Alright, so basically I started calculating my macros out two weeks ago and have been using MyFitnessPal to help keep track of everything I've been eating, really getting into the macro thing since just working out hasn't been working as much as I'd like.

Run down on me and my goals:

Height:6'2"

Weight: 194 lbs

Trying to Put on Weight

I have an extremely high metabolism

So my macro's are kind of modified from the generic thing or the default thing MyFitnessPal set them as.

I'm consuming 3,800 calories; 55% Carbs, 25% Protein and 20% Fats (523g Carbs, 238g Protein and 84g fats. If you happen to care.). I'm usually low on carbs even trying to make sure I eat a ton of carbs too, not usually more than 50 grams though, good with protein and maybe a little over of fats depending on the day, calories are usually 3,800 or higher.

Anyways, the first week I put on about 1 lb, which is about what I want; 1 lb a week. However this week I was the same weight or possibly lighter by like 1/2 lb. I was wondering if I should just keep doing what I was doing, or if I should move my macros around to help gain the weight I want.

Also, dirty bulking or clean bulking, doesn't matter to me. I just want about 1 lb a week, even clean bulking I think you;d put on fat so not too concerned with it. That is not to say however that I'm going to eat a bunch of crap every day either. So just reiterating, dirty or clean bulking, doesn't matter, whichever you prefer, I just would like some help since I'm new to the macros!

Braser, you are wildly misinformed my friend.

You don't care about dirty bulking? 1 pound of week is going to be mostly fat. Why would you ever want to add more fat to your body? What is the point? Once you create a fat cell, it will never go away. What is the point of gaining 30 pounds to just lose 26 of it because it is fat?

Makes no sense..... unless you plan on taking drugs and juicing your brains out.

What is your goal man and how do you want to reach it? Naturally or on drugs?

I hope you say naturally, then I can help you build a proper plan of attack.

Connor,

By your pics and stats, you are already very lean at 6% BF. You should be very thankful you are one of the lucky ones who are naturally lean. You are also still young so you have about 5 more years to put in some quality growth. I agree with Scott here - you should strive to put on "good" weight not weight just for the sake of meeting a goal of 1Lb/week. That's kinda like buying a run-of-the-mill sedan and spending money to make it a high performance car. Instead of spending all your money on engine, brake, exhaust, suspension, and tire upgrades, you spend a little on these and spend most of the money on decals, spoilers, hood scoops, and body cladding. The car may look fast but deep down it isn't because the real performance pieces are mildly modified.

I don't know how long you have been lifting but you will grow the fastest and gain the most weight within your first 2 years of lifting if your stay natural. After that, it will start to slow and when you are my age you will be lucky to gain 1Lb of muscle weight per year when natural. I suggest focusing on your meal plan and your training, as you are currently doing, and the size will come in due time. If you plan on using chemical therapy, all I can tell you from personal experience is it's a slippery slope - you will get amazing gains in size and strength regardless of your diet but it is an endeavor that will require you to accept that you will always need chemicals to keep the levels you have developed.

John

I fully intend on staying natural! The only thing is that since it's extremely hard for me to put on weight, I think it would be easier for me to cut than bulk. I also think that you're likely to put on some fat bulking regardless of what you do, simply because of the fact that your body needs to be at a surplus which means it's likely to store some anyways.

I've also put on a little bit of weight from that pic John, however I think the most I've ever been has been body fat % wise according the the machines my school had was around 9%, which was right before I started swimming and that was my first year, before that I was only throwing, so I wasn't working out frequently. In fact, it would have been Several months since I did anything at all. But I'm probably broaching the end of my first year of training in a few months here.

I'm not a fan of the term 'bulking', at all. Your goal is not to be a number, your goal is size, strength and usefulness. Bulk all you want if you just care about a number on a scale that will provide you zero benefits but I think what you really want is size and athletic increases - which are not necessarily in a linear relationship with just the number on the scale.

Pursue health and performance my friend, not a number.

As already mentioned numbers really don't matter! Your physical appearence should be all you worry about. Now onto your nutrition. There are numerous way in which you can attack this but the ultimate ideal would be to stay lean and put on size. Now there are ways to do this and here's what I suggest. You should start your calories at around your bodyweight in lbs x 15. Aim for a minimum around 1.25g of protein and 0.5g of fat per lb of bodyweight. Monitor for a week then re-assess your calories. If you don't put on any muscle increase your calories. You should actually have to increase your calories as you progress anyway from week to week but these should be subtle changes to minimse fat gains.

My body weight times 15 is almost 1,000 calories less than what I'm currently consuming with minimal movement on the scale

(194*15 = 2910). My protein is at about 1.25 per lb, a little under. My fats are about 10g less than .5 per lb, but in both protein and fat I usually go over a little bit unless I eat mostly carbs that day.

I understand the fitness aspect, and I'm not looking to be huge, but I would like to be a bit bigger and then maybe tone down so I'm nice, cut and lean. If I put on size it's going to be either muscle or fat, I'm not likely to burn off enough fat to compensate for any muscle coming I don't imagine. I also know nothing is going to be immediate gratification, meaning I'm not just gonna wake up the next day with huge arms or something. But when the first week of eating more and paying attention to make sure I hit my macros yeilded good results and close to the exact number I wanted, then the second week nothing changed and I may have even lost half a pound following the same macros to the best of my ability, I was wondering if I needed to cange something that I was doing and wasn't sure where to start if I did need to change something.

The idea with these calories is that is gives your body a reset period. You will no doubt need to increase your calories but as you will learn not that much. Perhaps what you were previously doing nutrition wise was ineffective due to over indugling on calories which leads to digestive problems. Way too many people eat way too many calories thinking that this will create size which is true but it will be mostly fat. You really need to focus your nutrition around the minimal calorie intake required to create the body composition changes you want.

As a last note the majority of people are not training hard enough to elict a hypertrophic response. You need to train HARD in order to build muscle. This training intensity in my opinion is harder to create than the optimal nutrition plan.

I wouldn't worry about getting too huge man, it's a lot harder than people think haha.

I don't expect it to be easy, lol. I'm not looking to get massive either, but I would like bigger. I'm willing to put in the effort, I just need to make sure I'm doing the right things so I'm not just wasting all my hard work! Which is why I ask questions here and try to read up on stuff when I have time.

Well said. The irony is most people don't realize a 170Lb guy at 6% BF will "look" bigger than a 200Lb guy at 15% BF. And in many cases based on training, a "smaller" guy can be more athletic and have more functional muscle strength than a larger individual.

John