T Nation

Stuck at 185 for the Past Year

Supplements and Nutrition
#1

Ok heres my problem. I’ve been stuck at 185lbs for the past year and I have been up to 194 but i came right down and yes i have dieted right (my intake is around 4600cal with near 400g protein and 250g carbs and about 177g of fat) I do lift hard and get a good amount of rest everynight and I use good supplements (ive even gone as far as using prohormones but stopped because im only 19).

My goal is to get to 195 for the football season and maintain. So can anyone give me some advice on maybe what the problem is.

#2

There are a lot of things you didn’t address with this post, but if you aren’t gaining weight then I think it is safe to say you aren’t taking in enough calories.

I think this post is TSB.

Christopher

#3

Eat more food, more protein, and lift more weight. The end.

#4

Most people Do not eat High Calories DAILY. ALot of people that ‘bulk’ have very sporadic eating habbits. They eat alot one day, a little the next, medium next day etc etc. You have to be consistent.

#5

more carbs.

#6

[quote]qbennis5 wrote:
I have been up to 194 but i came right down and yes i have dieted right (my intake is around 4600cal with near 400g protein and 250g carbs and about 177g of fat) I do lift hard and get a good amount of rest everynight and I use good supplements (ive even gone as far as using prohormones but stopped because im only 19). [/quote]

I don’t get it. I didn’t think like this at 19. Hell, I was on this board just after that age so the way some of you think is just baffling to me. You lost weight…but thought this meant you “dieted right”???

You only “dieted right” if your goal was to lose weight. Since it isn’t, YOU DIETED WRONG.

No one had to put the pieces of the puzzle together for me like this…especially not at an age when I was already considered a freaking adult.

Is it just me? Am I the abnormal one and all of these people who lack common sense are the “normal” people??

#7

[quote]qbennis5 wrote:
So can anyone give me some advice on maybe what the problem is. [/quote]
The “problem” is… you aren’t eating enough. That’s the simple answer to any “I can’t gain weight” question.

How tall are you? What’s your current best squat, bench, deadlift, row, and shoulder press?

What, exactly, did you eat yesterday?

Why is your goal just 10 pounds? What position do you play? What does your lifting plan look like?

You’re supposedly taking in 4600 calories, with less than 25% of them coming from carbs. There’s one easy solution right there.

Straighten out your peri-workout nutrition, having a shake before and during your weight training. That can add an easy 700+ calories on training days. Surge Recovery would be the basic choice, but the Anaconda Protocol is built on this principle.

#8

I think we should have the board setup some kind of way so that when guys asks questions like this they get a PM that says, “EAT MORE!” so we don’t have to keep telling them all the same thing.

And since you say you are putting on weight for football, I am betting that you are also lacking in compound lifts in your workouts or you are doing them way too light and not concentrating on getting stronger if you are doing them.

#9

[quote]lewhitehurst wrote:
I think we should have the board setup some kind of way so that when guys asks questions like this they get a PM that says, “EAT MORE!” so we don’t have to keep telling them all the same thing.

And since you say you are putting on weight for football, I am betting that you are also lacking in compound lifts in your workouts or you are doing them way too light and not concentrating on getting stronger if you are doing them.[/quote]

Yeah.

Sometimes I honestly wonder, how do people think they will gain weight without eating more food? Where the fuck is the muscle supposed to come from, thin fucking air? Here’s a 3 step process for them:

Body’s tool to build muscle=food

I am not building more muscle.

Increase food. The end.

#10

[quote]lewhitehurst wrote:
I think we should have the board setup some kind of way so that when guys asks questions like this they get a PM that says, “EAT MORE!” so we don’t have to keep telling them all the same thing.

And since you say you are putting on weight for football, I am betting that you are also lacking in compound lifts in your workouts or you are doing them way too light and not concentrating on getting stronger if you are doing them.[/quote]

Maybe a few lines of code, like:

If
post_contain (“Can’t gain weight”)
Then
PM_“EAT MORE”

/delete thread

Most likely, there is a computer coder reading this and facepalming at the horrible structure and semantics of this pseudo-code, but the idea is nice.

#11

[quote]optheta wrote:
Most people Do not eat High Calories DAILY. ALot of people that ‘bulk’ have very sporadic eating habbits. They eat alot one day, a little the next, medium next day etc etc. You have to be consistent.[/quote]

One of my friends is in a similar boat where he does not gain weight easily…I tell him to get to 5000 cals daily, but like opetha said, its 5000 cals one day 1800 the next…consistency is key, and if you lost weight you certainly did not diet right like X said…be consistant and the gains will come…POST YOUR DIET AND WORKOUT ROUTINE and we will tell you if you “dieted right” and if you “train hard”

#12

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]qbennis5 wrote:
I have been up to 194 but i came right down and yes i have dieted right (my intake is around 4600cal with near 400g protein and 250g carbs and about 177g of fat) I do lift hard and get a good amount of rest everynight and I use good supplements (ive even gone as far as using prohormones but stopped because im only 19). [/quote]

I don’t get it. I didn’t think like this at 19. Hell, I was on this board just after that age so the way some of you think is just baffling to me. You lost weight…but thought this meant you “dieted right”???

You only “dieted right” if your goal was to lose weight. Since it isn’t, YOU DIETED WRONG.

No one had to put the pieces of the puzzle together for me like this…especially not at an age when I was already considered a freaking adult.

Is it just me? Am I the abnormal one and all of these people who lack common sense are the “normal” people?[/quote]

Amen!

#13

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Is it just me? Am I the abnormal one and all of these people who lack common sense are the “normal” people?[/quote]

Nope.

I’m frequently amazed at ridiculous shit like this. It’s rampant…

#14

[quote]MODOK wrote:
The last thing I remember is him saying that thereâ??s a price to pay for everything. He then opened his mouth and showed me the five crowns that he had. He displayed this like they were medals of honor.[/quote]

Bring a toothbrush with you everywhere? lol

#15

Train heavy, eat heavy, get heavy.

#16

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]qbennis5 wrote:
I have been up to 194 but i came right down and yes i have dieted right (my intake is around 4600cal with near 400g protein and 250g carbs and about 177g of fat) I do lift hard and get a good amount of rest everynight and I use good supplements (ive even gone as far as using prohormones but stopped because im only 19). [/quote]

I don’t get it. I didn’t think like this at 19. Hell, I was on this board just after that age so the way some of you think is just baffling to me. You lost weight…but thought this meant you “dieted right”???

You only “dieted right” if your goal was to lose weight. Since it isn’t, YOU DIETED WRONG.

No one had to put the pieces of the puzzle together for me like this…especially not at an age when I was already considered a freaking adult.

Is it just me? Am I the abnormal one and all of these people who lack common sense are the “normal” people??[/quote]

You’re now one of the abnormal people considering you actually APPLIED what you read and heard on the way up, something which people stopped doing since the popularity of the internet and fitness websites.

I’m as floored as you are. I think I knew at age 10 or younger that to get bigger - fatter or more muscular - people have to eat more. Why grown adults don’t know this is beyond me.

And like I’ve said numerous times, with such a lack of common sense and inductive and deductive reasoning demonstrated on this site, I still don’t understand how some people pass courses in school, obtain degrees, and hold down jobs. If I were a hiring manager, I’d be pretty hesitant - or totally resistant - to putting these people in any position in which they need to use judgment and decision or EXECUTE.

Most skinny, overweight, and obese people lie out of omission, ignorance, stupidity, or embarrassment. That is, they don’t intend to lie or be malicious. They just don’t know what they’re talking about or are embarrassed to admit the truth - underfeeding, overfeeding, and admission of not knowing what they’re doing with nutrition.

Only in the most exceptional cases do people have EXTREME difficulty in controlling weight either way, such as in SERIOUS psychiatric disorders like food addiction, bulimia, anorexia, Cushing and Prader Wili syndromes, AIDS, hypo- or hyperthyroidism, and various pituitary disorders. Most other people are full of shit and don’t know what they’re doing.

Fat people will say they eat nothing all day.

Skinny people, especially dudes trying to gain muscle, will say, “I eat all day. I eat so much.” Then you find out they don’t eat breakfast, or if they do it’s a fuckin’ bagel with cream cheese or a bowl of some shit dry cereal or some two-egg-one-slice-of-cheese sandwich, the same intake that’s enough to feed geriatrics in a nursing home sitting around all day and small women. They think two slices of pizza is eating a lot.

You’ll hear from underweight people all the time, "I can’t gain weight. I eat all day.

I do give this guy a lot of credit for actually calculating how much he’s eating though. That’s pretty important considering he wants to really dial in on this thing.

#17

[quote]MODOK wrote:
This is Dave Tate’s story about how he gained weight. You should read this, then do something similar…

There was a member of our team who was known for gaining and losing extreme amounts of weight over short periods of time. Iâ??d personally seen him go from 220 lbs to single heavyweights and then back to 220 lbs in the same year. He trained in a different group from me though, so I didnâ??t have the access to him that I needed.

One day, for whatever reason, he came to train with us in the morning crew, and I asked him how to gain weight. I explained my situation and told him that I couldnâ??t get my weight over 280 lbs no matter what I tried. Training was over for the day, so he looked at me and said, “I never told you my weight gain secret?” I told him he hadnâ??t but that I would love to know. He gave me a little head flick thing to motion that we had to go outside. I knew I was about to receive gold.

We stepped outside, and after twenty minutes of listening to a bunch of scientific words I didnâ??t understand, I let him know that I didnâ??t care about the details. I just wanted to gain weight. He then proceeded to give me my plan…

Breakfast: Three sandwiches from McDonalds with one pack of mayo and one hash brown smashed inside each one.

Lunch: As much Chinese food as I could eat as long as I was sweating at the end. Oh and ask for extra MSG.

Dinner: One large pizza with everything I liked on it. I was to put the pie on the coffee table, pour olive oil and salt all over it, and begin eating as fast as I could, trying to eat the entire pie before 20 minutes had elapsed. (I guess it takes that long for your mind to be signaled that youâ??re full.)
If I couldnâ??t finish it, I was to leave the pie on the table and realize it was that pie that was keeping me from my goals. I was told it was a personal battle between me and the pie, and I had to understand that if I didnâ??t eat it all, it was just as bad as missing a PR on the bench. In fact, he told me it would be the reason why I did miss the PR in the first place.

Snacks: Two Hershey bars every 1â??1.5 hours. I was to have these with me at all times, and there was never a reason not to eat them. They take no time, and if I could excuse myself at work to take a piss, I could easily eat two bars in the time it takes to use the restroom. If I was full or didnâ??t want to chew, I was to break it in pieces and toss it in my mouth. "It will melt down,â?? he said.

I was then told that weight gain meant controlling insulin and blood sugar. He told me how this plan would never cause drops in either because both would always be high. This was also why I was to never miss the bars.

The last thing I remember is him saying that thereâ??s a price to pay for everything. He then opened his mouth and showed me the five crowns that he had. He displayed this like they were medals of honor.[/quote]

To me this sounds like a fast road to diabetes. I do agree with the “eat til you can’t eat any more” philosophy but I still think food quality is important.

OP, why is your protein so high yet your carbs are so low? I eat around 220g of protein and 450g of carbs per day with about 130g of fat. About 4000 calories in total and when i’m consistant with this I gain very fast. Don’t go off my current stats, I have lost a huge amount of weight recently but believe me when I say I gained 26lbs in less than 3 months when I was consistant with this breakdown.

#18

“Diet right, Good amount of rest, lift hard, good supplements”? Rather subjective and general terms no?

I’m guessing one or more of those areas are not “right, hard, or good”

#19

[quote]deniall wrote:

[quote]MODOK wrote:
This is Dave Tate’s story about how he gained weight. You should read this, then do something similar…

There was a member of our team who was known for gaining and losing extreme amounts of weight over short periods of time. I�¢??d personally seen him go from 220 lbs to single heavyweights and then back to 220 lbs in the same year. He trained in a different group from me though, so I didn�¢??t have the access to him that I needed.

One day, for whatever reason, he came to train with us in the morning crew, and I asked him how to gain weight. I explained my situation and told him that I couldnÃ?¢??t get my weight over 280 lbs no matter what I tried. Training was over for the day, so he looked at me and said, “I never told you my weight gain secret?” I told him he hadnÃ?¢??t but that I would love to know. He gave me a little head flick thing to motion that we had to go outside. I knew I was about to receive gold.

We stepped outside, and after twenty minutes of listening to a bunch of scientific words I didnÃ?¢??t understand, I let him know that I didnÃ?¢??t care about the details. I just wanted to gain weight. He then proceeded to give me my plan…

Breakfast: Three sandwiches from McDonalds with one pack of mayo and one hash brown smashed inside each one.

Lunch: As much Chinese food as I could eat as long as I was sweating at the end. Oh and ask for extra MSG.

Dinner: One large pizza with everything I liked on it. I was to put the pie on the coffee table, pour olive oil and salt all over it, and begin eating as fast as I could, trying to eat the entire pie before 20 minutes had elapsed. (I guess it takes that long for your mind to be signaled that you�¢??re full.)
If I couldn�¢??t finish it, I was to leave the pie on the table and realize it was that pie that was keeping me from my goals. I was told it was a personal battle between me and the pie, and I had to understand that if I didn�¢??t eat it all, it was just as bad as missing a PR on the bench. In fact, he told me it would be the reason why I did miss the PR in the first place.

Snacks: Two Hershey bars every 1�¢??1.5 hours. I was to have these with me at all times, and there was never a reason not to eat them. They take no time, and if I could excuse myself at work to take a piss, I could easily eat two bars in the time it takes to use the restroom. If I was full or didn�¢??t want to chew, I was to break it in pieces and toss it in my mouth. "It will melt down,�¢?? he said.

I was then told that weight gain meant controlling insulin and blood sugar. He told me how this plan would never cause drops in either because both would always be high. This was also why I was to never miss the bars.

The last thing I remember is him saying that there�¢??s a price to pay for everything. He then opened his mouth and showed me the five crowns that he had. He displayed this like they were medals of honor.[/quote]

To me this sounds like a fast road to diabetes. I do agree with the “eat til you can’t eat any more” philosophy but I still think food quality is important.

OP, why is your protein so high yet your carbs are so low? I eat around 220g of protein and 450g of carbs per day with about 130g of fat. About 4000 calories in total and when i’m consistant with this I gain very fast. Don’t go off my current stats, I have lost a huge amount of weight recently but believe me when I say I gained 26lbs in less than 3 months when I was consistant with this breakdown.[/quote]

And what did your weight/height/lifts look like at that point?

#20

I like the part where the thread said “Eat more”.