T Nation

Where Does 20lbs 'instantly' Come From

Bigger Stronger Leaner
#1

Decided to really make “Bigger Stronger” a priority, ramped up the food and lifting, jumped about 20 pounds in a matter of a couple weeks.

I know it isn’t 20 pounds of muscle, I know it isn’t 20 pounds of fat. But I doubt that it’s 20 pounds of undigested food/water in my belly because my bathroom schedule, you know, um, good to go there. What is it?

I have a few theories, and it maybe be that all of them are partially correct and add up to 20 pounds as a whole, but I don’t think I was eating enough to begin with.

My diet right now is around 4000 calories and 250g protein per day, sometimes more, very rarely less. That sounds like a lot, BUT I’m 6’4", spend 3 nights a week in boxing/BJJ in addition to lifting, and even on my “off” days I have a 2 year old to chase around. I need a lot of calories.

My old lady is a nurse and said she’s only seen that sort of rapid weight gain in people recovering from illness/surgery. Maybe I’ve been underweight this whole time and I should’ve been 220 all along. (Based on what I’m eating now, I bet I was getting half the calories and protein for months or even years before this)

Any ideas?

#2

I’m using this routine with a few tweaks for my schedule/equipment at home,

My lifts are laughable by T-Nation standards but getting better every week. I took beginning pics on 31 Mar, I’ll post updated pics in a couple months (if there is no “after” there’s really no use in “before”, right? Then it’s just “here’s some pics of me looking shitty” lol)

Feel good, already had a few folks notice a difference but not quite enough for them to know what the difference was (anything from “did you get new jeans?” to “did you shrink your shirt in the dryer?” ha)

#3

Almost guaranteed to be mostly water, possibly some glycogen. To what extent and proportion the remainder represents fat and muscle is something that we cannot tell you from this information alone, but a good starting point would be 1:1, particularly considering you are likely overeating given your rapid weight gain.

#4

Sounds like you were outputting more cals then you were consuming. Once you upped your cals your body started to repair and rebuild yourself adequately. PS send the weight gain fairy up here!! Still will be around 10 or so pounds of water weight I would guess? Still nice gains though.

#5

That’s probably it. A little muscle, a little fat, and I don’t think it’s “Those fries were WAY to salty” water retention, but maybe my muscles were like “FINALLY!” and soaked up everything I took in like a dry sponge for a while. I went up 20 in the first two weeks and 1.7 this week. That sounds a lot more reasonable, if not very exciting ha

As for the weight gain fairy, my girlfriend is always complaining that she likes to cook but doesn’t get a chance to very often, so I told her to make family sized meals and I’ll eat all of it myself lol She’s alright.

#6

[quote]Melvin Smiley wrote:
Any ideas?[/quote]

You were probably just under eating before. In weight gain studies there have been some people that have gained 10 lbs of pure lean mass in just 4 weeks by increasing their caloric intake by 700 calories per day. I’ve personally been able to put on 44 lbs in 7 weeks (26 lean) after a 10 week calorie deprivation that took me from 172 lbs to 143 lbs.

Reference:

Forbes GB, Brown MR, Welle SL, Lipinsk BA. Deliberate overfeeding in women and men: energy cost and composition of the weight gain. British Journal of Nutrition (1986), 56, 1-9.