I’m 5’5" (165 cm) and ~127 lbs (57.5 kg) and I am aiming for a slow weight gain over several months while training hard for hypertrophy.
Following information from both Eric Helms and Mike Israetel I am aiming to gain around 1 % of bodyweight per month. I just noted today that you seem to think such a set target does not make sense. Got it. The point is though that I am trying to gain muscle with as little fat as possible.
However, I would think of it as rather difficult/impossible to track such a small weight increases from week to week. In my case we are talking 0.1 kg a week.
In my case, how would you go about tracking progress? I know I am a lightweight, but my body composition, while not terrible after some months back in the gym, is also is not the greatest (love handles, slightly untrained still after a years long hiatus). So I don’t want to go too crazy with the weight gain.
I am currently eating 2500 kcal per day and do see progress in reps/intensity on my lifts.
OK, so my original plan was to track weight several times a week and compare the weekly averages. If everything goes as planned for me specifically, the weight would go:
Week 1: 57.5 kg
Week 2: 57.6 kg
Week 3: 57.7 kg
etc…
But as I said, I’m worried if 0.1 kg is too small of an increment to reliably track every week. But maybe the noise/weight fluctuations would also be equally smaller for a lightweight individual myself, so it might work… What do you think? If this method does not work, how else would you track body weight reliably without having to wait a whole month to see if I’m gaining weight at an appropriate rate?
Yes, I think using a weekly average is good. I think assessing your weight over longer term (2 weeks) to identify trends and aim for 0.5-1.5kg weight gain per month would be reasonable. It’s not going to be linear anyway, so we should expect fluctuations. Most scales can pick up 0.1kg in difference as well.
As for the waist circumference (currently at 70 cm) how much growth should I allow per month (if any)? I think I’m aiming to hit 62-65 kg bodyweight for now before assessing if it’s time to cut some fat. So In other words, this slow bulk should continue for quite a while if everything goes well
