Advise for a hardgainer

[SuperJolanda]

Well, I hope for once people wont start a flaming war (like most forums if you start talking about hard-gaining) or come up with stupid answers lol, would really appreciate some serious tips and thoughts ;)

I am soon going to start my 4th cycle. Long story short, I am a real hard gainer in terms of having trouble gaining weight. I do build up muscle, and I do grow stronger (A LOT!!!) but muscle growth is less compared to most people.

I had my food schedule made by 3 different "professionals" who were into bodybuilding themselves (those guys were frigging beasts and personal trainers for a living).

The first one was based on 3800kcal a day. I didn't lose weight, but I never gained any either literally.
The second was a little over 5000kcal a day. Same story... not losing, not gaining.
The last one was 8000kcal a day... it made me sick everyday cause I had to force feed myself but oh well... shut up and do it lol :) anyways... I gained like 0,2kg a month!

I don't grow "fat" or anything, I don't gain weight, I don't lose weight, it is so frigging strange. I was fet up with it and decided to go bananas. I ate 2 slices of bread daily... no more... literally, that was all. Did that for 3 weeks... I didn't lose weight... well... lost like 0,25kg but that's it i mean... I would have thought I would lose so much more but I didn't.

I mean... it sounds impossible I know but... it is frustrating as hell. I want to grow (more) but no matter how much I eat or how less I eat... my weight always stays the same in the 76-79 range.
And no, I am not bullshitting you with 5000kcal or 8000kcal a day... I literally weighted every single thing I ate, wrote down my macro's et cetera.

I want to my doctor to ask him whats wrong, or what could cause this but they wont check it because even though for me personally it is not cool not being able to gain weight, it is not a danger to my health bla bla bla.

Anyways... I hope someone recognizes himself in this and can give me a few pointers on what I could try in terms of food and -or injectables / orals.

P.S. Strength does grow even though muscle growth and weight seems minimum. In my last cycle I was able to go from 105kg bench to 118kg bench, 170 to 220 deadlift, and even after the cycle (months later) I was still able to do the 118kg bench for 5x5 (natural, without any AAS or what ever). Didn't lose any muscle or strength (by the looks of it) but body weight always stays (almost) the same. It is just weird and frustrating. Maybe I should focus less on body weight and just ignore it but then again... I am kinda curious why even though I make progress my weight stays flat-line the same :D

[Phill]

First: start giving us your stats, please.

Second: write your 3 previous cycles, and the plan for the 4th as well. (length, dosage, ecc... and brand used :) )

3: diet, not only the kcal TOT but what, when, macro, ...

After that you will have more precise and targeted responses

[CWWong]

First: start giving us your stats, please.

Second: write your 3 previous cycles, and the plan for the 4th as well. (length, dosage, ecc... and brand used :) )

3: diet, not only the kcal TOT but what, when, macro, ...

After that you will have more precise and targeted responses

Second what Phill said. That and your goals this time.

Not flaming, but if what you said were true, you seem to have hyperthyroidism or some thyroid problem that seems to be able to adjust up and down. You seem to have a terrible doctor, change the doctor. Your GP should serve YOUR needs, not theirs. Most of us here are not health professional.

Lastly, pictures pictures pictures. Again, not flaming but to quote Sagan, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".

[SuperJolanda]

I understand what your saying, thanks for your replies guys, finally some good answers :) I will give you an good answer this weekend including ALL details, food schedule, cycles et cetera. Only thing I cant do is photo's since im covered in tattoo's and i have my own company for over 10 years now and I would lose a lot of customers ;) but other then that I will get into detail this weekend. Thanks for your answers so far and I will look up "hyperthyroidism", never heard of it. My doctor neither ever mentioned it :)

[Phill]

What a fool idiot doctor.

Check your T3, T4 and TSH level.

[SuperJolanda]

Thanks Phill, I will ask for that :)

I asked for a private (dont know the right English prenouncement) blood examination but the idiots charge almost 1000 euro's for that... thats why I never did it lol. Anyways some more information (cant write it all now, will write more later by editing this post:

Food schedule:

meal 1 (shake)
500 ml milk
100 ml whip cream
100 gr Brinta (wheat flour?)
30 gr whey
1 banana

Meal 2
6 slices of brown bread
75 gr of chicken meat

Meal 3
100 gr rice
200 gr vegetables
3 tablespoons of olive oil (good, expensive ones)

Meal 4
3 slices of brown bread
60 gr peanut butter
1 liter of chocolate milk

Meal 5
500 gr kwark (cottage cheese?)
1 banana
100 gr unsalted nuts (Cashew)

Meal 6
Red meat (beefsteak for example)
Green vegetables (2-3 hands full)
Potatoes (3 or 4)

Meal 7
500 ml milk
150 gr Brinta (wheat flour?)
Cinnamon + sugar (little bit)

Extra (shake)
500 ml milk
30 gr whey
1 tablespoon olive oil

Training schedule:

Monday upper body 5x5 heavy AF
Tuesday lower boddy max rep heavy AF
Wednesday off
Thursday upper body 3x12 lower weight more reps
Friday lower body lower weight more reps
Saturday off
Sunday off

Cycle:
400 Test E /week
600 Tren E /week
600 Bold /week
Kickstart Anadrol 100mg/

side note... My gear sucked, always heavilly underdosed so yeah, what I injected aint that much... 600 TREN might as well been 150 tren (literally) cause there wasnt any better place to go untill I found MT ;)

Sleep:
22:30 ~ 06:15

Work:
PHP Engineer, so I work sitting on my ass the whole day ^^ not intense lol

Stats:
32 years old now
1.85 length
79kg
BF around 15%

Some people might laugh about my weight but yeah... as I said... I am dedicated, I am serious, and I work my ass off but no matter how much I eat, I wont gain weight.

Anyways, thats my last schedule and so on, I once did a schedule where I ate more close to 8k a day, As said... my weight just stays the same, and yeah my muscle do grow but not as much as you guys (when I see photo's) and that is really frustrating cause i mean... I give it all I have, I train hard and I mean really hard, giving it all I have every single time, and I eat as much as I can untill I explode, and then I eat some more which most of the times results in me going to bed feeling sick due to the fact that I force feeded myself lol :P

Anyways, thanks for your answers so far guys... ill add more data when I have time and remember important stuff. Hope this helps a little bit :)

[SuperJolanda]

I left a (large) reply this weekend and it said a moderator had to review it before it would become visible but I still dont see anything, hope it will show up soon otherwise I have to rewrite everything again haha :D

[Phill]

At first sight there are few proteins.

Since you say you are eating 8k kcal, can you send macronutrient partitioning and calorie counting?
It would be better for every meal, but only the general one could be fine

[KellerM]

First: start giving us your stats, please.

Second: write your 3 previous cycles, and for the 4th as well. (length, dosage, ecc... and brand used :) )

3: diet, not only the kcal TOT but what, when, macro, ...

After that you will have more precise and targeted responses

Do you think it's possible to gain while on keto? 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs?

[GODZILLA]

Do you think it's possible to gain while on keto? 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs?

yes it is. proteins and hormones grow muscles, fats or carbs are for energy

[THE COACH]

There's a huge difference between just shovelling food down your throat and having your body actually digest and utilise the nutrients found in the food you eat. You always hear of people telling hard gainers "hey if you're not gaining weight, you're not eating enough so eat more" but while that is a common problem, another issue I see that people don't talk about often would be hard gainers force feeding themselves only for their digestive tracts to not be able to process all that food and you end up just passing it out without really absorbing any essential nutrients.

I took a look at your "food schedule" and yes while for the most part the food items you listed out are what most would consider "clean", they're not the most friendly to digest either. Things like a whole litre of chocolate milk on top of another half litre of regular milk, wheat flour and etc are quite difficult to process and digest so you might end up just passing it out in the toilet where the calories just go to waste. There's also the option of switching up your protein sources to include more fish that's easier to break down and digest so you get hungry faster and can fit in more food overall. You often hear fitness tips telling people to choose nutritionally denser food for satiety - you'll want something that's the other way round. Eating 8k a day and digesting 8k a day is not the same thing.

If you want, the next time you replenish your stash of gear you might want to consider one of my coaching bundles where not only can you get gear for a better price but you'll also have me guiding you along, especially with regards to the utilising and digesting of food bit. Alternatively you could sign up for solo coaching and we'll work on getting you huge the right way.