Struggling to eat at caloric surplus, gain muscle (lifting, legs, reduce)

[stealheadrun23]

As a life-long non-athlete (currently approaching late 20s) who just got into strength training about 2 years ago, I am struggling to gain muscle through a consistent lifting routine (I am following a linear progression program called PGLP: Phrak's Greyskull Linear Progression) because I cannot consistently sustain a caloric intake over maintenance (generally for more than a month at a time).

Before I started lifting a couple years ago, I started implementing a low-carb, high fat diet after reading about the correlation between ketogenic diets and alleviation of anxiety and depression in some studied patients. I have also heard many laypersons report they found this correlation to be valid in their personal experiences.

After experimenting myself, I found my anxiety and depression symptoms are drastically reduced when eating high-fat low-carb, compared to eating high-carb. I have intermittently attempted to return to a high carb diet in order to support my goal to gain muscle, and this completely wrecks my mental health. Even with consistent strength training and some amount of regular cardio, when on carbs I experience severe anxiety, a looming sense of doom, severely disrupted sleep and other similar things that inhibit goal-seeking.

The problem is, I am struggling to find a relatively affordable high-fat diet I can consistently eat at a surplus, without either experiencing some kind of digestive problem, or simply being unable to finish my meals without trigger nausea. For the past 10 months I have been experimenting with different meal plans and here is what I have learned about myself

Note: I do everything I can to avoid vegetable oils, added sugars, other weird processed ingredients

- I can eat 4 boiled eggs every day for a month, but if I keep persisting, I develop an egg intolerance, where eating any amount of egg will result in imminent vomitting; I discovered other people online have claimed to experience very similar symptoms; if I refrain from eating eggs for another month, I can go back to eating them regularly, so (purely from my experiential perspective and not informed by science) whatever mechanism is at play here has to do with some kind of build up
- with avacados I have a similar experience to eggs, I can eat them for a bit and then hit a limit
- peanuts and peanut butter cause dibilitating indigestion issues
- tomato-based pasta sauces are okay for a week or so but then I start to experience acid problems (maybe because the products I was buying use

Here are the things that do work so far:
- I consistently eat about 12 ounces of cooked 70-30 beef every day, and I have consistently been able to do this throughout all my meal plan variations.
- I can eat greek yogurt every day with a small portion of banana or some other fruit consistently without running into any problems.
- I found I can consistently eat canned salmon with avacado-oil mayonnaise and extra avacado oil every day without running into any apparent complications.

I could probably get away with some carrots and small portions of a variety of other vegetables, but as far as I can tell none of these would be very useful for boosting my calorie budget.

I am tired of being stuck at the same weight for multiple consecutive months, and seeing my lifts regressing. Does anyone have any personal experience addressing these issues? Either finding a way to increase carb intake without sacrificing mental health, or finding a low-carb diet plan that allows you to bulk over the course of 6+ months without triggering nausea, etc?

The benefits I get from sticking to a ketogenic diet are so significant, I would probably prefer to stay scrawny for the rest of my life rather than trade them away.


Edit: For additional context, I am getting to about 2100 calories a day, whereas I need to get to about 2500 calories. weight 160lbs, height 69in, estimated body fat 13-16% (based on crude measurments and online calculators)

[rabbit33]

Better check your blood fats. 29 isn't heart attack territory, but it's the time when coronary artery disease gets established.

For a male 5-9, 160 lbs is pretty much ideal body weight. I'd say you're putting your health at serious risk by following a high-fat fad diet and trying to overeat, to the point of becoming nauseated by so much fat, rather than pursuing overall fitness.

13-16% fat is hardly scrawny, anyway.

[Michael Way]

You might want to consult with a nutritionist who could help you to plan a 'diet' that would take into account your issues and allow you to gain weight.

[Arktikos]

Perhaps you’re overthinking this. I would go with an exercise regime accompanying a personally comfortable and healthy diet, abandoning the plan of weight gain.

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by rabbit33

For a male 5-9, 160 lbs is pretty much ideal body weight. I'd say you're putting your health at serious risk by following a high-fat fad diet and trying to overeat, to the point of becoming nauseated by so much fat, rather than pursuing overall fitness.

Yeah, this is kind of Exhibit A as to how fad diets can lead to disordered eating and lower quality of life. If what you're eating is making you puke and is unaffordable for your lifestyle, that's not a plan to try harder to stick with. Listen to your body--it's telling you, "no thanks."

[rabbit33]

Ed Burke, the exercise physiologist who used to write for Bicycling magazine, once drank a pint of vegetable oil to study the metabolism of fat in the human body. He wrote that it made him sick for weeks.

Hey OP, how about:

- Eating a normal diet, with normal proportions of fat protein and carbohyrdate, mostly plant sources, meat should be lean. Say, 20% of calories from fat, 30% from protein, 50 % from carbohydrate. Making sure, of course, that the carbs are complex carbs, not refined.

- Exercising with a wide range of long slow aerobic, higher intensity aerobic and sprint; high rep low effort weights, low rep high effort weights; stretching; and mixed exercise such as tennis, basketball, etc.???

If you're an average guy with an average to slim build, the only way you're going to look like Lou Ferrigno is to seriously risk your health. Why not just be a wicked fit guy of your own natural size and build?

[torinn]

Hi OP, what are your goals? I'm gathering that you want to gain muscle/mass, but is this for performance or vanity reasons? Neither are wrong, mind you. I think knowing your goals on a deeper level may help some of us better help you.

[WaikikiWaves]

Originally Posted by stealheadrun23

As a life-long non-athlete (currently approaching late 20s) who just got into strength training about 2 years ago, I am struggling to gain muscle through a consistent lifting routine (I am following a linear progression program called PGLP: Phrak's Greyskull Linear Progression) because I cannot consistently sustain a caloric intake over maintenance (generally for more than a month at a time).

Before I started lifting a couple years ago, I started implementing a low-carb, high fat diet after reading about the correlation between ketogenic diets and alleviation of anxiety and depression in some studied patients. I have also heard many laypersons report they found this correlation to be valid in their personal experiences.

After experimenting myself, I found my anxiety and depression symptoms are drastically reduced when eating high-fat low-carb, compared to eating high-carb. I have intermittently attempted to return to a high carb diet in order to support my goal to gain muscle, and this completely wrecks my mental health. Even with consistent strength training and some amount of regular cardio, when on carbs I experience severe anxiety, a looming sense of doom, severely disrupted sleep and other similar things that inhibit goal-seeking.

The problem is, I am struggling to find a relatively affordable high-fat diet I can consistently eat at a surplus, without either experiencing some kind of digestive problem, or simply being unable to finish my meals without trigger nausea. For the past 10 months I have been experimenting with different meal plans and here is what I have learned about myself

Note: I do everything I can to avoid vegetable oils, added sugars, other weird processed ingredients

- I can eat 4 boiled eggs every day for a month, but if I keep persisting, I develop an egg intolerance, where eating any amount of egg will result in imminent vomitting; I discovered other people online have claimed to experience very similar symptoms; if I refrain from eating eggs for another month, I can go back to eating them regularly, so (purely from my experiential perspective and not informed by science) whatever mechanism is at play here has to do with some kind of build up
- with avacados I have a similar experience to eggs, I can eat them for a bit and then hit a limit
- peanuts and peanut butter cause dibilitating indigestion issues
- tomato-based pasta sauces are okay for a week or so but then I start to experience acid problems (maybe because the products I was buying use

Here are the things that do work so far:
- I consistently eat about 12 ounces of cooked 70-30 beef every day, and I have consistently been able to do this throughout all my meal plan variations.
- I can eat greek yogurt every day with a small portion of banana or some other fruit consistently without running into any problems.
- I found I can consistently eat canned salmon with avacado-oil mayonnaise and extra avacado oil every day without running into any apparent complications.

I could probably get away with some carrots and small portions of a variety of other vegetables, but as far as I can tell none of these would be very useful for boosting my calorie budget.

I am tired of being stuck at the same weight for multiple consecutive months, and seeing my lifts regressing. Does anyone have any personal experience addressing these issues? Either finding a way to increase carb intake without sacrificing mental health, or finding a low-carb diet plan that allows you to bulk over the course of 6+ months without triggering nausea, etc?

The benefits I get from sticking to a ketogenic diet are so significant, I would probably prefer to stay scrawny for the rest of my life rather than trade them away.


Edit: For additional context, I am getting to about 2100 calories a day, whereas I need to get to about 2500 calories. weight 160lbs, height 69in, estimated body fat 13-16% (based on crude measurments and online calculators)

Your lifts regressing are a huge red flag. Even if you don’t gain muscle you should still gain some strength or be consistent. You might be overtraining, not only could overtraining be eating into your calorie surplus but you might not be allowing your body to physically or mentally recover between your next workouts.

Can you walk through us your volume per muscle group and frequency. Do you do cardio as well?

Then we get to your diet. Ketogenic diets are not optimal for building muscle but they’re optimal for maintaining muscle on a calorie deficit. Personally, when I tried Keto, all my lifts fell by 1-2 reps.

But, if you just won’t introduce carbs, introduce more Whey protein shakes. Start with consuming 1 extra protein shake a day and monitor your weight over a month. If the scale stays the same, add another protein shake.

But importantly you may need to reduce the volume on your workouts. Less is more. 2-3 hour marathon sessions are for extremely advanced body builders only. And even then, Dorian Yates built his physique doing only 1 set per exercise to complete failure. For you, probably stay to 2-4 sets per exercise.

For beginners, I recommend training 1 muscle group per day 1 a week. Common split would be M: chest Tu: Back Wed: legs Fri: Shoulders Sat: Arms. You have 1 day to torch each muscle then you back off for the entire week. This split has been the most common split (with some minor variations) among bodybuilders because it works and limits overtraining as well as half-a**ing workouts.

[Michael Way]

Originally Posted by Michael Way

You might want to consult with a nutritionist who could help you to plan a 'diet' that would take into account your issues and allow you to gain weight.

I may have misread or misunderstood what you were saying. Just, as others have said, eat a normal diet, instead of a high fat/low carb diet, or a low fat/high carb diet. Get your extra calories from protein. Use a protein supplement if necessary. See how that works for you.

[stealheadrun23]

Thanks for taking the time to provide your thoughts, but please read my original post carefully. My perspective on the above: vegetable oils (canola, soybean, etc) are not healthy fats, the LDL bad-cholesterol myth has been disproven and I do not believe there is anything wrong with fatty, red meats. I think these points are mostly off topic, my issues are not with eating (healthy) fats. Last year I spent about 8 months eating complex carbs and my body was not pleased.

To reiterate, I am adhering to the Greyskull Linear Progression program which I understand to be pretty standardized. 3 compound lifts, every other day, takes about 45 minutes.

I have no ideological attachment to low-carb, I just need help addressing the problem I have with carbs. Unfortunately nobody here is addressing the central concern, which is the link between carbohydrates and depression/ anxiety.

I do not have an eating disorder, I do not work out for 3 hours a day, I do not have unrealistic muscle mass goals, I'm seeking average annual gains in muscle mass men can expect from consistently lifting progressively heavier weights over a period of months and years, with the goals of gaining strength and improving physique. I would be happy to gain about 10lbs of muscle over a 12 month period, which I think should be realistic for a newer lifter.