Gaining too quickly

[leigh92]

Hi, I used to come here a lot like...a year and a half ago. I ended up losing my gym when I took a break from college to work, so I just started back up with lifting about 2 months ago. About 2.5 weeks ago I decided to try to do a slow bulk to gain some muscle, but I can't seem to get the calories right. I'm 5'4, about 109-109.5 lbs currently, and 19 years old. I've been trying to gain .5 lbs per week, but I've already gone from 106 lbs to over 109 lbs (so over 3 lbs gained already).

I calculated my bmr to be 1250 with the mifflin equation, and I was measured at my gym with calipers the other week and was told I was 16.5% bodyfat (I know they're not too accurate), and that gave me a bmr of 1255 with the Katch-whatever equation. I'm pretty active for doing a bulk (I walk around campus a lot...1.5-3 miles per school day, tae kwon do 3x per week for an hour, lift weights for 50 min 3x per week with a 10 minute cardio warm-up beforehand/5 min cool-down afterwards, and I have an African Dance class and a Pilates class for school 2x a week each). So I figured I was at least somewhere between moderately and very active, giving me a maintenance of about 2100 calories/day.

So I've been eating an average of 2300 calories a day to see how that would go. I stay between 115-140 grams of protein, 55-75 grams of fat, the rest in carbs. But I've gained like 3.5 lbs in less than 3 weeks. My waist has stayed the same size, but I do know that at least my butt and thighs have gotten larger (but I tend to gain weight in the legs/butt area rather than the waist). Is it normal to gain more weight at the beginning of a bulk, or should I try lowering my calories? I don't know if I'm overestimating my activity level or something. Thank you in advance

[freebirdmac]

Give it more time. Between muscle pump, possibly hormones, and more carbs you might see around 1 pound a week for awhile. I did the same thing for about a couple of months until it leveled off. That your waist hasn't increased is a good sign.

[andrerox80]

yeah, it'll take more than 3 weeks for things to settle down and for you to know what's up. also, how many cals were you eating prior to this? a big increase in cals and/or carbs can also make you 'gain' more at first but then it would definitely level off. i'd stick to those cals.

[leigh92]

Thanks for the responses I have one more question though. I'm up to 110.5 lbs now, so I've gained one more pound. But I appear to be losing fat...my thighs started touching a little over a week ago (with my feet together), and now I have like almost an inch between them again. And I look leaner in the stomach/legs and my ribs are starting to show. I'm so confused...I'm sure I can't be gaining that much muscle and losing that much fat! Anyone have an explanation for this? This started happening right after I ate a ton last weekend due to celebrations (got back to normal eating habits on monday) so I haven't dropped my calories or anything. And like I said, I'm still gaining weight.