Hello guys, I'm from Malaysia, I've been traning for almost 10 months and now I'm trying to bulk up to gain muscle mass but unfortunately its not going well.
I'm 22, 173cm, 63.6kg, 14.6% Bodyfat, Goal - gain muscle mass and look aesthetic with low bodyfat %, my daily calories burn range from 2000 - 2700 depending on the workouts (I'm using fitbit Versa to keep track on my daily calories burned), and as for how I keep track on my bodyfat % and muscle gain, I use Omron Bioelectrical Impedance Scale which I know its not really accurate but at least its better than nothing, as to where I'm from, I don't think DEXA Scans or Underwater Weighing are available here.
I've been trying to bulk for 3 weeks now with a diet consisting of, brown rice, grilled chicken breast, coffee, ON Whey Protein, ON Pro Gainer, boilled eggs, banana, and sometimes cheat meals out from home but I limit it to 2-3 times per week, and I always make sure I have my caloric intake more than 2700 as to my knowledge to gain weight in muscle mass you have to be in a caloric surplus with quality foods, however I do not calculate meticulously on how many caloric surplus I have in conjunction with the daily calories burn, I just try to get over 2700 calories everyday with the food mentioned above (mostly hitting 3000 calories)
I'll provide the information which I got from the Omron Scale
Week 1 - Weight : 62.9kg
- Bodyfat : 13.7%
- Skeletal muscle (whole body) : 37.0%
(trunk) : 31.6%
(arms) : 41.3%
(legs) : 54.1%
Week 2 - Weight : 63.1kg
- Bodyfat : 14.2%
- Skeletal muscle (whole body) : 36.7%
(trunk) : 31.3%
(arms) : 41.0%
(legs) : 53.9%
Week 3 - Weight : 63.6kg
- Bodyfat : 14.6%
- Skeletal muscle (whole body) : 36.6%
(trunk) : 31.0%
(arms) : 40.9%
(legs) : 53.7%
As you can see over the course of 3 weeks I lost muscle mass although I'm not sure by % whether its a lot or not but its still a loss and to be frank its not really pleasing to watch :3 . Although i know 3 weeks is a little short to make assumptions on I'm doing the wrong things to gain muscle mass and maybe if I keep on continuing on a caloric surplus I might gain some muscle mass on the next week but I'm a person who wants sulutions as fast as possible so, pardon me if I'm assuming things too fast. Another thing I'm concerned about is, before trying to bulk, about 3-4 months ago I was at 71kg with bodyfat % of 20 above, and I followed the same diet above without the mass gainer and on a caloric deficit, combined with Intermittent Fasting (24 hours) for 2 days a week which eventually lead me to the Weight and bodyfat % on week 1 which is written above, and during the course of losing fat and maintaining muscle mass, I noticed not only did i lose fat but my muscle mass increased as well... Which is weird because all the research that I did suggest that while on a caloric deficit and traning routine to lose bodyfat, you are expected to lose muscle mass as well but I gained muscle mass instead, and now while I'm trying to bulk up I lose muscle mass instead...
So I really hope theres someone out there who can enlighten me on what I'm doing wrong to bulk up and thanks in advance for reading such a long post, I hope I'm not posting this in the wrong section though, thanks again and I really appreciate for anyone taking the time to reply ^^