performance/126_10bf_to_155_1415bf

#12

[quote]appro wrote:
JayPierce wrote:
10 lbs in a month is not uncommon. You must train, though.

After barely eating for so long, I’d think you would gain quickly. Again, though, you’re not demanding anything extra from your body. Start lifting and you’ll surprise yourself.

10lbs a month of lean muscle? Clean?[/quote]

I went from 170-198 in ten weeks and only gained a half inch on my waist. So I guess it wasn’t completely clean, but pretty good.

No supps other than a protein shake a day. The rest was lifting and diet.

#13

Most humans can only gain 0.5 - 1 lb of lean muscle per week without the use of steroids.

If your putting on any more then that, your probably putting on a lot of fat as well.

CT has written an article about the best way to bulk.

READ IT!

LR

#14

That was an excellent read! Thank you! It even told me how many cals I should consume for my body weight! Awesome!

I read half of it before but never got through the whole thing. I read the whole thing over again and it helped.

So if I start training, stick to a clean diet with the amount of calories needed. I can gain muscle and look better? Woo!

But honestly, being 130 and 5’11. I think a few pounds of fat is actually needed.

#15

I agree to a certain extent. After your newbie gains, I agree that you can pretty much gain a max of 1lb per week. If you’ve been starving yourself and haven’t been training, you’ll see a tremendous gain in strength, and a gain in weight well above average.

It’s just like a lifter that has been out of training for a year. It’s not going to take him very long to get back to the strength and bodyweight that he left off at. Same goes for a person who has never lifted before. You go from one equilibrium to another very quickly.

#16

[quote]50_Caliber wrote:
Let’s say you’re eating a 500 calorie surplus and training 4 times a week, each training session burns about 400 calories.

You burn 1600 calories a week, but eat 3500 calories excess in 7 days, that gives you 1900 excess every week.

Since a 1 pound gain is equivalent to 3500 calories, it will take almost 2 weeks to see a 1lb. gain.[/quote]

Keep in mind that your body and metabolism can adjust to a certain level of caloric intake. Rather than have this guy do arithmetic, someone should teach him how to read his own body.

How long will it take?

About 3 weeks. Be patient.