Thread: How long does it take to see weight change with new diet?

Originally Posted by dsc123

i have changed up my diet to a clean bulk, its only been just over a week and there has been no change in weight, not that i expect any yet..but how long till my weight should start to increase and by how much should i expect to see on a weekly basis? progress is slow at the moment weight wise.

What are your stats and what macs are you running?

20 years old, training 4 years, 5ft 10, 184.5lbs, natural...
calories-3837
protein-358
fats-80
carbs-420

The scale is notoriously unreliable - things like water weight, recent meals, etc will all screw up your weight measurement. Better to just stick to the diet religiously for at least 3 months. The results will come.

a weight change can happen overnight and daily if done right, but none of it matters really unless you pay attention to "bodyweight set-point".....this is why people can't stay big after taking a break, or can't stay thin after going off a diet......they simply don't stay in their new "set-point" long enough

A 500 calorie daily surplus will get you about a pound per week. Whether it's muscle or fat depends on your training and partitioning.

The hardest part is figuring out just how much of a surplus you're running. For example, you list 358 grams of protein, but I really doubt you're absorbing all of it.

And if you're counting 4 calories per gram of protein you have two problems.
One: you're probably not absorbing all 358.
Two: you only count calories from what your body uses for energy. About 30 grams of protein are used for maintenance purposes (enzymes, making new tissues, etc), and some more will hopefully be used for building new muscle tissue. Figure 30 grams a day (high estimate) will be incorporated into muscle. So overall you should subtract roughly 70 to 80 grams of protein from the macros you're using to calculate your daily calorie intake.

If you're only absorbing 250, and 60 of them are being used for non-energy purposes, that's 190 grams going to calorie input, not 358. That 168 gram (thus 672 calorie) difference might be the difference between maintaining and gaining weight.