Does he know what he is talking about or am i messing up?

[Streetjudas]

Flash back until a year ago. I started lifting, doing Reddit PPL. I was 84kg. Prior to that I had done sort of crash diet (no lifting) Which got me very fast from 94-84kg. I was lifting for 5 months, the first 3 months I was eating 1800 calories and no result. Strength was barely increasing at all. I was not losing any weight. Outside of lifting 5-6 days a week I was living a very sendentary lifestyle. I wasn't walking or really doing anything outside of lifting. The 2 months after that I was eating around 2000 calories, and still not really a change, either physically in terms of how I look or my strength or weight. I get so demotivated from 5 months of no results that I stop lifting. A few months go by and I just naturally get back to 89kg from not lifting or really doing anything. Last 3 or so weeks I started lifting again. After watching a video from moreplatesmoredates talking about metabolism I thought that's where my problem could be. That maybe my crash diet was the cause for the problem. I started talking with some guy on Discord whho told me that I needed to increase my calories by a lot. So first week back after all this time and at 89kg I was eating at 2400-2500 calories. I noticed that weight was going down so I increased calories to 2900. This is what I have eaten at now for the past 1 week and 3 days. The goal was to keep going up until I managed to find my maintainance.

I have now gone all the way up to 92kg. Already by wednesday last week I hit 91.9kg and for like the past 4 days I have been at 92kg. So I think this is my maintainance. My strength has increased quite a bit now, which makes sense considering the fact that I was eating more and gaining weight. This time around I also try to aim for 10k steps per day. I haven't gone a day yet without hitting minimum 6k steps outside of lifting. I do PPL as well so I lift 5-6 days per week outside of that which I mentioned. This guy is telling me that I should get even heavier than I currently am, because he said that my goal should be to get visably lean while getting heavier. I feel super uncomfortable being 92kg at 178 cm or 5'10. At this point. Doing 10k steps per day, lifting 5 days per week, wouldn't it be fine to go down to 2600 calories or something and start cutting? Or should I listen to this guy and just keep eating more?

Before anyone says anything about me misscalculating any food and I all along ate more than I thought. Used 2 different scales. Wrote all info up online. Made other people double check. Have checked my hormone levels, test and all that. It's all the way it should be. So nothing is wrong on that end. Just based off the information given. What exactly should I do? My goal is literally to lean out and I feel like I am just eating more and more now. I really don't want to gain more weight. At the same time I am scared that if I was to start cutting now I will plateau after eating at 2500 for a while which will cause me to cut even more and once I get to 84kg I will be stuck again. Please can someone tell me what I should do? Someone who has experience with this sort of thing.

[faithbrah]

you can't know if you're at maintenance after 4 days of no weight gain, it takes longer than that. based on the timeline you also judged that your weight was going down after 11 days of 2500 calories, which again, is not enough time to tell what's really happening to your weight

[paulinkansas]

Do the dickey doo test. Read my old post.

[xsquid99]

It takes multiple weeks to see if you're really in a deficit, maintenance or surplus (think at least 3-4 weeks). Nobody gets leaner while putting on weight, unless you're using unmentionable supplements. Any amount of weight gain will also come with fat gain as well as muscle gain, but the fat gain in a surplus will always outpace the muscle growth. So in a calorie surplus you will get fatter while building muscle. You can build *some* amount of muscle in a calorie deficit if you're fairly new to lifting, or back after a long layoff. You just have to keep the deficit fairly small and keep protein intake up while following a proven strength training program.

If you weren't losing weight you weren't in a calorie deficit, and it doesn't matter what you *think* you were eating. We have hundreds of years of documented famine, the holocaust, and eating disorders that prove that if you're in a calorie deficit you will literally whither away until you are nothing but skin and bones.

Post a photo for best advice, we can't really judge where you're at without one.

[Streetjudas]

you can't know if you're at maintenance after 4 days of no weight gain, it takes longer than that. based on the timeline you also judged that your weight was going down after 11 days of 2500 calories, which again, is not enough time to tell what's really happening to your weight

So how much longer should I be eating 2900 calories then? I just woke upp today and I weigh 92kg again. Now it has been 1 week and 3 day of eating 2900 calories.

[Streetjudas]

It takes multiple weeks to see if you're really in a deficit, maintenance or surplus (think at least 3-4 weeks). Nobody gets leaner while putting on weight, unless you're using unmentionable supplements. Any amount of weight gain will also come with fat gain as well as muscle gain, but the fat gain in a surplus will always outpace the muscle growth. So in a calorie surplus you will get fatter while building muscle. You can build *some* amount of muscle in a calorie deficit if you're fairly new to lifting, or back after a long layoff. You just have to keep the deficit fairly small and keep protein intake up while following a proven strength training program.

If you weren't losing weight you weren't in a calorie deficit, and it doesn't matter what you *think* you were eating. We have hundreds of years of documented famine, the holocaust, and eating disorders that prove that if you're in a calorie deficit you will literally whither away until you are nothing but skin and bones.

Post a photo for best advice, we can't really judge where you're at without one.

So what you are saying is that I should be eating this amount of calories for 3 to 4 weeks in total to really determine? As I just mentioned above I am now on 1 weeks and 3 days.