How to know when to gain weight

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Dr. J,

A few questions:

1.) How do you know when it is advisable for a trainee to gain weight? Surely there is some cut off where a person has “maximized” the muscle they have with proper programming, and therefore need to gain some LBM.

2.) Is it typically advisable to maintain your weight for ~4 weeks after a bulk before cutting again? I know that it typically is a good idea for trainees to maintain their weight after a cut so as to dissuade the body from replenishing fat stores.

3.) Should I gain, cut, maintain, or a mix of these? I had planned on a bulk during the months of December through March at 2lb/month followed by a cut from April to May of approximately 1lb/week in preparation for a honeymoon in June (and after losing 40 pounds earlier this year I figured it was time to start putting some of the muscle back on). However, I tweaked my back six weeks ago and will not be returning to normal training (I’m running the LBP temp) for what looks to be ~6-8 weeks or so. Ideally I would be around a 31” waist by June (I am currently at 33"; I have been maintaining weight since October with no real reduction success). My current plan is to just keep maintaining my current body weight and hope my waist decreases as my training gets back to normal. Any tips here?

Thanks!

2

CBP,

  1. We don’t really know for certain and clearly, a lot of this is personal preference.

  2. Not necessarily.

  3. I think if you’re not training normally yet it’d be hard to suggest weight gain at this time. I would maintain until you’re back to normal and then consider gaining some more muscle if that’s what you’d like to do :slight_smile:

-Jordan