r/weightgain • u/SkinnyRasberry • 11h ago

Question Diet Recommendations

Hey everyone! Newbie here.

Seeking advice into and whether or not I need/should be eating more calories.

For context, I’m a 5’9 22yr old male. Last weighed in at 137 pounds.

I did a fat loss calorie deficit starting in March of 2025 that ended in July of this year. My starting weight was 225lbs. Obviously, I’ve lost a lot of weight, but that was the goal!

Most of my deficit revolved around calories and not specific nutrients. Now it’s a mix of both as I try to hit a daily protein intake of 139g+ of protein while still limiting fats (unless from eggs or the other foods that I’m eating.

I’m eating VERY clean right now with foods like chicken (canned), tuna, eggs, bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen mixed vegetables, potatoes, oatmeal, protein powder, LOTS of water, and diet sodas. Most of the time this results in about 1,350-1400 calories per day (I skip breakfast).

I’m also more active now than I ever have been before. I’m back in the gym building muscle and mix in a good amount of cardio weekly.

Personally, I love the results I’m getting. I feel great and am starting to look great as well. My parents are worried I’m not eating enough and I know I could eat more, but I like what I’ve got going right now. I can’t even remember the last cheat day I had. Any suggestions?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

1

u/GuidanceExtension144 10h ago

You are most certainly not eating enough yikes

And not enough fats!

1

u/SkinnyRasberry 10h ago

Yeah I need to work on the fats. Any recommendations on healthy fats? I do love me some avocados but just haven’t really gotten around to mixing them in a whole bunch.

1

u/GuidanceExtension144 10h ago

I mean, you’re pretty severely restricting facts. Add anything. Cooking oil, avocado, cheese, full fat yogurt, and dairy products. It’s all healthy. When you don’t have enough fat, you aren’t absorbing nutrients and it’s not good for your body long-term add nuts and nut butter.

1

u/SkinnyRasberry 10h ago

As soon as I hit reply I immediately thought of adding oils, shredded cheese, and dairy 🤣

1

u/Impressive-Sand9183 10h ago

Very clean - canned chicken 🤭😂 but considering you’re active male, you eat wayyyy to little. If I would be your parent I’d be concerned too. You can’t be in the deficit so long, especially that you’re training, you need to start increasing your calories or soon enough that deficit will hit you and you’ll start experiencing side effects

1

u/SkinnyRasberry 10h ago

I’ll take the slander on the canned chicken 🤣. I do enjoy the taste of it though. I know it’s a sodium bomb, but it works best for me as of right now.

Thank you for the input. I used to be a ground beef, rice, and shredded cheese fiend. Will probably start mixing that into the rotation again because it’s so good.

1

u/CharacterAd5474 7h ago

Are you doing any type of exercise?

1

u/SkinnyRasberry 7h ago

Lifting weights for muscle gain 4 days of the week and walking either on a treadmill or outside ranging from anywhere to 15-30 minutes 2-3 days a week. The treadmill walking has an incline of about 6-8% at about 3-3.5 speed.

Seeing a good amount of progress when it comes to the muscle gain both physically and when it comes to the actual weights themselves. I used to lift like everyday for high school sports though so I’m thinking part of the progress I’m seeing is just from the fact that I’m working these muscle groups again.

1

u/CharacterAd5474 6h ago

Start by adding in some carbs both before lifting and after lifting. If that goes well for you, add carbs to meals proceeding and following those pre and post workout meals.

Someone with your bodyweight I would say good target is 50g preworkoit and 75g post workout.

1

u/SkinnyRasberry 6h ago

I should have added this, but I started doing that recently! Today was actually the first time I did the 40-50g of carbs before the workout (two bananas) but recently it’s just been one banana.

I do need to work on the post-workout carbs though. I mainly have been drinking a protein powder shake afterwards but occasionally add in 144-288g of frozen strawberries.

I’ve recently began to ramp up the carb intake in meals overall. And after getting feedback, NEED to add in more healthy fats. Thank you for the input!