Gained 35 pounds in 3 months, then stalled hard

[lewi0027]

So I was 6'1 and 141 pounds when I started lifting in September. I was doing calisthenics at the time but that was it. After getting my gym membership I hit squats extremely hard once a week along with a hard bench session. I worked out two other days hitting my upper body mainly and 1 medium deadlift and 1 easy leg press/squat day.

I was making immense progress, largely from forcing myself to eat 5 times a day and never letting myself stop eating. I was getting a tiny bit chubby, but I worked up to 176 pounds. At this weight in mid-december I took a knee injury from overworking myself on squats. My knee still has not recovered after three months of PT and several doctor visits, and squats are completely out of the regiment replaced by some split-leg squats and leg extension/hamstring curl exercises that I am doing much lighter, and the occasional light deadlift when my knee feels up to it. I am horribly asymmetric, which is obvious from looking at my shoulders in my photos, and is even worse in my hips.

I have gotten heavily discouraged lately. I am down to 169 pounds even though I am working out 5 days a week now, my caloric intake has dropped and I feel hesitant to start eating like a dump truck again when I am not doing squats or deadlifts. It seems like squats may never be possible at least at a max effort due to both of my knees moving to the left as opposed to symmetrically.

My body-fat has definitely increased, but after losing 6 or 7 pounds again I have leaned up a little bit.

I am trying to get my knee slowly back to health so that I can begin bulking again, but the process has been long and expensive without much fruits to date. I have reached a plateau on my bench (205 max and 1x5 at 185). My deadlift is at 195 right now just out of fear of knee injury but was at 275x3. My squat was ATG 205x5 before I hurt myself.

Thanks!

[SuffolkPunch]

You can't expect to gain more than about 2lbs of muscle a month and that's under ideal circumstances (with proper gym etc) so it's likely a lot of what you gained was fat... you can't rush this. I would maintain your weight or allow it to drop some - and see if you can continue to drop weight.

[lewi0027]

You can't expect to gain more than about 2lbs of muscle a month and that's under ideal circumstances (with proper gym etc) so it's likely a lot of what you gained was fat... you can't rush this. I would maintain your weight or allow it to drop some - and see if you can continue to drop weight.

I think that most of what I gained was water weight to be completely honest. I did definitely gain some fat and a little muscle, but I can still see my abs so I don't think I put on 30 pounds of fat.