Think My Nutrition is On Point, But Not Seeing Results

Lately I’ve been really frustrated with my current physique. I’m just not seeing the results I think I should be seeing, and I believe it may be because of something wrong in my diet.
I don’t think its an issue with my training… I train very hard (five days a week) and my strength has been increasing in all of my lifts at a pretty good pace.

I’ve been at this consistently for about four-five years now… Training hard and eating healthy, meal prepping every week, eating a pretty typical bodybuilder diet. FOR ABOUT FIVE YEARS!!! I dont know why it took me so long to reach out for help on here but I’m hoping someone can tell me what I’m doing wrong. My weight has stayed pretty much exactly the same since I started lifting, my physique has definitely improved but not as much as I think it should have for training this long. I’ve always been a naturally small and skinny person.

Anyway… here is some information about my diet for you guys to dissect:

I’m 25 years old. 5’7" and 143 lbs.

MACROS:
Carbs - 375g
Fat- 83g
Protein - 188g

3000 calories.

My diet consists of a lot of oatmeal, brown rice, bananas, and sweet potatoes for carbs. Peanut butter, olive oil, almonds, and pistachios for fats. And mostly chicken, ground turkey, and whey protein shakes for protein.

Somebody please tell me what I’m doing wrong here!

Train less (Or smarter) and eat more.

If your not gaining mass it’s down to lack of calories 99% of the time.

Diet is simple, eat what your currently eating and then eat more.

What’s your training look like?

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Eat more…if you’re not gaining weight and are still progressing in the gym then you need to eat more. Try adding an extra 500 calories to your diet and see if the scale starts to move.

Eat more. Your body adapts to certain caloric intakes, and the bodyweight times X amount isn’t always the rule. I was a freakin stick back in the day man, I had to eat uncomfortable amounts of food to gain weight. It takes a constant pattern of large meals, but you can actually alter your stomach distensibility. What yubs said, eat 500 more calories, and based on your macros, I’d get most of them through fats.

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Maybe add a bit of a lean grass-fed beef as a protien source? The fat profile is healthier than regular beef and I know it’s nice to take a break from chicken, chicken, chicken once in a while.

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The fact that you believe both of these shows your perspective is off. Or you have a major medical condition.

What, exactly, did you eat yesterday?

What does your training week look like? The days, exercises, sets, and reps.

What are your PRs on the big basic lifts?

The more detail we have, the better we can narrow down what needs fixing. But at the end of the day, if you’re eating 3,000 calories 7 days a week and not gaining bodyweight, you need eat more than 3,000 calories. 7 days a week.

Seeing as how those numbers come out to exactly 2,999 calories, I’m going to venture a guess that those are the numbers you came up with and that you might be aiming for, but I suspect you miss the mark more often than not. Again, what exactly did you eat yesterday?

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Ok here is a rundown of what I usually eat. I can add more details if necessary.

Breakfast:
1 cup Egg Beaters
1 tbsp or less of no sugar added ketchup
1 cup oats
1/2 scoop whey protein
1/2 cup oat milk or sugar free almond milk
2 tbsp natural PB

Meal 2:
6-7 oz chicken breast or ground turkey
8 oz brown rice
Asparagus or green beans (eyeballed)
(small amount of bbq sauce, hot sauce, etc.)

Meal 3:
6-7 oz. chicken breast or ground turkey
8-9 oz. sweet potatoes (no skin)
Asparagus or green beans (eyeballed)
(small amount of bbq sauce, hot sauce, etc.)

Meal 4:
6-7 oz. chicken breast or ground turkey
2 gluten free wraps
Handful of raw spinach or cooked peppers and onions
(small amount of bbq sauce, hot sauce, etc.)

Snacks between meals throughout the day:
Two bananas
A piece of sprouted multigrain toast
2 tbsp natural PB
1 cup Oikos triple zero Greek yogurt
50g Bear Naked vanilla granola
1-2 scoops of whey protein powder

That’s what a typically eat in a day… for the most part.

Things I tend to eat at the end of the night if I have the appetite left:
1-2 cups of cereal - shredded wheat or honey bunches of oats.
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
Handful of pistachios or almonds.
2 tbsp PB.

I realize that based on my meals my macros aren’t landing on the perfect ratio by the end of the day. But I believe they are pretty damn close (correct me if I’m wrong) I’m usually exceeding the 3,000 calorie mark anyway.

Yeah, not to be a dick, but that’s not what I asked. I asked “what exactly you ate yesterday” for a reason.

What you wrote looks good on paper, but I’m trying to show that there’s an issue with executing the plan in the real world. Eating the right calories 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for the last 5 years and no results? That just doesn’t happen.

For example, yesterday I had a protein shake during morning cardio; a protein shake, 3 eggs with kale, and coffee for breakfast; a workout drink while lifting in the afternoon; ground beef and roasted potatoes for dinner; and a protein shake with a spoon of peanut butter before bed.

The majority of times when I ask people for their real world diet-details, they’re simply not hitting their target, so fixing consistency is the solution. On the off-chance that you are 100% sticking to the plan, then it’s a matter of bumping up the calories and fine-tuning the training, in that order of priority.

Diet is top of the list, but you could be training with too much volume or frequency that’s tapping into your calories. There are plenty of solid 3-day bulking routines that work great.

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I train five days a week typically.
Cycling through this three day split for about four months now:

  1. Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
  2. Back/Biceps
  3. Legs

I like to train in higher rep ranges (10-15 reps) But I do throw in a low rep / heavy weight day every few weeks. I typically spend about an hour and a half in the gym. I squat and bench every week, but usually only do heavy conventional dead lifts every couple weeks.

Max Squat: 295
Max Bench: 225
Max Dead: 365

I honestly don’t do very much cardio, that’s something I should add into my training more routinely.

For the first few years of lifting I would do a typical “bro split” and didn’t focus very hard on increasing my bench, squat and dead lift. Which is something I really regret.

That is exactly what I ate yesterday. Taken directly off of my MyFitnessPal app from yesterday. Minus those late night snacks that I said I sometimes eat. And that is exactly what I eat for the most part throughout the week. I don’t switch up my meals very often.

On the weekends my diet does differ a little, typically from running around doing errands and going out to eat with friends. But I still hit my calories. Maybe not in the same way as the rest of week however. I’m not saying I’m 100% perfect with my diet but I’m a very consistent person when it comes to eating. Maybe not as consistent as i think? haha.

Where’s the beef? Don’t be afraid to add in a steak or some lean ground beef or hell even a burger. You sound like a typical ectomorph like myself. You may have to add a 5 meal to up the calories.

“1/2 cup oat milk or sugar free almond milk”, “6-7 oz chicken breast or ground turkey”, "Asparagus or green beans ", “Handful of raw spinach or cooked peppers and onions”.

If it was exact, there wouldn’t be any or’s.

YaThink

I’m guessing you’re pretty lean with ab definition and whatnot? If so, it means you definitely have wiggle room in terms of pushing the calorie-envelope, so sticking to a textbook bodybuilder’s diet isn’t totally necessary. Not saying Snickers bars for breakfast, but like Magnum said, a burger (or two) wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

The total amount of calories and macros don’t really matter if you’re not getting the results you want. However, I’m curious about your meat consumption. Are you weighing your food on a scale? When you say 6-7 ounces is that after cooking or before? Chicken loses about 30ish% of its weight while cooking. A 10 ounce chicken breast will only weigh 7 ounces (ballpark) after it’s cooked.

These are the details that you need to work out if you’re stuck. I’m trying to get away from being OCD about my food but I’ve been weighing and tracking for a long time. I can look back at a picture of myself, cross reference it with what I was eating and have an instant plan to re-obtain that physique (or adjust accordingly if I want to be bigger or smaller).

But in addition to that I’ve maintained 220-225 lbs on 2800 calories and 3600 calories. My training was different at those times but my metabolism changes and I have to adjust with it.

The simple answer to your problem is to increase calories.

You also didn’t give us your exact workout.

For example, here’s what I’m doing today:

Squat: 3 x 8 with 215 lbs
Deadlift: 3 x 8 with 275 lbs
Walking Lunges 3 x 8 ea with 35’s
RDLs: 3 x 8 with 155 lbs
Farmer’s Walk: 3 x 60 meters with 80s

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Would cycling through some kind of strength phase be helpful? At 5’7" and only 143 lbs there’s plenty of room to improve and working on absolute strength can only help but diet would have to reflect that type of training, also. Increasing calories is a top priority but maybe run a strength phase for a bit and then go back to hypertrophy just to change it up. 4-5 years is a long time to stick to one type of rep range AND see no progress in your bodyweight.

What do those more experienced than myself think about that?

This may not be the most popular answer… But if I were you and hadn’t seen any progress for 5 years, I’d go to a legitimate source of knowledge (read coach).

Spend $500 on a 30 day program with Stan Efferding and I bet you’d be on the right track in no time. Would probably be the best $500 you ever spent if you care about training/nutrition/gains/etc.

Edit: Even for someone who has seen progress… It’s probably beneficial to get some consultation from a reputable coach. If anything to see their approach and strategies. May learn something.

how your squat can be 295 and your bench 225 ? omfg hit the leg and you will grow man …you got your answer right there

Let me point out what I consider to be 2 major nutritional issues with this diet:
1) You have merely “trace” levels of saturated fat and cholesterol intake.
2) You have trace levels of omega-3s, while you actually have a moderate/high amount of omega-6s from nuts and peanut butter. I’d guess that you are getting about 1 gram of omega-3s (you should get 2-4 for basic health) and that you have about 15 grams of omega 6 which is not THAT BAD, if you were getting more omega 3s. Ideally, if you can get 3 grams of omega 3 and 6-8 omega-6 it would be perfect.

Saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet have very low correlations to blood cholesterol, and blood cholesterol does not even correlate to negative health issues overall in an otherwise healthy individual.

You could sub in coconut milk for other “milks” that are higher in omega 6. Almonds and pistachios are OK in their fat profile if you weren’t low on omega-3 to begin with. You could sub in macadamia, use full fat yogurt, add fish oil. Also don’t see any active vitamin A in your diet. Egg yolks and beef liver are good for that.

People will logically focus on calories and macro nutrients, but I would say you are absolutely deficient in omega-3 and saturated fat/cholesterol intake with regard to inflammation and hormones.

You might actually also benefit from MORE sodium.

Let’s break this down Barney-style. There is one simple answer to someone who’s weight has stayed the same for 5 years…YOU AREN’T EATING ENOUGH.
Chris is absolutely correct in that most people ‘think’ their diet is on point but few actually are aware of extar calories or garagbe that sneaks in.
The same thing also happens with regard to training. Everyone thinks they train hard but few actually push themselves (guilty at times myself).

The OP should add try adding an additional 500 calories /day to his diet until the scale starts to move.

yeah for 5 years lifting thats pathetic. Do this…

as Mertdawg said above substantially up your good fats and no more zero-fat greek yogurt BS

I’m not sure what article it was or who wrote it (what good am I)
But I remember reading about not gaining weight and tricks on how to fix that.

  1. Get mixed nuts and put them in your cup holder, every time you get in the car take a handful and eat em. Rough guesstimate 1/4 cup of raw mixed nuts has 160 calories so if you get in the car twice (one time to work, one time home) you’re already eating an extra 320 calories. Not including any other errands you have to run.
  2. Drink a protein shake after having one of your meals.

Did anyone else happen to read that article? Can you link it if you know which one I’m talking about?
GL OP