Eating 4000cals, finding it hard to gain

[M12]

It never used to be this hard. I managed to bulk up to 205lbs with some fat gain a few months back and then went on a very strict cut. I lost around 12lbs, and since then ive found it very hard to gain, even though im consuming a large amount of calories.

In terms of cardio i only do kick boxing once a week, although where i work at part time, i tend to do a 9 hour shift of constant manual labour. I dont know exactly how many calories im burning during that period but im guessing thats where the problem is.

In the past month ive only managed to gain 3lbs.

I tend to cut down on carbs towards the evening. Would it be wise to carry on doing this? or would you say it isnt really a problem since i manage to get the 4000 calories i need?

I guess i just need to eat more. The reason why im going on about this, is because ive never really had this problem before, and it seems that the cut that i went on has seriously increased my metabolism.

edit: The only time when i dont watch my calorie intake is during the weekend. Still im sure im consuming at least maintenance calories and i know many of you have "cheat" weekends which dont really effect your progress.

[Kelei]

Gaining 1 pound per month while training hard is the best result possible, being disappointed because you happened to only gain 2 pounds of fat along with it instead of more is quite irrational.

Realistically a natural lifter, training and eating optimally can gain around 1 pound of lean tissue per month, if you're gaining 2 pounds per month it means you're gaining 1 pound of muscle and 1 pound of fat, if you're gaining 3 pounds per month it means you're gaining 1 pound of muscle and 2 pounds of fat. To put it simply, the more weight you gain per month (in excess of 1 pound), the more fat you are gaining.

Gaining 1 pound of muscle per month will result in 36 pounds of muscle in 3 years, does that seem unreasonable to you? Most people have absolutely no idea what 36 pounds of lean muscle will do in terms of changing thier physique.

Stop looking at your scale, in fact throw it out, scales are perhaps the greatest saboteurs of results that exist. Use your mirror, it can't lie.

Train hard, eat well and use your mirror to assess progress, if you notice that you're gaining fat you simply reduce calories, if you insist on taking measurements in order to satisfy your compulsion I suggest using a measuring tape, monitor your waist size, thigh size, arm size and torso (chest/back) size, as long as all the numbers except for your waist are going up then you're doing fine. If all your numbers stop going up you add calories, if your waist begins to increase it means you increased your calories too far.

Basically you manipulate calorie intake so that your thigh/arm/torso measurements are increasing but your waist measurement is not, with a bit of trial and error you will get the hang of it.

Throw your scale away, you won't regret it .

[M12]

Thanks mate appreciate it.

Im not expecting huge muscle gain every week, but looking back on the past i used to gain a lot quicker. However i was never lean back then and fat gain was quite visible so i guess this time round im actually taking a better approach.

Its true about the mirror. My chest is lacking a lot and despite my weight not changing much ive still had comments on the visible improvements. Its really hard not to rely on scales though.